Tag Archives: Ecclesiastes

Telos (Why We Exist) – Sermon on Ecclesiastes 12:1-14 for Midweek Lent 5

The Scripture readings for tonight’s service are Psalm 111:10, 73:24-26, 19:14; Ecclesiastes 12:1-14; 2 Corinthians 5:6-8; and John 6:28-29.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Throughout your life you will have different goals at different times. When you return home from the grocery store, your goal is to bring all the groceries into the house. And even that goal gets subdivided. You have to get everything that needs to go in the refrigerator or freezer or cupboards in their proper places. At work, you have different goals. You have to finish that task, talk to that client, meet that deadline. In school, your goal might be to finish that assignment, read that chapter, and study for the test or quiz. After you eat, the goal is to put all the leftovers away, do the dishes, and tidy up.

When I started this Lenten series, I had a goal of introducing you to Ecclesiastes and the Holy Spirit-inspired wisdom contained in it. The goal was never to exhaust and cover everything there is to learn from the book. Now that we’re in our final week of it, I’ve done the best I could to give you a taste. The thing about goals on this side of eternity is that there’s always more to do – more things to be completed, more tasks to be done, more goals to reach.

Hopefully through this series, you’ve seen some of the ways that God delivers joy – both in your work and in your leisure. This life is fleeting. It’s like a breath – not ‘vain,’ as it’s often translated. Life like a breath. It’s here one moment and gone the next, and you can’t put the various moments of life in your pocket only to deal with them when you decide. So, take the moments God gives you to work and let your goal be to do what God gives you to do. Take the moments God gives you leisure and let your goal be to enjoy His blessings.

Tonight, we come to the end of Ecclesiastes, Solomon talks about “the end of the matter” (Ecc. 12:13). He says, “Everything has been heard,” and this is the conclusion, “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is (lit.) the all of man” [sic.].

The Greek translation of that phrase, “the end of the matter,” uses a word that is really useful (and that I would like to popularize). The word is ‘telos.’ It’s the final thing Jesus says on the cross when He cries out, “It is finished”(Jn. 19:30). The word ‘telos’ simply means ‘the end, the purpose, or the goal.’ An Olympic athlete’s telos would be to win a gold medal. To reach or attain that telos, that athlete is going to work really, really hard. They’re going to train hard, eat right, get enough rest, and all the other things that an athlete needs to do to reach that telos of winning a gold medal.

Throughout Ecclesiastes, Solomon described all the different ways he tried to find joy, the ways he tried to find pleasure, the ways he tried to find fulfillment, but those things did not give him joy because simply squeezing pleasure out of life isn’t why God created him or you. Accumulating pleasure isn’t the telos of mankind. Instead, the end goal, the purpose of life, the reason you exist, your telos is 1) to fear God and 2) to keep, guard, or observe His commandments. Without that, you are not what God intended you to be. You might have some fleeting, pleasurable experiences along the way, but those pleasures won’t last because they can’t, not without the fear of God.

Now, when the Bible talks about ‘fearing God,’ it is often a synonym for faith, for rightly believing and trusting in God. A right fear of God is to believe that what God has said is good and right and true. To fear God is to believe that God is the One who will judge us for what we have done. To fear God is to believe that God is working on us to make us what He wants us to be.

But we sinners didn’t want that. Instead of fearing and believing God, we chose our own way. We decided to rebel against Him. We decided to try to be more than God’s creatures. We tried to be like God. In that sinful idolatry, we broke God’s good creation. The good news is that God did not leave us in that brokenness. Instead, He sent Jesus to be our Redeemer and atone for the sin of the world. God gave His only begotten Son to bring us back into harmony with Him and with creation. And the Holy Spirit now uses God’s Word to make us holy. He continues to shape us into Christ’s image. The Holy Spirit leads and guides us on the way to our telos, to be God’s creatures. In other words, He brings us back into alignment with what God had intended for us from the beginning of creation.

Your telos is that God wants you to receive from His hand all the blessings that He gives to you and to receive those things with a good, right, clean conscience. That’s the summary of the book of Ecclesiastes and, ultimately, all of Scripture.

