Scripture: Ecclesiastes 2:1-11
I want to make three points in today’s sermon: Point Number One: Why is Ecclesiastes so weird? Point Number Two: Why is it also so relevant? And Point Number Three: What’s the solution to the problem it poses?
If you are following our “Journey Through the Bible” reading plan—as I know so many of you are—then, yesterday, you completed the Book of Ecclesiastes. If you read it for the first time, you may have noticed that chapter 3 supplied the lyrics to a well-known number one hit song by the Byrds that goes something like this: “To everything, turn, turn, turn, there is a season, turn, turn, turn.” Great song! It hit number one on December 4, 1965, and—since its words were likely written in the tenth century B.C., to this day it holds the distinction of having the oldest lyrics of any hit song on the Billboard Hot 100. Isn’t that funny? Who would have guessed that these ancient words of scripture would be so relevant?
And if, like me, your English teacher in high school made you read that science fiction novel by Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451—set in a dystopian future in which all books are banned—you may remember that the hero of the novel—Guy Montag—agreed to memorize the entire book of Ecclesiastes, as a way of preserving it for future generations…
And even as a young teenager, never having read Ecclesiastes myself, I thought, “Why is he memorizing Ecclesiastes? I mean, he’s not memorizing the Gospel of Matthew… but Ecclesiastes.” Why? Bradbury himself must think that Ecclesiastes was especially relevant for his particular day—back in 1953.
I don’t know why Bradbury chose Ecclesiastes, but whether it’s 1953, or 1965, or even especially 2024, I agree that the Book of Ecclesiastes is incredibly relevant to our modern world—especially today’s scripture! It sounds so contemporary. The author’s tone is often cynical and world-weary and sarcastic. And he seems preoccupied with the same things that preoccupy us in our modern world. It sounds like it could have been written yesterday…
But… maybe for that reason… we have to deal with one problem up front: It almost sounds like Ecclesiastes doesn’t belong in the Bible. The author of the book—I’m going to call him Solomon, even though the book is anonymous; ancient Israel and the early church identified the author as King Solomon—and whether he wrote it or not, it’s definitely from the perspective of a wise and prosperous king of Israel—and one who certainly might have had 700 wives and 300 concubines…
But I’m going with the early church and calling the author Solomon… Who knows?
Regardless who the author is, the problem many people have with the book is that it’s just so weird… like why would God include a book like this in the Bible? Although we have evidence that Solomon repents of his sins in the last chapter of the book, chapter 12, in today’s scripture, in chapter 2, he doesn’t sound like a godly man at all—and of course, as we read in 1 Kings we see that—yep—that also tracks with the trajectory of Solomon’s life. He got off to a great start… didn’t finish well. Today’s scripture is a case in point. Solomon describes doing things and living a lifestyle that are explicitly against God’s Law and contrary to God’s Word!
One symptom of Solomon’s ungodliness, for example, is found in this troubling fact: In just eleven short verses of today’s scripture Solomon uses the words “I,” “me,” “my,” and “myself” 39 times! No mention of God. In this passage, Solomon seems about as self-centered as it gets!
So, again… Why is the Book of Ecclesiastes so weird? Why did God include this book in holy scripture? What is really going on?
We get a clue in verse 11: Solomon writes, “Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.”
That term “under the sun” is significant: It appears 29 times in this book. It’s significant because the main theme of the book is, what life in our world looks like from the perspective of someone living under the sun… In other words, from the perspective of someone who believes—or at least lives as if he believes—that this world of time, space, and matter… is all there is. Or at least it’s all that we can know for sure that there is! In other words… the perspective of someone who believes that “what you see is what you get”… In other words, it’s the perspective of life in this world if we don’t factor in God. No other book in the Bible shares this perspective.
And this perspective should be very helpful to us… As one commentator points out, it’s as if Solomon were saying to people like us, “Why make your own mistakes when you can learn from an expert like me instead?” 1 Solomon is an expert at making mistakes—and sinning—and we ought to learn from his example before we fall into the same traps that he fell in.
