Bible Passage: Ecclesiastes 1:1-2, 12-14, 2:18-26
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: July 31, 2022

Todays worship service was held outside, and was not recorded.

Bulletin July 31, 2022

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

The family was all gathered in the lawyer’s office on the right day at the right time.  It was the day for the reading of the will.  No one thought they would be here.  But George had died suddenly.  Massive heart attack.  Never saw it coming.  George was leaving a huge fortune to someone in that room.  His wife is there.  And so are his two ex-wives.  All five of George’s children are there.  His relationship with most of them had become very strained over the years.  George’s brother and his wife were there.  And George’s long-time business partner was there with his wife.  They were not talking among themselves.  Silence.

The door opened and the attorney walked in.  He took his place behind his big desk and opened a file.  After a few remarks, he began reading George’s will.  Nobody really listened until the lawyer said, “Therefore, I leave all my earthly belongings to…Spaulding.”  Every eye went straight to Spaulding.  George’s youngest son.  All of 22 years old.  Unmotivated.  Undisciplined.  Unskilled.  But very good at wasting daddy’s money.  And now he gets it all.

Sound like the beginning of a bad movie?  Maybe.  But that is exactly what King Solomon laments in our text for today.  Very specifically he mentions this very scenario in our text – amassing your fortune only to leave it all to someone else who may be wise, or they may be a Spaulding.   It was just one of many observations Solomon made that led him to one clear conclusion:  It’s Hard to Enjoy Life…apart from Him (God).

You don’t see the name Solomon in our text anywhere.  But in v. 1 the author identifies himself as Ecclesiastes, David’s son, king in Jerusalem.  We know who that is.  It is David’s son, Solomon.  “Ecclesiastes” is word that means “teacher” or even the idea of “professor.”  Remember, Solomon was a really smart guy!

That is why Solomon confesses in our text, I applied my heart to seek out and explore with wisdom everything done under the sky. (v. 13)  Almost obsessively he set out to understand human behavior.  And as he did, he came to a conclusion.  Nothing but vapor…Totally vapor.  Everything is just vapor that vanishes! (v. 2)  I have seen all the actions done under the sun, and, look, it is all nothing but vapor. (v. 14)  We speak today of “vaping.”  You ever see someone “vape”?  They inhale some vapor and then exhale the vapor out, and then the vapor is gone.  There’s nothing to it.  It disappears into air.  That is Solomon’s conclusion about life!  So much of life is just vapor!

In our text he gives one troubling example from his observations.  A person may work very hard during life to accumulate a fortune.  They work long hours, save their money, invest wisely, spend sparingly.  They amass a tidy sum.  Then…they die.  And all that they worked for will go to someone else.  And here’s what really irked Solomon.  What the person worked so hard for in life may go to someone wise, or it may go to Spaulding!  And poof!  It’s gone…like vapor.

Sadly, Solomon’s observation remains true to this day.  Ours is a world where many feel they are the proverbial “hamster on the wheel.”  You’ve seen the little wheel they put in a hamster’s cage.  The hamster gets on this wheel, runs like crazy on this spinning wheel, yet never goes anywhere.  This is how many people feel.  We speak these days of a pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus.  There is a worse pandemic.  There is a pandemic of the human soul, a plague of the human condition.  People running on their little wheel wondering “why” and “for what.”  People crying from the depths of their condition, “Vapor!  Vapor!  It’s all vapor!”

Martin Franzmann, poet and hymn-writer, began one of his hymns with these words:  “O God, O Lord of heav’n and earth, Your living finger never wrote, That life should be an aimless mote, A death-ward drift from futile birth.” (CW 400:1)  This was not God’s plan.  God had so much more, something so much better in mind for humanity!  He put people into this world that he had filled with his wonders that they might enjoy God and all he created.  That was to be “life.”

But man divorced God.  Sin was humanity’s way of saying, “We’re filing for divorce.  Thanks for everything – literally, EVERYTHING.  But we prefer to live life our way!”  And so we do.  Divorced from our loving Creator, people search for meaning, fulfillment, enjoyment.  Blaise Pascal famously said:  There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator.  People will try to cram just about anything into that vacuum – money, career,  fame, drugs, alcohol, sex, technology – to try to find…to try to FEEL…meaning in life.  Solomon came to the correct conclusion in our text:  For who can eat or enjoy himself apart from him? (v. 25)

Thank God that there is a bridge from life “apart from him” to life with him!  And that bridge is Jesus!  God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, into this world of vapor and sin to give our lives meaning and a future!  His perfect life, his death for our sin, his victorious resurrection mean that we live our lives now with “the big picture” always before us.  This life is only a prelude, a beginning.  We are looking forward to eternity, not apart from God, but in his very presence!  Asaph is the man who wrote Psalm 73.  He understood very well the “big picture” of the Christian life.  You [God] hold me by my right hand.  With your guidance you lead me, and afterward, you will take me to glory.  Who else is there for me in heaven?  And besides you, I desire no one on earth. (Psalm 73:23-25)  Because of Jesus, we have an “afterward.”  And that means everything!

Writing to the Colossians, Paul said it this way:  You have been given fullness in Christ. (2:10)  In Christ we have “fullness.”  In Christ, life is not vapor and empty.  Our lives are full!  Full of forgiveness!  Full of joy!  Full of hope!  Full of meaning!  Full…of Christ!

Amen.