TrinityEvangelicalLutheranChurch August 4th and 8th, 2010 Brillion, Wisconsin Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
Ecclesiastes 2:18-26
I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless.So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun.For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun?All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
They were simple people living in retirement – so they thought. It had always been their dream to buy a retirement home on wheels, a big RV. About twenty years before they hoped to retire they had said to each other, “Wouldn’t it be nice to move around and see everything the good ol’ US of A has to offer?” And that, in a sentence, caught the vision that they shared for retirement. They gave up the cruises, the big trips, and the lavish Christmas presents to save. They saved large amounts of their discretionary income to invest. And invest they did. They invested like crazy in the heady days of the 90s. They were getting closer to living their retirement dream. Then they met someone who told them about this guy who was consistently getting 10-12% annual returns. They were hooked. They funneled all of their assets his way and waited for the pay off. More and more money they plowed into this money manager and their portfolio was really starting to look ridiculously massive. They bought their RV and started their travels. And then they found out what Bernie Madoff was really doing with their money. All their wealth slipped and slid through their fingers like sand does at the beach. They had nothing – literally nothing. They sat, looked at each other, and cried.
The Teacher in Ecclesiastes looked around his world and saw the same evils. And it made him sad. Today we’re going to walk with him through his observations about the world to find meaning. And I’m warning you: before it gets better it gets worse. But in the end he’ll lead us to see how to:
Live the Worthwhile Life!
I warned you once. I’m going to warn you again. The Teacher in Ecclesiastes is going to share observations about the unbelieving world. He’s going to talk about the world – at least for a few verses – like there’s no Christ. Let’s dive in, “I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.” (v. 18) Pretty strong language. I hated all the things I toiled for. I hated them. I hate my house. I hate my car. I hate my stocks and bonds. They aggravate me. Why? I have to leave them to the one who comes after me. I don’t get to enjoy what I worked for myself. I have to give it to someone else. Does that grate on you? It did the Teacher.“And who kn0ows whether he will be a wise man or a fool?”(v. 19) You can’t know how the person who gets all your hard work will treat it. Will he blow all your retirement savings on booze? Will he let that beautiful house you built go to pot? You just can’t know. So here are his concluding thoughts on that matter.“Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless.” (v. 19) Everything you went to school for, spent time on, and labored over. It’s going to be controlled, owned, and used by someone else. So what’s the point? Why work? Why labor? Why do anything at all? Without Christ, it’s empty and meaningless. That’s the point of the Teacher.
I told you. The Teacher is definitely depressing to read and difficult to understand in some places, but he’s also right. Think about it from his point of view for a second. A man can put in 40 years at, say, the Iron Works saving, scrimping, and working his tail off only to have a health condition take him one year into retirement. Outside of our faith, that’s an evil and meaningless thing. A woman can cut the coupons, work as a waitress for years, and never have a thing to her name. With no Savior, that’s an evil and meaningless thing too.
Depressing stuff to observe with the Teacher, isn’t it? It gets worse before it gets better.“So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun.” (v. 20) The Teacher has been making some cold, analytical observations about our world. But he doesn’t want you to think that he’s a hard nosed, mean guy that should be blown off like he’s a crazy nobody. First of all, he proves in other parts of his book that he’s definitely someone to listen too. Secondly he’s got a big heart. You can hear it in his words. He said, “my heart began to despair.” It makes him sad to think about these things, but that doesn’t stop him from asking this haunting question: “What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun?” (v. 22)
Take the long view. In the end, what do all your hours at the factory get you? Does it get you money? No, not that. That gets spent, lost, stolen, and given to others. When then? In the end what does it honestly get you? Here’s what the Teacher says, “All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.” (v. 23) Here’s what you get for working. You get pain and grief and a brain working overtime so that you can’t get a decent night’s sleep. That’s true, isn’t it? You get worn out, stressed, and old from the work you do.
Maybe it troubles you that God would put such a cynical, depressing section into the Bible. Don’t let it. There’s an important lesson for us Christians to learn. It’s a lesson by negative example. Remember when you were a kid and you said, “I’m not going to do this when I’m a parent because…” You learned a lesson that you made sure not to repeat because you knew the negative consequences. Well, here the Teacher is giving you a negative life lesson. It’s a lesson about work. Let’s try to figure it out. First of all, we’ve learned it’s not worthwhile to go through life working only for money. Sure it’s necessary to support our families. That’s true enough, but money cannot be the only reason or even the primary part of work. It's so easy to think, “I hate my job. I’m just getting through for the paycheck.” But isn't it true that that way of thinking is a meaningless way to approach to many hours of our life?
