What’s the Point – When Nothing Changes?
Ecclesiastes 1:1-14
“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
I want you to think carefully about that statement from Lewis. It was Lewis’ growing longing for something that he could not find in this world that ultimately led him from agnosticism to faith in Jesus when he was teaching at Oxford University in the mid-20th C. I am convinced that this conviction that there is nothing in this world that can fill our deepest human desire is the message that is behind everything we will consider as a church family as we spend the next few months in the Book of Ecclesiastes.
Before I say anything else, I want you to notice that Lewis did not say that all other desires we have as human beings are wrong. We rightly desire so many things every day of our lives. We certainly can desire wrong things. But, many of the things we long for a good parts of God’s creation – things like good food, a good night’s sleep, deep friendships, times of laughter… However, what Lewis says – and what the book of Ecclesiastes emphasizes -- is that those things in our world that we desire cannot fill the ultimate desire of our hearts, what the Apostle Paul called “epithumia”, i.e., the “over-desire”, the single great desire above all other human desires. It’s the one that must be filled or all the other desires will leave us unsatisfied.
We who are human were made to “love the God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind (Lk 10:27).” What the book of Ecclesiastes is about is that making anything else your first love will leave you empty.
About Ecclesiastes -- The words of the Philosopher, son of David, king in Jerusalem (1:1).
Ecclesiastes is like no other book in the Bible. Make note of that right now. If you read it like you read other books of the Bible, you will become frustrated. The writer calls himself “Qoheleth.” Some have translated this “Preacher.” But, he’s really not so much a preacher as he is a philosopher. A preacher’s calling is to seek to give you answers about life from God’s Word. What Qoheleth wants to do is ask the big questions about life -- and force you to answer them personally. He wants you to think deeply about where you think you will find satisfaction or happiness in this world. So, I’ll call him “the Philosopher”.
Who is this Qoheleth, this Philosopher who wants you to think deeply and consequently about how you live your life? Read on in v.1: “…the son of David, king in Jerusalem.” The one who writes this profound book claims to be King Solomon and, in spite of some who disagree with me, I’m convinced Solomon wrote it – or, most of it. So, you have to to make sure you grasp this point: The man who wrote the book is the king of what at that time was a very prosperous and powerful nation. Solomon had more power, pleasure, wealth, and fame that you and I will ever, ever...... ever have. To understand Ecclesiastes, you must read it knowing that the one who wrote it was beyond anyone else in terms having what our world has to offer.
I am quite sure that the content in Ecclesiastes flows from what Solomon had learned his whole life. When I read Ecclesiastes, I envision that at the end of his life, he looks at everything this world has to offer and says it has no meaning if this material world is all that is. What Solomon does then is to force us to consider what life is all about if there is no God. That’s what he means by “under the sun”, a phrase he uses over and over again (28 times!). Solomon asks, “Where do you find lasting happiness if there is no God?” “What do you live for if there is no God?”
I’ve been wondering what is would be like if Ecclesiastes were the first book in the Bible. Let me explain: Solomon forces us in Ecclesiastes to envision finding lasting satisfaction in anything “under the sun” and he determines over and over again, that it makes no sense. Solomon asks us, “What’s your life all about? If you can’t find what you’re looking for in anything under the sun, then what do you live for? If you were reading Ecclesiastes as the first book in the Bible, that would be your question.
If this were the first book in the Bible, with that question in your mind, you turn the page to Genesis and you read, “There is more! In the beginning, God… I am God and I am here. I have made all that is and I have made you in my image! I have made you to know me and to walk with me. Now, let me tell you how I have created you to live!” That’s how I read the book of Ecclesiastes. In it, the Philosopher pushes us relentlessly toward finding our identify, our purpose for living, and our lasting satisfaction in the God who made us and is revealed to us in the Bible and through Jesus Christ.
Today, let’s see where he begins.
Under the Sun, Life Is Meaningless: Everything is – it’s always been – it will always will be
Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless (1:2).
The key question of this first section of Ecclesiastes is found in v. 3: What do people gain from all their laborsat which they toil under the sun (1:3)? The rest of our passage answers that question. And it’s an important question! Re-stating it: What lasting benefit comes from anything you try to do if what is in this world is all there is?” What would you say to him if you were taking a class in school with him?
