NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN by Cheri Holdridge (with an assist by Kurt Young)

I wonder how many of you ever remember reading the entire book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament? How many of you have ever done a Bible study on it? Or remember hearing a sermon about it? Do you know anything about it? We’re going to do something a little different today. I’m going to read more scripture to you than usual today, because this book is unfamiliar, and it’s really appropriate to our conversation about Sabbath.   I promise it is going to be fun. 

Ecclesiastes is just not one of those books that you hear much about. Ecclesiastes is not on the top ten list of well known books in the Bible. When I read today, I’m going to read from The Message, which is a modern paraphrase from the Greek and Hebrew written by Eugene Peterson. Peterson is a pastor who wrote The Message in order to help put the Bible into language that his congregation could understand. We call it a paraphrase because while he knows the Biblical languages and works hard to be true to the spirit of the text, he does not translate it word for word. He takes some poetic license in order to make it more understandable for us today. We use his Message bible here many Sundays.

Ecclesiastes is an unusual book. Honestly, it does not talk much about God. It is one of a few books of the Bible that tells us more about the human experience than it tells us about God. It’s important to remember that we need the whole Bible, all 66 books, in order to get a good picture of God, and the relationship between God and humanity. If I had to pick just one book, in order to live my life by, then the Gospel of Luke would be a good one. Or the Book of Romans has some great theology. But some books of the Bible, on their own, would not be enough. Song of Songs, for example, is passionate Biblical love poetry (gasp, God approves of human love). It says almost nothing about God. But it is in the Bible. Why? To show us that human love and passion is part of God’s creation.

One commentator wrote that the Book of Ecclesiastes was written for “skeptics, people with a dark vision of reality and recovering alcoholics” (The New Interpreter’s Bible Vol. 5, p. 267). The book does not say much about God, but it says so much about the toil of human existence. Have you been there?  Ecclesiastes starts off with that puzzling phrase “Vanity of vanities.” The translators have a really hard times translating that into English. Some options are: utter futility, meaningless & emptiness (ibid, p. 279). This is how the writer describes life.

Let me read to you again the scripture which Kristen read, this time from The Message:

Smoke, nothing but smoke. [That’s what the Quester says.]
    There’s nothing to anything—it’s all smoke.
What’s there to show for a lifetime of work,
    a lifetime of working your fingers to the bone?
One generation goes its way, the next one arrives,
    but nothing changes—it’s business as usual for old
        planet earth.
The sun comes up and the sun goes down,
    then does it again, and again—the same old round.
….Everything’s boring, utterly boring—
    no one can find any meaning in it.
Boring to the eye,
    boring to the ear.
What was will be again,
    what happened will happen again.
There’s nothing new on this earth. [nothing new under the sun]

He sounds a bit depressed, doesn’t he?  I have been there, have you?

Now, can you imagine why this sage is so discouraged? He has been caught up in that human pursuit that we know so well: trying to be the best, the richest, the best looking, the most famous; trying to have everything, and do everything. This is what we have been talking about these past couple of weeks in worship, right: the drive to succeed and win and work until we collapse from exhaustion. We have to do it because everyone is doing it, right?  Our boss wants us to do it. 

This is what he did:

Ecclesiastes 2

^4-8 Oh, I did great things:

    built houses,
    planted vineyards,
    designed gardens and parks
        and planted a variety of fruit trees in them,
    made pools of water
        to irrigate the groves of trees.
I bought slaves, male and female,
        who had children, giving me even more slaves;
    then I acquired large herds and flocks,
        larger than any before me in Jerusalem.
I piled up silver and gold,
        loot from kings and kingdoms.
I gathered a chorus of singers to entertain me with song,
    and—most exquisite of all pleasures—
    voluptuous maidens for my bed.

^9-10 Oh, how I prospered! I left all my predecessors in Jerusalem far behind, left them behind in the dust. What’s more, I kept a clear head through it all. Everything I wanted I took—I never said no to myself. I gave in to every impulse, held back nothing. I sucked the marrow of pleasure out of every task—my reward to myself for a hard day’s work!

Isn’t that a description of the worst of the American dream today? We acquire things. A home, a spouse, the right job. We give into every material impulse. We work hard and play hard so hard we wear ourselves out.  Then read what he says:

¹¹ Then I took a good look at everything I’d done, looked at all the sweat and hard work. But when I looked, I saw nothing but smoke. Smoke and spitting into the wind. There was nothing to any of it. Nothing.

This is my friends is spiritual emptiness. The realization that this treadmill brings with it exhaustion.  We never reach a goal that gives us contentment. 

