You could be forgiven for wondering, as you read through this book, what the writers view on God is. At times he seems like a secular humanist. A little bit jaded by his experience of life; quite cynical about life on earth; almost pessimistic at times about our chances of succeeding in life with any sort of long lasting impact.
Yet there are glimpses, aren’t there as we read through these chapters, of a God perspective. Yes, he’s mostly observing life ’under the sun’, but every now and then he sees how it looks ’under heaven’.
Think back to the very first chapter. He says "14I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind." You may remember that I pointed out that ’under the sun’ implies a closed system, where all we have to go on is our own observation of the world. This is the perspective of scientists who have to rely purely on what they can see or measure. The world may be created by an intelligent God but all they can do is guess at the laws of nature that it now obeys. Sometimes they get it right, other times they’re grasping at the truth.
But then there’s another perspective that he sees. He says: "I 13applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to human beings to be busy with." He realises that God has a part to play in what we experience. One of the reasons we find it difficult living under the sun is because God has made it that way. God wants us to have a broader perspective than just our life on this earth.
So in ch 3 in one of the best known passages in the Bible he reminds us that while everything has its season and there are times for every matter under heaven, we can never predict when those seasons will come around. He says: "11He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end." There’s a mystery, an inbuilt hiddenness, in creation that forces us to admit our human frailty, the finite nature of our minds.
I think it was C. S. Lewis who described this as the God shaped hole in every human heart. Alister Magrath, the English theologian, has written a number of books and essays on the death of Atheism. He actually started out as a scientist and an atheist, but in the end found that atheism failed to adequately explain the world he observed as a scientist. Now his personal statement is that "Spiritually, God is the oxygen of my existence; I would find it very difficult to thrive without a belief in God." He found that people like Richard Dawkins, who has greatly popularised an atheist world view, fail to apply the strict scientific criteria to their own beliefs that they demand for Christianity. In the end he concluded "My Christian faith brings me a deepened appreciation of the natural sciences." C. S. Lewis once said "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen-not only because I see it, but because by it, I see everything else." He says: "I conceive God in a manner that illuminates the great riddles and enigmas of life, including how and why it is that we can make sense of the universe at all. His conception offers me an understanding of my own place in the greater scheme of things, and at the same time provides an intellectual ... point from which I can make sense of the world around me. Above all, it sustains my sense of awe at the wonders of nature, and the greater wonders to which they point." Or as 3:14 says "God has done this, so that all should stand in awe before him." The world is as it is so that human beings will acknowledge the God who made it all.
But we mustn’t think that God has done this to spite us or to spoil our enjoyment of life on earth. Despite what some people think God is not a killjoy, a spoil sport who just wants to spoil our fun. Some of his followers might be like that but God isn’t. No, listen to what he says in 3:12&13: "12I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; 13moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil." Do you remember Jesus being criticised for the fact that while other people were fasting, his disciples were eating and drinking? And what was his answer? How could you stop them from celebrating while the bridegroom was with them? God expects us to celebrate the good things in life. It’s his gift to us to be able to eat and drink and enjoy life.
There have been times when people have criticised us here for having too many dinners and social occasions as a church. But my answer is always along the line that enjoying social occasions together is part of God’s plan for his people. It’s how people form community in this world. And I think the greatest answer to their objections is the sense of community that we’ve achieved here. It hasn’t happened because this is such a warm and friendly building or just because we’re a small congregation. It’s happened because we do things together; because God wants us to be a community enjoying his world as we live under his rule.
But that’s the thing isn’t it? We don’t just eat drink and be merry because tomorrow we die. That could be the conclusion of the casual reader of Ecclesiastes. No we eat drink and enjoy life always with the awareness that God is watching over us. We do it always with thankfulness to God for his good gifts to us. We do it always acknowledging our dependence on him.
In ch 5 he says "5:1Guard your steps when you go to the house of God; to draw near to listen is better than the sacrifice offered by fools; for they do not know how to keep from doing evil. 2Never be rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be quick to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven, and you upon earth; therefore let your words be few."
