Sunday Sermon, November 25, Ecclesiates 3:1-22

November 25, 2008

First Church of the Brethren

H. Kevin Derr

Ecclesiastes 3:1-22     

“A Time for Everything”

                  

¹ There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

    ² a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

    ³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

    ⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

    ⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

    ⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

    ⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

    ⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

    ⁹ What do workers gain from their toil? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. ¹² I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. ¹³ That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. ¹⁴ I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

    ¹⁵ Whatever is has already been,
and what will be has been before;
and God will call the past to account.

    ¹⁶ And I saw something else under the sun:
In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,
in the place of justice—wickedness was there.

    ¹⁷ I said to myself,
“God will bring into judgment
both the righteous and the wicked,
for there will be a time for every activity,
a time to judge every deed.”

    ¹⁸ I also said to myself, “As for human beings, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. ¹⁹ Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. ²⁰ All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. ²¹ Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”

    ²² So I saw that there is nothing better for people than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?

Prayer

I.                   Ecclesiastes reflects some common ideas that we see in the Scriptures, one that comes into focus here is that of a sense of order, and a time that is appropriate for the various activities of life.  We see the idea of order emerge in Genesis in the creation, God brings order out of Chaos.  Paul will later tell us that God is a God of order not disorder.  This idea of an appropriate time and season for all the activities of life is echoed here by Ecclesiastes.

a.      Here in the third chapter, we find the controlling thought expressed clearly in the first verse, he writes, ¹There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

                                                              i.      The world that God has created also includes a time and a place for all the activities of humanity.  There are times and places were some activities and behaviors are fine, but others that are not appropriate.

1.      It is not to necessarily suggest that some of these things are evil, just that there is an appropriate time and place.

2.      That is not to say that all behavior is fine, it just needs the appropriate time and place.

a.       This is not an uncommon idea in the ancient world, for example Aristotle said that there is no appropriate time and place for adultery.  It is wrong.

b.      This is also true in the Scriptures, Solomon is not saying that there is a time that is right for adultery.

                                                            ii.      He does say ²a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,

1.      A time for beginnings and endings, a time to plant and a time to uproot, likely a reference to trees or vineyards, but that is not the issue at hand.  All things come to an end.  People, plants, animals, we all come to and end.

2.      There is a beginning point and an ending point, this is true of all of creation, from the whole of the universe, to the smallest gain of sand.

                                                          iii.      Ecclesiastes goes on to give us a much bigger sense of this movement in life.  He says, ³a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

1.      This may be understood in different ways, but following the agricultural theme, a time to kill animals that are wounded, and a time to heal them.

2.      There are times to tear down our buildings and time to build new ones.  There are beginnings and endings to all we know.

                                                           iv.      There are times for tears and laughter, dancing and sitting with those who have lost loved ones.  ⁴a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,

1.      There are times and places for these activities, a time to mourn a reference to death, and a time to dance, a reference to birth.

2.      weeping and laughing, events of life we know all to well.  Each is fine in its context, in the right place and time.

                                                            v.      This line of thinking continues, ⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,  a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

1.      gathering and scattering stones, building and tearing down.

2.      A time for marriage and a time for abstinence

                                                           vi.      Ecclesiastes is clearly taking us to a very specific place with this line of thinking, he is not specifically address the activities themselves their value or righteousness, but he is taking us to a specific destination.  He continues  

1.       ⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,                       ⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,                                              a time to be silent and a time to speak,                        ⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

2.      So where is he taking us?

II.                Here it is, here is our destination. 

    ⁹ What do workers gain from their toil? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. ¹² I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. ¹³ That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. ¹⁴ I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

a.       What do workers gain from their toil?  What do we get from all our work?  What comes of it?  That is the question of Ecclesiastes.

                                                              i.      He says he has seen the burden that God has laid on all humanity, to work and toil for our food, an echo of the curse from Genesis 1

                                                            ii.      But then there is a shift, he says “God has made everything beautiful in its time.” 

1.      There is a fundamental beauty to life and all of creation, that is not to say that it is without difficulty, he already mentioned the cruse, the result of the fall.

2.      But, even with that burden, there is beauty, this is a gift from God.

3.      He also tells us that God has set eternity in the human heart.

a.       We realize that there is more to the universe than just ourselves, we understand that time goes well beyond the short span of our days

b.      We comprehend that there is more than just what we see

c.       Yet, even though creation hints to the reality of the creator, though our  hearts and minds attempt to grasp that there is more, we still do not understand God, nor what God has done from the beginning of time to the end of time.