Solomon’s answer is resounding: “Nothing is gained by anything we do or pursue in life if we strive for it without reference to God.” The word Solomon uses 38 times in this book is “vanity” or “meaningless”. The word translated “meaningless” is the Hebrew word “hebel”. It refers to a breath or vapor like the cloud of vapor that comes out of our mouths on a cold morning (not in Pasadena but in Chicago) or the mist that comes up out of our humidifiers. It is something that seems so real but doesn’t last.
Solomon wants you to know that all things in this world are fleeting. Everything you can conceive of under the sun can and will be frustrated by futility and impermanence. Athletic skill will be prey to injury or old age. Success in business by disharmony and greed. Friendship by misunderstanding or geographical separation.
Solomon answers the question of v. 3 by citing two problems in striving for things withoutGod:
Problem #1: All our striving adds nothing new to this world (1:4-10). “Generations of people come and go but the earth remains…”
The Philosopher reflects rather poetically on the fact that, on one side, things we do may seem to change things in the short run, but, on the other, the world doesn’t change at all. What he does is set in contrast the brevity of our human lives and the more lasting cycles of nature and history. In vv.4-8, Solomon compares all that we try to think will make a difference and actually last to the earth’s stable processes. He says the work of the sun, wind, and waters continues on while human life comes and goes.
When you read the poetry of these verses, you need to remember that Solomon is not making scientific statements but statements of how everyday people experience our world. Each morning, he says, we see the sun rise and then it goes down only to rise again. It was that way for our parents – and for their parents. And it will be that way for our children and grandchildren too. Then, he says, we feel the wind blow but where does it go? Then, we experience it come back again. Then again, we see the streams flow into the sea but the sea never fills up – but we look and the streams continue to flow. I wish you could read it in Hebrew. His words are very rhythmic and all culminate in vv.9-10:
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
Don’t misunderstand Solomon. He’s not saying that we don’t change anything in this world – we have cell phones and IPads in our world that he didn’t. We build planes and make bombs as he couldn’t. But, he still insists that, if what is under the sun is all that is, then we don’t really see any eternal and moral differences in our world. He wants us to know that, when it comes to the big issues of life, nothing ever really changes. We might label 1:3-10, “Same old; same old…” “The more things change; the more things stay the same.” I wonder how many of you remember the 1973 song by Pink Floyd entitled Time:
Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain; You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today. And then one day you find ten years have got behind you; No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.
So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking; Racing around to come up behind you again. The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older, Shorter of breath and one day closer to death… The time is gone, the song is over. Thought I had something more to say.
Problem #2: No one will ultimately remember what you accomplish anyway (1:11)
No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.
Many of us are big sports fans. You may know that, as of last Monday, Villanova University is the 2016 NCAA basketball champion. It seems like such a big thing – very satisfying for Villanova fans. But how long will people remember that? The first Olympic Games were held in 776 BC, 150 years after Ecclesiastes was written, almost 2800 years ago. The winners of the events became instant heroes, even viewed as gods. But now, can you name any of them? Even the most celebrated human accomplishments are soon forgotten.
In 1966, John Lennon, at the height of the Beatles’ popularity, made this prediction, “Christianity will go… It will shrink and vanish. I need not argue that. I’m right and will be proved right… I don’t know which will go first – rock and roll or Christianity.” I can answer John Lennon’s question re-texting a song he wrote called Imagine. His lyrics were: Imagine there’s no heaven. It’s easy if you try.” I think we now should sing: “Imagine there’s no Beatles. It’s easy if you try.” Think of it: Even though two of the Beatles are still alive and touring now in 2016, my grandchildren have no idea who the “Fab Four” are.
Here’s the truth: Today’s celebrities are tomorrow’s obituaries. If that’s true of celebrities, what about the rest of us? We work so hard to leave a legacy. But, people will soon forget us, here “under the sun”.
Let me personalize this. I was once the president of Trinity International University. They even named a building after me there. But after just 7 years of being away, I went back to campus in the fall of 2014. On my first day on campus, I was walking from my office to the dining hall and greeted a group of students. I asked, “What are your names?” They told me and then they asked, “Who are you?’’ I said, “I’m Greg Waybright.” The replied, “Ha! Good one! Like the building?” I said, “Yes, like the building.” “Well,” they told me, “that guy’s dead. We don’t know why they named the building after him but he’s dead!”
