"What is like....the point[?]" (Ecclesiastes 2 sermon prep)

In preparing a sermon for this week, I'm studying through Ecclesiastes chapter 2. It is one of the most friendly and reassuring passages I've studied since God called me into ministry. Not for the reasons you might expect. Not because it's particularly uplifting, encouraging, or challenging me to conform or change. 

This is a friendly and reassuring passage because Ecclesiastes 2 lays out truth in a manner that I've heard from almost every atheist and agnostic over my last decade of ministry. 

The above confession of Jennifer Down is one that strikes at the very heart of life - not just of the contemporary digital age - but of the human experience throughout history. The crisis of life puts forward the question "What's worth it"? What is worth our time, what is worth our effort, what is worth our striving, what is worth our pursuit?

The beginning of the passage is the preacher laying out a question -

2:1 I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.”

The preacher then goes on to test mirth, laughter, and pleasure in a systematic way. Make no mistake, there is folly and sin mixed in here. The preacher in Ecclesiastes is someone who is pursuing purpose, meaning, and a place in this world by indulging in anything he could possibly desire or find fulfillment in.

The preacher recalls all of his accomplishments and tests of pleasure -

2:10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
    I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my labor,
    and this was the reward for all my toil.
2:11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
    and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
    nothing was gained under the sun.

For many, "sowing wild oats", or "going your own way" is the lifeblood of dreams and aspirations. To be independent, to be a master of the self, to choose exactly what to do and when to do it. To pursue pleasure and the hearts desires, this all sounds like a fairy tale that many of us if we're truly honest would gladly step into!

And yet.....at the end of it all, the results of the preacher's life study in pleasure results in a anticlimactic and morbid finality.

2:17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. 

If life's pleasures are not worthy of our lifelong pursuit, perhaps legacy is a worthy pursuit. To be remembered, honored, and revered even beyond our time on earth is "worth it". The preacher considers posterity and the future also in his seeking for an answer to his question:

2:18 I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. 19 And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless.

A person simply has no control over their own legacy. Who will come after us will judge us, and their own quality, either being wise or foolish, doesn't matter. All that we have done, labored for, and pursued, will be left for another to ruin, or benefit from. The toil, sweat, tears, ambition, and laughter we experience, will not live on beyond our days, but drift away in the timeless winds of history.

While studying this week and praying through Ecclesiastes 2, I'm reminded of the Heidelberg Catechism. The Heidelberg Catechism (A document composed in 1563) is partitioned into three primary sections. It is a  composition made by a great many clergy working together to put into clear language, a summary of the teachings in scripture. The three primary partitions of the Heidelberg are as follows:

1. Misery
2. Deliverance
3. Gratitude

These 3 partitions can be used to sum up life. Life prior to deliverance from sin - is misery. And indeed, the preacher in Ecclesiastes provides a refreshing, honest, and bold account telling of the depths of misery that is found in life - even in a life lived with power, pleasure, and momentary pursuits fulfilled.

Jennifer's tweet - "What is like....the point[?]" is a beautiful and terrifying summary of the preachers summary results in his pursuit of answering his question 'What is good' (Ecclesiastes 2:1)?  Even when abounding with pleasure, life is very much misery. Life without Deliverance from sin is only Misery. Life after Deliverance opens the door to finding lasting rest, immediate lifelong purpose, and motivation for everything we do.

If you're not miserable, and you don't know anyone that is, then Ecclesiastes may not be a book for you to read. Over the last decade, I've met a great many people who are indeed truly miserable. And this week by God's gracious hand, I'm learning to appreciate the misery of life lived absent of deliverance and apart from Gratitude for that deliverance.

If you were miserable, and have been delivered through faith in Christ Jesus, imagine for a moment what a world would be like if Christ didn't rise from the dead? You might think this a blasphemous sentence, to this I'll cede the floor to the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:13-19

15:13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

What a miserable life apart from Christ! Even those of us who live life in a post-deliverance state can appreciate the horror and abysmally depressing status of life, the universe, and everything if Christ did not rise from the dead!

What a breath of fresh air Ecclesiastes is after many long winter months cooped up indoors. To speak of this world, its tragic false promises of purpose and grandeur, to speak plainly about the follies of pleasure and the follies of wisdom. To assert what so many lost voices I've spoken with over the years have said "where do I fit in?" or "where is my place?". There is no answer to these questions apart from deliverance in Christ. The way of folly leads to death. The way of wisdom leads to death. But the way of Christ leads to everlasting life.

If you're not remotely moved by the reality of the misery of life as Ecclesiastes presents, perhaps Ecclesiastes is exactly the book for you to dig into, spend time reading, and considering the wisdom, folly, and voracity of the preachers words.