If you are like most people, your first reaction to the text and the title of this mornings sermon is, “Why is he preaching from Ecclesiastes?” and “Is there any Gospel in this text?” The good news is that there is an abundance of Gospel in this text and contrary to the popular belief, there is an abundance of Gospel throughout the entire Old Testament. It is my prayer that the Holy Spirit will open our hearts and minds so that we hear the Gospel message of this text and are strengthened in our faith.
In order to hear the Gospel in our text we need to first get a handle on what the book of Ecclesiastes is all about. From the first verse of text we get the idea that this book is about vanity, which other Bibles have translated as meaninglessness and that does not sound like Gospel. As you read through the book of Ecclesiastes you might at first despair. The writer of the book, who is called the “Teacher,” expresses the vanity or the meaninglessness of many of the things which we find to be important and meaningful in our own lives. He describes some of the following things that are vanity and meaningless; wisdom, pleasure, work, oppression, friendliness, advancement, riches, even religion, and so on. If we were to follow along with the teacher in reading through the whole book of Ecclesiastes, I believe we too, would admit that, in and of themselves, these “things” are vane and meaningless.
But before we despair we need to find out why the Teacher says that they are vane and meaningless. Here, rather than dwell on the entire book, I want to zero in on our text and on why the Teacher says that work is vane and meaningless. Again, when you take the time to read the entire book of Ecclesiastes, and I would encourage you to do so, it is not too long, you will find that although the reasons for each thing being vane and meaningless are different, the underlining theme is still the same. In our text the Teacher tells us that work is vane and meaningless because no matter how hard we work, when we die, we have no control over what will happen to all that we have done. We have so many examples of this happening in our world today; people like Howard Hughes, Colonel Sanders, Sam Walton, and the like who built financial empires and then died, leaving their work behind and letting who knows what happen to it. Of course there are those who would agree that work is vane and meaningless, especially those who do not like what they are doing, or those who are having a tough time with their job. If this is the case, that they do not like what they are doing, then their work becomes vane and meaningless, not necessarily because they do not know who will be coming after them, but because they do not know for whom they are working. The list of why people find work vane and meaningless goes on, but the underlining reason is always the same.
As we read this text, knowing that it was written over 2500 years ago, we notice that it could have been written today. All the things that the Teachers says are vane and meaningless then are the same things that are vane and meaningless today. Today we think that wisdom, pleasure, work, oppression, friendliness, advancement, riches, even religion, and so on are what make our life meaningful, but when we put them into the perspective that the Teacher has put them in we see how these things are just as vane and meaningless today as they were some 2500 years ago. Even our Gospel reading warns us that “a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12:15b)
By now you are saying, “I was right, there is no Gospel in this text.” But before you despair let us examine why these things are vane and meaningless. They are vane and meaningless simply for the fact that we will die and after we are dead we have no control over what happens here in this world after we are gone. The Gospel writer Matthew expresses it best when he says, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26)
In other words, there is only one thing that is important, and that one thing is not our job, nor the abundance of our possessions, but the only thing that is truly important in this world is our faith in Jesus Christ. When we begin to realize that everything we do during our short life here on this earth is really for nothing after we die, we begin to realize that there is only one thing that is important, only one thing that has meaning and that one thing is our faith in Jesus Christ. It is faith in Jesus which gives our life meaning. It is faith in Jesus which gives us joy in our work, knowing that it is He who works through us to give meaning to our work. We can find joy in our work, no matter how much of a drudgery it may seem, when we realize that we are working for our Savior. When we do our jobs with the attitude of Christ, we bear witness of Him as our Savior and we are working for Him. The point of the book of Ecclesiastes is to show us that apart from faith in Jesus Christ life is vane and meaningless. Apart from Jesus all we can hope for is to despair, is to die, because life is utterly vane and meaningless.
Verse twenty-four and twenty-five are the key verses in our text, “24There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?” (v. 24, 25). Again, the good news is that it is God who gives meaning to our lives. More exciting is the fact that even our faith is a gift from God. The Holy Spirit works through the Word and the Sacraments; Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, as well as Confession and Absolution, to bring us to faith, to strengthening us in our faith and to keep us in faith. At our baptism the Holy Spirit brings us to faith, He makes us one of His as Peter tells us in His epistle, “baptism now saves you.” Even before our baptism, even before we were conceived God chose us. He chose us and sent His only Son, Jesus to redeem us on the cross. Before our baptism we were lost and condemned creatures, helpless and hopeless. But after our baptism we became new creators, new people, we were given new life in Christ. God’s grace was poured out upon us to give our life meaning. Baptism is God’s work, it has nothing to do with our doing anything. Baptism is our passively being given God’s gifts of faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. Baptism is one of the many ways our gracious God shows us how gracious He is to us.
In our Epistle lesson Paul encourages us to “seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” (v. 1). He continues, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (v. 2-4). And he encourages us to put away those things of this life that are dangerous to our spiritual well being. Paul understands that the importance of the world to come should be over and above the things of this world.