And that’s why this book often seems weird to us, and that’s Point Number One…
Point Number Two… Why is Ecclesiastes—and today’s scripture in particular—also so relevant to life in our modern world?
Well… Just last week, in the New York Times, there was an interview with Dr. Brad Wilcox, a self-identified conservative professor at the University of Virginia, who’s written a new book on marriage. While it’s true, he says, that the divorce rate has plummeted since its early-’80s peak, America, he says, is now facing another crisis: one of single-ness. Young people simply aren’t getting married like they used to: I mean… 25 percent of 40 year olds in America right now are unmarried. That’s the largest percentage ever!
So the interviewer explores with Dr. Wilcox why that might be the case. The first reason he gives is what he calls the “Midas Mind-set” among young people. He says that young people, especially, assume—and I quote—“that life is about education, money and especially work. One Pew study found that for Americans in general, 71 percent thought having a job or career they enjoy is the path toward fulfillment.” 2 Unquote. Whereas previously most would have thought that marriage and family was the path to fulfillment. Today only 23 percent think that…
Please notice that word “fulfillment,” though. I’m going to come back to it…
The second big reason that people aren’t getting married, Dr. Wilcox says, is what he calls the “soul-mate myth.” That’s the idea—reflected in about a million movies, TV shows, and pop songs—“that there’s some perfect person out there waiting for you and that once you find them and love them and then marry them, you’ll have this perfect connection that engenders an intense emotional connection, a sense of romance, a passion that in turn leads you to be”—notice these words—“happy and fulfilled most of the time.” 3
I want us to notice an important problem: According to this research, what causes us to be “happy and fulfilled most of the time”? Sadly, at least 94 percent of Americans surveyed believe that something other than a relationship with God through his Son Jesus Christ causes us to be happy and fulfilled most of the time. And that’s a problem! Biblically speaking… from a Christian point of view.
Let’s be clear: At least 94 percent of American are describing—in so many words—what they believe to be the path to happiness and fulfillment: they say education, money, work, career—and probably the status symbols of success and recognition that go along with those things… And if those things don’t lead to happiness and fulfillment, then how about a romantic relationship with a “soul mate”? Or how about marriage to a soul mate—including the family that usually results from that?
What would Solomon, in today’s scripture, say to these 94 percent of Americans about these alleged paths to happiness and fulfillment? Because as he wants you to know, he’s tried them all.
He would surely say words that he repeats throughout the book: That path is vanity… That path is meaningless… That path is a chasing after the wind. Don’t waste your time looking for the meaning of life there. You won’t find it.
After all, in verse 1, Solomon describes conducting an experiment on himself: “I said in my heart, ‘Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.’” I will test you with pleasure. The test—as we learn from chapter 1—is directly connected to what Dr. Wilcox was talking about in his interview: to find out whether we can find lasting happiness and ultimate ultimate fulfillment and joy in anything “under the sun”… if we don’t factor in God… That’s what Solomon wants to know. So he puts it to the test.
And in today’s scripture, Solomon tests whether or not lasting happiness, ultimate fulfillment, and joy are found in pleasure… And Solomon says up front that this test is a complete failure. He does’t keep us in suspense: Verses 1 and 2, in the New Living Translation: “But I found that this, too, was meaningless. So I said, ‘Laughter is silly. What good does it do to seek pleasure?’”
Let me be clear: The Bible is most assuredly not saying that there’s anything wrong with laughter in general! That there’s anything wrong with pleasure in general. All the pleasurable things that Solomon describes in chapter 2, verses 3 through 11, are gifts from God—as the Bible describes in many places elsewhere. There are many things right with these pleasurable activities.
After all, in the rest of the passage, he describe feats of artistry and creativity and engineering and architecture—he describes works of great beauty and ingenuity. There’s nothing wrong with these things! Also, notice that Solomon’s pursuit of pleasure didn’t make him lazy at all. See verse 10: “I even found great pleasure in hard work, a reward for all my labors.” He even enjoyed hard work!
No… Pleasure, in and of itself, is good… and God-given.
