Sermon manuscript:
We tend to get comfortable with certain interpretations and
understandings of our life where we figure we know what things are all about
and we take that for granted. Who we are, and what we hope for, end up being
pretty stable. We know who we are and we know what we would like to have
happen. We might accumulate some wisdom for ourselves. We lay down some rules
for ourselves, which we figure should help us get what we want. We are
something of a work-in-progress. We make our way through the course of this
life, trying to do the best for ourselves. The hope is that tomorrow will be
better than today. Maybe, through wisdom and hard work, we can bring about a
better tomorrow.
These kinds of thoughts are what Solomon calls in this short
book of Ecclesiastes “vapor,” or another way that this same word gets
translated in older translations: “vanity.” This is a peculiar word. The only
way that anybody is going to learn anything about what the word means is from
the Bible. Outside of the Bible nobody ever speaks this way. “Vapor” or
“breath” is a good literal translation, but there’s something more that needs
to be understood about it. It is not just the mist or the puff of air. It’s
really about the way that something so quickly goes away.
Forgive me for my crudeness here, but it’s like someone
passing gas in a 40 mile an hour wind. That fart isn’t going to stick around
for long. It’s here one moment. Less than a moment later, it is gone forever.
You can’t put it in a bottle and store it on the shelf, no matter how hard you
try. Resistance is futile.
“Futility” is another good word to use to help us understand
what Solomon and the Bible mean by “vanity.” Instead of saying that everything
is vapor, or everything is vanity, you could also say, “Everything is futile.”
There’s no getting around it. There’s no working harder or smarter. The end has
been predetermined, and there’s nothing that can change it.
Of all the thoughts a person could possibly think, there is
no thought that the world hates more than this one. Most people will not even
allow themselves to go there. They don’t even think about it. It is strictly
forbidden. Such thoughts are evil.
Take, for example, a cancer diagnosis. Not all cancer
diagnoses are the same. Some are quite curable. Others are terminal. Even with
a terminal diagnosis of cancer, however, it is against the rules to say that
resistance is futile. This is especially the case if a person is young and
otherwise healthy. It is so unbelievably impolite, or even evil, to say that
there’s nothing to be done. Instead what everyone is supposed to say is that
there’s always hope. Who knows? Maybe there’s some experimental treatment.
Maybe herbal medicine might help. Hope is dished out by everyone, including the
doctors, until the bitter, bitter end. It’s not until the patient is on the
morphine drip that the truth may be aired that curative efforts are futile. By
then the patient might already be in a coma.
Even at this point, however, we still don’t give up. Immediately
the gears get changed. If we get stuck going one direction, then we’ll back up
and go another. If one hope is dashed, then it’s time to move on to another.
And so at the death bed the family might start to think and talk about the way
that the one who is dying will be remembered. The hope for them to continue to
live physically is futile, but surely the person can live on in the memories of
the people who are left behind. Hope springs eternal.
This too, unfortunately, is vanity. It’s not going to
happen. The memories are going to die just like their bodies did. The next
generation might hold on to some memories. But what about the generation after that?
By the time the third or fourth generation rolls around the memories are
completely and totally obliterated.
You can know this just by consulting what you yourself know.
Maybe you remember some of your great-grandparents. What kind of memories,
though, do you have of those great-grandparents who died before you were born?
That’s just three generations back. Four generations and the best you can hope
for is that the name is remembered. Which of you can quickly and easily recall
even the names of your 16 great-great grandparents? You probably have to
consult some book that you have stuck in the closet.
Each of those people, your blood relatives, lived just as
full and rich of lives as you have lived. People at their funeral dinners may
very well have said that they were quite the character and nobody will ever
forget them. Now only their names are known and hardly anything more.
Resistance is futile. This is a rude thought. Sentimentality vanishes like it’s
caught in a 40 mile an hour wind.
We’ve looked at but one example of the way that cherished
hopes about our lives and our memories are dashed. Nothing is off limits,
though, when it comes things that are vain. Solomon says, “Nothing but
vapor, totally vapor. Everything is just vapor that vanishes.” He is not
talking about just a little part of our lives. He’s not talking about being a
couch potato, playing video games, or other things that people enjoy denouncing.
He’s saying that about all aspects of our lives. Solomon was a great man. He
was strong. He was wise. He was no slouch. He got busy.
He says in our reading, “I undertook great projects. I
built houses for myself. I planted vineyards for myself. I made gardens and
parks for myself, and I planted every kind of fruit tree in them. I made
reservoirs of water for myself to irrigate a forest of sprouting trees.” He
had all kinds of employees. He had all kinds of assets. He even had all kinds
of lovers. No pleasure was withheld from
him. He even had pleasure in how he worked hard.