                                                          iii.      Then he says,. ¹² I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. ¹³ That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God

1.      What is good for people?  To be happy and do good, to be righteous.

2.      To eat and drink  and find enjoyment in their work these things are to be seen as a gift from God.

3.      This is dependable, because the universe that God created will endure, we cannot add to or take away from, and God had done this so that we will fear him, that we will know  him and be in relationship with him.

III.             We then move into a restatement of some things we have been over, but then it is expanded, Ecclesiastes says,

     ¹⁵ Whatever is has already been,
            and what will be has been before;
            and God will call the past to account.

    ¹⁶ And I saw something else under the sun:
                 In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,
                 in the place of justice—wickedness was there.

    ¹⁷ I said to myself,
“God will bring into judgment
both the righteous and the wicked,
for there will be a time for every activity,
a time to judge every deed.”

a.       Whatever is has been, what will be was already, here is the change, God will judge what has been done and what will be done.

b.      Then Ecclesiastes notes what he has seen, wickedness.

                                                              i.      In the place of Judgment, wickedness, corruption in those who judge and oversee people

                                                            ii.      In the place where there should be the granting of justice, wickedness, corruption, and favoritism

                                                          iii.      Then he comes to this realization, God will judge what humans do under the sun.

1.      The righteous and the wicked will be examined by the Lord God.

2.      Just as there as been time and place for all that humanity does under the sun, so too will God take time to see that every activity, every deed is considered.

3.      Here will be the realization of the wise and the foolish, the righteous and the wicked, while death may face both, there will be an accounting to God for foolishness, for sinfulness and for wickedness.

IV.              Now He pushes us just a little further, Ecclesiastes writes, ¹⁸ I also said to myself, “As for human beings, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. ¹⁹ Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. ²⁰ All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. ²¹ Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”

a.       God tests us so that we may see we are like the animals.

                                                              i.      How are we like the animals, sometimes in our behavior

                                                            ii.      But all the time in that like they draw their last breath so will we.

                                                          iii.      We are both formed from the dust and return to the dust.

1.      We have the same breath, in this we have no advantage over animals.

2.      We are all bound to breath our last, to return to the earth.

b.      Then he asks the question that so much of humanity asks, What happens after we die.  Is there life or isn’t there beyond the last breath?

                                                              i.      We of course have the assurance of Jesus that for those who believe in him, death is not an issue,.  If you would consider how often this topic emerges in popular culture.

                                                            ii.      Ecclesiastes was addressing the same question in his day, what happens when we die?

c.       At the end of the day, he says, ²² So I saw that there is nothing better for people than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?

                                                              i.      Here is the best hope for those who do not know Christ Jesus, to simply be able to enjoy their work, because work is their lot.

1.      Who can convince them that there is something more?

2.      Who can change the mind of the man or woman who refuses to see that Jesus is the Christ.

                                                            ii.      Yet, for you and I there is more to life, there is genuine life, Jesus said it this way: ⁷ Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸ All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. ⁹ I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. ^[a] They will come in and go out, and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

1.      Those who are not the Messiah, those who are not pointing to the Messiah, are thieves robbers and are not here for the benefit of the people of God.

2.      Jesus is the Shepherd, the gate, the way we come to life.

a.       The thief comes to steal and destroy

b.      But the shepherd, Jesus comes to bring life, life to the full or abundantly.

c.       While Ecclesiastes hints at this coming revelation, he did not fully understand what he was point us too, yet he none the less points us to life that will be abundant, more than just a chasing after the wind, more than just another beginning and ending point.

d.      He directs us toward Jesus the Christ.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Sermon, November 18, 2007 Ecclesiastes 2:12-26

November 18, 2007

First Church of the Brethren

H. Kevin Derr

Ecclesiastes 2:12-26

“Wisdom and Folly are Meaningless”

 

¹² Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom,
and also madness and folly.
What more can the king’s successor do
than what has already been done?

¹³ I saw that wisdom is better than folly,
just as light is better than darkness.

¹⁴ The wise have eyes in their heads,
while fools walk in the darkness;
but I came to realize
that the same fate overtakes them both.

