Engaging Scripture

What song is the number one hit with the oldest lyrics in the history of the US Billboard charts? – Ecclesiastes 3:1-15, Part 1

How many of you have felt that life in 2020 is leaving you pulled in opposing directions? For example, we have the most advanced medical technology in history, and yet a global pandemic has killed hundreds of thousands. Or we could be considered the most relationally-connected society in history, especially considering internet and global communications, and yet how many people feel isolated and alone because of quarantine? We have a plethora of options for entertainment, and yet how many feel bored?

How should we live in a world of extremes?

To try to answer that, I have a trivia question for you. What song holds the distinction of the being the number one hit with the oldest lyrics in all the history of the US Billboard charts? I asked this question when I preached this sermon live, and someone answered Amazing Grace, which is a strong answer. I don’t know that a rendition of Amazing Grace ever made it on the Billboard charts, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Amazing Grace is a very old song, but the lyrics of the song that holds the record is far, far older. Someone else answered, “Mozart or Beethoven,” both of whom are quite older than the Billboard charts, but I doubt either of them have a version of one of their works on the charts. And still, the record-holder’s lyrics are thousands of years older than the classical masters.

What do you think is Billboard #1 with the oldest lyrics?

The song itself was first written in the 1950s, but the lyrics are much, much older. Do you know the song? Its lyrics are around 2500 years old!

In fact the lyrics are from a poem in the passage we are studying this week on the blog. Turn to Ecclesiastes 3, and look at verses 1-8. Instead of reading this passage, we’re going to listen to the song Turn, Turn, Turn by Pete Seeger. Over the years, others have made 80+ renditions of Seeger’s song. Perhaps the most famous version, a cover by The Byrds, hit number one on the US charts in December 1965. Follow along as The Birds sing verses 1-8 for us, describing our world of extremes.

Isn’t it fascinating that a poem which is at least 2500 years old is still so relevant? Other than the line about stones in verse 5, it seems to me that every one of the 13 other couplets in this poem is very relatable, very much a part of our lives even in 2020.

The poem brings up many central themes of life such as the cycle of life, relationships, work, emotions, the stuff that we give most of our time to, and about which we care deeply. The poem becomes another reflection on the cyclical, fleeting nature of life that the Teacher has been talking about from the very beginning of Ecclesiastes. Specifically the teacher illustrates the cyclical, fleeting nature of life with 14 sets of opposites.

Four years ago our family experienced this pattern of opposites quite vividly. Check back in tomorrow, and I’ll tell you the story.

The answer to the meaning of life – Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:26, Part 5

At the beginning of this five-part blog series on Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:26, I showed you Ed Ames’ song, “Who Will Answer?”, a song that is really asking, who brings meaning to life?

As we have seen all week long, while humanity tries to answer that question many way, it is only God who has the answer. And jumping to the New Testament, we see that Jesus is the answer. But how?

We find true meaning in life through the abundant life that Jesus came to bring. Jesus’ abundant life is a very different approach to life than what is often considered wise. Just open up the sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapters 5-7 and you’ll see pretty quickly what I mean.

“Love your enemies”??? In what world is that wise, Jesus? Your enemy can take you down! You shouldn’t love them, you should neutralize them!

Or take another famous saying of Jesus. “Do not store up treasure on earth, but store up treasure in heaven.” That doesn’t seem wise, either, Jesus.

Give generously and sacrificially of you time, talent and treasure? I often think of how much money I would have if I had never in my life given any to the Lord.

But that was Jesus for you. Upending the conventions of society, and he still sounds off his rocker today.

So back to the Teacher in Ecclesiastes 2:24-26. Notice how the teacher’s perspective is in line with the way of Jesus. Focus on a life of joyfully serving the Lord. That’s what brings meaning to life. Choose love. Love, as one poet says, is the only thing you can’t leave behind when you die. Choose to see God’s hand and goodness in things, even in the hard things of life.

Have you been stuck passionately pursuing someone or thing that has taken your eyes off Jesus? Think about Jesus with me for a moment. Can you say that you are passionate about him?

I was recently studying Jesus’ trial in chapter 15 of the Gospel of Mark. I found it fascinating to see the Jews so intensely passionate about killing Jesus. And yet he was God. How did they get it so wrong? They were blinded by the perception of God that they had created, so when God showed up right in front of them, he wasn’t in line with that perception, and they could not see him. Do we ever do that?