I think it was only when I did chapel that week that they discovered that rumors of my death “were greatly exaggerated”, as Mark Twain wrote. But, what a lesson for me! It drove home Solomon’s point to me and forced us to think seriously about the lasting meaning of life. What good is stressing out about work or about accomplishments? What good is fame? If those are the things we live for, life is meaningless. Death will take those things away. Nothing will change. And eventually no one will remember.
Let me tell you one more very personal way this text has spoken to me. My Mom would have agreed with my sermon today because she had come to live for the eternal God when she placed her faith in Jesus. But, if had not come to faith in Jesus, she would have lived for her family. If you had ever spoken with my Mom, she would have told you everything I had ever done in my life. Apart from God, her family would have been her legacy.
But, then, she developed Alzheimer’s disease, and soon all that she forgot all the relationships she had once loved “under the sun”. She even forgot me. I’ll never forget the day that I was talking with her and she wondered what I was doing in her house. I said, “Mom, “I’m Greg. I’m your son!” She said, “I like you. But there is no way that you are my son!” It was painful – but it’s what Solomon is teaching us.
I sometimes thought about Ecclesiastes in my Mom’s last days. And I found this poem:
The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read, never even heard of…
Forgetfulness by Billy Collins
What do people gain from all their laborsat which they toil under the sun? Utter meaninglessness.
The Lesson from God’s Word: What I Want You to Do Beginning Today
Let’s return to where we began. C.S. Lewis wrote: “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” And Solomon wrote: What do people gain from anything they try to accomplish as they toil "under the sun”? Nothing. It won’t last. It won’t even be remembered (from Eccl 1:1-11).”
To begin to personalize this message today, do this: Take time to think right now about all the things you feel like you have to have to be happy or to feel good about yourself. Do it right now. What are those things you feel you really need to be satisfied? Then, ask how long those things will last.
On the flip side, think about all the things that you are feeling frustrated about right now. Is anything frustrating you in your life “under the sun”? Does God know about those things? Are they outside his control? What happens to them then if you simply entrust them to him?
For all of us who are committed Jesus-followers – I say, beware of turning back toward thinking you find your life in anything under the sun. Do you think that we are still susceptible, even after finding eternal life in Christ, to thinking that we cannot be satisfied unless we have something in this world? To accomplish something in this world? Like Solomon, I’ve lived long enough to have heard it all. “Pastor, pray for me that my health will return. I can’t really live without my health.” “Pastor, pray that my child will get into Harvard. I don’t know what we’ll do if she doesn’t.” “Pastor, pray that my business will succeed. What am I doing wrong? Why is God not letting me succeed?” I often pray for such things but, I’ll tell you: If you have those things and do not have God first in your life, those good things – what have become your idols -- will all be empty. If you do not get any of those things and you still trust God, you will be content.
It’s so subtle, isn’t it. Those good things become idols. They become the “epithumia”, the greatest desires of our heart. The Apostle Paul had applied Ecclesiastes to his life. He wrote from a prison, “I have learned to be content in any situation here under the sun… For me to live, is Christ. Therefore, even death is a gain.” I ask you – Is Christ the first love of your heart? If all you have is Christ, is he enough?
For those not yet fully committed to faith in Jesus -- Solomon forces you to come to grips with the meaningless of life without God. He wants you not to throw your mind away and then naively to follow Jesus. He teaches, “Don’t think less – think more! Keep struggling with the big questions about existence and, as you struggle fervently and honestly, you will be drawn to God.” We’ll see it throughout this series: Ecclesiastes is relentless about capturing the futility and frustration of seeking to make sense out of any aspect of life without God: the eventual drudgery of work, the emptiness of living for pleasure, the problem of injustice -- if this world is all there is…
At the end of the day, all that is points you to the God who loves and who makes himself known to you in Jesus. Jesus specifically talked about this. Jesus said that he came to bring lasting meaning into this otherwise world of meaninglessness. He said in John 10:10: “Others come to steal, kill and destroy.” That is, anything else that tries to come into the center of your life will leave you empty. You’ll find it meaningless, utterly meaningless. But Jesus went on, “But, this is why I’ve come: I have come so that you may have life; life to the full. “Under the sun” life is meaningless. Through the Son, life will be abundant.
I’ll end there. That’s the good news for you to take home. When you are in Christ, there is something new in this world that doesn’t seem to change. In Christ, you become God’s new creation.