Look at our Gospel reading (Jn. 6:28-29) again. The crowd who had eaten their fill of the five loaves and two fish asks Jesus, “What must we do to be doing (or ‘working’) the works of God?” They want to know the things that God requires of them so that they can do those things and please God. But Jesus’ answer isn’t a long list of things for them to do. Instead, it’s singular. Jesus says that there is only one work of God. That one work of God is to believe in Jesus whom He has sent (Jn. 6:29). And that work is something that God does.

Faith is God’s gift. Ephesians 2:8-10 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

So, when Solomon says here that the telos of humanity is to fear God and keep His commandments, he is saying nothing more than what Jesus says. To be doing the work that God wants us to do is to believe in Jesus, and receive what God gives us. We hear from God’s Word, and we believe as the Holy Spirit works faith within us. This, and only this, makes us right with God and with God’s creation. 1 John 3:23 says, “This is His commandment that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He has commanded us.”

Dear saints, your telos, your goal, your purpose is nothing more than to 1) believe in Christ and 2) to open your hands to receive everything else God gives you.

The only way to reach your telos and be rightly ordered is to believe and trust that Jesus has redeemed you. Next week, Holy Week, we will hear how He has paid the price for all of your sins. You will hear how He can rightly and justly remove you sins from you as far as the east is from the west (Ps. 103:12). Only Jesus can make you righteous before God. And Jesus then sends you back into the world so you can live righteous in relation to the rest of creation as you order your life according to God’s will as it is expressed in the Ten Commandments.

Through faith in God’s goodness, fully and freely given to you in Jesus, you reach your telos. Through faith in Christ, you are exactly what God intended you to be, rightly oriented toward your Creator and toward the rest of His creation. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

The Joy of Life with a Clean Conscience – Sermon on Ecclesiastes 9:1-10a for Midweek Lent 4

The Scripture readings for tonight’s service are Psalm 32:1-5, 11; Ecclesiastes 9:1-10a; Titus 3:3-7; and John 10:7-10.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

I know we’re making a big jump forward in the book of Ecclesiastes. Last week was Ecc. 3 and we’re leaping all the way to Ecc. 9. But the wisdom here in Ecc. 9 continues what we covered last week. Again, to briefly recap from last week, God makes all things beautiful (‘pleasant, right, fitting’) in their given time (Ecc. 3:11). In last week’s sermon, I intended to spend a little time on what we had in last week’s Gospel reading (Mk. 12:41-44) about the widow and her offering. I didn’t get to it last week. I know it isn’t in front of you tonight, but that text sets up tonight very well.

Jesus and His disciples go to the Temple. The impression Mark gives is that they basically go there to watch people put their offering into the box. A widow comes and puts in two small copper coins, and Jesus says that widow put in more than everyone else because she put in everything she had to live on (Mk. 12:44).

Normally, those two copper coins wouldn’t catch anyone’s attention. They were the lowest valued coins used in Jesus’ day. Each of them was just over a half inch in diameter, and they aren’t even as pleasant-looking as our pennies today. They didn’t have a person’s profile stamped on them, just a simple design. (If you’re interested in seeing what they looked like, I can show you a picture of them after the service.) Those coins aren’t flashy and made of gold or silver. They were just a couple slivers of copper. But even though those coins weren’t anything to look at, they became beautiful in their time as the widow put them in to offering box.

Again, everything is beautiful, pleasant, right, fitting in its proper time time (Ecc. 3:11-12). The fact that everything is beautiful in its time sets up these verses tonight. Christian, this text is the key to unlock a life filled with joy.

Look again at Ecc. 9:7, “Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart (or that could be translated ‘a good conscience’), for God has already approved what you do.” Does anything about that verse surprise you? “God has already approved what you do” (or ‘your works’). Christian, this is only true for you who have a cleansed conscience (Heb. 9:14). This is not the case for unbelievers. They do not have a pure or cleansed conscience. They do not have God’s approval. Only those who have faith in Christ have God’s approval. As our Psalm said, “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit” (Ps. 32:1-2).

Christian you are blessed because, when the goodness and loving kindness of God your Savior appeared, He saved you, not because of your works, but according to His own mercy as He washed you in holy Baptism and renewed you by the Holy Spirit. Now, justified by that grace of God, you are an heir of God (Tit. 3:3-7). 

Dear saints, you are part of the royal family of God and an heir of all that belongs to God, which is… everything! And as heirs, you receive all the royal gifts that God gives, and those gifts are 1) your work and 2) your leisure. This verse (Ecc. 9:7) is an application of Ro. 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” So, “Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved your works.”

