A Season for Everything

Ecclesiastes is a treasure of a book. All of them are, of course, but there is something unique about this one. We wonder how we would feel about life if we were wealthy, powerful, successful, no servant of anyone, but there are very few people around us that we could ask. Celebrities sometimes hint that it isn't all that it is cracked up to be, but it is easy to write off those folks as not very thoughtful people.

Ecclesiastes is written by the thoughtful, wise, Christian, billionaire king to put it in our modern lens. You can pick your favorite preacher or theologian for the past, give them years experience with power and wealth and then ask them "Did it help?" Ecclesiastes is the answer. And that answer is our main point today

The Absurdity of Every Season Points Us to God

The Absurdity of Life

Chapter 1 lays out the thesis statement: everything is empty. Now, when anyone of us says something like that, it is usually because we are having a bad day! But this preacher starts listing through some things. This isn't whining. This isn't an outburst of teenage angst. He's actually thought about this. The end of the chapter talks about acquiring wisdom, and he mentions that this is just another way of describing acquiring pain and sorrow. The more you know, the more there is to be said.

So if wisdom ain't it, then what is it?

Chapter 2 decides tries a few different things. We start with pleasure. Have all the fun you can, but in the end you don't gain anything. Nothing lasts. That steak never comes back. That party becomes a memory, one that you will not think about often. Nothing is really gained from partying.

He revisits the idea of wisdom here, and admits that it is better than folly, at least. The problem is that the fool and the wise man have the same thing in common, they all die.

Diligence in work is the next absurd thing the preacher mentions. Yes, you can work, you can toil, but at the end of the day, it is going somewhere else. Vanity, striving after the wind.

Maybe some of you are feeling that way today. I know mothering can feel that way. You clean the house just to reclean it. You seem to revisit the same things day after day with just enough variance to keep you wondering.

Students, I know it can feel that way, too. While your struggles are different, the feelings of emptiness can persist. For the graduates, it can feel like the last 12 years of work don't matter in light of all that has yet to be done and explored. You did all this work, and then you handed back your Chromebook, took a last walk around the hall, and life continued to move on.

Some of you experienced that in moves from houses, retirement from jobs, even the final amen at a funeral. In that moment, it can feel empty. What are we supposed to do next?

Pointers to God

Then we get to chapter 3, and the preacher takes a different turn. You see, this book is meant to be read in concert with the other books of wisdom in the Bible (like Proverbs and Job). You have Proverbs that gives general principles for life, and Ecclesiastes is here to make sure you read them that way, general principles for life, not iron-clad formulas for success. Training up your child in the way he should go doesn't necessarily mean that when they leave the house they will stay on that path. Parenting isn't over. It's different, but not over. Yes, wisdom is like gold, but it doesn't come without side effects.

So we get to chapter 3, and he starts making what feels like overly obvious statements. He lists a ton of opposites and when their season might be, living, dying, planting, reaping, seeking, losing, silence and speaking. The chapter goes on to say why, but even this section is encouraging.

So far we might conclude that if life is so empty, then the wise thing is to just end it. But the preacher tells us that there is still a season for everything. There are seasons where, despite the absurdity of it all, we are called to plant, reap, be quiet and yet speak.

Why? Is the best that the preacher can offer us is "Well, it's an absurd life, but it is the only one we got, so make the best of it."

No. The preacher introduces a new fact: God. Now, I can already hear some of you. You might be tempted to think, "If that guy tells me to just trust God again because He's going to work it all out in the end, I'm going to smack him." I know it is hard to believe, but I've been there. I've thought that. There are emotional places that you can get to where that thought sounds like you've finally hit truth, like you are finally waking up from the opiate of the masses.

And that's exactly the preacher's point! If you don't include God in the mix, all that you can come to is hopelessness. But he doesn't just say "trust God."

Let's see what He does say, and what we can say when the feelings of emptiness and absurdity fill our hearts.

