Sermons from Mission Hills UCC
San Diego, California
Rev. Dr. David Bahr
david.bahr@missionhillsucc.org
January 7, 2024
“The Quest”
Ecclesiastes 3: 1-13 – The Message
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.
9-13 But in the end, does it really make a difference what anyone does? I’ve had a good look at what God has given us to do—busywork, mostly. True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time—but he’s left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he’s coming or going. I’ve decided that there’s nothing better to do than go ahead and have a good time and get the most we can out of life. That’s it—eat, drink, and make the most of your job. It’s God’s gift.
Here is how the Book of Ecclesiastes begins in chapter 1:
1 2-11 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.
The wind blows south, the wind blows north.
Around and around and around it blows,
blowing this way, then that—the whirling, erratic wind.
[Here’s a question for you:] All the rivers flow into the sea,
but the sea never fills up. [What’s with that?]
The rivers keep flowing to the same old place,
and then start all over and do it again.
[grunt] 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.
Year after year it’s the same old thing.
Does someone call out, “Hey, this is new”?
Don’t get excited—it’s the same old story.
Nobody remembers what happened yesterday.
And the things that will happen tomorrow?
Nobody’ll remember them either.
Don’t count on being remembered.
I think this guy might want to consider getting some therapy. Or a prescription for something. They say the author was an old king but it also kind of sounds like a 15-year-old with an attitude. “Boring to the eye, boring to the ear.” Either way, it might sound like the rants of a pessimist or a realist, but I don’t think so. Perhaps they are the uncomfortably honest reflections of someone who has seen it all – honest questions we may not dare ask. Not a rant but the human quest. What’s the point of all our efforts, our hard work and striving? He continues:
12-14 Call me “the Quester.” I’ve been king over Israel in Jerusalem. I looked most carefully into everything, searched out all that is done on this earth. And let me tell you, there’s not much to write home about. God hasn’t made it easy for us. I’ve seen it all and it’s nothing but smoke, smoke, smoke and spitting into the wind.
15 Life’s a corkscrew that can’t be straightened,
16-17 I said to myself, “I know more and I’m wiser than anyone before me. I’ve stockpiled wisdom and knowledge.” However, what I’ve finally concluded is that so-called wisdom and knowledge are mindless and witless—nothing but spitting into the wind.
18 Much learning earns you much trouble.
The more you know, the more you hurt.
Smoke, smoke, nothing but smoke. [That’s what the Quester says.]
There’s nothing to anything—it’s all smoke.
You may know the opening statement of Ecclesiastes as, “Vanity. Vanity. It’s all vanity.”
Or, “Futility. Absolute futility. Everything is futile.”
Or, “Utterly meaningless! Nothing matters!”
We get the perfectly pointless point!
He moves on to chapter 2:
2 1-3 [So], I said to myself, “Let’s go for it—experiment with pleasure, have a good time!” But there was nothing to it, nothing but smoke.
What do I think of the fun-filled life?
My verdict on the pursuit of happiness? Who needs it?
With the help of a bottle of wine and all the wisdom I could muster,
I tried my level best to penetrate the absurdity of life.
4-8 Oh, I did great things:
built houses, planted vineyards,
designed gardens and parks and planted a variety of fruit trees in them,
I acquired large herds and flocks.
I piled up silver and gold,
loot from kings and kingdoms.
I gathered a chorus of singers to entertain me with song,
I had in my bed anyone I wanted.
9-10 Oh, how I prospered! I left all my predecessors behind in the dust. Everything I wanted I took—I never said no to myself. I sucked the marrow of pleasure out of every task—my reward to myself for a hard day’s work!
11 Then I took a good look at everything I’d done, looked at all the sweat and hard work. And I saw nothing but smoke. Smoke and spitting into the wind. There was nothing to any of it. Nothing.
The Book of Ecclesiastes is sometimes attributed to the great King Solomon, son of King David. A man who had it all, 700 wives and 300 concubines. He wanted for nothing. However, this was written 700 years after Solomon, about 200 years before Christ. One clue: In the time of Solomon, people believed that wisdom would bring a good life. The Book of Proverbs is optimistic. But here we are 700 years later and what did wisdom get us? Especially after the community had been carried off to exile in Babylon, would wisdom have really made a difference?