Dear saints in Christ, God approves of your work even before you start doing it. Back in college, I had a good friend who was always stressed, always trying to figure out God’s will for his life. He wanted to make sure he was pursuing a career that would be pleasing to God. But if an opportunity didn’t open up right away, he would get frustrated and try another thing and another thing and another. Every time he’d switch paths, he had to start from scratch – new schooling, new training, new job, etc. It was hard to watch. Sadly, I didn’t understand this verse well enough to tell him, “Look, buddy. You are in Christ. You belong to Him. You are His child and His heir. God already approves what you do.” Since I couldn’t tell him this back then, I’m telling you now.

You don’t need work that is more meaningful or prestigious or powerful. You don’t need to seek out some secret plan God hasn’t revealed to you. God isn’t up in heaven watching your every step and throwing up His hands in frustration when you miss some imaginary, unmarked path that He’s set out for you. No! Whatever God puts in front of you to do, do it. Do it, and know that God approves of it, or He wouldn’t have given you that opportunity in the first place. Also know that, in Christ, God absolves, He forgives, He wipes away any of your failures you will commit in that work even before you begin it because He already approves what you do. In other words, the stakes are really, really low!

Creation doesn’t hang on how well you do your work. So, no. You don’t need to be stressed out all the time trying to figure out God’s secret will or plan for your life. God’s will for you is that you do the thing He gives you to do. And know that He is already pleased with your work, even before you begin it. This fact gives you joy as you work and as you have those God-given moments of leisure.

Moving on to Ecc. 9:8, “Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head.” This isn’t literal. It isn’t as though God is giving you a dress code and a grooming routine. Think of it this way: generally, when do people wear white garments? Usually, at some festive celebration. Brides wear white on their wedding day. White is the color of joy and celebration. The same thing is true for oil on your head. You can think of this as perfume. When would a woman put on her special perfume, or when would a man put on expensive cologne? Only on special occasions. Especially in Solomon’s days, you’d wear white and don special perfume at the high points of life.

Here Solomon says, “Go ahead. Let your garments always be white and wear perfume. Don’t just wait for special occasions to rejoice. Treat each day – whether you’re working, eating, or drinking – as a reason to rejoice.” Or, at Paul puts it, “Rejoice always” (Php. 4:4; 1 Th. 5:16). Because of the forgiveness you have in Christ, every moment (whether you’re working or relaxing or celebrating something) it’s all a time to rejoice.

And Ecc. 9:9, “Enjoy life with the wife (you can think ‘spouse’) whom you love, all the days of your [not ‘vain’ but] fleeting life.” When you enjoy something by yourself, that’s good. But it’s even better to enjoy the blessings of this life with the one you love. Beauty and joy are multiplied by sharing them with someone else. Shared enjoyment is enhanced enjoyment. 

Finally, Ecc. 9:10a, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.” Whatever God gives you to do today, right now, is worth doing with all your might. Give it all you’ve got. Go full-throttle. Do it with enthusiasm and gusto. It’s energizing to be around people who have a zest for living. That enthusiasm is infectious – in a good way. When people complain and whine and slack off, it drags everyone down to their level of misery. But when even one person enjoys what they’re doing, it spreads.

All of this joy that comes from eating and drinking, from constantly celebrating, from enjoying life with your spouse, and from working zealously – it can only come from a good conscience.

You have that, believer. Dear saints, God has forgiven you in Christ. God-given joy comes from being given a merry heart which, again, could be translated as a ‘clean’ or ‘good conscience.’ This clean conscience comes only from your Savior, Jesus Christ. And in Christ, God already approves your works because He approves of and delights in you. That confidence is your joy. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Beautiful Time – Sermon on Ecclesiastes 3:1-15, 22 for Midweek Lent 3

The Scripture readings for tonight’s service are Psalm 31:14-15; 145:17-19; 16:7-8; Ecclesiastes 3:1-15, 22; 1 Timothy 6:6-11; and Mark 12:41-44.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Last week, we heard how God gives us Christians joy in this life in two simple things. He gives us joy in our leisure or in our eating and drinking; and He gives us joy in our work – not from our work but in our work (Ecc. 2:24). Scripture is clear, you won’t to find enjoyment in the fruit of your work by getting money that buys you things. That won’t work. Instead, you are to find enjoyment in the work God gives you to do. Your work and the effort you expend on all your God-given tasks is a gift from God’s hand. There is goodness and joy in you doing that work. If you didn’t hear that sermon from last week, I’d encourage you to go back and listen to it.