We do. Many ways. The different personalities here show us the ways that we can miss seeing that God is right here with us, whether that is the Philosopher, who can get caught up in always questioning. Or it might be the Student trying to just educate themselves about God and the world. Whether it is the Party Animal choosing to just have a great time and fully enjoy all of life. Or maybe it is the Addict, numbing ourselves to what is going on by different kinds of addictions. Maybe we are the Workaholic or maybe we are the Puritan just focusing on following all the rules. It might even be the Philanthropist!

Viewing and living life through these personalities can cause us to miss God. We can miss out connecting to the one living, good God who loves and adores us. He is the God who wants to connect with you and walk through the good and the bad with you. He is the God who is real, active and has desires to be known by you.

When we choose to know him, not just know about him, that is where we find abundant meaningful life. That is where it is at.

We all go through seasons, sometimes feeling more connected to God than other times. Which are these different “personality” themes do you lean towards? Maybe more than one. In what way can that personality instruct any changes that you might need to make to help you be able to connect more with God during this season? Talk about it with someone else. Develop an accountability relationship, cheering one another on to connect deeper with our God.

Let us see Jesus as the answer. A vibrant, passionate life of following Jesus is what will bring meaning to that seemingly bottomless pit of emptiness that we can feel in our lives. Pursue Jesus!

The downfall of the Philanthropist – Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:26, Part 4

I recently listened to a podcast about Walt Disney (episode 204), and it was fascinating to hear the story of how he grew his company from a few cartoon drawings into what is today one of the top ten companies in the world. After Disney died, however, there was a massive court battled that raged among his descendants trying to get their piece of the family fortune. How must Walt have felt about that?

In this series of posts, The Teacher has been trying out various roles or personalities in life to try to discover the meaning of life. So far he is batting 0-6, but he has one more shot. The seventh and final role is The Philanthropist, which he describes for us in Ecclesiastes 2:17-23.

The Philanthropist attempts to find the meaning of life by accomplishing and acquiring much, as a legacy for future generations.

This is the person who really is a hard worker and has a kind heart. Think of Milton Hershey or Bill and Melinda Gates, people using their wealth by investing in future generations.

But as I mentioned above about Disney, the Philanthropist’s plans don’t always work out well. These kinds of battles don’t just happen with the uber-wealthy. Some of you have had similar battles in your families.

So, the Teacher concludes, who knows what the next generation or future generations will do with one’s accomplishments or gifts? Others in the future may even use one gifts and legacy for folly and evil. The teacher is right. Do you know that your descendants will use the legacy you worked hard for in a way that is wise and honorable? In fact, a possible outflow of your Christian faith could be how you handle your will and your estate. Think about your last will and testament as it is currently written: does it all go to family members? Why? Will they use it in a way that is in line with way of Jesus?

Here’s an idea: consider writing your will so the distribution of your estate is a reverse tithe. What if you would give 90% to the Kingdom of God and 10% to family members? Don’t tell them about this while you’re alive, or it could create a tense situation in your family! A reverse tithe would be one way to address the philanthropist’s concern.

So very much like the Puritan, while the Philanthropist attempts to do good with their life, in the end, they will die too.

What we see in the seven roles or personalities (if you want to read about the previous six personalities, start with #1 here, then #2-4 here, and #5-6 here), is that there are many ways people try to bring meaning to their lives, and they all fail at answering the question of what is the true meaning of life.

So what should we do? The Teacher tells us. Let’s read his conclusion in Ecclesiastes 2:24-26.

I love how Dorsey summarizes the Teacher’s conclusion, “One can neither discover nor achieve lasting significance for one’s life; nor can one discover life’s ultimate meaning; so abandon the futile effort and enjoy the gifts and work that God daily gives you. Live in a way that pleases God; enjoy the happiness that comes from him as you live this life, the ultimate purpose of which you cannot perceive.”

Focus on joy today. This does not mean that wisdom is foolish and we should stop going to Costco and buying things in bulk and do all our shopping at the corner store. Convenience stores are always going to be more expensive than wholesalers. Also using coupons and shopping at discount stores is still wise! What the Teacher is saying is that while wise living does have its purpose, it cannot ultimately bring the meaning the we so desperately seek. Perhaps you know people like this. People who use wise principles in various areas of life but they are still really struggling with understanding the purpose of life?

