Why am I here?
Ecclesiastes 1:1-11
This week we are looking at the first chapter of Ecclesiastes and it sounds like the most depressing scripture you could ever find. Reading the Book of Job is pretty bad, but today’s reading is so much worse.
I think it is because in many ways it sounds so true. Here at the beginning of a new year it seems more obvious. We look down the road ahead of us and expect a lot of the same stuff that happens every year.
We expect to have another birthday that might make you feel good or bad.
We can expect another year of bills from the electric company, phone company and others.
We can expect to make trips to the grocery store …. over and over.
We can be sure that we will have to file income taxes again this year.
The news shows and paper are going to offer more bad news than good.
Politicians are going to argue and fight.
Traffic is going to be bad.
And Christmas will roll around again.
-- Are we making any progress? OR are we loosing ground?
Does it worry you that many of the world’s problems from last year are going to continue in 2007.
-The Middle East and all the uncertainty of having people at risk.
-Gas prices which are directly dependant on the Middle East.
-How about bird flu?
-World Hunger?
-People around the world dyeing of AIDS?
Not to mention natural catastrophes….
This is not a user friendly world.
It seems as if there is nothing that we can do about almost any of the bad stuff in the world.
Most of us can’t even deal with our personal problems so we know we are helpless against the world issues. Right?
-- Our scripture today is credited to Solomon. His name means peaceful, complete, or prosperous.
Solomon is known for his wisdom, we all remember the story where two women claim one child and to resolve the problem he threatens to cut the child in half to satisfy the women. Then he determines the real mother by the reactions of the women.
He was a man that never lacked for advice as we are told that he had 700 wives and 300 concubines.
The accounts of scripture speak of his wealth, Horses and chariot’s. He builds a fine palace and he is credited for building the Temple.
So, in general Solomon is a man that lacks nothing as far as earthly desires are concerned. And yet historically, he is said to be the author of our text this morning.
2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher.
"Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
3 What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?
4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south and turns to the north;
round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.
7 All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from, there they return again.
Ok, for a man that has everything, he really seems to be down.
The bills are always coming in. All the work he has done does not seem to be appreciated.
Nothing ever changes.
Day after day there are always people wanting things from him and even with all he has ….he still wants something that he has not yet found. He is greatly influenced by the religions and expectations of his wives and the culture. He has studied and tested knowledge and wisdom and still he is missing something.
When I compare our nation and even world to this book, the constant cycles and constant wants just seem so clear. Even if I don’t happen to have the same feelings of hopelessness and desire, I can see signs of it in our culture.
The TV commercials that tell us how to get the good life or a better body with only a pill are selling to people that are dissatisfied and wanting something.
The expectations of a culture to buy things, to value entertainment and leisure over other goals.
We have this example of Solomon, a man with excess of everything earthly and yet he comes to realize that it is not satisfying or rewarding.
Let’s read a little further:
8 All things are wearisome, more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.
9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something new"?
It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
How many times do I need to see a “Boflex” commercial? How any times to I need to be told that I need to have a better looking body. How may times do I need to be offered a great deal on a new car. They are like the waters going into the sea all this advice on what I need to be happy.
It is Constant ….wearisome. The car dealers that tell us that they can get us in a new car even if we still owe too much on our old car.
The world offers the same old deals year after year and yet we watch and listen.
The same old deals are here just like they have always been. No matter how much we learn, no matter how much we work, all we really do is wear ourselves down and out.
Solomon is totally jaded, he has seen it all and nothing impresses him any more. Then he makes another observation.
11 There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.
It just doesn’t matter! Nobody is going to remember what I do. The words I spoke. The things I build. The objects I buy or repair.
He knows that because he does not remember those that came before him. Even his father David is a dim memory. Solomon became king at 12 years old. The memories of King David were already dulled. Thought of kings before that probably held no strong memories so it is clear that we can’t make a mark on this world.
His wisdom tells him that it most of what he had accomplished would be gone soon after his death. And he was correct.
Do we get to feeling like this?
No body likes me, everybody hates me, Think I’ll eat some worms.
Ya’ll need to think about something. We in America are rich compared to the rest of the world. We eat regularly. We have lots of clothes. We have homes.
Do we get into the mind set that nothing is going right?
That we don’t have enough?
Do we start feeling like our lives are meaningless?
Do we ever wonder why we are here?
I think that Solomon spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out that question?
I have talked to folks at the nursing home and in the hospital that ask that question. They often feel absolutely useless and are often ignored.