Tonight, as we consider this portion of Ecc. 3, I’d like to pick up our thinking with some words that you heard last week, but you need to hear them again because they set up these verses which, probably, are more familiar to you – even if it’s only because of the song “Turn, Turn, Turn” by The Byrds.

Ecclesiastes 2 closed with these words, “[T]o the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God” (Ecc. 2:26). This is an amazing thing for God to say, and you have to have this clear in your mind. You, Christian, are one who pleases God. You please God because Christ has forgiven you and made you His child and because the Holy Spirit has made you holy. But to the sinner (and, yes, we are all sinners in a general sense, but ‘the sinner’ here refers to who is one who does not have faith in Christ’s forgiveness) to the sinner God has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give what’s been gathered and collected to one who pleases God.

In short, people who aren’t Christians only gather and collect, but they don’t get to keep anything. People who aren’t Christians are always working to try and get some future joy that they will never achieve or attain because they try to find joy apart from God. So, they can’t enjoy either their work or their leisure.

There are really wealthy unbelievers who have a lot more than any of us here have. Dear saints, you are far better off than the richest people you can think of if they aren’t a Christian. Just because they have all that stuff doesn’t mean they are able to enjoy it. They might have a house with way more rooms than your house has, but they – just like you – can only be in one room at a time.

That’s where Ecc. 3 comes in. The simple fact is that we creatures of God are only given one moment at a time. Time comes to us moment by moment. Just as you can’t cling to those moments and make them stay, you also cannot reach out and grab future moments to make them come sooner. They only come in God’s timing.

Solomon summarizes this in v. 11 saying, “[God] has made everything beautiful (or ‘pleasant, right, fitting’) in its time.” Each moment is beautiful in the time that God gives it. And notice, that also means when something is outside of that time, it’s no longer beautiful, pleasant, enjoyable.

In that little poem that opens Ecc. 3, Solomon gives sixteen pairs of opposites: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted; and so forth. Those pairs encompass everything in life, but to make sure that point gets across, the Holy Spirit inspired Solomon to preface all those pairs with, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter (or ‘activity’) under heaven.” So, you could add anything to this list.

There’s a time to drive a car, and a time to be chauffeured everywhere. There’s a time to be active and play sports, and a time to sit and watch sports. There’s a time to make a grocery list, a time to go fill up your shopping cart, a time to prepare food, a time to enjoy the food, and a time to clean everything up. Everything you do has a time to do it, and the time to do it is when that thing is before you to do.

Again, this sounds so simple, but think of how many people do not realize this and hijack and sabotage their joy by trying to live in moments that aren’t given to them. God gives a season to be a child and play with dolls or Lego’s and be joyful as a child. But children want to be older, get their driver’s license, and be independent. The young want to be older instead of enjoying the joy of childhood. You’ve heard the saying, “Youth is wasted on the young”? There is some truth to that. But what might be even sadder is when adults try to clutch and hang on to their youth and long-gone ‘glory’ days. We all easily fall into the trap of not having joy in the season of life that God has given.

Parents long for the days when their children can cut their own food and clean themselves and do some chores. Then, when the kids become teenagers and let their parents know how much they hate doing the chores, a parent longs for the former days of diapers, baths, and mushed peas.

Again, the problem is, when you try to find your joy in the future or in the past, you rob yourself of the beauty and joy of the present moment. But God makes everything beautiful (or ‘fitting’) in its time and in the season in which God gives it.

Imagine you’re on a camping trip in late August. The sun has set; you’re zipping up your tent and climbing into your sleeping bag. Suddenly, a massive fireworks show starts. You’d probably be fairly perturbed. It’s not the time for fireworks. But if you’re camping on the 4th of July, you’d disappointed if there wasn’t fireworks. You see? The fireworks aren’t the problem in August, it’s the timing. Or try this, if one of you right now started pitching a tent here in the sanctuary and rolling out a sleeping bag, we’d all look at you like you’re a crazy person because you would be. Same thing – it isn’t the tent that’s the problem, it’s the timing. Firework shows, tents, and sleeping bags are all fine and good and right and enjoyable – in their proper time. Which leads me to this…

Right now, dear saints, God has given us the moments that are mentioned in Ecc. 3:4. A time to weep, and a time to laugh. A time to mourn, and a time to dance. And we’re going to be bouncing back and forth in those. With Jesus (Jn. 11:35), we weep because of the passing of our sister, Ros. We miss her. Rightly so. And as we weep, we share memories and laugh and mourn and weep again. And in the midst of that, we can dance because we know that she is with Jesus and we will see her again.

