No Real Progress Series

WISE LIVING: NO REAL PROGRESS

Ecclesiastes 1:1-18

#wiseliving2022

READ ECCLESIASTES CHAPTER 1 [person from congregation]

INTRODUCTION… Hollywood remakes (insider.com/most-remade-movies-of-all-time)

If you watch movies, you will notice that most stories or movies are remakes of previous stories and movies. Rarely are there new things that are done in Hollywood. Good stories are good stories and move makers all want their shot at telling good stories and putting their own spin on it. There is no real progress in movies. Hollywood remakes movies over and over. For example:

A Star is Born: 1937, 1954, 1976, 2018

Phantom of the Opera: 1943, 1962, 1989, 2004

Oliver Twist: 1922, 1933, 1948, 1968, 2005, 2007 (made 6 times)

Jungle Book: 1967, 1994, 1998, 2016, 2018 (made 5 times)

Jane Eyre: 1934, 1943, 1970, 1983, 1996, 2011 (made 6 times)

Robin Hood: 1922, 1938, 1991, 2018 (4 times, 5 if you add Robin Hood Men in Tights)

The Three Musketeers: 1921, 1935, 1939, 1948, 1961, 1973, 1993, 2011 (made 8 times)

Hunchback of Notre Dame: 1923, 1939, 1956, 1982, 1996, 1997 (made 6 times)

Bewsters Millions: 1914, 1921, 1926, 1935, 1945, 1961, 1985, 2018 (made 8 times)

The Christmas Carol: over 20 times

Dracula: over 60 times

I think my favorite remakes tend to be westerns like 3:10 to Yuma (2007), True Grit (2010), and The Magnificent Seven (2016). I also like the remakes of the Italian Job (2003) and Mr Deeds (2002).

As I was thinking about Hollywood movies, most movies are actually the same story over and over. Guy gets the girl. Good hero triumphs over evil villain. The long journey to discovery. A group of heroes protect a town. Robots destroy the earth. Also, those combine for the ever popular: group of heroes go on a long journey to triumph over the evil villain robot and the lead guy gets the girl. Those stories are told over and over just with different events or characters. No real progress in movies or stories.

I mention no progress in movies and remakes and that sort of thought because that is very much the central thought in Ecclesiastes chapter 1. The central thought of Ecclesiastes 1: There is No Real Progress in Life.

THE MOST USED WORD IN ECCLESIASTES

As we begin our series of sermons on Wise Living in the Book of Ecclesiastes, you and I will find a word that is used over and over and over again. It is used 39 times in the chapters. It is the word: vanity. Depending on your English translation it is the word: meaningless, pointless, futility, fleeting. The word primarily means ‘breath’ or ‘vapor’ which gives us the picture of a person’s breath on a cold winter day. It is like fog. This is why it is described as smoke or wind. The word is used poetically for things that are temporary or perishable or unsatisfying or mundane. Much of life is vanity. Much of life is temporary, perishable, unsatisfying, and mundane. What we will dig into in these weeks as we focus on the Book of Ecclesiastes is how to live wisely when life is pretty much unsatisfying.

NO PROGRESS IN NATURE (VERSES 4-7)

The writer of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon, looks at life and sees no real meaningful progress. He doesn’t see anything new or different but the same ‘ol same ‘ol. He looks at nature and lays out four examples that he sees that illustrate the futility of life. If he were to imagine life today, he might call it a carousel, an American political debate, a traffic roundabout, or even a movie remake. Stuff just happens over and over and never progresses.

First, in verse 4, he sees the progressions of generations. With the earth and the land as a backdrop, people are born and live and die and people are born and live and die. This happens over and over. The earth is still here. The land is still here. A mountain is still there. A river is still there. Houses are here and there. People come and go. This happens over and over and over again. One generation passes away as another one takes its place all the while the earth remains. Over and over.

King Solomon gets this idea from observing nature. His father King David noticed the same type of thing when he wrote some psalms:

READ Psalm 104:5 (ESV)

He set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved.

READ Psalm 119:90 (ESV)

Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You have established the earth, and it stands fast.

Second, in verse 5, he sees the rising and the setting of the sun. Solomon observes that the sun comes and goes and comes and goes and there is no real progress. It doesn’t actually get anywhere as it travels across the sky. The sun rises in the east where it did yesterday. The sun sets in the west as it will tomorrow.