Of Foolishness and Faith
Rev. Richard A. Bolland

Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:18-26
(August 15, 2004 Sermon Transcript)

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        Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

        The text on which our meditation is based in found from the Old Testament reading from Ecclesiastes. Let me refresh your memories.

        An awful lot of people move to places like Pagosa Springs to get away from their hectic pace of life they have been enduring in places like Los Angeles and Houston. And they arrive here only to discover that, while they have managed to transfer their location, they have not transferred their personality. And so, oftentimes, when people relocate to scenic, wonderful places like we are blessed to live in, they find that, indeed, they bring with them the same attitudes and same stress and the same work ethic and the same values that led to their sense that they were caught in a rat-race from which they could not extract themselves.

        And so, we see that we have bought into the world’s definition of success. That we have, unfortunately, done that which is not helpful to us. In buying into the world’s rubric that says that this is what constitutes success in life, this is what constitutes meaning in life, this is what constitutes success in life, all of us our subject to this kind of influence. We are told often, and most likely believe, that all we have to do to find contentment and purpose and meaning in life, is to work, work, work, to think sharper, indeed to invest more wisely, to become more efficiently operative, to strive harder, to plan better, to sacrifice more, to risk more, to have never a day off, to indeed more hours to the workday so that we work more and more and more so that we acquire more and more and to achieve greater and greater things! Indeed, we should travel more in search of more business, and scratch the right backs, and oh yeah, save more!

        And then, we die.

        <pause>

        And then, we die.

        Or worse, we live long enough to see our kids get all the stuff we worked so hard for only to completely make a botch of it. And we see the demise of everything that we thought was so precious.

        Dear friends, today’s Old Testament reading, the wisest man in the history of the world save Jesus Christ Himself, Solomon, tells us the hard-edged truth for our constant striving for so-called success under the rubrics of this world’s recipe for achieving so-called happiness. If we seek, through our constant striving and achieving, to obtain the world’s definition of success, then we will have to echo the words that Solomon uses here when he says, "All of it means nothing."

        Rather, if we listen to what he says in the last verses, that we will ultimately then find that a life that is pleasing to God is the only real joy in life. And indeed, a life which is pleasing to God is the only way in which all that we have, and all that we possess, and all that we are can even have any meaning. And therefore find the contentment we have sought for so long. And so often in vain.

        Solomon the wise tells us that our constant striving for acclaim and fortune is utter madness. The old King James Version always said, "Vanity, vanity, vanity! All is vanity!" Vanity also of course needs an explanation. And that is that it is "Emptiness, emptiness! Everything is emptiness!" Without content. In the end Solomon ways we will end up literally hating all the fruit of our labor, acquired (listen carefully to the next phrase) under the sun.

        If you read the book of Ecclesiastes, which is mercifully short, you will quickly read the phrase under the sun over and over and over again. Indeed, it appears four times in this very brief passage. And it is the key to understanding what Solomon is telling us. For to live life under the sun is to live life not above the sun. It is to have an earthly perspective, to do what the world thinks is right. It is to achieve what the world says to achieve, it is to look at the world without the eyes of faith. So, then, everything indeed does then become meaningless.

        I’ll tell you of German industrialist Fredrick Flick, who, during World War Two, amassed a fortune of 1.2 billion dollars, back in the days when a billion dollars was really a lot of money. And what’s more, he worked very hard to achieve that success. But let me tell you the price he paid to achieve it. He dedicated himself wholly to his work. So much so, that on the day his wife was buried he was back at his desk at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, and late into the evening. He completely failed to be able to function in any way, with a relationship with his family. He made his fortunes on the opportunities which were presented to him under the Nazi regime. And finally, in 1947, he was convicted of crimes against humanity, for he used forced labor-camp labor in order to achieve his success. And then, finally, his fortune was completely squandered by his family relatives, who despised him.

        Let it be known that indeed we may work, and we may achieve, and we may have all that the world says is good and right and completely fail to find either happiness, contentment, or be found pleasing in the eyes of God.

        It seems that, finally, death is the trump card, if you will. It brings to an end all human achievement done from the perspective of the earth’s definition of success done under the sun. And so, to live a life under the sun is to find no purpose. Is ultimately to see no function. And is emptiness.

        To live a life which is full of mean and purpose, is to live a life pleasing to God with an above-the-sun perspective. That is, to see things as one who is created and redeemed by God. There and there alone can we find a perspective in which to place all that we have in this life, and all that we are.

        Life under the sun simply ends in despair. Because we only live for ourselves. That is the hallmark of life under the sun. Our personal relationships can end up as a heap of discarded pain, when the vaunted goal of personal achievement turns out to be the highest good we seek in our lives.

        There is a CEO of a multi-national corporation, who is now retired, who had a sign hanging in his office, and it is a telling one. The sign said simply, "There is no success in life which can make up for failure in the home."

        How many marriages, dear friends, are on the scrap heap because careers took precedence over one’s premier calling, to be a husband? How many children end up estranged from their parents because everything else seemed more important to them than they were? How many days do we spend taking tranquilizers and sleeping pills, just to make sure that we can sleep through the night? And do our insides know only a steady diet of antacids and other over-the-counter drugs, so that we can make our meals finally be settled in our stressful lives?