All of that leads me to the other part of v. 11. Hear it again, “[God] has put eternity into man’s heart.” This phrase is difficult to understand, but try this: We humans have a capacity that other creatures don’t have. 1) We can remember the past, and 2) we can anticipate the future. But those abilities can be dangerous if we use them for the wrong reasons. God allows us to remember the past so we can give thanks to Him for it. And God allows us to anticipate the future so we can have hope for what lies ahead.

Even though you can’t hold on to a moment. It’s here one second and gone the next. But God has given you memory. What the Holy Spirit wants you to do with that gift of memory is to use it to thank God for what He has done and given. Even though you can’t reach into the future and force those moments to come sooner, God has given you the capacity to anticipate the future. And the Holy Spirit wants you to use that gift so you can have hope, which is a good thing.

In other words, you can remember the past and be thankful. You can anticipate the future so you can have hope. But Ecclesiastes is clear. You can’t have joy either in the past or in the future. Joy is only given in each present moment, and God makes those moments beautiful in their times.

So, dear saints, receive the beauty and joy in every moment God gives you. When you have past joys, thank God for that gift, but don’t try to go back because you can’t, and you’ll miss the beautiful moment now. Don’t try to pull the future into the present. Don’t do that first, because you can’t. But also, don’t do it because that moment hasn’t ripened yet. Leave the future in God’s good and generous hands so He can deliver those gifts to you in the right, beautiful time.

Finally, dear saints, let the beauty and the joy that God gives in each moment give you a hunger and a hope for the eternal joy that God has promised to give you. What a joy that will be. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Life’s Sacred Rhythm – Sermon on Ecclesiastes 2:18-26 for Midweek Lent 2

The Scripture readings for tonight’s service are Psalm 127:1-2, 104:24-25, 29-30; Ecclesiastes 2:18-26; 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12; and Matthew 11:25-30.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

How you talk matters. The words you use shape how you and others think. You can call a house “small” or “cozy. Someone who has lived several more decades than you might be “over the hill” or have “a lot of life experience.”

Think about the words you use for eating. You eat many different things of many different qualities for many different reasons, and the language you use reflects that. You might “have a snack” of carrots and hummus. You might “treat yourself” to a candy bar or a bowl of ice cream. You might “pig out” and eat an entire bag of chips. All of that language refers to eating. But the purpose or result of eating is always the same. Eating gives your body calories and fuel to function.

At Thanksgiving, Christmas, or when grandma makes her pot roast for your extended family, it’s “a feast.” Everything tastes wonderful, there’s more than enough for everyone, and it is great to be at a table with people you love. Now, is the food you eat at that feast going to give your body the energy and fuel that it needs to function? Yes, of course. Again that’s the purpose of eating. But when you thank grandma for all of her work preparing that meal, are you going to use words and phrases only reflect that? “Grandmother, you have given my body the calories I need to live”? Of course not! You’ll say, “Grandma, what a tremendous, tasty feast!”

Tonight’s verses from Ecclesiastes focus on our work. How we talk about work matters. You might talk about your “job” or your “work.” Both of those terms can be fairly neutral. But you might also use the word “job’ in a negative sense. “This is my job, but I don’t want it to be my career” because that shows a lot more commitment. You might refer to your work as “the daily grind” or “my 9-5.” Those types of phrases make your work sound like toil.

One of the Hebrew words for ‘work’ (there are several of them) comes up ten times in the text. And, to it’s credit, our translation is quite consistent in how that word is translated – 9 of the 10 times that word occurs, it’s translated as ‘toil’ and one time (in v. 20) it translates it as ‘labor.’ But do the words ‘toil’ and ‘labor’ have a good or a bad connotation in your mind? Probably bad. The word ‘toil’ probably puts an image of a witch stirring pot of glowing green stuff over a fire, “Double, double, toil and trouble.” And ‘labor’ might make you think about being sentenced to decades of difficult life in Siberia. But the Hebrew word simply refers to putting effort into something. Exerting effort isn’t a bad thing. All sorts of things we enjoy require effort.