¹⁵ Then I said to myself,
“The fate of the fool will overtake me also.
What then do I gain by being wise?”
I said to myself, “This too is meaningless.”

¹⁶ For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered;
the days have already come when both have been forgotten.
Like the fool, the wise too must die!

¹⁷ So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. ¹⁸ I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. ¹⁹ And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. ²⁰ So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. ²¹ For people may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to others who have not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. ²² What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? ²³ All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.

²⁴ People can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, ²⁵ for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? ²⁶ To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Prayer

I. Wisdom and folly or madness, an inquiry of a king.

a. Ecclesiastes writes, ¹² Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom, and also madness and folly.
What more can the king’s successor do than what has already been done?

b. Ecclesiastes explores wisdom and folly, wisdom and madness. His comment as to why he does this seem rather odd, “What more can the king’s successor do than what has already been done?”

i. It does make one wonder what he is saying here, “The previous king did all that was worth doing. He defeated the enemies, he gathered all that was needed for the temple, he was a man after God’s own heart. What is left to do?

ii. He could build the temple, but it wasn’t his project, it was really his dad’s.

iii. He is looking for a way to define who he is as king in Jerusalem.

iv. So, he explores human nature, wisdom, folly and madness.

c. Here is the conclusion drawn from his experience, from his learning he tells us, ¹³ I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness.

i. His insight does not startle us nor does it shock us, it is one that makes a great deal of sense, wisdom is better than folly. Knowledge is better than ignorance, light is better then darkness.

1. You will often find light and darkness as a way of saying wisdom is better than follow, knowledge is better than ignorance.

2. It is likely the case here as well.

ii. He has established for us a standard, Wisdom is better than folly.

iii. Ecclesiastes comes to another conclusion that is just as profound. ¹⁴ The wise have eyes in their heads,
while fools walk in the darkness;
but I came to realize
that the same fate overtakes them both.

1. The wise see, they understand, they walk in the light, the fools, they walk in darkness, they have no ability to see and understand. It is better to be wise than foolish.

2. Here is the problem, the same fate overtakes them both.

3. He then elaborates on this realization: the wise and the fool both have the same fate. He says, ¹⁵ Then I said to myself,
“The fate of the fool will overtake me also.
What then do I gain by being wise?”
I said to myself, “This too is meaningless.”

a. Ecclesiastes says, that the fate of the fool will overtake him has well.

i. The question is then is the fate of the fool.

ii. What is the benefit of wisdom if the fate of the fool will also overtake the wise?

iii. So, the outcome, the fate of both renders all of wisdom and folly to meaninglessness.

b. Here is the fate of the wise and the fool. ¹⁶ For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered;
the days have already come when both have been forgotten. Like the fool, the wise too must die!

i. Ecclesiastes states the obvious at this point, the wise and the fool will quickly be forgotten. There will come a day when no one will remember either of them.

ii. Like the fool, the wise too must die. This is the fate of all of humanity, death.

1. No matter how wise we are, no matter how foolish we cannot escape the reality of what is waiting for us all

2. Death will come, we will be mourned, and eventually forgotten.

II. The realization that Ecclesiastes comes to is not one that brought him comfort and joy. Rather it seemed to him to reduce life to meaninglessness, a chasing after the wind. He says, ¹⁷ So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. ¹⁸ I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.

a. He says, “So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me.

i. The reality of the end of all humans became a weight on his heart.

ii. He lost the joy he had found in his work and in his toil, it became a burden.

1. Worse than a burden it became meaningless to him, like a chasing after the wind.

2. He hated all that he had worked and toiled for, because he would leave them to someone who comes after him, someone who had not worked for these things, someone who may not use them well.

b. Why be wise and work hard only to leave it to someone else to waste and squander. Ecclesiastes says, ¹⁹ And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. ²⁰ So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun.

i. Will the one who takes over your life, your possessions will they be as wise and prudent as you were, will they respect the work and the toil and the wisdom required to put this inheritance together?

ii. He says, I began to despair over all my labor under the sun. What had brought joy and reward is now bringing despair.

iii. ²¹ For people may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to others who have not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.

1. An inheritance was an essential part of what was passed on from a father to a son in the ancient Jewish world, a father who did not leave an inheritance for his son was seen as a poor father, a foolish man. Fathers would scrimp and save, work endlessly to leave a respectable inheritance for a son, but would that mean that the son would appreciate his father’s sacrifices.