The problem that today’s scripture describes is not with pleasure itself…The problem comes when you try to find lasting happiness and ultimate fulfillment and joy in these pleasurable things! That’s the test: will any of these things—“under the sun”—produce for us a meaningful life?
The answer is no. They can’t!
I’ve mentioned before the very funny, insightful book called The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. This fictional book purports to be a series of letters written by a “senior” demon named Screwtape to his inexperienced demon nephew Wormwood about how to cause the spiritual ruin and damnation of his human “patient,” an Englishman living during World War II who’s recently become a Christian… So Screwtape is a demon who uses things in the world to harm us. Listen to what Screwtape says about pleasure:
Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy’s ground. [Remember: the “Enemy” here is God.] I know we have won many a soul through pleasure. All the same, it is His invention, not ours. He made the pleasures: all our research so far has not enabled us to produce one. All we can do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our Enemy has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which He has forbidden. 4
In other words, Lewis says, in the spiritual war that we Christians fight against the devil and his minions, they try to get us to misuse and abuse God-given pleasures…until they create within us humans—get this—“[a]n ever-increasing craving for an ever-diminishing pleasure.”
And if that doesn’t describe our modern world, I don’t know what does! That sounds like addiction, doesn’t it? And gosh, I just read last week that social media producers understand this perfectly well… that they have engineered their apps on our phones to become addictive.
Regardless, according to research, according to surveys, most of us Americans—if not most people in the world—live life with the same kind of “under the sun” point of view that Solomon describes. And we try desperately to find lasting happiness, ultimate fulfillment, and joy in pleasure… in living the “good life,” however we conceive of it. So we need to heed Solomon’s warning: In so many words, he says, “I tried living that way… except on a scale that you, dear reader, can’t even imagine…”
See verse 8: “I had everything a man could desire!” Or verse 10: “Anything I wanted, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure.”
“So”—Solomon tells us, in so many words—“Believe me when I tell you from personal experience: It doesn’t work! It won’t work. You can never find lasting happiness, and ultimate fulfillment, and joy here—in these pleasurable pursuits.”
Well, that’s Point Number Two… That’s why today’s scripture—alongside the rest of Ecclesiastes—couldn’t be more relevant to our lives in the modern world! Contrary to what at least 94 percent of the people in our country believe—contrary to what our own intuitions often tell us—the meaning of life isn’t found in pleasure.
Point Number Three… So where is it found? What’s the solution? Literally every sane person living in the world today wants lasting happiness, ultimate fulfillment, and joy… more than we want anything else!
Can we have it? Is this kind of happiness available to us? If so, where do we find it?
From Solomon’s “under the sun” perspective in Ecclesiastes, he doesn’t tell us. He just tells us where these things are not found… which is good to know…
But fortunately, we have the rest of the Bible… many other passages of scripture… that do tell us where true and lasting happiness is found!
For just one example, how about Psalm 37:4? One of you told me last week this was your favorite verse in the Bible. I can see why. In it, David writes: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
That’s about as straightforward a promise from the Bible as it gets. Do you want God to fulfill the deepest desires of your heart? It goes without saying! Of course you do! We all do! And, good news, God clearly promises to do that for us!
On only one condition… that we delight ourselves in the Lord. And by the way, this is the same thing our church means in its vision statement when we talk about “Treasuring Christ above all…” To delight ourselves in the Lord is the same thing as “treasuring Christ.”
Of course, in order to do this—to delight ourselves in the Lord and to treasure Christ above all—it requires an “over the sun” way of thinking. And that perspective doesn’t come naturally to us humans. In fact, it comes supernaturally… As we receive Christ as Savior and Lord, as the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within our hearts and to change us from within… to redirect our often misdirected desires… and to teach us—usually slowly, over time, and through much painful experience… that we really can take delight in our Lord Jesus Christ! That he really will give us the desires of our heart… that he really can and will become our greatest treasure.
And that’s kinda sorta what the season of Lent is all about… being changed by God through sanctification so that we can treasure Christ more and more… that we can take greater delight in in the Lord!
