Sermon manuscript:
Last week’s reading was the first two chapters of
Ecclesiastes. Our reading tonight is chapters 5 and 6. Our reading next week
will be the last chapter of Ecclesiastes. So our reading tonight is from the
middle of the book. It is a continuation of the theme that was established
right away at the beginning. We talked about this last week: All is vanity. All
is vapor, totally vapor. It vanishes in the wind. Nothing lasts on this earth.
Our reading tonight brought up several topics. I’d like to
focus on just one of them: work. A common reaction that people have when they
hear that all is vanity, whatever we might work for is not going to last, is
that we might as well just give up. We might as well not get out of bed in the
morning. We certainly shouldn’t work. We should just live for pleasure—doing
whatever we think is going to be the most enjoyable. These are usually all
kinds of leisurely activities that we otherwise do not normally pursue because
we are busy doing our work. This, we suppose, would be a lot better if it is
vain to build towers that reach to the heavens or try to make a name for
ourselves by becoming great.
But this desire to escape into pleasure is also vanity.
Living this way does not provide the happiness that it is supposed to.
Leisurely activities are great as a change of pace. Special food and drink is
delicious when it is a treat. When these things become standard fare, we become
bored and restless with these just like we do with anything else. There seems
to be a general law in life that we build up a tolerance to stimulants in our using
of them. Very often the idea of doing
something is better than the actual doing
of it.
For example, I have known several different people who have gotten
a house on a lake. Going to the lake is a lot of fun. Boating, fishing,
waterskiing, and what have you all sound like lots of fun, and they are. The
whole reason why a person might buy a house on a lake is because they’ve
engaged in these activities and like them. They’d like to be able to pursue
them more often and more easily. But in the cases that I know of, where a
person buys a house on the lake, they eventually quit doing these activities.
They are all fun for a while, but then they quit being as fun. Maybe these
activities end up only being done when there’s company. The company enjoys it,
because it’s different and fresh for them, but the people who live there could
take it or leave it.
So it seems as though people should be happier if they are
not working and can devote themselves full time to their leisure activities,
but that is not the case. Often respectable people will look down at those who
don’t have jobs with the idea that they are undeserving of any pity. It is
thought that those without jobs must be living it up, having a grand old time.
Generally speaking, I do not think that this is the case. Life for these folks appears
to be a seeking after one escape after another. They are looking to escape
their boredom and misery but they cannot. All is vanity. This dream of letting
yourself go, indulging in one treat after another, is supposed to make a person
happy, but it does not.
It is in this regard that I
think Solomon’s words about work are instructive as an alternative to how we
naturally think. He says, “The worker’s sleep is sweet, whether he eats
little or eats much.” He also says, “It is beautiful to eat, to drink,
and to look for good in all a person’s hard work which he has done under the
sun.” Here we have some positive thoughts about work that come from a man
whose general theme otherwise is that all is vanity.
The fact is that we human beings
were created to work. Even before the fall into sin God put Adam in the garden.
He was to look after it and tend it. He was to exercise dominion over it and
give names to all the animals. God did not set him upon a couch where he could
be fed grapes and fanned and massaged. These things are good in their place,
but the place for rest and relaxation is that those activities are not to be
the main thing in life. If they are the main thing in life, then we won’t be
truly happy. The main thing in life is that we should be active, that we should
work. This is something good.
I certainly hope that God has
blessed you with the experience, at least at one time or another, where you
have found work to be pleasant. On the other hand, I have no doubt whatsoever
that you have all experienced work to be a burden. That’s very common. It is
rarer (but not that rare) that we should also enjoy our work from time to time.
Sometimes even when we are really huffing and puffing, slaving away, there may
well be a part of us that rejoices.
I also hope that you have been
blessed by God with the experience of a worker’s sleep being sweet. Sleep after
hard work is mighty refreshing. It’s similar to the way that hunger is the best
spice. Ordinary food can taste mighty good to the one who is hungry. The joy in
that sleeping and in that eating cannot be bought with any amount of money. It
can only be known by the one who has experienced it. But it can only be
experienced by the one who also has suffered somewhat.
I’ve done some hard labor during
my life. I’ve known the sweetness of sleep and the goodness of food and drink.
But I also know how I’m happy to be done with the hard work that brings about
these pleasures. I was glad when the summer was over and I could go back to
school and not have to sweat it out in the heat. So something that the fall
into sin seems to have done to us is that we have lost our enduring joy in
work. Thank God we catch glimpses of it every now and then otherwise work would
be more disagreeable than it already is, but for the most part our joy in our work
is fleeting.
Regardless, to me it seems helpful
to point out that work is good for its own sake. Work is good if you are doing
one thing or another thing. Work is good if you work indoors or outdoors. Work
is good if you get paid a lot or if you get paid a little, or if you are only
receiving room and board. What is good about work is that it is productive and
helpful.
But we are prone to grumble and
complain, and thus make work a torture. Bitterness with our work makes the work
all the harder. Instead of thinking about the work that we do, and doing the
work well, we end up trying to escape it. We think about how our coworkers are
no good, our tasks are no good, our pay is no good. We’d be a whole lot better
off if we worked someplace else, with different tasks to do, with better pay.
Sadness, laziness, despair, meanness, and a whole bunch of other evil spirits
crowd out all joy. It is usually these unhappy people who look with the most
envy and anger at those who do not work at all. They wish that they could do
the same as them.
But these are things that cannot
be solved by changing outward circumstances. We are dealing with spiritual
things here. A diseased spirit cannot be happy no matter what job that person
might have. A diseased spirit cannot be happy whether the person works or not.
On the other hand, a healthier spirit is going to find joy in work no matter
what crosses are placed upon the person. A healthier spirit does not believe
that coveting is the key to success. A healthier spirit does not believe that
making monuments with money or accomplishments is the key to happiness. A
healthier spirit is thankful to God rather than being engaged in never-ending
negativity.
Notice that I said “a healthier
spirit” instead of simply saying “a healthy spirit.” On this earth there is no
one who has arrived at perfect health after the fall into sin. The only
exception to that is Jesus. There you see a healthy spirit, who rejoices in the
will of the Father, no matter what the will of the Father might be. With us,
and with our fallen flesh, we will not arrive at perfect health until we are
purified in heaven. Then we will know what it was like for Adam to work before
the fall into sin. But until then, even the best of us are going to be tried
with times of grumbling and sadness.
It is important, however, that
we see these things for what they are. They are not good. I know that it is
unbelievably common for us to grumble and complain with our work. It’s so
common that nobody thinks twice about it being acceptable. But bitterness,
boredom, sadness, envy, and other common afflictions with work do not come from
good sources. They come from evil sources. There’s nothing the devil would like
more than to strip us of all joy and thankfulness. He would have us be blind to
anything that is good, and super-attentive to all that is bad.
Our work—no matter what that
work might be, whether we are paid for that work or not—is a very important
part of our life. If this part of our life can be ruined by evil spirits, then
what great sadness the devil can work upon the earth! Jesus came to destroy the
works of the devil. Prayer is a good way to drive the evil spirits away.
Thankfulness, also, that is, praising and giving thanks to God, is a powerful
tonic for our sadness.
With the way that Solomon says
that all is vanity, a person might think that this would be true also about our
work. But Solomon does not say that work is vanity. If you work for money and
prestige and retirement, then, to be sure, that is vanity! But that is not why
work is given to us. Work is the way that we can live happily and help other
people. Work is an important part of our lives as God’s creatures.
God drive away evil spirits from
you and give you his Holy Spirit. May your hearts be filled with love and
thankfulness.
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