2. So someone may labor with wisdom, knowledge, sill and then leave them to those who do not appreciate it at all.

a. He says that, “’This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.”

b. It calls into question those things we strive after, those things we seek with all our might, that may not be life-giving, but rather toilsome.

3. What comes of our great plans and ambitions? Ecclesiastes says, ²² What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? ²³ All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.

a. What do we get for all our labor under the sun?

i. Days of work and grief and pain.

ii. And sleepless nights

iii. This too is meaningless

b. So what comes of the rat race, beside tired rats, nothing that lasts.

III. Now listen to Ecclesiastes, he gives us some sound advise in the midst of what may seem like a storm of chasing after the wind. He says, ²⁴ People can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, ²⁵ for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?

a. What is there under the sun that is worthwhile?

i. Ecclesiastes says, There is nothing better than to eat and drink and be find satisfaction in your toil. This is from the hand of God.

1. These are simple things, eating and drinking

2. Honest work

3. finding enjoyment in them is to be seen as a gift from the hand of God. They are not meaningless, but rather good gifts from God.

ii. It is not in building empires, amassing vast fortunes, conquering the world, or industry or some endless pursuit, but rather simple things. Eating and drinking with your family, enjoying you work and sleeping well at the end of the day. No one can find contentment without God, for this is a gift from his hand.

iii. It is a startling shift in his comments, but it is centered in seeing both our work and our contentment as being gifts from God.

b. He continues, ²⁶ To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

i. To the person who pleases God, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, in other words he gives this to the righteous.

ii. To the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth, only to hand it over to the one who pleases God.

1. In the end seeking anything other than righteousness ends up in chasing after the wind, in meaninglessness.

2. The only place to find meaning, is in seeking after his kingdom and his righteousness, so that all these things may be added to them as well.

Sunday Sermon, November 11, 2007

November 11, 2007

First Church of the Brethren

H. Kevin Derr

Ecclesiastes 2:1-11

“Pleasures are Meaningless”

 

  ¹ I said to myself, “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 madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?” ³ I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens 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. 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. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem as well—the delights of a man’s heart. 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 labor,
and this was the reward for all my toil.

    ¹¹ Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
nothing was gained under the sun.

 

There is so much that our culture tells us to seek: Youth, Possessions, Sex, Toys, Power, Money, Fame, and whatever is presently in fashion.  Yet, what is the point of it all?  What do we actually get from seeking these things the culture tells us are going to make us happy, content, and desirable?

            We find nothing but futility.  The fashions change quickly, what was cool today will be un-cool tomorrow.  If we set our sights on these constantly changing goals of happiness as dictated by our culture we will find that we are not happier but in reality more and more miserable, because the shifting goals did not bring the pleasure, the joy, the happiness that the advertisements promised.  They never will.

 

 

 

Prayer

 

 

 

I.                   The second chapter of Ecclesiastes takes us further down the same path that the first chapter brought us.  In this it serves to build to the point of making clear the Author’s intent.

a.       Ecclesiastes writes, ¹I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless.

                                                              i.      It would seem that toil, education ultimately proved to be futile in their own right, what about other things under the sun.

                                                            ii.      Here specifically Ecclesiastes explores “Pleasure”

1.      This is a broad category, and one that will contain many differing possibilities.

2.      Yet, his conclusion of the exploration of pleasure is this, it too is meaningless.

b.      So, what ways can we talk about pleasure?  Ecclesiastes chooses, the following:  ²“Laughter,” I said, “is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?

                                                              i.      Laughter is good for the soul, a cheerful heart affects the countenance, but what will laughing do for us?  In the end, the joke is over, the moment passes, the memory fades, the end of it is pointless, meaningless, useless, futile.  Ecclesiastes calls it madness.

1.      Laughter will not make the eternal difference, it will not enable us to embrace life.

2.      Jesus said, it is out of the overflow of the heart that the mouth speaks, and if folly is what comes from our mouths, it tells us quickly what is in our hearts.

                                                            ii.      His question is rather pointed, “And what does pleasure accomplish?”