Maybe Tom Brady, the NFL quarterback, is an example. Brady was once asked after winning the Super Bowl, “How does it feel? It must feel great to be the champion.” Brady replied, “Yeah, it is great, but I want to win one more.” Maybe that’s just Brady’s competitive personality coming out. Or maybe his comment is evidence of the emptiness deep inside, and emptiness we can all feel, an emptiness that none of the seven roles can fill.

The only way we find true meaning in life is when we rest in God, when we follow his way of life. In other words, to answer Ed Ames’ question in the song I mentioned in the first post in this series, “Who will answer?”, who brings meaning to life? God does. Jesus is the answer. But how? Check back tomorrow for the next and final post in this series, as we’ll try to answer that question!

How work and wisdom fail to bring ultimate meaning to life – Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:26, Part 3

This week we’ve been following the Teacher in the biblical book of Ecclesiastes try out seven roles or personalities, all in an attempt to find the meaning of life. It’s a kind of ancient personality test. So far the Teacher has introduced us to the Philosopher, the Student, the Party Animal and the Addict, but none of them have provided the meaning of life. The Teacher, in the final three roles, definitely makes a turn toward roles that seem very positive, but as we’ll see, they have a dark side too. The next role can be described two ways: either the Workaholic or the Aristocrat, as we read in Ecclesiastes 2:4-11.

This person attempts to find the meaning of life by accomplishing much, becoming wealthy, filling life with pleasures.

We Americans know this person well. This is the person who seeks to find meaning in work, and they work and work and work. This person works on their days off, and they work on vacation. They are checking their email all hours of the day and night.

This role is deceptive because people actually do gain from this. The money is nice. They know how to make money, and they do make money. They work hard and they seek to provide meaning, not only from the accomplishments of the work, such as the promotions, the connections, and the power, but also through the purchases. Nicer cars. Nicer homes. Nicer vacations. They are the people who upgrade their lives. This is perhaps the epitome of American life, and we Christians, by and large, have bought in to this so-called American Dream, thinking it will bring meaning to our lives.

The Teacher, however, discovers it to be not a dream, but a nightmare. One’s accomplishments and wealth, while enjoyable for a time, fail to provide lasting meaning or significance to life, and as so many in our day and age have found, leave us bitter and in ill health, wondering why we burned ourselves out all those years. Discovering the meaning of life goes beyond just responsibly holding a job.

That brings us to the sixth role the Teacher takes on, the Puritan in Ecclesiastes 2:12-16.

Perhaps the Teacher has finally found the role that can give him the meaning of life. The Puritan attempts to find the meaning of life by living wisely. Sure seems like this is the way to go: wisdom!

I once had a book called Life’s Little Instruction Book: 511 suggestions, observations and reminders on how to live a happy and rewarding life. On each page the author wrote a sentence or two of advice that he wanted to give his son who was headed to his freshman year of college. It was a modern day book of Proverbs in the Bible.

I’ve often thought about what I would write in a book like that if I was making one. The first page would be “Wait to write a book of wisdom at least until you turn 40.” There’s at least a slice of wisdom that only time and experience can provide.

Here are a couple of mine: “At some point, delete your social media accounts, and go without them for a year.” “Leave the USA at least once every 24 months, and visit a country where there is great poverty and choose to educate yourself on the systems and issues there.” Or “Leave your local community at least once every 24 months, and spend time serving in a ministry in a different city – for the purpose of understanding something new.” “Eat foods from other countries and cultures on a regular basis.” “Always be reading at least one book. And mix it up between fiction book, biography, and the spiritual life…all the time.” “Regularly hear from sources of media that you would normally disagree with. If you’re a CNN kind of person, listen to Fox News too, and vice versa. Make sure your social media feeds include both.” “Build relationships with people of a different color.” “In a conversation, listen more than you talk.”

We would probably all do well to try to create a book like that to pass on to our kids and grandkids, right? What would you include? On the last page, though, after trying out the Puritan role, seeking wisdom, the Teacher would include: “trying to live a wise life is a dead end.” Well, then, what’s the purpose of writing a wisdom book???

