10th Sunday after Pentecost
Ecclesiastes Chapters 1 & 2
8/5/2007
Rev. Philip A. Bouknight
Our lectionary rotates on a three year cycle. It was exactly three years ago that I began as your pastor, so this is the first Sunday that we have come full circle together. As I looked over that sermon, I recalled that I had a wonderful sense of thanksgiving for the pastors that had come before me and our reading from Ecclesiastes spoke to that experience. This year, it is again the same reading that speaks, but with a different message. Today, I want to turn our attention again to our reading from Ecclesiastes
The book was originally entitled Qoheleth, which in Hebrew means “The leader of the assembly” or congregation; an ecclesia. That is why we now call it the book of Ecclesiastes. Originally, the Church attributed its authorship to Solomon since Solomon was the wisest and wealthiest of all kings. We have now come to understand that the book was written much later and it speaks about the futility experienced by a king who had to follow one who was so wise. Let us simply call the writer “The Teacher.”
The teacher begins the book in this way.
The words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hurries to the place where it rises. The wind blows to the south, and goes around to the north; round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they continue to flow. All things are wearisome; more than one can express; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, or the ear filled with hearing. What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, "See, this is new"? It has already been, in the ages before us. Ecclesiastes 1:1-10
What is being expressed here is the utter futility that is experienced when one searches to understand his or her place in this vast world. It is daunting enough to ponder our existence among a world population that exceeds 6.5 billion people. Then when we consider our worth in retrospect to those mighty men and women who have gone before us and those who are yet to come, we can be thrown into despair.
The teacher has been pondering his worth, his earthly possessions and the kingdom that he has been building. He wonders about those who will inherit his kingdom. They didn’t toil for it and yet, they will enjoy what he has built. This search for earthly wisdom and knowledge has led him to madness and then folly. In the verses following what I just read, the teacher gave up, because no one can determine that the kingdom they have built will be properly cared for. He decides to enter into folly. He builds houses for himself and plants vineyards for himself. He builds himself gardens, parks and pools, acquires slaves, herds, and treasure chests overflowing with silver and gold. He throws himself into building a kingdom for himself, assuming that this will ward off the overwhelming sense of futility and at the end of his opulent list, he ends up where he began.
Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and again, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 2:11
Vanity of vanities; all is but vanity!
The word translated here as vanity means meaningless or absurd. It is meaningless for us to ponder our worth in and with ourselves. It is utterly absurd to look at our life as a single existence in the ebb and flow of history. It is the most absurd of absurdities and yet we see ourselves in the teachers words and actions.
Do we not overwhelm ourselves as we attempt to build our own kingdoms? Do we not toil, putting away extra money in our storehouses, loosing sleep over whether we will have enough? Are we not struck with a sense of futility when we ponder how we will be remembered or what will become of our toil? Nothing much has changed in the world…or has it?
Haven’t we received a new creation?
Haven’t we been given a new commandment?
Didn’t Jesus Christ institute a new reality whereby we are not one of 6.5 billion, but one with God? Now that we have been united with God in Christ, are we not to toil to build his kingdom rather than our own? Oh yes, there is something new under the sun. As new creatures that have been given a new beginning and a renewed promise of hope, it would be utterly absurd for us to turn our attention to our own kingdom, but we still do it. In the end, we find with the teacher that we have been chasing after wind. We are grasping at some reality that is out there, just beyond our reach.
Homecoming is an opportunity for us to place things in their proper perspective. Today, we welcome back members of the congregation who have moved away. We remember our young adults who are now either furthering their education through advanced degrees or have begun to search for vocations and a new reality of independence. We are able to gather together in worship in a church that we did not build. This community in Christ was built on the sweat and toil of others. We have inherited that which we did not work for. This forces us to remember that we never toil in vain. What we do with our lives today directly affects those who will come after us. The work that is set before us has nothing to do with our own kingdoms, but rather the kingdom of God.
To the world, our endeavors will seem absurd, because the world teaches us that it is foolish to spend our time, our money and our gifts for anything other than the pursuit of earthly gain. If we were to preoccupy ourselves with the building of houses, parks, pools, and private treasure chests, we would be commended. In fact, we would be deemed as wise.
This struggle between the pressure placed upon us to build our own kingdoms and the spiritual calling to further God’s kingdom, can leave the church in a unique dilemma. Which one do we choose and what are the consequences?
If we choose to build our own kingdoms, God’s kingdom will not cease to be a reality in the world. His kingdom will come. It just may not come into our lives as richly as God would have had it. We can choose as a body to rest on the laurels of those who have gone before us and if we so choose this option, what will homecoming look like fifty years from now? Will our children and our children’s children have a legacy to return to? Will there be a strong body of Christians seeking to serve God and this community?
But, if we choose to further God’s kingdom, dedicating ourselves wholeheartedly to making him known in this county and in his world, we may also ask “What would the church look like fifty years from now?” We know which one God will bless. We know that it is utterly absurd for us to lay up earthly treasures and fill our time with earthly pursuits. We know this is absurd, because we have been taught the word of God. Even if God’s word does not have an intimate hold upon us, we at least realize that none of these things will follow us to the grave. We do not leave legacies. We live them and when we die, none of these earthly things will matter at all.
The new creation that we have received (the new reality that is ours in Christ) is a treasure far greater than the wealth of any man or woman. It is greater than any country and far greater than the combined wealth of more than 6.5 billion people. We possess unfathomable riches. We inherited it when we passed through the waters of baptism. When that water covered over us, we were given a new birth into a new hope. We received a new reality where Christ is the lord of our lives and our lives do not end.
Oh yes, God has done something new under the sun.
We can choose to chase after wind or we can choose to chase after God. Since God loves us so much, since God wants to be worshiped, he does not make us do what is best for us. Instead, he gives us the ability to choose life in him and by our choosing to do so; we worship him and show the love that we have for him.
Vanity of vanities, all is but vanity?
We will not be thrown into despair when we look at our lives and the toil of our hands if we remember that our lives are in his hands.
They are the hands that created us. They are the hands that gave us life. They are the hands that redeemed us when they were nailed to a cross. It is those same hands that gently guide us to use our hands in building his kingdom.
We cannot stop building. We cannot stop toiling. We cannot stop sweating and working until we all enter that great homecoming where we will surround his throne.
There is nothing absurd about his work. There is nothing absurd about God’s promise. There is most certainly nothing absurd about God’s desire that the entire world would come to know him and love him. That is what we are to be about in this generation and for generations to come; anything less than that would truly be a vanity.
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