1.      What is its intrinsic value?

2.      What good does it ultimately accomplish?

3.      Our culture is so obsessed with pleasure, we have elevated it to a virtue, but what good does it actually do us?  What good bring to our culture, this obsession do us?

c.       Ecclesiastes exploration of pleasure takes him to wine.  He writes, ³ I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.

                                                              i.      He tried to cheer himself with wine, a still common idea, to alter our attitudes with drugs, be that alcohol or some illegal drug, or legal drug.  When we seek to entertain and amuse ourselves this way, what does it accomplish for us?

1.      Addiction

2.      Depression

3.      Family problems

4.      Financial problems

                                                            ii.      He says, I tried embracing folly, doing foolish things.  What does the foolishness of our culture do for us? 

                                                          iii.      He also tells us that while following this exploration of pleasure, he was still guided by wisdom, something most people enamored with pleasure don’t have.

1.      He is not just doing this for the sake of doing this, but to find what is good for people to do with their lives.

2.      They, our days on earth, are short, and we don’t want them to be meaningless, futile a chasing after the wind.

II.                There are other ways to enjoy pleasure, and so Ecclesiastes explores them too, he says, ⁴I undertook great projects:

a.       What projects does he do?  This is what he says, 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. 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. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem as well—the delights of a man’s heart.

                                                              i.      I built: houses, vineyards, gardens, parks, orchards, reservoirs

                                                            ii.      He bought: slaves, male and female, and had slaves born in his household

                                                          iii.      He owned more herds and flocks than anyone else who lived in Jerusalem before him

                                                          iv.      He amassed silver and gold, treasure

                                                            v.      He had a harem, and singers

                                                          vi.      He says he had the delights of a man’s heart.

b.      By every account, he had been a very successful man, but what does he say at the end of all this?

                                                              i.      He says . ⁹ I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.

1.      I accomplished all of this, yet it did not master me.

a.       How often do we end up becoming slaves to our desires, to our goals and ambitions only to reach them and find that there is no reward in the achievement of this goal, this task, this dream.

b.      So, we set another, and are still not happy.

2.      Ecclesiastes says, “In all this my wisdom stayed with me.”

                                                            ii.      Now he moves to a poetic expression, recounting what had happened in his exploration of pleasure.

1.       He writes,

         ¹⁰ I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my labor,
and this was the reward for all my toil.

a.       What he saw and wanted, he did

b.      He refused himself no pleasure he wanted

c.       He even enjoyed the work, the tasks, the achieving of the goals he set, the projects he undertook

2.      Then he tells us of his reward in all this. He writes;

    ¹¹ Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
nothing was gained under the sun.

a.       In the end, when he looked at what he spent his time doing, at the work he had enjoyed, this was his summation.

b.      Everything was meaningless, a chasing after the sun, nothing was gained under the sun.

III.             A chasing after the wind.  This is the lot of humanity, no matter what we accomplish, sooner or later, it will be forgotten.

a.       You can work your hardest do your best, but in the end it is just a chasing after the wind.

                                                              i.      When we build our lives on the efforts of our hands, our dreams, our wants and our will it will ultimately be futile, a chasing after the wind.

                                                            ii.      Yet, there has to be more to live than futility, than vanity, than chasing after the wind, doesn’t there?

1.      In Matthew 7:24-27 we find these words about building our lives.  He says, ²⁴ “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. ²⁶ But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

2.      Those who want to live a life that is not meaningless, not futile, not a chasing after the wind, there is one place to turn.

a.       Jesus said if we build our lives on doing what he has taught us, the storms of life will not tear down the lives we build on him

b.      If we ignore him, if we hear and do not do what he calls us to be about, we will just continue chasing after the wind, living a futile attempt to find meaning and purpose.

c.       Meaning is not found in the many places our culture tells us to look, in cars and houses, in clothes and money, in getting more and more of what ever is in vogue. It will be meaningless.

d.      But when we seek after Jesus and his kingdom, we find life and meaning.  There is no other choice, no other option. Life is only found Christ Jesus, meaningful living is only found in Christ Jesus.

Church of the Brethren Leadership & Decline

The Church of the Brethren recently celebrated the 300 years since the first members with possible pain of death waded into the waters of baptism out of sheer obedience to the command of Jesus to be baptized. Eight people were baptized, eight people desired to live in radical obedience to the commands of Jesus.