Now tell me: What else should he have done? How could he
have lived a fuller and richer life? He was thoroughly engaged and had the
resources to fulfill every aspect of his life on this earth. He challenged
himself mentally—planning and executing projects. He exercised his will with
hard work and a fit body. His emotional life was not neglected either. He was a
person who had it all together. He was like those people you see who wear all
the right clothes, go to the right gym, eat the right food, and have
overachieving children.
But what does he say about all this? He lists all his
magnificent accomplishments, then he says, “I turned my attention to
everything that my hands had done and to how hard I had worked for it. Note
this: it was all vapor, all chasing the wind. There was no benefit under the
sun.”
This thought can only be learned from the Bible. It is absolutely
hateful to the unbelieving world. People draw fatalistic conclusions from it.
People think, “Well, if all these worthy endeavors are futile, then I might as
well seek out the bottle and the porn shop. I might as well give myself over to
debauchery.”
But this is kind of like the way that we speak about the
person who is dying or who has died. The noble, robust, physical life has
ended. At least we can hold on to this ghostly kind of life with the memories.
In like manner, when people hear that their noble efforts are futile, they
think that they can at least live for the basest kinds of pleasure.
But Solomon is quite clear about this. This also is vanity.
Pleasure is futile too. When he says that all
is vanity, he means all is vanity.
The Bible means it. All is brought to nothing. All is destroyed. All the things
that people trust in are going to be revealed for the impotent and worthless
things that they really are.
There is only one exception to the oppressive rule of vanity
and futility that otherwise governs our existence. Paul says in Romans chapter
8: “Creation was made subject to futility, not by its own will, but by the
will of the one [that is, God] who subjected it.” This shows us that the
meaninglessness and futility of all man’s hopes and ambitions is not because of
fate or chance. Futility is because of God. He subjects creation to futility
against its will. But he does it for a purpose.
Paul goes on: “Creation was subjected to futility in
hope, that even creation itself will be set free from slavery to corruption, in
order to share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.” Here we
have another strange thought, so we’ll really need to pay attention here. We’ve
already mentioned one strange thought that the world cannot stand—that all
creation is subject to futility. Here we have another, that’s similar. The
world will never believe it or like it. The thought is that we will be set free
from our slavery to corruption. Other words for “corruption” are “rottenness,”
“decay,” “decomposition.” We should be set free from our slavery to dying, to rotting.
As it is, we are enslaved to getting old, breaking down,
decomposing, even while we are yet living. Once we die our bodies are enslaved
to all kinds of nasty processes. Formaldehyde or cremation is only able to mask
it somewhat. There’s no staying alive once we have died. We are enslaved to
corruption. There is only one way out of this, and that is Jesus who died and
is risen.
So according to Paul’s teaching in Romans 8 we have some
very strong statements. First of all, God has subjected creation to futility.
This has been the main thing that we’ve talked about tonight. All hopes and
dreams, no matter how lovely or popular they might be, are nothing but vapor,
totally vapor. Every hope for lasting happiness, for immortality, for leaving
your mark on this world, is a hope that is dashed to the ground. And God is the
one who does this. If nothing else, he will put this futility on display when
he brings about the end of the world. This is the one strong statement.
The other strong statement is that God does this in hope.
The hope is that we should be set free from the slavery of death and decay that
nobody can otherwise escape. The way that we are set free is through Jesus who died
once and for all, but who now lives and will never die again. God has had pity
on us poor creatures who have no hope otherwise. But through Christ alone we
are set free from death and decay. Even more than that. Paul says that we “share
in the glorious freedom of the children of God.”
As it often happens, both of these thoughts are too much for
the world. The futility that is spoken of is too deep and too horrible. The
world wants to believe that death isn’t that bad. It’s not that big of a deal.
We can still remember and celebrate, so on and so forth. To these commonly held
dreams the Bible says no. Such thoughts are vain.
On the other hand, the Bible says that we will be set free
from death and decay. The stranglehold that death and decay has on this present
world is going to be broken. We will even be God’s very own children, free and
unencumbered. This is too high, too glorious for the world. The world knows
nothing better and strives for nothing higher than having your name written in
some dusty old history book that children are forced to read. Believing that we
can become and, in fact, are God’s children through baptism is too strange, too
unbelievable.
This is why it is so important that you do not despise
preaching and God’s Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it. You
aren’t going to find these truths told to you anywhere else. In fact, the
opposite of these truths will be endlessly drummed into your ears from
practically every possible source.
You do well, though, to ignore these futile voices and
believe that Jesus is the only decisive factor. Outside of him, everything is
vanity. In him is more than we can possibly think or imagine.
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