        When people stand before our open graves, will it matter whether we were a truck driver, a homemaker, or a Chief Executive Officer of a multinational corporation? I would suggest that it will not.

        All that we have done and accomplished finally comes down to this pit in the ground. And if all we do is live life under the sun, the only thing we can say is, "So what?"

        Perhaps Solomon himself is reflecting on the collapse of his father’s house. His father, David, which ended up being a family full of treachery, and betrayal, and murder. Or perhaps, these words from Ecclesiastes, penned at the end of Solomon’s life, the old wise king probably already saw the seeds of dissolution coming upon his own house through his own son, Rehoboam.

        No, God gives Solomon, in the midst of all this despair about life under the sun, some real flashes of divine insight. The last two verses of this text, and thank God he shares them with us, because if it were not for those last two verses, this would be a really depressing sermon.

        There is nothing inherently in man that allows us to exact enjoyment in the things we own or the things we do. Let me say that again. There is nothing inherently in man that allows us to exact enjoyment in the things we own or the things we do. This is because we are by nature sinful and unclean. It is, as we confessed ourselves to be, people who are, by their human nature, totally corrupt. And it is demonstrated in that corruption by turning every blessing we have received from God as though we had earned it and deserved it by our own strength and merit, rather than seeing it as a divine gift from the loving hands of a merciful God.

        Therefore, even with our children, and teenagers, and even with ourselves, let it be known that there is always a deep longing for more than we have. And that too is a mark of our sinful nature.

        John D. Rockefeller, once the richest man in the world, at the peak of his power earned more than one million dollars a day! However, he had health problems, and his doctors put him on a 1000 calorie a day diet. So the richest man in the world ended every meal always hungry. Always wanting more. Likewise, and in the same way, whether it is money or goods, or positions or relationships, nothing will ever, ever satisfy our sinful human nature’s lust for more of what we want. There is never enough for our sinful nature.

        Now, the second flashing flash of divine insight is this. Enjoyment of life, meaning in life, and purpose for life, can only be known in living a life pleasing to God, and it can’t be found anyplace else. Enjoyment in life, meaning in life, purpose in life, can only be known in living a life pleasing to God. But how can that be? For we are sinful broken human beings, as we’ve already said, corrupt in our sinful nature and constantly seeking more than what God has provided us.

        I would suggest that there is one and only one way to achieve this. It is not by being better people. Not there is anything wrong with being good people, indeed, the law commands us to be good people. But it does so in such fashion that we can’t even begin to keep the law. We all have failed, every last one of us. So the law, and better behavior, is not the answer here.

        But rather, it is the one who keeps the law, whose name is Jesus Christ. For only by living in the shadow of the cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ, can we live a life that is pleasing to God. Here alone is rest for our sin-weary soul. Here alone is forgiveness for the sinful natures and our constant seeking over more and more, to turn every blessing into something that is insufficient.

        Here alone is the gateway to life that is lived to its fullest. Jesus said in John Chapter 10. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

        He’s not just talking about heaven! But He is also talking about this life. For eternal life is not something we await, but something that we presently have, by the grace of God, through the sacrifice, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is here, and here alone, in living life, knowing whose we are, and who has made us, who has redeemed us, and who has provided all the blessings we enjoy, that we can actually find that which we have been lusting after in vain. Contentment. Peace. Joy.

        Having been found then, in favor with God through Christ, through the shed blood of our Lord Jesus, we now know our purpose in life. And it is so incredibly simple. The purpose of life, the meaning of life, is simply being all that we are, and all the we have by God’s grace, to glorify Him.

        People would pay huge amounts of money, I suppose, if I put a sign out front that said, "Enter here and for $100,000 I’ll tell you the meaning and purpose of life!" Indeed, we find people traveling to the high mountains of the Himalayas to sit in front of gurus who know not the word of God, to find out the meaning of life. But God gives it to us freely, through His son, and through His word. He says, Glorify the One who made you with everything you are, and everything you do and everything that you have. Oh, and by the way, I will give you every ounce of strength and motivation to do it.

        Here then, friends, is contentment. It is contentment because that which God has provided us has been given to us by Him. We know the source of our blessings. Here then is gratitude because that which He has given is that which we need, and so we are grateful to have received it.

        And what’s more, here then is meaning given to life by Jesus Christ, because He is the crucified one, and He is the risen one. And all the blessings of eternal life and salvation and forgiveness of sins, and fellowship with God, is ours! And who could ask for more?

        Here is life lived above the sun, with a view to God. And a view to grace.

        So, how are you doing in the rat-race? Does it seem the rats are winning? I would suggest that they are not!

        Dear friends, discard the world’s view of success. It is not about whether you are working hard enough, or fast enough, or smart enough. It is about knowing who you are, and about serving Him, and about being content with that which He has provided.

        Dear friends, see and know the nailprints on the hands of Christ. When you leave the sanctuary today, you may look up at the stained glass at the rear of the church, and there see them if you wish (we have an audio-visual) and know that in those precious marks, lies all that Christ has suffered, lies all that He has brought to you, lies all that He has given to you. And live! Live, by the blood of Christ! Know the joy of being in Christ! In Jesus’ name, Amen.