So, we return to chapter 2:
12-14 And then I took a hard look at what’s smart and what’s stupid. I did see that it’s better to be smart than stupid. Except that, even though the smart ones see where they’re going and the stupid ones grope in the dark, they’re all the same in the end. One fate for all—and that’s it.
15-16 When I realized that my fate’s the same as the fool’s, I had to ask myself, “So why bother being wise?” It’s all smoke, nothing but smoke. The smart and the stupid both disappear out of sight. In a day or two they’re both forgotten. Yes, both the smart and the stupid die, and that’s it.
Just when we start to think, this is all too dark, pointless, where can he possibly be going, that’s when he offers this beautiful wisdom, this insight which so many of us find inspiring. As Pete Seeger wrote in the 60s:
To everything turn, turn, turn
There is a season turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under Heaven
A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace
A time to refrain from embracing – someone observed that time was Covid
A time to gain, a time to lose
A time for love, a time for hate
A time for peace, I swear it's not too late – Seeger’s excellent addition to Ecclesiastes
The Byrds recorded the song and it became a hit. It was the number one song on the Billboard Hot 100 in December, 1965.
Ecclesiastes chapter 3 is so popular because it is so universal. Wisdom from someone who has had it all and seen it all. Not a prescription that there should be a time to love and there should be a time to hate. It’s a description of life as he has experienced it – there have been times of love and hate, or war and peace. It’s true. It’s universal. But it is also wisdom for those still yet to experience it. An encouragement for the younger and inexperienced: Don’t worry. There is a time for everything under the sun. Don’t worry. The times will turn. It gets better. And it may get worse again. And there is often nothing we can do about it but observe. And not panic. Don’t stress. The quester in Ecclesiastes asks:
9-13 In the end, does it really make a difference what anyone does? I’ve had a good look at what God has given us to do—busywork, mostly. True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time—but God’s left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether God is coming or going. I’ve decided that there’s nothing better to do than go ahead and have a good time and get the most we can out of life. That’s it—eat, drink, and make the most of your job. It’s God’s gift.
14 I’ve also concluded that whatever God does, that’s the way it’s going to be, always. God’s done it and that’s it. So simply worship God in holiness.
15 Whatever was, is.
Whatever will be, is.
That’s how it always is with God.
This is what I find as the core of Ecclesiastes: In the face of all the changing times, the smoke and nothingness, the turns in life from gain to loss and loss to gain, from building up and tearing down and building up, before it’s torn down again, there is one thing that does not change: God. The only thing that is Eternal. And with all that, what then? In chapter 5, The Quester said,
18-20 After looking at the way things are on this earth, here’s what I’ve decided is the best way to live: Take care of yourself, have a good time, and make the most of whatever job you have for as long as God gives you life. And that’s about it. That’s the human lot. Yes, we should make the most of what God gives, both the bounty and the capacity to enjoy it, accepting what’s given and delighting in the work. It’s God’s gift! God deals out joy in the present, the now.
I want to take a little issue with “just take care of yourself” and add a little Jesus – loving our neighbor and all that. Compassion and taking care of one another is closer to my philosophy of life than eat, drink and be merry. And yet I accept his point: There is often very little we can do to change anything even though I believe that is the way to have a meaningful life.
But it’s true how he concludes chapter 6: It’s useless to brood over how long we might live.
His concluding words from chapter 8:
8 16-17 I realized that if you keep your eyes open day and night without even blinking, you’ll still never figure out the meaning of what God is doing on this earth. Search as hard as you like, you’re not going to make sense of it. No matter how smart you are, you won’t get to the bottom of it.
That’s how the Book of Ecclesiastes whimpers to the end. Lots of words that are just smoke. Pointless. Vanity.
Really? No. Ecclesiastes is powerful because it speaks universal truth about the challenges of being human in an ever-changing world. And in the midst his insistence that it is all pointlessness, it points us forward: To pursue the only thing that doesn’t change. The only thing that is truly eternal. Someone on to whom we may hold strong when everything falls apart and the bottom falls out from beneath us. God is that unchanging foundation, our Rock. And the redeemer of all that has been and will be – both the good and the ugly. The quest is for God.
Now, after hearing all this, what do you think is the message of Ecclesiastes?