"Living Under the Son"

Our United States is filled with many "motivational speakers" – people who are successful and dynamic, people who can hold an audience’s attention with their stories. There are people out there who can sell ice cubes to Eskimos. There are new motivational books on the shelves of the bookstores all the time.

On the other hand, you could easily look at the book of Ecclesiastes as a very pessimistically written document. Some might even look at it like the diary of a post-modern, depressed existentialist. The fact of the matter is, we really don’t know for sure who wrote the book of Ecclesiastes or just exactly why.

The general consensus is that it is a forty minute speech by King Solomon. We know that Solomon was teacher of Israel, the wisest and most successful king of his day. Solomon had literally "written the book" on wisdom and had built up Jerusalem and the temple into one of the wonders of the ancient world.

Maybe toward the end of his life, some of his nobles and leaders wanted some kind of motivational speech from him – something that would give them energy and direction in the coming years. Instead, they got Ecclesiastes.

Out text begins this morning "Vanity of vanities, says the teacher (preacher). All is vanity." The key word in those phrases is the Hebrew word that literally means "vapor" or "breath." Many translations use the word "vanity." The NIV translates it as "meaningless," because "vanity" has a connotation of self-centeredness and pride that the Hebrew does not imply.

So for the purposes of our meditation this morning, let us also use the word "meaningless." "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless. Everything is meaningless."

Luther teaches in his definition of the 6^th petition of the Lord’s Prayer, for us to pray that "God would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our sinful nature may not deceive us and lead us in to false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice." The obvious problem in the heart of the writer of Ecclesiastes is despair.

The Teacher has determined that nothing in this life, in this world "under the sun" is worth striving for. Pleasure, riches, success, buildings, hard work, and even wisdom are all meaningless in the end, because generations come and go. Death comes, and you leave behind whatever you accomplished, and the next generation probably won’t value it anyway.

On top of that, the next generation will pass away too, so it’s all meaningless. Throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, there are allusions to the fall of man and its consequences on humanity. The Teacher is struggling with what psychologist Eric Erickson called "Integrity vs. Despair," and it’s obvious which side is winning.

For six chapters, for about 20 minutes, Solomon goes on with example after example of the meaninglessness of "life under the sun." He even alludes to how even his writings in Proverbs about the importance of wisdom are meaningless.

How much of what we spend our time on each day is meaningless? I spent much of Monday morning and a little time Tuesday morning working on a sermon that on Wednesday morning I deleted. Completely. Entirely. Almost four full pages. Why? Because it was so bad, it was stinking up the hard drive of my computer. Was that all wasted time? I guess that depends on whether or not this sermon ends up being more of what most of you needed to hear today.

How much time do we spend that is truly and ultimately wasted? Are there not hours spent each week that we could have spent better? Could we have spent a little more time in the Word and a little less in front of the TV? Could we have shared the Good News instead of the latest gossip? Don’t take what I’ve said wrong, because things faithfully pursued or honestly recreative are - with the right motivation - just fine.

The point I am trying to make is that many people in our culture readily admit that they struggle with meaninglessness. But few will admit they are struggling with sinfulness. Maybe dealing with the despair of those around us is a way we can reach out to the lost.

Our world is filled with individuals who hunger for something more. They know something more exists, they just don’t know how to get there. It has been said and even written that more unreached people are alive today than any other time in church history, yet not too many Christians invite others to journey

We all have a story to tell. Solomon tells his in the book of Ecclesiastes. He tells about all that was his, all that he did and accomplished. But Solomon lost his focus. He let the world and his idol worshipping wives and concubines and his wealth and power and his earthly wisdom lead him away from the God that had given him everything.

In the last few verses of our text, Solomon begins to allude to what is meaningful. He figures out where he has gone wrong. He begins to acknowledge that what he has is from the hand of God. He writes that for 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.

He expands that theme in the last few verses of Ecclesiastes chapter 12, where he writes; "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil."

There are many ways of telling our own story. There are different ways of helping people see what Jesus did for them.

A pastor was doing a sermon that focused on "Loving the Lord with all your strength." During his message, and artist systematically developed a highlighted background on canvas. Gradually, a wooden cross with the outline of a human form was revealed. As the message reiterated the implications of loving God with all one’s strength, the artist revealed one hand of the image holding tightly to one side of the cross.

At the last moment, the painting was completed, with the victim’s other arm flexing in a display of muscular strength. The painting prompted the people who heard the message and saw the work of art to reflect on the fact that even though Christ’s hands were nailed to the cross, it wasn’t the nails that held him there. Christ’s sacrificial death was not that of a victim at all. His death was the ultimate display of His will to love US with all his strength.

The point of that story is not to make you think you can’t relate the love God has for his creation unless you can paint. You don’t have to be artistic to tell others about Jesus. Not everyone can paint or dance or play a musical instrument. But we are all creative. It seems like sometimes we forget that God created us to do good. It seems like we don’t understand that our greatest capacity is to honor God by living the way we were designed and using the gifts he gave us.

As people sent by God into His world and empowered by the Holy Spirit to share the Good News of grace and hope, we have to forge our way into this world, abandon our comfort zones, and remember God’s promises that He will be with us.

There are many Christ-centered responses to what people perceive as meaningless. One is right there in the first verse of our Epistle lesson. "Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God." Our Gospel lesson has a warning to those who lay up treasure for themselves and are not rich toward God.

I know I’m preaching to the choir when I say what I’m about to say. Everyone wants this congregation to grow. We want this church we love to be here for generations of God’s people. If you think you are frustrated by the general lack of interest, by the luke-warmness of those who only darken the door occasionally, well then you ought to see it from my point of view.

I admit, I’m not the most eloquent or powerful, preacher that ever graced this pulpit. I’m certainly not being pestered by corporate head-hunters looking for a gifted motivational speaker or other congregations who have heard about this preacher who is filling the pews every Sunday. But I’m here, doing what I can with the gifts I have.

Maybe you have shared your faith with at least a couple of people, maybe more. Maybe you have left your comfort zone, only to experience rejection or worse. Well let me remind each of you, as I remind myself, of Paul’s words in his first letter to the Corinthians chapter 15, the last part of verse 58; "Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

Christ’s resurrection and our promised resurrections take all the meaninglessness of this world under the S-U-N and turn it on its head. Our Christian vocations are God-pleasing and never in vain. In fact, they are good works He has prepared in advance for us to do. Living under the S-O-N gives our lives and our work in Him the only true meaning. Amen.