Maybe some of you went outside close to 2:00 AM this past Friday to see the ‘blood moon’ eclipse. That required effort, both to get out of bed at that time (or to stay up that late) and then to push through the next day. Baking, gardening, knitting, reading a good book, playing an instrument, camping, jogging, cheering your favorite sports team – all of those things require degrees of effort. Everything you do requires effort – even sleep.

With that simpler meaning of the word that gets translated as ‘toil,’ I want you to follow along as I slightly rephrase v. 21, “Sometimes, a person puts in effort that requires wisdom and knowledge and skill, [but] must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not put in any effort for it. This is breath [vanity] and a great evil.”

Sticking with food analogies: imagine that you’ve spent hours of effort making a brisket, prime rib, or turkey. It’s cooked and is just resting on the kitchen counter before you serve it so you don’t lose all the juices. But you leave the kitchen for a minute only to come back and find that Fido has devoured the whole thing. This is, indeed, a great evil. All your effort and toil has become like a breath that’s instantly vanished.

Are there times when your work and effort is wasted and done in vain? Sure, of course. But that isn’t always the case. It doesn’t mean that all your work and all your effort is vain, meaningless, and evil toil. Not at all! Look again at v. 24-25. These are the verses we’ll focus on for the rest of the sermon because, in them, Solomon gives us one of the ingredients for a life that is filled with God-given joy. “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the effort he expends. I saw that this [joy] is from the hand of God, for apart from God, who can eat or who can have enjoyment?”

This is so beautiful and comforting. Under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Solomon wisely tells us how to find joy in life. Joy comes from eating and drinking and finding enjoyment in your effort. This is God’s design. It is the holy, sacred rhythm of your life. God gives you moments when you need to work, sweat, and strive with all your strength. Then, God gives moments when you live quietly. The point Solomon is making here is there is joy in both (1 Thes. 4:11). 

Notice especially that Solomon says that joy comes in your effort. This is so simple, but it’s the opposite of how we often think. We think that we work and work and work to get a paycheck. Then, we take that paycheck and use it to buy things that we think we will enjoy. In that perspective, we enjoy the things that come from the work we did, but not the work itself. What that does is it makes our work a sort of punishment, a penance or purgatory, that we have to endure to eventually, maybe, get enjoyment. Our typical mindset that we work to get something from our work that we hope will bring us happiness. But it doesn’t bring happiness.

Through all of ch. 2 prior to this text, Solomon talked about all the wealth and stuff he accumulated in an attempt to find joy. He had more than we can even imagine, but Solomon says that those things didn’t bring him joy or satisfaction. Solomon even tried saving for the future, but it didn’t bring joy because you can’t enjoy the future. The future isn’t here. You can only enjoy today, this present moment.

Solomon’s correction for us, and the wisdom he gives us is that we are not to work so we can get joy from our effort; instead, find enjoyment in our effort. That’s a big difference. God gives us work to do, and He wants us to find enjoyment in the work – not from it, but in it. A more literal translation from the Hebrew of v. 24 goes like this, “eat and drink and see in your soul the good in your effort.” In other words, open your eyes and see the good in all the things where you spend your effort and work because that work is given to you by God’s own hand.

I remember being in school and thinking about all sorts of subjects, “What’s the point of all this? When will I ever use this information?” Do you see how that orients things? It assumes there can only be a benefit in the future, which, again, isn’t ours to control.

Christian, is it true that God is in control and directs all things? Yes, “in Him we live and move and have our being” (Act. 17:28). And is God good? Yes. So, if God has put you in a classroom where the teacher wants you to be able to locate Djibouti on a map, calculate the volume of a sphere, diagram a sentence, or identify the parts of a flower – your loving, heavenly Father has given you that task from His good hand. The effort you spend on that task is good. Your opinion of the importance of any task is irrelevant. God is the One who put that task in front of you. And because He is good, that task and the effort you spend on it is good. This is true for all your efforts. It includes your job, the ways you serve your parents and family, the ways you volunteer, your prayers, etc. Seeing your tasks, whatever they are, is a gift from God’s hand, and recognizing that will give you joy.