In the Gospel lesson Jesus tells the parable of the rich man who focused his attention and life on the things of this world, on amassing riches and wealth instead of focusing on his spiritual well being. Jesus used this parable to emphasize the fact that we do not know when we will pass away, so we need to be ready at all times and we get ourselves ready by focusing on the important things of this world, especially our spiritual lives and faith.
So, when we put these readings together we ask, “What does all this mean?” Our lessons for today and our text help us to understand that apart from God and faith in Jesus Christ, life, our life in this world is vane and meaningless. Without the gifts God gives, good gifts of wisdom, knowledge and happiness, our life in this world is vane and meaningless.
The world would have us believe that our life in this world gets its meaning from what we do, but this is according to humanity and the thoughts of fallible human beings. In other words, this is an idea we cannot count on especially concerning our eternal well being. In this world we are told that we can make a difference and perhaps we might be able to make some difference in this world, but unless that difference has an eternal meaning, it really is no difference, merely here today and gone tomorrow, after all how many people remember Saint Sylvester? Yes, there is a Saint Sylvester and you can look him up. And so, according to the wisdom of our world, our goal in this life should be to leave our mark.
Many years ago, when I was working in youth ministry as a Director of Christian Education I always told the youth, “You make a difference.” How stunned I was when I found out that the fact of the matter is that it does not matter what we do in this life, that truly we do not make a difference, because when we are gone it will all turn to naught. How do you make a positive out of what sounds so negative? The fact of the matter is that the most important thing is life is not what we do or what we think we need to do, but the most important thing is this life is our faith in Jesus Christ, our personal relationship to our heavenly Father. It is Jesus’ life, death and resurrection for us, in our place which is what makes a difference, not simply in this life, but more importantly for eternal life. It is as the Lord has His way with us, as Jesus has lived for us, as He has taken our sins upon Himself, as He has suffered and died to pay the price for ours sins and as He makes His life and work ours that make a difference. It is as He gives, strengthens and keeps us in faith and as He stirs in us to live lives of faith, that is what is important and what makes our lives important. Remember, apart from God, life is truly meaningless, but with God we have a purpose and meaning.
As you have heard me tell you before, our purpose in life is to be love by God and to be given to by Him. So we rejoice in our being loved by God and being given to as we make regular and diligent use of the means He has of loving us and giving to us, His means of grace.
For the past number of Sundays we have been reminded time and again that God is the prime mover, that God gives and we are given to, that God does and we are done to. Last Sunday our text helped us in strengthening our prayer life, and this morning I pray that you will see that without the one thing needful, faith in Jesus Christ, without a relationship with Him through reading His Word, that is His coming to us in His Word, and prayer, that is our going to Him in prayer, that without these things, all of life is vane and meaningless. But thanks be to God that we have that relationship which does give our life meaning. And so our lives do says, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
In order to hear the Gospel in our text we need to first get a handle on what the book of Ecclesiastes is all about. From the first verse of text we get the idea that this book is about vanity, which other Bibles have translated as meaninglessness and that does not sound like Gospel. As you read through the book of Ecclesiastes you might at first despair. The writer of the book, who is called the “Teacher,” expresses the vanity or the meaninglessness of many of the things which we find to be important and meaningful in our own lives. He describes some of the following things that are vanity and meaningless; wisdom, pleasure, work, oppression, friendliness, advancement, riches, even religion, and so on. If we were to follow along with the teacher in reading through the whole book of Ecclesiastes, I believe we too, would admit that, in and of themselves, these “things” are vane and meaningless.
But before we despair we need to find out why the Teacher says that they are vane and meaningless. Here, rather than dwell on the entire book, I want to zero in on our text and on why the Teacher says that work is vane and meaningless. Again, when you take the time to read the entire book of Ecclesiastes, and I would encourage you to do so, it is not too long, you will find that although the reasons for each thing being vane and meaningless are different, the underlining theme is still the same. In our text the Teacher tells us that work is vane and meaningless because no matter how hard we work, when we die, we have no control over what will happen to all that we have done. We have so many examples of this happening in our world today; people like Howard Hughes, Colonel Sanders, Sam Walton, and the like who built financial empires and then died, leaving their work behind and letting who knows what happen to it. Of course there are those who would agree that work is vane and meaningless, especially those who do not like what they are doing, or those who are having a tough time with their job. If this is the case, that they do not like what they are doing, then their work becomes vane and meaningless, not necessarily because they do not know who will be coming after them, but because they do not know for whom they are working. The list of why people find work vane and meaningless goes on, but the underlining reason is always the same.