The Church of the Brethren has shared much with the world, a unique gift of Anabaptism and Radical Pietism, but will the Church of the Brethren be here in another fifty years? I ask this question not as a criticism but as an honest one, ponder what will happen if the trends of the past four decades continue into the future. An 2001 Church of the Brethren News line article states: “The decrease, about 0.8 percent, brings the denomination’s total membership to 134,828. It is the smallest one-year decline in both number and percentage since 1997, when a net loss of 411 members was reported. The Church of the Brethren has not shown a net gain in membership since 1974, when it grew by 54 members. The overall downward trend, however, extends to the early 1960s.” The trends in the Church of the Brethren continue today in 2005, the membership of the church was reported at 129,340. So what is being done to counter these trends? There have been numerous Annual Conference decisions, statements and studies, but all have had little if any impact on these declining membership numbers. It would seem that one could find a person or persons on staff at the denominational level to address these issues. The Congregational Life Teams Webpage does include a few books on evangelism on their listing of congregational resources, but only a few. The Congregational Life Team members page does not indicate that anyone there is skilled, gifted or resourced to help churches with Evangelism or Church planting. The evangelism section of the General Board’s webpage does indicate a number of books, some rather current, others a bit dated, but it does not list persons in the denomination, on staff or otherwise with skills or gifts in this area. The New Church Development portion of the General Board webpage does display a committee, but does not indicate a denominational staff person who relates to this concern. There is also a listing for an upcoming training event for church planters. This is a bright spot! Yet, I am pressed to ask, how important is this to the denomination if there is no staff person set apart to work at a project of this magnitude? At the same time, it would seem another way to work at this would be to see that the training for pastoral leadership in the denomination would be if not versed, at least educated in the basic ideas of evangelism, church renewal or church planting. Yet, when on considers the teaching faculty at Bethany Theological Seminary, the church of the Brethren Seminary, there is no faculty member who directly relates directly to these issues of evangelism and church planting. Now, this is by no means intended to diminish the esteemed faculty who do teach at Bethany, just indicating that there is no indicated to have expertise or training in this area. t seems to me that if this nearly four decade decline were a concern to the leadership of the denomination, we would see staff, faculty and money being used to support, staff, teach, encourage and train people to do the work of evangelism, church renewal and church planting. Rather it seems what we are doing is circling the wagons, working with issues of identity and history. And while these are clearly important and necessary areas of concern, does it matter if we are well versed in our history as we close the doors of our last church, in fact it may be a self-fulfilling prophecy, that we devote ourselves to history and identity only to become history ourselves.

Sunday Sermon Ecclesiastes 1:1-18

November 4, 2007

First Church of the Brethren

H. Kevin Derr

Ecclesiastes 1:1-18     

“Everything is Meaningless”

 

  ¹ The words of the Teacher, ^[a] son of David, king in Jerusalem:

    ² “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”

    ³ What does anyone gain from all their labors
at which they toil under the sun?

    ⁴ Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.

    ⁵ The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.

    ⁶ The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.

    ⁷ All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.

    ⁸ All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.

    ⁹ What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

    ¹⁰ Is there anything of which one can say,
“Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.

    ¹¹ There is no remembrance of people of old,
and even those who are yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow them.

    ¹² I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. ¹³ I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on the human race! ¹⁴ I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

    ¹⁵ What is crooked cannot be straightened;
what is lacking cannot be counted.

    ¹⁶ I said to myself, “Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” ¹⁷ Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

    ¹⁸ For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;
the more knowledge, the more grief.

We find here wisdom literature, part of what would have been known in Jesus days as a part of the writings.  It appears in our Bibles as poetic verses, much like the Psalms, at least at places.  At other points it is seen as a short narrative.  The whole of this is a collection of wisdom, insight and the musings of a person with spiritual maturity.

            It may well have been written by Solomon or one of his descendents who were on the throne in Jerusalem, or someone who knew the court at Jerusalem.  He identifies himself as the “Preacher” or the “Assembler” the one who gathers the people of God together.

            He is counted as a type of “Christ” or someone who points to what Jesus himself would do later.  He displays traits that are connected with the Messiah.  A well known type of the Christ is David, but there are numerous examples in the Old Testament.  One way the “Preacher” functions as a type of Christ is that he “assembles the people of God” for instruction, and secondly that he gives the people godly wisdom that they may live lives devoted to the King, the Living God.