There’s a danger for Christians who have a strong sense of God’s love and acceptance. We can get overconfident in our relationship with him. Jesus’ death and resurrection gives us confidence to enter the most holy place, Hebrews tells us. But we mustn’t forget that it is the most holy place that we’re entering. We’ve been adopted as God’s children but we’re still mortal human beings. God is in heaven and we’re upon the earth. We still need to speak little and listen a lot. We need to practice humility when it comes to God’s revelation of himself. This is particularly true of those who are well taught Biblically and theologically.
The more you understand things from a theological point of view the more you’re tempted to think you’ve got it all sewn up. This is what’s happened to the fundamentalist parts of the church. They’ve worked out their theology and no-one’s going to change their mind. In fact they’ve become extremely suspicious of intellectuals who want to examine the Scriptures to check whether what they thought was true is in fact what was meant originally.
This was the problem with the Pharisees. They’d worked out how God wanted people to live down to the tiniest detail; and then along came Jesus who turned it all on its head. He began to teach people what God wanted in terms of the internal working of their hearts and minds rather than what they did with their mint and thyme. He challenged the idea that human institutions could fully embrace the worship of the living God. He pointed people back to God’s word, to the nature of God. He criticised the Pharisees for creating loopholes that allowed people to get out of doing what they’d vowed before God to do. Perhaps he was thinking of Eccles 5 when he talked about that: "4When you make a vow to God, do not delay fulfilling it; for he has no pleasure in fools. Fulfill what you vow. 5It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not fulfill it. 6...why should God be angry at your words, and destroy the work of your hands?" Jesus’ take on that was to make your yes be yes and your no, no. Don’t bother making a vow, just be people of integrity.
I’ve been listening to Philip Yancey’s "What’s so Amazing about Grace?" lately as I drive along in my car. And he spends a lot of time talking about the forgiveness God offers freely to all who ask for it. But at one point he turns to the question of cheap grace. He asks whether it’s OK for someone to say "I can do what I like tonight because tomorrow I’ll ask God for forgiveness and he’ll forgive me. This is the attitude of Mafia type gangsters who think they can maintain their religious beliefs because all they have to do is go to confession once in a while and the slate will be wiped clean. But God is in heaven and we are on earth, so we mustn’t presume on his grace. Paul addresses this question in Romans 6 where he asks, "What shall we say, then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may increase?" And his answer is a resounding ’No!’ "By no means, how can we who have died to sin still live in it?" To try to do the opposite is to live as a fool, as though God was just a puppet who’s there for our pleasure, rather than the God who made heaven and earth and who will judge is in the end.
As the book draws to its conclusion we find this warning: "12:1Remember your creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come, and the years draw near when you will say, "I have no pleasure in them"." Our lives are far too short aren’t they? I think as you get older this becomes more and more apparent. What seemed like an endless future 40 years ago suddenly becomes a very finite future. I was talking to someone who’s in their 70s the other day and they’d just been to a funeral of an old friend. They made the comment that they’re now at the age where this is a regular occurrence. Life gets shorter and shorter the older you get. Your ability to do things declines along with your strength and general well being. And at every turn of the road there’s one less companion walking beside you.
So what should our response be to the inevitable fate that awaits us all? It’s to remember our creator; to remember that we’re not autonomous beings in a closed universe. We’re answerable to the one who made us and will call us to account.
And notice when we should do this? He doesn’t say the older you get the more you need to be aware of your creator. He says remember him in the days of your youth. It’s when you’re in the peak of health, as life stretches out before you with all its potential, all its possibilities that you need to remember your creator.
Of course one of the conclusions that we have to draw from this book is that we can’t take life for granted. We don’t know the day of our death. We might live to be a hundred or we could die in an accident at 19. Paul’s conclusion in 2 Cor 6 is: "See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!" Don’t delay. Do it now. "Remember your creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come."
And so we come to the end of the matter: "13The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone. 14For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil."
God is not a God to be trifled with. God is not a God to take for granted. Even if our observation of the world leaves us perplexed and confused, God has revealed himself to us in his word. He’s revealed his plan for the world to us. He’s told us what he’s like. He’s told us what he desires of us. He’s given us rules that help us to live in this world. He’s shown us how to make sense of this world. And most of all he’s sent his Son to live as one of us, to take our sins upon himself and to make it possible for us to be brought back to himself. And he’s even given us his Spirit to live within us to change us so we can truly begin to fear God and keep his commandments.
For more sermons from this source go to http://www.stthomasburwood.org.au