So where’s the help? How can we make our work worthwhile? How can we turn a miserable life into a well-lived worthwhile one? Here’s the depressing truth: we can’t. Sadly, that’s why so many people die bitterly and alone in our world. So where’s the hope? How can our lives be meaningful, worthwhile, happy ones? It’s not in us or around us or through us. I think you probably know the answer, but let’s hear it from the Teacher.
Here’s what he says: “A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?” (v. 24, 25) There’s the answer in one sentence. Let’s start with the second sentence first. The worthwhile life is from the hand of God. You can’t get happiness, or enjoyment, or any good emotion without God. It’s true. God gives happiness. God gives joy. It all comes from the hand of God. And that applies to work. Now we’re back to the first sentence. As we live our lives there’s nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in your work.
In other words, don’t just work for the work, work for the enjoyment of work. And how do you do that? Maybe you say, “I’m tired of churning out endless lawnmowers. How can I ever enjoy that?” God will help you. God helps garbage truck operators, salesmen, farmers, and office workers all to find contentment with what they do. How? He helps us understand that everything we do we do for him. It's really that simple. When you know the one who bought you; loved you; and made your life valuable; you do whatever it is that you do for him. That gives your work and life meaning. That makes what you do worthwhile and even enjoyable. Listen to the Teacher confirm that thought.
“To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God.” (v. 26) There’s the key to happiness in labor. God gives wisdom, knowledge, and happiness. God gives the wisdom to know that we’re pure people in Christ. And we’re holy workers no matter what we’re doing in the work place. Everything you do has a halo over it because Christ’s perfection is applied to you through faith. And finally, God gives knowledge that everything we do is worth doing when we do it for love of the Savior. That’s when happiness comes. God gives it to those who are living for Jesus.
I’m really hoping to get through to you on this. Maybe you connect the same part to the same part thousands of times per day. Maybe you change diapers only to change another one or wash a dish only to find another one. Maybe your job is stressful and the work never seems to end. It’s easy to find misery, and hopelessness in those situations. It’s easy to conclude, “My life is as meaningless.” Well, have I got great news for you! Our God is the answer. In the cross we find a place to leave hopelessness and misery perfectly atoned for forever; not only that but there we have the promise of a bright future in the skies. And in the Spirit we find the power to ditch those attitudes again and again when they boomerang around on us. In Christ we can say, “I’m connecting part to part and changing endless diapers because it’s what God has given me to do today. And what my loving God wants me to do is something I want to do. And more than that I will work at enjoying it as I do it.” Those attitudes are not easy to accomplish. So ask your powerful Father to help you always live the joyful, worthwhile life in Christ.
Take Sally for example. She was a pretty happy person inside most of the time. She didn’t hide it from others. You could tell from the smile on her face and the friendly hellos that were a dead give away if you were paying attention. She worked for Piggly Wiggly. She enjoyed what she did because she knew this was the job God had given her. And what the God she loved had given her she was determined to enjoy. Everyday she was there from 9-5pm. She liked (for the most part) bumping into people she knew and helping to ring up their sales. She wasn’t lonely because she knew her Lord and so many people from her church. It wasn’t like she was bouncing off the walls with happiness all the time, but most of the time she felt pretty good. Life went on like that for years. She did get married and had kids and she passed on the happiness Jesus gives to her kids. She had Jesus in her life. She lived the worthwhile life.
Days fly by, don’t they? We go to work; we eat; we sleep; we repeat. Why? Why does that matter? It doesn’t outside of Christ. But when we live in Christ, we live for him. We mow the lawn for Jesus because we know he substitutes his perfect, loving attitudes in our place before God. We scrub the dishes because of Christ’s cross, which paid for our wrongs. We put our kids to bed knowing he did everything to accomplish eternal peace for us. That’s the worthwhile life. It’s a life lived for Christ and a life filled up with Christ. There’s the God given wisdom, knowledge, and happiness the Teacher talked about. Why do we work? Why does what we do actually matter? It matters because we did it for the God who made us new with his blood. That’s the worthwhile life. Amen.