The Puritan is correct that trying to live wisely is generally advisable for anyone at any time. The problem is trying to answer what wise living actually entails. There are so many disagreements, such as we see in our divided culture. Should we live according to the conservative point of view, or should we live according to the liberal point of view? There are disagreements about nearly everything. Pro-choice vs. Pro-Life. Gun laws. Death penalty. Jail sentencing. Go into debt? Or don’t buy until you have the cash to pay in full? These disagreements are why it is called the culture war.

The Puritan is the one who believes extremely strongly in their own point of view as the right one. You can be a puritan conservative or a puritan liberal. You can be a puritan Christian, which is where the name comes from. The pure ones. They were Protestants trying to live a faithful Christian life in Europe, but when they were persecuted, they emigrated to New England because there was freedom of religion in the Colonies.

The problem with puritanism is that it often becomes self-righteous. Elitist. The person who says boldly, “My way is best, and unless you follow my way, you are wrong.” “Guess what?” the Teacher says to the Puritan, “You will die, too.” So while it is generally advantageous to seek to live wisely, in the end the result is the same.

The Teacher has one more shot. The seventh and final role. Will he finally find the meaning of life? Check back in tomorrow to find out!

Can the Student, the Party Animal, or the Addict find the meaning of life – Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:26, Part 2

Are you searching for the meaning of life?

In Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:26, as we learned in the previous post, the Teacher tries out seven different roles, each one an attempt to find the meaning of life. So far, he has tried the Philosopher, and found it comes up empty. Now the Teacher takes on the role of the Student. Look at what he says about this role in Ecclesiastes 1:16-18.

The Student attempts to find meaning in life by acquiring wisdom and knowledge.

How many of you are students? I am a student, having just started the dissertation phase of doctoral studies. While the Student role is definitely related to those who like traditional academics, like the people who tear their hair out trying to get masters degrees and doctorates, many people are students in other ways. You don’t have to go to school or have college degrees to be a student. This is the reader, whether that is the newspaper, or articles online, or magazines, or blog posts or books of all kinds. But there are other kinds of students who have a thirst to learn in different ways, such as the travelers, finding new places, or the person who watches documentaries, or listens to podcasts.

But in this role, the Teacher says, the pursuit of the student is endless and fruitless. There’s always more to learn! As the phrase goes, “the more you learn, the more you realize what you don’t know.”

Dorsey says that the role of the Student “only makes a person more painfully aware than ever of his or her abysmal ignorance to the point of life.”

So the Teacher said that he tried out the third role, the Party Animal, which he describes in Ecclesiastes 2:1-2.

The Party Animal attempts to find meaning in life by just having fun! How many of you would admit to being the party animal???

This could certainly be the person who loves to throw actual parties or go dancing at the club. But it is also the thrill seeker. The sports enthusiast, the one who loves entertainment of all kinds. Movies, TV shows, the great outdoors. This is the comedian, the jokester and the prankster. I watched a video this week of the magician David Blaine who tied himself to 50 huge helium balloons that carried him up over 20,000 feet. He had to use a special breathing technique to make it through the high altitudes where oxygen is dangerously thin. This is the person who seeks to see how far they can push their body, like those crazy marathon runners.

The Teacher concludes that for the Party Animal, fun and laughter provide no meaning to life either, because after the party is over nothing has been gained.

So the Teacher continues, and he takes on the role of the Alcoholic. Read Ecclesiastes 2:3.

This person attempts to escape the pain through wine. Dorsey translates this verse like this, “I tried dulling my senses with wine and embracing folly, until I thought, ‘What good does this do during a person’s fleeting days?’ ”.

So there is no doubt that alcoholics are in view here. But it is not just alcohol. In our day we might expand that a bit and call this role the Addict, because there are many ways that we try to dull our sense and escape and try to find meaning in the world. Addiction comes in many shapes and sizes, doesn’t it? TV shows, movies, sci-fi, fantasy, porn, exercise, dieting, nicotine, drugs, sex, shopping, you name it.

This, too, the Teacher discovers is a dead end: the nagging question of the meaning of life cannot be silenced with wine or any other source of addiction. There is an emptiness deep within that cannot be filled.

But what of a more productive method? The Teacher, in the final three roles, definitely makes a turn toward roles that seem very positive, but they, too, have a dark side.

How an ancient personality test can help us discover the meaning of life – Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:26, Part 1

Ed Ames a provocative song in 1968 and it just might resonate with you today. Take a look:

In case you didn’t catch it clearly, here is the chorus:

If the soul is darkened by a fear it cannot name
If the mind is baffled when the rules don’t fit the game
Who will answer?
Who will answer?
Who will answer?

