In December we will be launching an all new Christmas series. Each week we will explore different aspects of the Christmas message. First, we will “look up" with the wise men and investigate the hope God holds out to nations. Second, we will “look back" at all history and promises of God that point to Christ. Third, we will “look into" the face to Jesus, and consider what a profound gift his life truly is for all mankind. Fourth, we will “look forward" and consider how the gift of God's Spirit finally makes the life God wants us to live possible. Last, we will “look out" and consider the unfinished business of daily braving and building God's Kingdom.
One of the most impactful things we can do this Christmas is to invite a friend to church. Our staff have been discussing how we can pursue excellence, to make the most of Christmas. We're going to decorate the building and amp up our hospitality to help everyone feel welcome. Invite a friend, change a life!
This morning, I want to talk about some counter-intuitive ways Solomon speaks of hope for those who fear God. In some ways you can think of this as a conclusion to much of what Solomon has been teaching in Ecclesiastes. Our topic this morning is a “Embracing a Meaning Full Life.” Throughout the ages Religious people, Philosophers, and Thinkers have identified three essential ingredients to a healthy, well-balanced life.
First, You and I Need a Strong Sense of Life-Meaning. Another word for meaning is significance. Most everyone around us is conducting an ongoing search for significance. We want our lives to really matter. Solomon raises this issue repeatedly. Allow me to share a few examples of things we think about:
• Ecclesiastes 1:4, “A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.” We're not the first, we're not the last, to peer into heavens and ponder our existence. Who am I? Builders. Boomers. Gen X. Gen Y. Gen Z. Gen Mars?
• Ecclesiastes 3:1-2, “There is an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven: a time to give birth and a time to die;” We have very little control or say over these momentous occasions. Our clock is ticking away.
• Ecclesiastes 1:11, “There is no remembrance of those who came before; And of those who will come after. There will also be no remembrance by those who follow them.” Many of you have children, and grandchildren, or the hope of offspring. Some cultures go to great lengths to remember their ancestors. But there is a logical limit to human memory. Gravestones fade. Photos and videos get lost, or even deleted. Only a few will leave their stamp on history.
• Given these examples, to what do we anchor a sense of significance?
But I noticed another way Solomon touches upon our search for significance. He raises the question of how we fundamentally see ourselves. In Ecclesiastes 3:19-20 he says, “For the fate of the children of Adam and the fate of animals is the same. As one dies, so dies the other; they all have the same breath. People have no advantage over animals since everything is futile. All are going to the same place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.” Our scientific worldview reduces the significance of humankind to that of an animal. Our scientific worldview reduces us to a glob of flesh, an improbable but accidental evolutionary string of genetic code, DNA. You only imagine, and greatly exaggerate your significance. But you are no more than a bug that winds up smashed on cosmic windshield of time.
OR… perhaps you are not just merely flesh and blood? What if you are spirit? What if the most significant part of you transcends flesh, mere dust? Ecclesiastes 3:21-22, “Who knows if the spirits of the children of Adam go upward and the spirits of animals go downward to the earth? I have seen that there is nothing better than for a person to enjoy his activities because that is his reward. For who can enable him to see what will happen after he dies?” We need the deepest possible sense of life-meaning, of significance. How do we come by such a thing? You can tell someone “hey, you matter.” But those are just words. What establishes one's worth?
Second, you and I need a Strong Sense of Life-Value. The biggest differences between us aren't what we're told. It's not our skin color. It's not our ethnicity. It’s not our gender, or sexual identity, or sexual proclivities, or pronouns, or a million other things. The biggest differences between us is our “values” – it’s essentially what we value more or value less.
Solomon frames the question of value this way. In Ecclesiastes 6:12 he asks, “For who knows what is good for anyone in life, in the few days of his futile life that he spends like a shadow? Who can tell anyone what will happen after him under the sun?” Who knows what is for anyone, much less, everyone? The problem of ethics, the problem of values, is what makes something good verses bad? Right versus wrong? True versus false? By what criteria does one commend much of anything? Your morality is based upon your preferences, my morality based upon mine. Your politics are based upon your sensibilities, mine is based upon mine. Ecclesiastes 2:3, Solomon takes to drinking. He says he allowed the pull of wine to carry him away “… until I could see what is good for people to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.” Talk about something eating away at you! Ecclesiastes 7:15, “In my futile life I have seen everything: someone righteous perishes in spite of his righteousness, and someone wicked lives long in spite of his evil.”
Years ago, Jonathan Haidt wrote a thought-provoking book called “The Righteous Man.” Among many things, he’s a moral psychologist, and I believe, also an atheist. But after studying morality across cultures, across time, he identified that people anchor themselves to up to six basic moral foundations. Some people value one foundation to exclusion of all others. Some value two or three. Some value all the foundations but assign different values or weighting to each.
The first foundation is CARE vs. HARM. This especially relates to children. The momma-grizzly bear has the motherly instinct to defend and protect from danger. Compassion, Care, Kindness. You stand up and fight for the oppressed, vulnerable, stranger, foreigner, sick, infirm, addicted, and mentally ill.