For the most part, they have lived a long time and found answers to the question from time to time. For some it was to be a wife or husband, to be a doctor or lawyer, at some point it might have been to be a parent or a care giver to a loved one.
When they ask me, why they are where they are, I see the spark of hope. I see a person that is still curious about the meaning of life.
I worry about the ones that have given up. They sit on the sideline, and don’t speak. They just live day to day. They hardly notice that the sun has risen each day.
Unfortunately, not everyone that has given up is in a nursing home.
There are way too many people that just go through the motions of life.
Maybe it is just the cycle between home and work that leaves people feeling hopeless.
Maybe just living a minimum existence of any kind where people just choose to live with no question of anything bigger.
There are too many people that stop asking “why and I here?”
They stop looking for a purpose and a special place and they just go through the motions.
It is obvious that we can’t really change our surroundings or make things really better. The world is too dog eat dog for anyone to really get ahead.
But that can never happen to Christians Right? We feel joy and excitement about life People of God would never just stop asking questions about what they should do….Right?
C.S. Lewis observed that if we look at this world apart from God, life seems intolerably cruel and mean. If we understand that we live in a fallen world, then we understand that this world isn’t the way God made it; it’s not the way it’s supposed to be.
As Christians we first should realize that God is not the originator of the fallen world. That comes down to man.
If we were in the world that God intended then we would be in a place more like the Garden of Eden.
But, it is easy for us to have a basic understanding of God as being the big bully and making all the rules.
It is easy to think that He is against us and nothing we can do will help our situation.
It is easy to think that we have to measure up to his standard and we know we just can’t do it.
And we are completely right in our thinking. We can’t do anything worthwhile without God.
So it is easy to slip in to the feeling that everything we do is meaningless if we leave God out of our plans and projects.
It is easy to just go through the motions and leave the work up to the preacher, the Sunday school teacher or the UMW president.
It is easy to just sit back and let other people wear themselves out for nothing.
Here are the key thoughts for you the consider this morning:
We are not here for a meaningless existence.
We are not here just to go through the motions!
We are here for the purposes of God. While I don’t understand them fully or sometimes at all, I know that His reasons are important. I also know that it is not my job to figure all this stuff out.
I am simply to be available and responsive because, I understand that there is a God….And He is in control.
** I am simply to be available and responsive because, I understand that there is a God….And He is in control.
As a Christian I am driven by the desire to understand why and I here today! The answer can be new and exciting everyday.
Just as our secular roles change as time passes from child to spouse to parent or retired. God’s mission for us evolves and grows.
My suggestion for you is that each morning when you wake up, your first thought should be , “Why did God permit me to wake up this morning?” “What does He have planned for me today?”
If you aren’t asking that, you need to because I can assure you He has a reason for leaving us here.
He has a reason for those in nursing homes and home bound. He has a reason for those that are busy with kids and jobs.
He has a reason and it is up to us to look for His purpose for our continued breath.
Any person that has a life but no purpose is going to be miserable and critical and sometimes just plain mean and sad.
A person with no purpose has a life that is empty…meaningless. They live in monotonous cycles of days, weeks and water under the bridge of life which becomes automatic and pointless as nothing new comes along. They just slowly wear out.
When life has no purpose, you can never be satisfied. It is like driving without a destination and you just go and go until you get back home.
The ride might have been nice but, you didn’t really go any place to make a difference. No souvenirs, no personal memories or special moments.
Mankind…especially Christians are to live a life of purpose…God’s purpose!
So what is God’s purpose:
First it is to have a living relationship with you.
It is a relationship that recognizes that God already offered a method of rising to his standard which we can obtain. It is a relationship that requires communication. Communication includes listening on our part. Relationships require time if the persons are going to get to know each other. Our first purpose is to spend some quality time with God. Worship is fine, Sunday school is better and a personal devotion and prayer time is a commitment to a growing relationship.
Second, our purpose is to become more like Christ. Not people want to say oh – no I could never be like Him. He was God and holy and perfect. What I am talking about is family resemblance. If you are adopted into God’s family by your relationship, people should notice family traits, grace, compassion, and love would be a few. Part of our purpose it to live in this world for God. He forms His character and traits into us via our relationship.
Once you make the commitment to live a life with God’s purposes at the core of your choices, other things will start to happen. Confidence will increase, fear will decrease and trust in God will become easier.
Without God there is no way that we can make a real difference in this world.
But if we active look for his purposes and respond to his direction we will be surprised at what the Lord can do.
All Glory be to God!
