The Purpose of Life
Ecclesiastes 1:1-11
Introduction:
- Teenagers have a word for it: Whatever.
- College Students take classes about it, using big words to describe it: existentialism.
- Adults call it a midlife crisis.
All people are on a quest for the purpose in life, and many have concluded that there is none, that it is all hopeless, and what there is what there. Billy Crystal in City Slickers describes it to a T as he stands before a kindergarten class right before he enters his own midlife crisis:
“Value this time in your life, kids, because this is the time in your life when you still have your choices. It goes by fast. When you’re a teenager, you think you can do anything and you do. Your twenties are a blur. Thirties you raise your family, you make a little money, and you think to yourself, ‘What happened to my twenties?’ Forties, you grow a little potbelly, you grow another chin. The music starts to get too loud; one of your old girlfriends from high school becomes a grandmother. Fifties, you have a minor surgery -- you’ll call it a procedure, but it’s a surgery. Sixties, you’ll have a major surgery, the music is still loud, but it doesn’t matter because you can’t hear it anyway. Seventies, you and the wife retire to Fort Lauderdale. You start eating dinner at 2:00 in the afternoon, you have lunch around 10:00, breakfast the night before, spend most of your time wandering around malls looking for the ultimate soft yogurt and muttering, ‘How come the kids don’t call? How come the kids don’t call?’ The eighties, you’ll have a major stroke, and you end up babbling with some Jamaican nurse who your wife can’t stand, but who you call mama. Any questions?”
Now, we might think that such a pessimistic view of things has no place in our lives, let alone in church, but I want to tell you – it not only has a place in church, it has a place in the Bible – the book of Ecclesiastes.
Ecclesiastes 1:1-11:
- Since Ecclesiastes is one of those biblical books of mystery, let’s look at the first couple of verses to learn some of the basics about this book.
- The Elements of Ecclesiastes:
o Author: “The Teacher”
• Some translations call him the Preacher, or the Seeker. The word means “one who calls together a group to address them.” And that is exactly what he is doing in this book – he is sharing with the Israelites, and all of us, his experiences and insights. He has much to teach us, and so we gather around him to learn.
• But who exactly is he?
• A Man Resembling Solomon
• The traditional position is that this man is Solomon. He is identified as son of David and king in Jerusalem in verse 1. Solomon certainly fits that description.
• Solomon was also a man of unsurpassed wisdom, and the Teacher repeatedly draws on his wisdom throughout Ecclesiastes.
• And Solomon was also a man who – though full of wisdom – did not always make the wisest choices, and the Teacher will describe for us throughout Ecclesiastes his dabbling in unwise things.
• It could be, however, that Ecclesiastes was written by someone in accordance with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit with Solomon in mind.
o Phillip Yancey describes it like a play being written from the perspective of a president who is forced to resign under the threat of impeachment. The playwright would not have to use the name Richard Nixon for everyone to know who he was talking about.
• Regardless, Solomon’s shadow is cast ominously over Ecclesiastes. But, he calls himself the Teacher, and so, that is what we will call him.
o Key Words / Phrases:
• Meaningless – 35 times
• Literally, it comes from the word that means breath. It refers to things that are fleeting, transient, futile. One translation uses the word “smoke.” It’s here, you can see it, but in a moment it is gone.
• Under the Sun – 29 times
• The Teacher’s primary concern is the things that happen here on earth. He is concerned about events in life from a human perspective. He does not bother himself in this discussion with what happens above the sun – in heaven. He repeats his hauntingly vivid phrase throughout the book.
o Theme:
• From a human perspective, life is futile and fleeting.
• This is existentialism at its best – why are we here? What is the meaning? Can there be anything in life that gives it purpose and groundings and an anchor? Is this all there is? Is this as good as it gets? And the Teacher says, “Under the sun, it’s meaningless. From a human perspective, life is futile and fleeting.”
• The Teacher is not the only one in the Bible to say things like this:
o 1 Peter 1:24: All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall. (Isaiah 40:6-8)
o James 4:14: Why, you don’t know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
• Several years ago the band Kansas sang a song with this very idea: “Dust in the Wind.”
- This theme is bolstered by the words of verses 3-11.
o From a human perspective, there is a cyclical and tedious monotony to life.
• “The Circle of Life” from The Lion King:
• From the day we arrive on the planet, and blinking, step into the sun, There’s more to be seen than can ever be seen, more to do than can ever be done ... There’s far too much to take in here, more to find than can ever be found; But the sun rolling high through the sapphire sky Keeps great and small on the endless round, In the circle of life.
• Generations, 1:4
• Days, 1:5
• Weather, 1:6
• Water, 1:7
• History, 1:9
- What we see here is that in life on this planet, there is constant change – things are always moving – but underlying that is a basic consistency, a basic sameness to life – verse 4 says it – the earth remains forever, and verse 9 says it – there is nothing new under the sun.
- From a human perspective, there is a cyclical and tedious monotony to life.
- Don’t you feel it? Don’t you know it?
o Work: Lunch Box, Timecard, Customer Service, Exam Graded, Product Produced
o Home: Laundry Basket, Diaper, Dishes, House Cleaning, Bills Paid, Lawn Mower, Email
- Volkswagen had a commercial last year that seemed to come right from the pages of Ecclesiastes. It was named “Bubble,” and it featured the song “Mr. Blue Sky.” A young man went through his daily routine, over and over. The tedious monotony was only stopped when he paused at a window one day and saw a VW Beetle Convertible, as if it could break the great cycle the Teacher here describes.