How God Makes the Difference

First, the business that we have been given is a task from God. This alone is a comfort. You didn't actually wander into the place you are now, though sometimes it feels that way. You're here because that is where God has designed for you to be. You have these kids because God assigned them to you. You care for your parents because God assigned them to you in this season. You have graduated and are heading for the workforce or more education because that is where God has assigned you. Later there will be different assignments (see above, v. 1-8), but right now you are in this because God assigned it to you, and given all that we know about God, that is an encouraging thought. He is wise and good.

Bobby Jamieson talks about gain versus gift. We tend to look at the world in terms of what we can further gain from it rather than contented with the gift that is right in front of us. Instead of being grateful for the things we have we constantly strategize how to get more. We don't enjoy the present moment but are always waiting for something ahead. "we almost never think of the present, and if we do think of it, it is only to see what light at throws on our plans for the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present RR means, the future alone, our end. Thus we never actually live, but hope to live, and since we were always planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so." Blaise Pascal. We must see what is right in front of us as a gift.

Second, God makes everything beautiful in its time. I have been arrested by that phrase many times this week. This is better then things working out. Things are going to be beautiful, not just functional. God is building a cathedral, not renting out a building in the strip mall where the hardware store used to be. And he's doing it through the things that you likely look at as a waste of your potential now. He isn't just going to build something that will be functional, but is building something that you are going to be proud of.

So if all of this is true, then why are we suffering so much? Is it just because we are sinfully untrusting? Maybe. But the next phrase might have another explanation for us.

Third, God put eternity into your heart. This has an amazing explanatory power. There is a wonderful book on Ecclesiastes that takes this very verse to explain why we see life as so absurd so much of the time. If we think about it, this is the only life we know, so why are we so surprised by it? Things don't work out a lot, so why are we always surprised when we do? The book says that the peasant doesn't miss being a prince because they never were royalty. Jeffry Gordon calls this feeling a "nostalgia for the infinite."

Bobby Jamieson argues that we have a sense inside us that knows what better is. We, in a way, remember Eden. Eternity is in our hearts. Now, don't overread that as saying that we all preexisted in heaven or something like that. That's not what this is saying. But it is saying that God has placed in us a capacity for eternity that this world is always going to disappoint. We were always meant for more. Jamieson goes further an says that "happiness comes not from trying to make this world satisfy all your desires, but from realizing that it never will. Happiness begins to glimpse new dimensions when you discover that everything is never enough."

So when you get to the end of schooling and you say, "Is that it?" That is God's placement of eternity in your soul to answer "Of course not. Why did you think that?" When you say, "Was I born to just be slaves to children all day?" Eternity in your heart says, "See? Kids aren't ultimate."

Can you imagine going to Disney but because of bad signs you thought the whole park was in the parking lot? The bus to get you to the front gate you think is the roller coaster. The employees in mouse ears are supposed to be the characters from the movie? And for as much as you paid for parking, you might think you paid the admission fee! How horrified would the executives at Disney be if that's what all their customers thought? What would they do? They would make every effort possible to make their signs point to the park. Don't get distracted by the lot! The lot is the beginning of the experience, not the end!

And God has spared no less expense. In fact, He has placed signs pointing back to Himself so that even your despair is meant to point back to Him.

And all of this is true in all those seasons. It doesn't become less true in the particular seasons we don't like. Even when you are literally renting out the in the strip mall where the old hardware store used to be, God is still building the cathedral through that rental. He is still building it through picking up the toys for the millionth time, especially after stepping on that lego again.

Application

So how does this work out practically? How to you see life as a gift when the kids all have the stomach bug at 3 am? When you've sent out 100 resumes, there's no call backs, and there's a week left of money?

First pause to be in the present for a second. Acknowledge that as far out of control as this situations feels, it is one given to you by a good God. Many times it is a set up for other things.

Next, remember that Jesus said that whoever gives up their life gains it. Matthew 16:25. "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." That isn't a verse just for those martyrs who burned at the stake. It is for those who live for Jesus in serving others. So when you are changing those bed sheets again, you are given the gift of using your life well.Even if you have no one to physically serve, a humble attitude is serving Christ.

Third, remember that Jesus humbled Himself for you. How can we not do so in return?