The song is asking, “How do we find meaning in life?” In a world that is filled with so much pain and trouble and dark, difficult questions, how do we find meaning? But the song stops short of an answer. The song just asks the question. Who will answer?

That question is exactly what the Teacher in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes is asking. Last week we studied chapter 1, verses 1-11, and the Teacher started off with the phrase “Meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless.” Not an encouraging beginning to a book of ancient wisdom. But as I wrote here, the Teacher almost certainly did not intend to tell us that life is meaningless. Instead, he is describing how life is fleeting. So that leaves us with a question: what is the meaning of life?

Through the rest of chapter 1 and all of chapter 2, the Teacher plays seven different roles, seven people who each seek the meaning of life in their own way. As we meet these seven kinds of people, I want you to know that I am indebted to my Old Testament professor, David Dorsey, for his explanation of this section. Also, as we meet the seven seekers of meaning, what we will find is that this section of Ecclesiastes is almost like an ancient personality test. Some of you have taken the Disc profile or the Enneagram or the Taylor-Johnson temperament analysis. Well, think of this as the Ecclesiastes Profile, and see if you are like any of these seven.

First, the Teacher takes on the role of the Philosopher. Read Ecclesiastes 1:12-15.

The Teacher says that the Philosopher is the person who attempts to find meaning in life by discovering the big picture. In Verse 13, he “explored by wisdom all that is done under heaven.” That’s a pretty big picture.

This person doesn’t have to be a classically trained philosopher. Instead it might be the person who has the personality of a philosopher. This person is a questioner, a person who is quick to examine below the surface of an issue, wondering if there is more to the story. It might be the person who gets interested in conspiracy theories. It might be the person who just wants to know “Why?” or “How?” Philosophers are the curious ones, the ones who don’t like it when a situation or rationale doesn’t make sense. The philosophers among us want to a world that fits together. So they ask even more questions:

How can God always have existed with no beginning? How did the universe come into being? Do we have free will or is everything determined, and we just have the illusion of free will? Why is there so much evil and pain in the world? Couldn’t God have created a world free of all that hard stuff, or at least a lot less? Why did Jesus have to die? Was there not a better way to save the world? And on and on the questions go. In recent months the philosophers among us are asking, “Where is Jesus in the craziness that is 2020?”

In the end, the Teacher tells us that he found the role of the philosopher to be an impossible task, a heavy burden. The big picture, the philosopher realizes, cannot be discovered. There are so many unanswered questions. But maybe you are not the philosopher. Check back tomorrow as we see what role the Teacher tries out next!

How to stare death in the face and still have hope – Ecclesiastes 1:1-11, Part 5

Around ten years ago, I’d been pastor for a couple years, and we had a series of months where someone from our congregation died every month. In a couple of those months, two people died in the same month. A total of 8 people passed away in that stretch, and I did all the funerals and interacted with a lot of grieving family members. I wasn’t prepared for it. It rocked me emotionally, and the result was that I couldn’t stop thinking about death. I remember watching the NFL that fall, thinking, “Look at those healthy athletes…they’ll all die.” When I was driving, I was thinking, “I could have an accident anytime…and die.” I started seeing death everywhere, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I didn’t like it. I tried to avoid it.

It didn’t matter, quite frankly, at that point, that I had the hope of eternal life, because death was totally freaking me out. Basically I was embodying what the teacher says here in Ecclesiastes 1:1-11, and I was scared. But along with the Teacher, I came to realize that staring the reality of death in the face is exactly what we need to do. Rather than be scared of it, rather than try to avoid it, we hold the truth of death and the fleetingness of life close, and we add hope. We add hope that says with the Apostle Paul in Philippians 1, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” We can live hopefully in the face of death.

With Paul, we bring a Christian perspective to this passage, something that would have been genuinely new to the Teacher in Ecclesiastes. The Christian view, rooted in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, says that there is a hope of both abundant life in the here and now, and well as eternal life after death. We are a people of hope, who live in hope.

From a Christian perspective, therefore, these verses should remind us of the need for our hearts to be turned towards Kingdom things. Life on earth is fleeting. Time will pass quickly. As I write this in summer 2020, I cannot believe our oldest is married, and he and his wife already celebrated their first anniversary. Our baby girl is about to start high school. In October we will start our 19^th year here at Faith Church! Time passes. Life is fleeting.

