Life is Meaningless?

Pastor Meyer's Sermon

Sunday, September 4, 2005

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our heavenly Father and from our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus, our Christ.

The text in which we base our meditation this morning comes from our Old Testament reading, specifically Ecclesiastes 1:2, “Meaningless! Meaningless! says the Teacher. Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”

Now my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the first thing we need to ask is what is this doing in the bible? Sure, we come here every Sunday morning. We hear the old familiar stories of the bible, and we think to ourselves, “Yes, this is meet and salutary.” But then we come across a text like this. “Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” And we can't help but ask ourselves, “What is this doing in the bible?” I thought the bible was a place we could go to and find comfort and encouragement and support when feeling those same kinds of feelings, feelings of meaninglessness.

In fact, when you read through the book of Ecclesiastes, it seems our non-Christian friends and neighbors have a better grip on life than this teacher and they may even want to give us a kind and consoling, “Now, now, then. It's not that bad. Life isn't as meaningless as it seems.” Or the biblical scholars liken this particular teacher to that of the pessimistic donkey in the Winnie the Pooh story. You remember Eore. You can hear him now, can't you? “What's the use? My tail fell off and it's going to rain. Oh, dear, we'll never make it.” This teacher seems to be the Eore of the biblical writer. “Meaningless! Meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”

At first glance, it seems this teacher has it all wrong. “What do you mean, Teacher, that life is meaningless? Look around you. Look around us. We are constantly being told life is not meaningless. There are things you can do to find meaning in this world. You can go to the self-help section of the bookstore. You can find meaning there. You can find meaning within yourself.” Listen to the advertisements we hear around us. They give us clues as to where we can find meaning in this world. A department store that says, “Get the good life.” You see, all we need is their product. Then we can have that good, meaningful life.

What about an athletic shoe store company that says, “Just do it.” See, that's it. All I need to do is just go about life just doing it, doing whatever our heart desires, and we can have that meaningful life. A credit card company asks, “What is in your wallet?” That's it. All we need is that credit card, that Visa plastic, and we can be meaningful and live a meaningful life. An automobile manufacturer tells us to “Grab life by the horns.” See, that's the ticket. That's it. All we need to do is just go about life grabbing, taking control of your own life. Sure, we're going to have our ups and downs. Sure, we're going to experience depression every now and then but we need to take control of our own life. “Who are you, Teacher, to say life is meaningless?”

Well, now, that's a pretty good question. Who is this so-called teacher in the Book of Ecclesiastes in our reading for this morning? Well, the Book of Ecclesiastes gives us little clues to tell us who this author is. The book starts out with the teacher, son of David, King in Jerusalem . If you read on a little further, it says, “Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who had ruled over Jerusalem before me.” Hum. So we have a teacher who is the son of David, who is a king in Jerusalem but he's not just any king. He's the wisest king to have ever ruled in Jerusalem . Does it ring a bell? 1 King 3, the Lord says to King Solomon, “I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart so there will never have been anyone like you nor will there ever be.” So you see this teacher is King Solomon himself, so we can't write off this teacher and plead ignorance. We can't say he's had a hard life. We can't say he's been down on his luck. We can't even say he wrote this book on a Monday morning. No, no, because, you see, he had the right pedigree. He went to all the right schools. He had a Ph.D. level education. He was a philosopher but, even more, he followed the rules of this world. You see, he got the good life. His kingdom, the borders of his kingdom had expanded to that promise to Abraham, the largest it had ever been. Also, he did just do it. He had unlimited opportunities for fleshly indulgence. 1 King 11:3, “He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines.” And my friends, King Solomon had it in his wallet. He not only was rich but he was so powerful that no one could touch him. And he followed that cry to grab life by the horns as he excelled in wisdom and knowledge. We see in 1 Kings all the world had come to King Solomon to hear his wisdom because they had heard about his wisdom.

When we consider the life of King Solomon, we see someone who was anything but a pessimist. In fact, we see someone who was probably the most qualified to talk about meaning and where it can be and can't be found because, you see, he's had it all. He's seen it all. But in the Book of Ecclesiastes, all that just doesn't seem to matter. Here, we see a teacher dressed in a purple kingly robe with life having grabbed him by the horns, at the end of his proverbial rope and he stands before us and he tells us, “Life is meaningless. Everything is meaningless. Utterly meaningless.” What happened? We don't know for sure but we know that, despite everything King Solomon had, he still called life as meaningless.

Well, the question now, Teacher, King Solomon, is where do we find meaning in this life? Well, in the Book of Ecclesiastes, what's more important is not necessarily what has been written, what is said but more so what is not said. King Solomon traces his vain pursuit of wisdom and knowledge throughout the whole Book of Ecclesiastes and he had tried everything. But the one thing he did not mention is God, and that's what he comes to in Ecclesiastes 2, the last two verses of that chapter, “A man could do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This, too, I see it from the hand of God for, without Him, who can find enjoyment? To the man who pleases Him,” or a more literal translation, “To the man who is good before Him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and happiness.” Well, that's the answer. God gives wisdom, knowledge, and happiness to those who are good before Him, to those who please Him, so please Him. Amen. No, no, no, no. That's not going to work, okay? No, no. Because, you see, we are the ones who are not good before Him. The teacher said, a few chapters later, “There is not one righteous man who has done what is right and has never sinned.”

So now what do we do? We know we cannot have a meaningful life without God, but we also know we can't stand in the presence of God because we are not good enough. It seems that, throughout this whole endeavor, we are finding out what we cannot do, but isn't that true? We cannot by our own reason or strength come to God or even please Him. So all that vain pursuit of trying to find meaning in our lives is in and of itself meaningless. But then that just wants us to fall on our knees and cry out, “Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless!” But, you see, the teacher had a word of encouragement for us in Chapter 12 with his encouragement for us to remember our creator. That makes sense, doesn't it? After all, who was the one who created us in the first place? Who's the one who sustains us in our daily lives? Who's the one who created Adam and Eve and breathed into them the breath of life? Who was the one who can renew our lives, lives that have been destructed by sin? This is where God asks for us. You see, He sent another teacher, the Teacher. He is also a son of David. He is God's own Son and He has the same message as King Solomon had. He said, “Without God, life is not the good life.” He also tells us, “Don't store up things for yourselves but remain rich towards God.” And He also tells us, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” These are some of the messages He had for us while He was here on this earth. The results? Well, described in the Pharisees, they planned to kill Him and they did just do it. A trial where Jesus was dressed in a purple kingly robe, but this robe was given to Him out of spite. This robe was splattered with His own blood and Jesus was placed before the people. He was nailed to a tree with a sign above His head that said, “This is the King of the Jews.” Not only that, but Jesus, seemingly at the end of His proverbial rope, cried out, “Into your hands I commit my spirit.” And He dies. And it seems like life had grabbed Jesus by the horns and killed Him.

But, you see, that's just it. Jesus had His own life, holy, unblemished, innocent. So when He gave up His life, our old meaningless life might die. And then, on that glorious day, three days later, when He rose from the dead, He not only just rose from the dead but He took sin, death, and the devil by the horns and conquered them so we, too, might rise to victorious life in Jesus. And it's through this Jesus that we can go about life and we can look out at our world and we can stay meaningful. Life is meaningful. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Copyright 2005 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church