The second foundation is FAIRNESS vs. CHEATING. Everyone should be paying their fair share; nobody should be getting ahead and the expense of others. In this past election the working class overwhelmingly feels cheated on the top end by Elitists and feel cheated on the bottom end by giveaway schemes.
The third foundation is LIBERTY vs. OPPRESSION. My inalienable rights as a human being are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Tyranny in all its forms, no matter how sincere its intentions, ought to be broken.
The fourth foundation is LOYALTY vs. BETRAYAL. Who is truly with us, and who is against us? Who are the true American's and who are the imposters?
The fifth foundation is AUTHORITY vs. SUBSERVSION. Who are the true Constitutionalists? Who are the true lovers and keepers of the law, and who is subverting rule of law?
The sixth foundation is SANCTITY vs. DEGRADATION. This goes back to the question of significance. Is life more than flesh and blood? Is life more than a body? Is life spirit, or spiritual? Does every person have a soul? Do babies? Do the unborn?
Politics, even Religion are profoundly rooted in the weighting of values. If you had to put all six of these foundations in order of value one to six, what would be your number one value? What would be your last? Everyone thinks their value hierarchy is righteous and everyone else’s hierarchy is unrighteous.
For Solomon, there is a degree to which one can weigh these Life-Values. Some of these values are more advantageous, some less. Some promote long life, peace, and enjoyment; some bring death, conflict, pain and suffering.
But for Solomon, the only resolution to this question of life-value is to look to God. For Solomon, God is both the Lawgiver and Judge. God puts his finger on the scale and gives Divine weight to one thing over another. To Fear God, to respect God as Judge, and mostly importantly to obey God is essential to human flourishing. Without God though, you would have total moral relativism. Everyone would be right and do what was right in their own eyes. There would be total anarchy and lawlessness. Ecclesiastes 3:17-18, “17 I said to myself, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, since there is a time for every activity and every work.” 18 I said to myself, “This happens so that God may test the children of Adam and they may see for themselves that they are like animals.”
If you are no more significant than an animal, why not behave like one? An animal only lives in the moment, in its flesh. But we're not animals. God has given us his Law. God will judge the living and the dead. God has put his finger on the scale, and he alone assigns moral weight regardless of our sentimentalities.
Ecclesiastes 8:12–13 (CSB): “12 Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, I also know that it will go well with God-fearing people, for they are reverent before him. 13 However, it will not go well with the wicked, and they will not lengthen their days like a shadow, for they are not reverent before God.” Ecclesiastes 11:9 (CSB): “Rejoice, young person, while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. And walk in the ways of your heart and in the desire of your eyes; but know that for all of these things God will bring you to judgment.”
Ecclesiastes 12:12–14 (CSB): “But beyond these, my son, be warned: there is no end to the making of many books, and much study wearies the body. 13 When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: fear God and keep his commands, because this is for all humanity. 14 For God will bring every act to judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil.” We need the deepest possible sense of life-meaning, of significance. The deepest and divine sense of life-value or moral good.
Third, you and I need a Strong Sense of Life-Purpose. Solomon was never bored. I think we've established that fact. He always found something, some purpose to lay hold of with all his strength. When I think of Solomon, I think of the image of Tarzan swinging through the forest. Tarzan would grab hold of one vine, and swing with all his might. And then when one vine was about to lose its momentum, he'd grab hold of the next vine and swing with all his might… and then the next vine and the next vine. In the movies, Tarzan never runs out of vines! But in real life, not only does one vine after another vine fail us, but we quickly run out of vines.
It's not hard to find a purpose for one’s life. Your life purpose can be as simple as walking your dog, feeding the birds, watching Netflix, drinking, reefing, gambling, working, fishing, hunting, straightening out what’s crooked, counting what no one has counted. I might even venture to say that you can derive quite a bit of satisfaction out of the many purposes for which you live your life. But I hope in this series you've heard two messages.
First, I hope you've heard Solomon's critique of the many things we set our ambitions upon. They leave us wanting, or even sometimes crashing to the forest floor. But second, Solomon's core message is that there are lower case “p” purposes for our lives—which are not necessarily bad, or evil, or immoral though some are. But then there is the upper case “P" Purpose for our life!
Ecclesiastes 3:11–15 (CSB): “He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts, but no one can discover the work God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and enjoy the good life. 13 It is also the gift of God whenever anyone eats, drinks, and enjoys all his efforts. 14 I know that everything God does will last forever; there is no adding to it or taking from it. God works so that people will be in awe of him.”
For Solomon the quest for meaning and significance… the quest for value, for morality, for the ethical, for the truly good … the quest for “P" PURPOSE must necessarily begin and find its fruition in Worship, in Awe of God. And quite importantly… Solomon observes that we will never come about good answers to these questions apart from God. These questions are too deep for man… for what's too deep for man God has spoken and revealed Himself.
Ecclesiastes 7:23-24, “23 I have tested all this by wisdom. I resolved, “I will be wise,” but it was beyond me. 24 What exists is beyond reach and very deep. Who can discover it?”
Ecclesiastes 12:1, 7-8, “12 So remember your Creator in the days of your youth. . . before the dust returns to the earth as it once was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. “Absolute futility,” says the Teacher. “Everything is futile.”