Because life is fleeting, let’s ask ourselves: what are our lives focused on? What we do with our thoughts, our time, our efforts? Let them be Kingdom focused. There is hope and not despair when we focus our lives on the things of Christ. Don’t let fear, despair and hopelessness hold you back. I think many of us do that. Instead, keep your eyes and your hearts on the things of the Kingdom, not on the things of this earth. That is where the good stuff is. Keep your hearts focused on the things of God. Ask yourself, What does God care about? How can you care about those things more? What do you need to remove that gets in the way? What thoughts about yourself? Your surroundings? Your worth?

As you head into this next week, maybe take some time and think about what will outlast you and what you want your physical time on this earth to be about? Who or what can you invest in that will make a difference for the Kingdom of God? That is where the good stuff is. That is where hope is alive.

I’ve seen a lot of hope this summer, even in the middle of a year in crisis. People serving in the summer lunch club. People sharing vegetables from their gardens. People gathering on Zoom, in parks, or in a variety of ways, to encourage one another during the pandemic. People reaching out to those who are hurting, making meals, sending cards, calling one another on the phone. People advocating for justice and truth on their social media accounts, going to rallies, doing book studies online.

I turn on the TV, and I feel the hope drain out of my life, but when I sit back and think about it, there are so many ways we can latch on to and amplify the hope we have in Jesus. Life is short. That’s the truth. And in the days we’re given, let’s keep our eyes and actions focused on Jesus and the mission of his Kingdom.

Remember Chadwick Boseman, the actor who died at age 43? He is an example of hope. Not only did he make movies like Black Panther and others that focused on hope, but he did it while he was battling cancer, including multiple surgeries and rounds of chemo. But it wasn’t just the movies. Boseman, at the same time, visited St. Jude’s hospital to bring gifts and encourage children battling with cancer.

That is what hope looks like, while embracing the hard truth that life is short. That is how to battle fear and live hopefully. How will you battle fear and live hopefully?

What a Starlink train taught me about life – Ecclesiastes 1:1-11, Part 4

Do you feel weary? Tired? Like life is wearing your down?

As we continue our study of Ecclesiastes 1:1-11, which is about how life is fleeting, read verses 8-9. In verse 8, the Teacher says life is “wearisome.” That word can be translated as “striving,” meaning that life is often a unending of process of striving. We have periods of rest and relaxation, some of us moreso, some less so, but for most people there are always dishes to do, laundry, yard work, employment, cleaning, meetings, money to be made, bills to paid, and on and on, and it never stops. This wearisome, striving reality of life causes the Teacher to write a line which has become famous, “There is nothing new under the sun.”

When I read this, I wondered if the Teacher would change his mind if he could spend some time in 2020. I know there are numerous inventions that are astounding, from the contact lenses I wear in my eyes every day, tiny little slivers of plastic that give me perfect vision, to nuclear reactions, where hidden power inside pieces of radioactive metals is unleashed to generate amazing levels of energy. But the there is another invention that I think will go down as the greatest revolution in the modern era.

We were with friends a few weeks ago having a campfire in their backyard, and all of sudden their daughter noticed a very unique site in the sky. It was what looked like a line of shooting stars in a perfectly straight formation traveling across the sky, one right after the other. They just kept coming. 20, 30, 40 of them. If you see one meteor, that is awesome. But this was something else. You know what it was? A Starlink train.

Not a train you ride in, but a succession of small satellites that are being launched in groups of 40 or 50, with the intent that SpaceX will create a network of satellites over the globe, providing high-speed internet access for everyone on the planet who wants to pay for it. Global connection. Every month or so SpaceX launches more, and before the satellites reach their regular orbit, if you’re at the right place at the right time, you can spot them. A couple months ago a Starlink train just happened to be flying over Lancaster right at the time of our campfire.

The idea of sending little satellites into orbit is itself wild enough that I think the Teacher would be impressed, but to think that those satellites could provide internet communication to the whole globe? Not to mention everything that is available on the internet, from data, live TV, games, news, pictures, and email, and on and on. It is astounding.

I would say to the Teacher, “Now come on, Teacher, that is something new, right? That really blows your mind, doesn’t it? That changes things, right?” I might try to prove my point even more by saying, “Teacher, when you lived in the world 2500 years ago, things rarely changed. Centuries would go by with very little technological advancement. So you have to admit that in the world of 2020, and especially with the internet, this is something new.”