- Once we realize that this is human reality, we can respond in various ways.
- Consider these Alternatives to the Fleetingness of Life:
o “It’s fleeting. I give up.”
• Marriage
• Work
• Toys
o “It’s fleeting. I don’t care.”
• Apathy and Escapism
• Numbing Ourselves with drugs, alcohol, the internet, television
o “It’s fleeting. I will try to find the purpose.”
• One commentator has written this, “With the word [meaningless the Teacher] refers to the fragile and fleeting nature of existence, which should cause us to seize the moment and live well in it for God, while at the same time leading us to spurn the desire for any control of life and to disdain the insane grasping after [mere monetary profit], which so often characterizes human activity,” 57.
• Poet Robert Herrick in the 1600s: Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying: And this same flower that smiles today To-morrow will be dying.
- If we take the third alternative, and try to find the purpose in life, then our Response to Life’s Fleetingness needs to be one of seeking.
o Seek Wisdom in the Words of Ecclesiastes.
• Oh, Ecclesiastes is full of so much. It will leave you in shock and awe.
• Did you know, for instance, that Ecclesiastes is home of some of our best-known proverbs: There is nothing new under the sun; He makes everything beautiful in its time; the race is not to the swift.
• Did you know that Ecclesiastes is the inspiration for many common and pop culture ideas and sayings: Turn, Turn, Turn by the Byrds; eat, drink and be merry; a little birdie told me.
• Did you know that Ecclesiastes says some hilarious and head-scratching things: I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all; Don’t be overrighteous, neither be overwise; Money is the answer to everything.
• To help you read Ecclesiastes, I placed a bookmark in each of your bulletins. You can use this to keep on track. If you read two chapters of Ecclesiastes a day, you will read through the whole book in a week. Imagine how prepared you will be for God to speak to you on Sunday morning if you have spent your week immersed in his word that we are studying together!
o Seek the Reality in Your Own Life.
• As you read Ecclesiastes and as we study it together, certain phrases will begin to pop out. The Teacher will say that he “thought to himself,” or he “looked and saw,” or he “saw something else.”
• He is on, well to borrow a phrase from Rush Limbaugh, a relentless pursuit of the truth. And he is willing to be honest about life, honest about himself in the process.
• Let me assure you of this – you will not find the purpose of life on Prozac. Life is hard and painful and mistake-ridden. Your life is that way, and my life is that way. If we adopt some Pollyanna, life is peachy-keen attitude, we are not going to discover our purpose in living.
• But, if we are brutally honest with ourselves, we will be on the road to finding what we are looking for.
o Seek Your God Passionately.
• But don’t look inside yourself to find meaning. Look to God.
• I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag too soon, but the purpose of life is not found in anyone or anything “under the sun.”
• Relationships or Children
• Jobs or Possessions
• Achievement or Position
• It’s found in the one who resides above the sun.
• And we must seek him, remember him, go after him.
• In Isaiah 55, God invites his people to come to him. He calls the thirsty to come and drink, the poor and hungry to come and find food. He calls the lonely and the discontent and the unsatisfied to come to him. It’s like when Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” You know what Isaiah says to the people after God’s invitation? He says this, “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.”
Conclusion:
Many people have sought the meaning and purpose in life and come up wanting, people wiser and more creative and more talented than you or I:
- H.G. Wells, famous historian and philosopher, said at age 61: "I have no peace. All life is at the end of the tether."
- The poet Byron said, "My days are in yellow leaf, the flowers and fruits of life are gone, the worm and the canker, and the grief are mine alone."
- The literary genius Thoreau said, "Most men live lives of quiet desperation."
- Ralph Barton, one of the top cartoonists of his day, left this note pinned to his pillow before taking his own life: "I have had few difficulties, many friends, great successes; I have gone from wife to wife, from house to house, visited great countries of the world, but I am fed up with inventing devices to fill up twenty-four hours of the day."
And so was the Teacher. And so you will be one day, if you are not already. And so I will be. And so we must search and find our meaning for our days under the sun in the one who is above the sun. And by his grace, Ecclesiastes will lead us to him.
"Dust In The Wind"
Kansas
Dust in the wind All we are is dust in the wind
Dust in the wind All we are is dust in the wind
I close my eyes Only for a moment, then the moment’s gone
All my dreams Pass before my eyes, a curiosity
Dust in the wind All we are is dust in the wind
It’s the same old song We’re just a drop of water, in an endless sea
All we do Just crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see
Dust in the wind All we are is dust in the wind
Life’s too short brothers and sisters
Dust in the wind All we are is dust in the wind
Don’t hang on Nothing lasts forever, but the earth and sky
It’s there always And all your money won’t another minute buy
Dust. . . all we are is dust in the wind
Life’s too short brothers and sisters
Dust. . . all we are is dust in the wind
Open your eyes you’ve acquired quite a bit Keep your balance don’t you slip
It could all end instantly as you will see Time waits for no one, it just moves on
There is a white one Who won’t accept the black one Who won’t accept the yellow one
Who can’t accept the white. . .
When will we learn That all we are is dust in the wind
Time for the healing to begin All we is are dust in the wind
Time for the healing to begin All we are is dust in the wind
Everything is dust in the wind