As we read this text, knowing that it was written over 2500 years ago, we notice that it could have been written today. All the things that the Teachers says are vane and meaningless then are the same things that are vane and meaningless today. Today we think that wisdom, pleasure, work, oppression, friendliness, advancement, riches, even religion, and so on are what make our life meaningful, but when we put them into the perspective that the Teacher has put them in we see how these things are just as vane and meaningless today as they were some 2500 years ago. Even our Gospel reading warns us that “a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12:15b)
By now you are saying, “I was right, there is no Gospel in this text.” But before you despair let us examine why these things are vane and meaningless. They are vane and meaningless simply for the fact that we will die and after we are dead we have no control over what happens here in this world after we are gone. The Gospel writer Matthew expresses it best when he says, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26)
In other words, there is only one thing that is important, and that one thing is not our job, nor the abundance of our possessions, but the only thing that is truly important in this world is our faith in Jesus Christ. When we begin to realize that everything we do during our short life here on this earth is really for nothing after we die, we begin to realize that there is only one thing that is important, only one thing that has meaning and that one thing is our faith in Jesus Christ. It is faith in Jesus which gives our life meaning. It is faith in Jesus which gives us joy in our work, knowing that it is He who works through us to give meaning to our work. We can find joy in our work, no matter how much of a drudgery it may seem, when we realize that we are working for our Savior. When we do our jobs with the attitude of Christ, we bear witness of Him as our Savior and we are working for Him. The point of the book of Ecclesiastes is to show us that apart from faith in Jesus Christ life is vane and meaningless. Apart from Jesus all we can hope for is to despair, is to die, because life is utterly vane and meaningless.
Verse twenty-four and twenty-five are the key verses in our text, “24There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?” (v. 24, 25). Again, the good news is that it is God who gives meaning to our lives. More exciting is the fact that even our faith is a gift from God. The Holy Spirit works through the Word and the Sacraments; Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, as well as Confession and Absolution, to bring us to faith, to strengthening us in our faith and to keep us in faith. At our baptism the Holy Spirit brings us to faith, He makes us one of His as Peter tells us in His epistle, “baptism now saves you.” Even before our baptism, even before we were conceived God chose us. He chose us and sent His only Son, Jesus to redeem us on the cross. Before our baptism we were lost and condemned creatures, helpless and hopeless. But after our baptism we became new creators, new people, we were given new life in Christ. God’s grace was poured out upon us to give our life meaning. Baptism is God’s work, it has nothing to do with our doing anything. Baptism is our passively being given God’s gifts of faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. Baptism is one of the many ways our gracious God shows us how gracious He is to us.
In our Epistle lesson Paul encourages us to “seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” (v. 1). He continues, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (v. 2-4). And he encourages us to put away those things of this life that are dangerous to our spiritual well being. Paul understands that the importance of the world to come should be over and above the things of this world.
In the Gospel lesson Jesus tells the parable of the rich man who focused his attention and life on the things of this world, on amassing riches and wealth instead of focusing on his spiritual well being. Jesus used this parable to emphasize the fact that we do not know when we will pass away, so we need to be ready at all times and we get ourselves ready by focusing on the important things of this world, especially our spiritual lives and faith.
So, when we put these readings together we ask, “What does all this mean?” Our lessons for today and our text help us to understand that apart from God and faith in Jesus Christ, life, our life in this world is vane and meaningless. Without the gifts God gives, good gifts of wisdom, knowledge and happiness, our life in this world is vane and meaningless.
The world would have us believe that our life in this world gets its meaning from what we do, but this is according to humanity and the thoughts of fallible human beings. In other words, this is an idea we cannot count on especially concerning our eternal well being. In this world we are told that we can make a difference and perhaps we might be able to make some difference in this world, but unless that difference has an eternal meaning, it really is no difference, merely here today and gone tomorrow, after all how many people remember Saint Sylvester? Yes, there is a Saint Sylvester and you can look him up. And so, according to the wisdom of our world, our goal in this life should be to leave our mark.
Many years ago, when I was working in youth ministry as a Director of Christian Education I always told the youth, “You make a difference.” How stunned I was when I found out that the fact of the matter is that it does not matter what we do in this life, that truly we do not make a difference, because when we are gone it will all turn to naught. How do you make a positive out of what sounds so negative? The fact of the matter is that the most important thing is life is not what we do or what we think we need to do, but the most important thing is this life is our faith in Jesus Christ, our personal relationship to our heavenly Father. It is Jesus’ life, death and resurrection for us, in our place which is what makes a difference, not simply in this life, but more importantly for eternal life. It is as the Lord has His way with us, as Jesus has lived for us, as He has taken our sins upon Himself, as He has suffered and died to pay the price for ours sins and as He makes His life and work ours that make a difference. It is as He gives, strengthens and keeps us in faith and as He stirs in us to live lives of faith, that is what is important and what makes our lives important. Remember, apart from God, life is truly meaningless, but with God we have a purpose and meaning.
As you have heard me tell you before, our purpose in life is to be love by God and to be given to by Him. So we rejoice in our being loved by God and being given to as we make regular and diligent use of the means He has of loving us and giving to us, His means of grace.
For the past number of Sundays we have been reminded time and again that God is the prime mover, that God gives and we are given to, that God does and we are done to. Last Sunday our text helped us in strengthening our prayer life, and this morning I pray that you will see that without the one thing needful, faith in Jesus Christ, without a relationship with Him through reading His Word, that is His coming to us in His Word, and prayer, that is our going to Him in prayer, that without these things, all of life is vane and meaningless. But thanks be to God that we have that relationship which does give our life meaning. And so our lives do says, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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