And God doesn’t only give you work and tasks. He also blesses you with the leisure of eating and drinking. This is how God has ordered and established the rhythm of creation. The God-given rhythm of your life is work and eat and drink, you can think of this as having time to enjoy the gifts God gives you. Have a little leisure and enjoy God’s gifts. Get a bit of sleep. And wake up again and go, enjoy your work. Again, this might sound simple or even naive, but this is what the Bible gives us to find joy in. This is all a gift of God.

Finally, dear saints, notice who receives this wisdom and knowledge and joy. Your told who in v. 26. This joy is given to the one who pleases God.

And you are pleasing to God because Christ has removed all of your guilt. In Jesus, God absolves your sins by His death and resurrection. Jesus is your Savior so you can have joy in your work and in your leisure. This is the kind of rest Jesus talked about in our Gospel reading. Christ places His easy yoke and light burden upon you. In Him, and in Him alone, you find rest and joy for your soul (Mt. 11:28-30). Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

What You Can & Can’t Fix – Sermon on Ecclesiastes 1:1-18 for Midweek Lent 1

The Scripture readings for tonight’s service are Psalm 37:1-9; Ecclesiastes 1:1-18; Romans 12:1-3; and Luke 12:22-32.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

In a world that is broken by and full of sin, everyone wants to have joy, meaning, and fulfillment. Now, you can find all sorts of books, podcasts, and 90 second reels on social media that will offer advice on how to find all of that. Some of them are good, some are fine, and some will lead you in the wrong direction – a completely wrong direction.

The Bible is full of God-inspired wisdom so you can have joy, meaning, and fulfillment, and the book of Ecclesiastes is especially loaded with all of that. But the wisdom of Ecclesiastes is given in a somewhat twisted way. And I say ‘twisted’ because, when you read Ecclesiastes (which I highly recommend that you do), you’ll likely see the book as pessimistic, a book filled with gloom, despair, and meaninglessness. Part of the reason Ecclesiastes is so pessimistic is that the majority of the book tells you all the ways you won’t find joy.

Let me try this as an analogy: Have you ever come across a link that claims to have the secret for the juiciest hamburger ever? When you tap on it, you quickly realize that the recipe is buried way down at the bottom and is almost the last thing you’ll find. You have to flick your thumb half a dozen times and tap the little ‘x’ on several ads do you get to the end of the page to finally find the ingredients you need and the steps to follow. Those online recipes are frustrating because they’re filled with all sorts of nostalgic stories and anecdotes that have nothing to do with cooking whatever you actually want to make. Online recipes make me yearn for the good ol’ days of 3×5 index cards with grandma’s nearly illegible, faded handwriting in pencil.

In a lot of ways, Ecclesiastes is similar to those online recipes. The book is Solomon’s recipe for joy, but he also tells you about all the futile ways he tried to find joy but never achieved or attained it. You can think of Ecclesiastes as an online hamburger recipe that begins by going on and on about all sorts of ways to not make a hamburger. If Ecclesiastes were a hamburger recipe, it would be paragraph after paragraph of Solomon saying, “Don’t mix rocks or dirt or pavement into your meat.” Eventually, Solomon gives you a couple ingredients for a life of joy. And then, he goes on with long sections about not storing the meat on the counter at room temperature for days and days, then give you a couple more ingredients.

But don’t get impatient and skip over those long portions that tell you the ways you won’t find joy. Even in all the negative sections, you’ll find important, Holy Spirit-inspired wisdom. So, don’t skip, unless of course, you want to waste your time, waste your effort, and have no joy. Tonight, we’re going to spend some time in Ecc. 1, which is one of those sections.

One more important thing before we dive in: I’ve already mentioned this, but Ecclesiastes was written by King Solomon and likely near the end of his life. The reason that is important is this: other than Jesus Himself, Solomon was the wisest person to ever walk this creation. He had a God-given wisdom (1 Kgs. 3:5-14) that even Jesus recognized and praised (Lk. 11:31). And since Solomon was divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit to write Ecclesiastes, the wisdom he gives us here, and in other portions of Scripture, should be even more precious.

Ok, to the text. Solomon begins by lamenting, “Vanity of vanities; vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” Immediately, you can tell that this is one of those negative sections.