 

 

Prayer:

 

 

 

 

 

I.                   Here we find the first words of the “Preacher”  ¹ The words of the Teacher, ^[a] son of David, king in Jerusalem:

a.       He identifies himself as the “Preacher” or “Teacher”

                                                              i.      He does not use his personal name but rather a title that at times also functioned as a first name.

                                                            ii.      He does give us some specifics, that he is a son of David, and the question is he the King in Jerusalem or is David the one who is King in Jerusalem?

1.      You can argue that the “Preacher” is not the king, but only if you haven’t read the rest of the text.

2.      He does seem to know the court of the King and at other points alludes to being the King.

b.      Then we are given some words that seem utterly hopeless.  He writes,     ² “Meaningless! Meaningless!”  says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”

                                                              i.      If everything is meaningless, pointless or vanity, whey bother?   Why not just hang it up and call it a day.

                                                            ii.      Is the teacher telling us that all of our activity is useless?

                                                          iii.      He then says, ³ What does anyone gain from all their labors
at which they toil under the sun?

1.      Hopefully, you get to feed your family, take care of those you love and perhaps even help those who are in need of your generosity and mercy.

2.      But, how many times do you have to weed the same flowerbeds, mow the grass, paint the porch or trim the hedge.  And what do we get from all that, the satisfaction of a job well done, or at least done?

3.      Maybe his next thought will help, ⁴ Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.

a.      We live in a long line of generations that have done what we have done, but what has it accomplished, what has it done.  People still die, weeds still grow, and we all know pain and hunger for something more and better

b.      All this has played out over the surface of the earth how many times?

4.      It seems that the whole of creation is stuck in this endless cycle of meaninglessness.

a.       ⁵ The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.

b.       ⁶ The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.

c.        All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.

d.      To do the same thing again and again without different results seems to be at best futility.

e.       The Preacher says, All things are wearisome,        more than one can say.  The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.

                                                                                                                                      i.      It is the same with us as well, we all have things and people we like to look at and never get tired of, things we like to listen to that fill us with joy, that we again never grow tired of hearing.

                                                                                                                                    ii.      The Preacher says all things are wearisome

c.       So, he then offers us another way to think about the same thing, he says,    ⁹ What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again;    there is nothing new under the sun.

                                                              i.      This may never be so true as it is in a campaign year, we hear the same words, different people, the same promises, but see little that changes.

                                                            ii.      In realty most of what we have talked about, has been spoken of before, only the names change.  How long have people talked about the weather?  A game? An idea?

1.      What has been done will be done again.  Just look at Hollywood, we keep telling the same stories over and over again, different names, different people

2.      Even our transportation, you can find a historical example, and we just improvise around an idea.  But the point in transportation is to get people and goods from one point to another.  Nothing new about that, but what good does all our moving things and people from place to place accomplish?

II.                Then the Preacher says, ¹⁰ Is there anything of which one can say,       “Look! This is something new”?  It was here already, long ago;  it was here before our time.

a.       While the cell phone is much different than a letter, the point of both is the same, a way to allow two people to carry on a conversation.  They may indeed be new items, but do they really let us do something new?

                                                              i.      The point is not to say that we don’t need to talk, but rather that we continue to do what we have done for a long, long time.  If we are doing in now, it has been done before.  Only the medium has changed.

                                                            ii.      As it was before so it is now.

b.      His thoughts continue, ¹¹ There is no remembrance of people of old,        and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.

                                                              i.      For some reason we have trouble learning from those who came before us, it is as if we need to reinvent the wheel for each age.

                                                            ii.      Do you remember when you were 16, 17  or 18 years old, it seemed you knew everything you needed to know to do what you wanted.

1.      But we didn’t. 

2.      We didn’t realize how little we actually knew until a few decades latter.

3.      We pay little attention to those who came before us, just as those who come after us will not head our lives .

III.             So, where does this leave us?  All of what we do is pointless, forgettable, and soon after we are gone it will be forgotten.  So, perhaps the real fruitfulness lies in cultivating the mind. 

a.      The Preacher writes, ¹² I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. ¹³ I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on the human race! ¹⁴ I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

                                                              i.      While king the Preacher, set his task to master the world of knowledge and wisdom.  He said he had explored all the wisdom of all that is done under heaven.