And listen: I know from many personal testimonies of people in this church that our “Journey Through the Bible” reading plan is helping us with this! “O taste and see that the Lord is good,” David says in Psalm 34:8. So many of y’all—some for the very first time—are getting a taste for God’s holy Word… and what’s happening—supernaturally—is that God is meeting you in the pages of his Word, he’s speaking toyou, he’s giving you what you need for your day ahead, he’s satisfying your soul… and you are experiencing the goodness and the love and the grace and glory of God through scripture in a way that you never have before. Praise God!
And see, what’s starting to happen, perhaps for the first time in your life, is, you’re waking up in the morning and you are looking forward to meeting almighty God in the pages of holy scripture. It’s the “best part of waking up”—at least after “Folger’s in your cup.” But if you keep doing it long enough, it will become the very best part of waking up.
A few weekends ago, at Norcross First Methodist, we had a kickoff conference for the new North Georgia Conference of the Global Methodist Church. It was mostly a day devoted to worship… as it should have been. But our bishop, Scott Jones, was the preacher. And he chose as his passage 2 Corinthians chapter 5, including verse 20: “So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!’”
And Bishop Jones reflected on what it means to be an ambassador… An ambassador is someone who lives on foreign soil… And their primary purpose is to represent and live out and model and advocate for the values and purposes of their native country in a place that is not their homeland. Their citizenship is elsewhere.
And so it is with us Christians!
Hebrews 13:14: “For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.” Even our beloved Toccoa, Georgia, isn’t ultimately our home, even if you were born here. Our ultimate loyalty and allegiance are elsewhere.
We are ambassadors… Imagine… Imagine our new Toccoa First Methodist Church as an embassy… representing another, better land… placed here in Toccoa, Georgia, by almighty Godin orderto model,to teach, to demonstrate, to live out this new and better way of life to those haven’t yet become citizens of the country, or the kingdom, that we ambassadors represent.
Paul goes on in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 to talk about the many ways that he and his fellow missionaries’ lives look drastically different from the lives of most people in his culture—because of his faith and commitment to Christ. For example, in verse 6, he writes, “We prove ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, by the Holy Spirit within us, and by our sincere love.”
As we begin this new chapter of our church as part of the Global Methodist Church, I sense that the Lord is telling us—the new Toccoa First Methodist Church—that the citizens of Toccoa, Georgia, and Stephens County, desperately need to see us prove the genuineness of our our faith. So let’s show them… Show them the difference that a living relationship with God through Jesus Christ makes in our lives! Well, that’s what ambassadors do, too. They prove to the world that they belong to another country or kingdom by showing the world through their faithful words and actions.
So they don’t simply live the same way that at least 94 percent of their neighbors live. They don’t share the same values with at least 94 percent of their neighbors. They live as if they understand where true meaning, and lasting happiness and ultimate fulfillment and joy are found. They live to show that to others!
We are ambassadors from another, better land. So when you show up on Sunday, March 24, to join the new Toccoa First Methodist Church as a charter member, you’re agreeing to be an ambassador for Christ here in Stephens County. So between now and then think about whether that’s what you’re interested in doing, because I promise you that’s what our new Toccoa First Methodist is going to be all about.
And this “ambassadorial work” shouldn’t be hard to do because what we have to offer people is what they most deeply want anyway: which is, lasting happiness, ultimate fulfillment, and joy. We know where it’s found. Most of us have experienced it for ourselves—which isn’t to say that we don’t need to experience more and more of this joy in the Lord, but we’re working on that… together… when we gather for church.
Sadly, however, as today’s scripture implies and as research indicates, so many of our friends, neighbors, classmates, co-workers, and family members are looking in the wrong places for this lasting happiness.
But they want it…
The question is… Mr. Ambassador… Madam Ambassador… will you help them find it?
- Philip G. Ryken, Why Everything Matters: The Gospel in Ecclesiastes (Glasgow: Christian Focus, 2019), 3.
- Jane Coaston, “I Said, ‘What’s Your Plan About Marriage and Dating?’ And There Was Silence,” nytimes.com, 26 February 2024. Accessed 29 February 2024.
- Ibid
- C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (New York: HarperOne, 1996), 44.