Sermon Tone Analysis

*Wisdom for the Good Life, III (Inscription 45)*

*Ecclesiastes: The Good Life is Meaningless*

*/March 6, 2011/*

 

* *

*Prep: *

·         146

·         Listen to “Imagine”

 

 

*Greeting and communication card*

* *

·         Lent

·         Membership Class

* *

* *

*Prayer*

* *

*Scripture reading: Eccl 1:1-8a (michael Pompeo)*

 

Intro

 

Q   Have you ever read Eccl?

 

Isn’t it amazingly *depressing*?

It’s like the Bible’s *emo* *book*.

It’s the *existential* musings of “The Teacher,” as NIV translates it.

But it’s almost like a title, so a lot of translations just use the Hebrew: *Qoheleth*.

·         That’s what I am going to do, because it *sounds* really *smart*, and now you can sound smart too.

Who is Qoheleth?

He never identifies himself, but he sounds a lot like King *Solomon*, the richest and wisest man, but a man who compromised his *integrity* and didn’t have a whole heart for God.

 

·         I like to think of him as *Marvin* in “*Hitchhiker’s* *Guide* to the Galaxy.”

Practical philosophy

 

Eccl is a highly philosophical book, and this sermon is likewise philosophical.

At its best, *philosophy* changes how you *view* the *world*, which *changes* *how* you *live*.

·         We’ll I’m giving an *abstract* concept and then showing how it *applies* to everyday life.

Eccl plays a very important role in the Bible; like Job it *balances* “The Good Life” perspective that we find in the Bible up to this point.

Q   Remember how I *defined* the Good Life a couple of weeks ago?

 

·         “By *obeying* *God* we may have the *most* *happiness* possible in this life without being *distracted* from the *next*.”

Eccl tells us what happens when we only seek *happiness* in *this* *life*, and completely ignore the next.

It is the *worst* *case* scenario – what happens when you have everything in this life, but nothing in the next.

·         Rather than *telling* us, it shows us as we *listen* to that man.

Imagine there is no Heaven

 

Another way that Eccl is like Job (other than being depressing) is that they both *record* and *invite* us to examine teachings that are *not* *completely* God’s teachings.

In fact, Eccl had a hard time being accepted into the Bible because its teachings seem to *contradict* the *Bible*.

But God kept it in because it *true*, from a *perspective*:

 

Qoheleth basically speaks as if there is *no* *afterlife*.

There are some hints and references to it, but on the whole he is very *ambiguous* about the afterlife, there may or may not be a Heaven or Hell, but as far as we can tell, this is all there is.

·         In the *modern* *age*, this is becoming an increasingly popular perspective, making Eccl more applicable than ever:

 

/Imagine there’s no Heaven \\ It’s easy if you try \\ No hell below us \\ Above us only sky \\ Imagine all the people \\ Living for today/

     Imagine, John Lennon

 

Qoheleth is saying, “I can imagine it, and it is meaningless.”

Here is a bleaker approach, from the late *Bertrand* *Russell*, an atheist and a modern Teacher in the tradition of Eccl:

 

[Our ideals are that man’s] origin, his *growth*, his *hopes* and *fears*, his *loves* and his *beliefs*, are but the outcome of *accidental* *collocations* of *atoms*; that no *fire*, no *heroism*, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life *beyond* the *grave*;

 

That all the *labours* of the ages, all the *devotion*, all the *inspiration*, all the *noonday* *brightness* of human genius, are destined to *extinction *in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins...

Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of *unyielding* *despair*, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built.

(/A Free Man’s Worship/ by Bertrand Russell, paragraph 5)

 

In my mind, this is the *modern* *equivalent* of Eccl; they both try to set up a *workable* *system* without the hope of an afterlife.

The difference is that Qoheleth is more intellectually honest.

Russell *pretends* that *meaning* can still be found within the “*unyielding* *despair*,” but Qoheleth has no such illusions.

His philosophy is enjoy this life as much as you can, but it is *still* *meaningless*.

*Ecclesiastes 5:18 * Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him – for this is his lot.

·         But it in the end, he says, it is all still meaningless.

As a vapor

 

Let’s talk about “meaningless;” it’s the key to the whole book.

That’s not necessarily the best translation (also translated, *pointless*, *vanity*, *futility*).

Hebrew is a very concrete language; the word is /nebel/, literally “*vapor*,” like a little bit of smoke that comes and goes.

·         I like Mark *Driscoll’s* translation – blowing a raspberry.

Here’s the big idea: These things *aren’t* *bad*, but *temporary*, like the fog, they will burn away very quickly.

“You are a *mist* that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”

(James 4:14)

 

Qoheleth is cursed with a *clarity* ( as we will read, “My mind still guided me with wisdom”) and in the midst of having fun, he knew that it is *temporary*, that no matter what he did, what he accumulated, he would be dead soon, and it wouldn’t matter.

Q   Have *you* ever *felt* this?

Q   Have you ever felt your life is just one big hamster wheel?

We get up, run through our *routine*, then go back to bed, and get up and do it again.

And at the end, we die, they put us in a box, and then we are *forgotten* about.

·         The *most* *famous* will be forgotten when humanity dies out; every trace will disappear as the *universe* *collapses*.

Pursuit of happiness

 

Faced with this, *Qoheleth* asks, “If there is *nothing* *beyond* the *grave*, how can we find *happiness*?”

*Money*?

*Power*?

*Possessions*?

A *career*?

Listen as he talks about what he pursued, and see if any of it sounds familiar.

*Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 *I thought in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.”

But that also proved to be meaningless.

2 “Laughter,” I said, “is foolish.

And what does pleasure accomplish?”

He has fun, but it’s *temporary*.

3 I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly-- my mind still guiding me with wisdom.

He tried *drinking* his problems away.

Nothing new there!

I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.

4 I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards.

5 I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.

6 I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees.

A flourishing *career*, ambitious building *projects*, great accomplishments.

7 I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house.

I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me.

8 I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces.

*Wealth* beyond imagination.

I acquired men and women singers,

 

This was their equivalent of an in-home *surround* *sound* *movie* theater, fully staffed.

and a harem as well-- the delights of the heart of man.

Um, another form of *entertainment*.

But perhaps sex and pornography is the most *common* form of *distraction*.

 

  9 ¶ I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me.

In all this my wisdom stayed with me.  10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure.

My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.

Anything and everything he wanted, he had.

Q   How often have *you* thought “If I only had *this*, I would be happy”?

He had all, he had the means to get *everything* he wanted.