                                                            ii.      His response to the study was: “What a heavy burden God has laid on the human race!”

1.      His summary of the value of all the things that are done under the sun, meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

2.      It would seem that the world of knowledge and wisdom is too a meaningless undertaking.

3.      About this time I am about ready to say, there is little point in doing anything.

                                                          iii.      The Preacher then says, ¹⁵ What is crooked cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted.

1.      What is crocked or mangled cannot be made right

2.      There is little use counting on what you do not have, it may never be.

3.      It seems that all of our activity comes to nothing.  So what is the point to all of this?

b.      He then continues, ¹⁶ I said to myself, “Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” ¹⁷ Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

                                                              i.      No matter where he has turned in the world of humanity has he found anything of lasting value, everything is but chasing after the wind.

1.      What we strive after, what we search for, what we spend our time seeking to accomplish, it is all meaningless in and of itself.

2.      It is storing up treasures to be eaten by moths, and destroyed by corrosion. 

3.      Jesus said much of the same, he tells us in Matthew 6:19-21 ¹⁹ “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Then skip down to verse 31³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

4.      Here is the wisdom of the Preacher, all of our efforts on our own, will amount to nothing but a chasing after the wind, much like the things that the Pagans run after, and it is not that we do not need clothes, food and shelter, but they are not to be our first goal.  Our first goal is to be seeking after the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, then all of these things we need will come, with our work and toil, yes, but they will not be the reason we live, they will simply be the means by which we live.

IV.              As the Preacher rightly understands, ¹⁸ For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.

a.      Life is found in Christ in seeking for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, not in the quest to have and to have more, of which we will never be satisfied, and in the end will only find it to be as profitable as chasing after the wind.

Climate Change and the Church

It’s about time the church takes an active role in looking at how to care for creation, here is an interesting article on the Church and climate change

What is the Church?

            What is the church?   In common terms of North American culture it means a building.  When someone says church, typically they are speaking of architecture, not a group of people who follow Jesus.  The other way I often see the word church used is in the sense of an institution.   I find this too less than ideal.  Because in this sense it is not about following Jesus, it is about serving the organization.

            Brethren were hesitant about building buildings and even after they did build buildings they intentionally called them meeting houses.  They were intentional about not confusing the issue, the church is the people not the building.  The issue is very confused in our modern culture.  In this regard perhaps the transition we are seeing in church nomenclature is not troubling but rather clarifying, not meeting at the church but on the campus.  At one point we must ask, does it matter where the church meets?  Does a building need to have a steeple to be a church’s meeting place?  I also ponder the huge amount of resources it can take to maintain a building, especially an older building.  I consider the budget for building and grounds at First Church, and ask, “What else could we do with that money?” 

            How many lives could we impact if we didn’t need to heat a facility, if we didn’t need to pay the electric usage, the trash hauling and sewer, the mowing, the repairs. . . and on and on the list goes.

            I realize that there are trade offs, if you rent space, you don’t have your own space to use as you wish.  You are not able to change your schedule at a whim, but then again how often do most congregations change their meeting times. 

            These however are not my primary concerns with the building issue.  One is that association with bricks and not people, as I stated above.  The other is related to problems that come with a building becoming a shrine.  It is easy to allow a pew to become a family’s pew, and when a visitor comes and takes a seat in that family’s pew, or when so and so has been taking care of one area of the building for years, it becomes theirs, at least in their mind.  We form incredibly strong emotional ties to our buildings, so strong in fact that they at points become more important than following after Jesus, while this may not be universal experience, but it becomes a reality for many people.  Then there are additional problems that come with the practice of dedicating windows, pew, offering plates, pulpit furniture, rooms, musical interments and the like to people who have served the congregation and are now with the Lord.  How long do we keep such dedications, what happens when that item needs to be renewed or renovated?  Who gets the dedication?  It opens a myriad of problems for faith and deepening spiritual lives.  After all why is the church in the modern world, is it for dedicated architecture?   Does the church exist to hold dedications to lost loved ones?  Does the church exist to provide denominational jobs?  Is the church here to share Christ with a people seeking light and love and joy and hope?  Is the church here to be a blessing to the communities in which we live and work?  Is the church here to proclaim Christ and see people come to follow him as Lord and Savior.  Perhaps it is time for us to see if our buildings are serving our mission or if we are serving our buildings?