I think the Teacher might think about the Star Link Train awhile and say, as he does in verses 10-11, “It isn’t new. It has existed long before our time, we just didn’t know about it before. And we knew that there were going to be things that were appeared new to future generations, but you know what, those things won’t be new forever, and they too will be forgotten by even later generations.”

And I will sit there, silenced by the truth of it. The internet will be forgotten by future generations. Something else will take its place. Or Jesus will return and none of it will matter. Therefore, the teacher’s point remains. It is very similar to the axiom, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” Just what is it that stays the same in the midst of all the change?

The fact that life is fleeting. We’re born, we live, we die.

In order to have a healthy view of life, the Teacher is telling us the truth that we need to see all of life as fleeting. Temporary. Brief. A breath. So how is that not depressing? First of all, it is not depressing because it is reality. Truth is liberating. We can be free to live hopefully in the here and now because we do not have to grope for an impossible future that is not within our grasp.

But there’s more! The truth that life is fleeting is not depressing for the Christian, and we’ll talk about that more in the next post tomorrow.

Can you remember your great-grandparents? – Ecclesiastes 1:1-11, Part 3

Let’s take a moment and face the truth that our lives are fleeting. In our study this week on the beginning of Ecclesiastes (starting here), a book of ancient wisdom, we learned that life is fleeting. The reality is that most of us, if not all of us, will not have our memories preserved very long after we are gone. Take your own families for example. How far back can you go? Let’s try it right now. Do you know the names of grandparents? I bet you do. But let’s make it one step harder: do you know the names of your great-grandparents? Furthermore, do you remember meeting and talking with your great-grandparents?

Of eight possible great-grandparents, I know the name of only one. My maternal grandmother’s dad. We called him Pappy. His name was Bert Lewis, and he was a coal miner from Wales, England, who immigrated to Baltimore, literally on a boat to the Statue of Liberty when my grandmother was a little girl. So I am one quarter Welsh, English. I love that fact. It’s why we gave our daughter a Welsh spelling of her name. I’ve never been to Wales, but I would love to visit someday, as I have family over there whom I’ve never met. Of my great-grandparents, Pappy is not only the only one whose name I remember, but as a little boy I also got to spend time with him. He eventually moved to Lancaster after my grandparents relocated here in the 1960s when my grandfather became a professor at Lancaster Bible College. In the late 70s and early 80s, I remember visiting him at his retirement home nearby. My mom and grandma would bring me, my siblings, and maybe some cousins to play bingo with Pappy and the other residents living. As I was typing this, another memory hit me: of Pappy in his small room at the retirement, taking out his false teeth and freaking us kids out. Finally, I remember his funeral a bit. That’s all. I have no other memories of any other great-grandparents. I once did a family tree that went back a couple generations further, having received info from other relatives. But I couldn’t tell you their names or much about them, except that pretty much all of them were from or had heritages from Western Europe. And if I’m honest, my memories of my own grandparents, all of whom have passed away, are starting to fade. That is exactly what the writer of Ecclesiastes is getting at.

Through the years of our lives, we are engaged in a process that is fleeting. We are born, we grow up as children, we spend a lot of time in school learning, we play, we eat, we sleep, we get jobs, and we spend inordinate amounts of time, energy and emotion at these jobs. Why? To make money. To put food on the table. To pay the bills. And we work day in, day out, week after week, month after month, for 40+ years, and for what? What do we have to show for it? Usually, not much. Memories in the minds of family members. Names on a family tree poster that might be collecting dust in a closet, or just as well might be used as firestarter. I love projects like Ancestry.com that seek to build a global family tree. But for the vast majority of people, we simply cannot memorialize the past in such a way that we will never be forgotten.

That is the Teacher’s point! Let’s face this head on. We will work hard, live our life and be forgotten. You might hear that and think, “Geesh, Joel, this is really depressing. I want my life to matter.”

Ah! Okay. I didn’t say that our lives don’t matter. And the Teacher didn’t say that our lives don’t matter. What we read is simply the truth, the hard truth, that our lives are fleeting. And we need to own this fact, if we are to face life in the proper way. We need to see that our lives are fleeting, in fact, if we want our lives to matter. We should not read this passage as saying that just because people will eventually be forgotten that their lives don’t matter.