That Hebrew word that gets translated as ‘vanity’ is used 72 times in the entire Old Testament, and 37 of those uses are in Ecclesiastes. Because it’s used so often, it’s important to get a good handle on what the word means because when we normally hear the word ‘vanity’ we think of a piece of furniture where a woman puts on make-up, or it’s used in a song that you probably think is about you. 

The word simply means ‘breath’ or ‘vapor.’ It refers to something that is fleeting. Think of a cold morning (probably this morning) where you step outside, exhale, and see your breath. It’s there but only for a moment. Then, it’s gone. Just because that breath is gone doesn’t mean that it’s not real or doesn’t exist. It certainly is real, but it’s insubstantial. Solomon will also use a phrase that’s related to this word; he’ll talk about ‘chasing after the wind.’ Many things in this life are, as wise Solomon recognizes are a ‘breath,’ a ‘vapor,’ and a ‘chasing after the wind.’

In other words, most of life is filled with things that you can’t control. You can’t grab or hold on to it. Generally, you can’t put parts of your life in your pocket and deal with them when you decide. It’s here one moment and gone the next. Simply recognizing that most of life is like a breeze that you can’t control helps you orient your life in a wise, godly way.

Look again at Ecc. 1:12-17 because, there, Solomon makes a wise application in light of everything in life being fleeting. That wisdom is simply this: You can’t fix things in this world that God hasn’t given you to fix.

In those verses, Solomon says three things. 1) Solomon was the king, and probably the most powerful king in the entire world. 2) He gave his attention to wisdom and knowledge. In other words, he wasn’t a politician who was trying to govern for his own benefit. And 3) he couldn’t fix things. There were problems that Solomon wanted to fix and tried to fix. But he was unsuccessful. He comes to the conclusion, “What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted” (Ecc. 1:15). This world is crooked and bent. This world is lacking so many things that you can’t even calculate everything that is missing. We live in a sinful, broken world, and not even Solomon could fix it.

Imagine we had an election and unanimously chose the perfect person to be the president. Everyone loved this new president and decided to give him ten consecutive terms. He has plenty of time to fix all the problems of our country. Here, Solomon is saying, “That’s me! I had all the resources, all the authority, all the wisdom, and forty years of ruling over my kingdom. But I couldn’t fix our problems.”

I know that sounds depressing and fatalistic, but it isn’t. Well, it shouldn’t be. Instead, this is a God-inspired key to finding and having joy in a broken world. You can’t fix the world or our culture. You can’t do that because you can’t fix sin. Whether it’s our culture’s morality and violence, whether it’s our nation’s broken view of marriage and life, whether it’s the economy, racism, etc. You can’t fix it. You can’t solve it.

Before I go on, I need to be clear. Yes, you are assigned all sorts of important vocations, and God uses you and your work to do important things. There are things that God has put under your care. But those things are minuscule to all the things in this world. So, be faithful in all the callings God gives you. Be a good spouse, parent, grandparent, child, friend, employee, coworker, etc. Do all the things, all the tasks, all the duties you have in those areas. But, at the same time remember that there are things you can’t fix because you aren’t God. You were created in God’s image and created to have dominion over the earth (Gen. 1:28-30), but you and I gave up that dominion by  way of our sin. So, God has relieved us of that dominion. And this is good news.

Fixing what is broken is not what God has called you to do. God has not called you to the office of being the world-fixer or the sin-minimizer. Instead, God has given to His own, dear Son the office of being the Savior of the world. And as the Savior, Jesus has and will fix the world’s problems, by His death and resurrection. But you cannot.

In tonight’s Gospel reading (Lk. 12:22-32) Jesus says the same thing as Solomon does here, but in a different way. What Solomon says in a ‘negative’ way, Jesus says in a ‘positive’ way. What I mean by ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ is this. If I’ve just pulled out a fresh batch of cookies out of the oven and I want my kids to enjoy them, I could tell them to have a cookie in a positive way, “Cookies are done! They’re warm and fresh. Come enjoy them.” Or I could tell them to have a cookie in a negative way, “Don’t let your cookie get cold.”

Solomon, in a ‘negative’ way, says, “You can’t fix things.” Jesus in a ‘positive’ says the same thing, and I’ll paraphrase: “Your heavenly Father already knows what you need. So, seek His kingdom, and everything you need in this fleeting, breezy life will be given to you. And know that it is your heavenly Father’s good pleasure, He is absolutely delighted, to give you the kingdom.” Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.