          At least he finally comes to his senses:

 ^20-23 That’s when I called it quits, gave up on anything that could be hoped for on this earth. What’s the point of working your fingers to the bone if you hand over what you worked for to someone who never lifted a finger for it? ….

^24-26 The best you can do with your life is have a good time and get by the best you can. The way I see it, that’s it—divine fate. Whether we feast or fast, it’s up to God. God may give wisdom and knowledge and joy to his favorites, but sinners are assigned a life of hard labor, and end up turning their wages over to God’s favorites. Nothing but smoke—and spitting into the wind.

The book goes on and on, twelve chapters of this. One writer calls it a sort of kaleidoscope view or a “notebook of ideas by a philosopher on the downside and upside of life” (The New Interpreter’s Bible Vol. 5, p. 278). The writer bounces from despair to a sort of qualified or skeptical hopefulness in calling the reader to seize life and live in the moment.

By chapter nine, we find this example, seeing some hope finally:

Seize life! Eat bread with gusto,
Drink wine with a robust heart.
Oh yes—God takes pleasure in your pleasure!
Dress festively every morning.
Don’t skimp on colors and scarves.
Relish life with the spouse you love
Each and every day of your precarious life.
Each day is God’s gift. It’s all you get in exchange
For the hard work of staying alive.
Make the most of each one!
Whatever turns up, grab it and do it. And heartily!
This is your last and only chance at it,
For there’s neither work to do nor thoughts to think
In the company of the dead, where you’re most certainly headed.

Well, there he goes again at the end.

You see for a while there, I start to think the writer gets it. “Seize the day. Each day it God’s gift.” It sounds like he is calling us to live in each precious moment. But then he falls back into despair. Like I told you, you don’t want Ecclesiastes to be the only book you live by. This writer is one who understands life as toil.  This is what we call preaching against the text for ministers.

But this is the message I believe we are to take from Ecclesiastes: we have a choice. We can choose to live in the constant struggle, trying to get ahead and to work and to always try to reach for more and never be content.

Or we can remember this invitation to Sabbath contentment. Have you tried some of our Sabbath practices?  Being mindful, taking time out, etc. 

There really is nothing new under the sun. The rush to better technology or fashion, or the perfect life really is futile. The present moment is God’s gift to us. Each day is God’s gift. Living in the present is how we feed our souls and find peace. The tension in the book of Ecclesiastes is to stop rushing into the future but to linger in the present.

Probably the most familiar chapter in this book comes in chapter 3. I bet you know this one (you’ve heard it sung if you’ve listened to classic rock).

The chapter invites us to remember that there is a time for everything, and to pay attention to what moment we are in. Why not live in the moment we are in, rather than always longing to be in some other moment, read along:

Chapter 3

There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:

^2-8 A right time for birth and another for death,
A right time to plant and another to reap,
A right time to kill and another to heal,
A right time to destroy and another to construct,
A right time to cry and another to laugh,
A right time to lament and another to cheer,
A right time to make love and another to abstain,
A right time to embrace and another to part,
A right time to search and another to count your losses,
A right time to hold on and another to let go,
A right time to rip out and another to mend,
A right time to shut up and another to speak up,
A right time to love and another to hate,
A right time to wage war and another to make peace.

There is nothing new under the sun.

Wayne Muller, the author of our book Sabbath, says it this way:  Life should not just make us tired, life should make us happy. Finding joy, and claiming it, is what Sabbath rest is all about.  Being followers of Jesus means we take a break. We find joy and claim it, not rush always into the future.  Sometimes we are too busy to notice it. 

So this week I give you an invitation. To enjoy the present moment.

God blesses us with joy and beauty and peace every day, in so many ways, but we’re too busy to notice. 

When I ask people, “How do you connect with God?” “How do you call yourself back into the present moment and delight in God?” people often tell me that they do it in nature. So our “Response to the Message” today is an invitation to take a walk or a bike ride (you can join us this Tuesday night) or just sit on your porch or deck in the silence and be in the present moment. Look at the beauty of creation. 

It will take some discipline.  As you do this, gently invite the to-do lists, and your work, and everything else to leave your mind for a few minutes, and just BE. My spiritual director has me as a discipline look at the colors. See how many colors you can see. How many shades of green can you see? Study one tiny flower or leaf. Just be in the moment. Delight in the beauty.   In a Sabbath practice, we are invited to just BE in the moment.  Delight in where we are now.  I invite us to plan this week when you can do this.  Take the time and pray and plan NOW how you are going to make this happen for you.