What the Teacher says in the rest of the passage underscores this. Read his poetry in verses 4-7. The teacher depicts the cyclical nature of the earth: sunrise, sunset, weather comes, weather goes. Or as one poet says, “winter, spring, summer, fall, the seasons never cared at all.” They just keep coming. We live in a cyclical world. Yes, we can learn to build immense concrete dams on rivers and create man-made reservoirs to control flooding. Yes, we have learned travel at high speeds on land, on sea, and in the air…even to the moon, and I personally hope Mars and beyond. Yes, we have learned and are still learning to make vaccines to control disease. But the fact remains, the earth will rotate on its axis every 24 hours, and it will do so just about 365 times on its journey around the sun. Year after year after year.

Why do we have to face the fact that life is fleeting? Check back in to the next post to find out.

Your life matters – Ecclesiastes 1:1-11, Part 2

Have you ever wondered if you life matters? Have you wrestled with dark, sad thoughts, thinking that you are not important? If so, you’re not alone. Just about everyone has battled those kinds of thoughts at least some time in their lives.

What can be confusing is that there is a book of the Bible that seems to say very boldly that life is meaningless.

In the previous post, I mentioned that some people through the centuries have considered the book of Ecclesiastes to be so depressing and hopeless that it shouldn’t be in the Bible. Ecclesiastes did, however, make it in Bible, but hopelessness is not the message the Teacher is trying to convey. When we read in Ecclesiastes 1 verse 2 that life is meaningless (as the New International Version translates it), it sure sounds like the Teacher is describing a life that has no meaning. A meaningless life is one that could be understood as futile or worthless, a cruel joke that God has played on people. But that is not what the Teacher is saying. In fact, the word “Meaningless” is a bad translation of the word the Teacher uses here. Some translations use the word, “vanity.” Is that any better? “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” All is vain? Is the Teacher talking about vanity like a person who likes to look at themselves too much in the mirror? Is the Teacher talking about people who are too self-focused?

No. We know this because in the word used here is the same word that is translated “breath.” I was super-excited this past week because the temperatures in the morning, at least for a few days, were a bit cooler here in the northeast USA. I’m ready for the humidity and heat of summer to make way for fall because I go running in the mornings, and this summer has been hot! So one morning this past week, it was actually cool enough that I could see my breath. Just for a brief split-second. Then it was gone. Which is exactly what the Teacher is trying to say here.

We could translate this phrase I verse 2 as “Breath, breath, all is breath!” Even in the cold of winter, when our 98.6 degree breath comes out of our lungs, hits the freezing cold air, and crystallizes in a small cloud of air, what happens? It dissipates really fast, right? Maybe it lasts a few seconds. But that’s it. What are some words we used to describe that? Not meaningless. Not vanity. The breath still served a purpose and was important and meaningful.

A much better word to use to translate Ecclesiastes verse 2 is “fleeting.”

“Fleeting, fleeting, all of life is fleeting.” That’s what the teacher says.

What does “fleeting” refer to? How is that different from meaningless? It’s very different, and it gets to the important truth that the Teacher wants us to understand as central to the argument he will make over the course of the book of Ecclesiastes.

Like breath, life is fleeting. And that’s exactly what the Teacher describes in verse 3. It is also where we can see how this is some truth-telling that we might not want to hear. Read verse 3. This is a tough question to answer: In the end, when we die, what do we have to show for it?

See what I mean about Ecclesiastes starting off in-your-face? But we need to think about this. Life is fleeting. We’re born, we live, we die, and what do we have to show for it? How would you answer that question?

Do we need to be people who make a name for ourselves? Do we need to be William Shakespeares, Albert Einsteins, Apostle Pauls, Mother Theresas, or Martin Luther King Juniors to consider our lives meaningful? Do we need to be people that will be known for a long, long time?

Some people might think about the small business they’ve gotten off the ground. Hoping it will last beyond them, and not just shut down when they are gone. That has been front and center during Covid, as some small businesses haven’t made it. Imagine feeling the anguish of investing decades of your life into something and now it is gone. How do you handle that?

Maybe by taking solace in the investment that we make in other people? It is often hard to quantify, but we do impact our children, our family, our friends. Our lives are fleeting, but they are not meaningless. Our lives are fleeting, but they are still important.