All the vain things that charm me most…
Text: Ecclesiastes 1:1-18
As I mentioned last week, my sermons during the season of Lent will be based on the book of Ecclesiastes. It’s a bit of a departure for me, as I am not relying on a particular set of suggested readings, but simply working my way through a book of the Bible that has one very well known passage in it, but the rest of it is a mystery.
Ecclesiastes is a book of wisdom that offers some great insights into life and our relationship with God. Unlike many passages in the Bible, God is not shown as speaking to anybody at any point through this book. There are no peals of thunder, no stone tablets, no displays of fireworks. At no point does the Teacher, as the writer of Ecclesiastes calls himself, hear the voice of God speaking to him directly.
If there ever was a book that we could relate to the most, it should be this one. More It has an unflinchingly realistic perspective on the value of life. There are no rose-coloured glasses… no sentimental sayings… and yet his observations about life are timeless… and for that reason alone, I think this book is an overlooked gem that can help us really develop our Spirituality… and therefore is appropriate for this season of Lent.
The Teacher opens with what is really a rant… using the translation we have in the pews, it goes like this:
Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
What do people gain from all the toil
at which they toil under the sun?
Vanity is often described as the greatest of the “Seven” deadly sins. That sense of excessive pride, self-importance, or arrogance that presumes that we ourselves can do no wrong. Sometimes we call it hubris. This is either because we make the presumption that God is on our side no matter what, or worse yet, that we presume to speak for God. This is all true, but there’s another important piece that in the midst of that self-important pride that really, at the core of it all it is empty and meaningless. Vain pursuits are those things that we do for personal gain, and yet don’t amount to a thing.
All is vanity, or chasing after the wind.
This past Tuesday night, I was moderating a Session meeting at Norval Presbyterian Church, and I decided to open with this passage… but the only translation they had was the Good News translation of the Bible… which is often considered a very accessible reading. So I flipped it open, and began to read… and instead of it saying “All is Vanity” it said “Life is useless!” Whoa…
Now there’s an inspiring way to start off a meeting!!
After that, decided I checked out a few different translations to see what other scholars had to say, and discovered that in every English translation I consulted, the Hebrew word “Hebel” produced a different word. Among them were Vanity, useless, meaninglessness, smoke, vapour… all those fleeting things that don’t mean a thing…
…you get the idea. It’s not a terribly good way to start out a book, and it’s not surprising that we don’t see this passage making the rounds in the pulpit. At the same time, the Teacher is trying to set the stage by shaking us out of our complacency, and for us to begin considering the things that really matter in life. Taken alone, these words that open Ecclesiastes are hardly inspiring at all, in fact, they’re downright depressing… but that’s the idea… and all throughout Lent we’re going to come back here, and begin to see the real wisdom that the Teacher has to offer.
Ecclesiastes attempts to look at the totality of life, at the same time trying to point out the futility that we cannot fully understand all that is… because doing so would be presuming that we could become like God. Vanity… pride… hubris…
It’s curious, especially in light of the markets not only in the past week, but really since the effects of the economic recession are being felt more and more. On more than one occasion in the past few months, I’ve heard someone on the radio comment that with everything being stripped away, people are being forced by circumstance to realize what is really important in life… and it isn’t in the things that we acquire…
Ironically, this is what Ecclesiastes is doing as a part of this work –he strips away all the vain things, and at the same time comments that “there is nothing new under the sun.” –remarking that it is human nature to forget the lessons of the past. “Vanity strips life of all great promises, and any appearances to the contrary are precisely that, appearances.”
In many ways, in the midst of Lent, what we’re trying to do is consider those things that are really really important in our life, and in our relationship with God. Even so, we need to be cautious against anything that somehow over-inflates our importance, that somehow we are better than the person next to us in any way, including in our spirituality. It is not for us to judge… anything else is indeed, vanity.
One commentator wrote, “No matter how hard they try, human beings cannot secure themselves or fill the void any more than they can drink water from a mirage. We are not the masters of our destinies, the sage claims, for the wall of human limitations can never be breached.”
Ecclesiastes gets into what those vain things really are… or maybe what they aren’t…
It is entirely possible for us to read this book with a sense of despair, that in the end, everything that we strive for is ultimately a vain pursuit, but I don’t think that was what the Teacher was after. His goal was to turn our thinking, our conventional wisdom on its ear, and see life through the eyes of eternity. When all is said and done, what is it that truly matters for us as human beings? When our life is but a fleeting instant in the time of the universe, is building monuments to ourselves really what God wants of us? Probably not. Is puffing ourselves up at the expense of others what God wants of us? Definitely not… and yet really, so many of us do that even within the context of a church. The Teacher was painfully aware of this, and sought to demolish it by turning wisdom on its ear… forcing us to realize what really matters.
When we reading or listen to this book through the lens of Lent… in trying to reclaim or deepen our relationship with God, these opening passages are a warning for us to consider those things that we place too much stock into. What are those vain things that charm you the most?
We can look to the usual suspects… money, wealth, power… stuff… we all know people who are materially vain. That’s not the hard part. I could line this sermon with a dozen stories lifted from any issue any newspaper or magazine over the past week… the recent economic turmoil finds is source in vanity… but ironically, it would be vain for us to pronounce judgment on them.
The lens that Ecclesiastes provides with us, he layers on an even more devastating challenge. What if our Spiritual pursuits are vain as well? If we are carrying out our prayers, reading the Bible, attending worship as a way to curry favour with God, that is vanity… If we are trying to get other people to think or talk the way we do, that is vanity… According to the teacher, even the gathering of Biblical wisdom and knowledge for selfish gain is vanity. A danger sign is when we begin to judge the Spirituality of those next to us. Healthy Spirituality seeks a relationship with God purely for the sake of the relationship with our Creator.
If I were to give you a challenge for this Lent, especially in light of the wisdom of Ecclesiastes, is ask yourself what are the vain things that charm you most? In our relationship with God, what is it that we are hoping to gain? In the end, what really is the most important thing in your life? As Ecclesiastes would later write, the enjoyment of life itself is what might actually matter the most… our relationship with God helps us to realize that. The season of Lent is exactly the right time under heaven to be asking those questions. Those vain things that charm us most are all those things that get in the way of having a healthy relationship with God. Perhaps this is something we really need to struggle with before we survey the wondrous cross on Good Friday.
Amen.
As I mentioned last week, my sermons during the season of Lent will be based on the book of Ecclesiastes. It’s a bit of a departure for me, as I am not relying on a particular set of suggested readings, but simply working my way through a book of the Bible that has one very well known passage in it, but the rest of it is a mystery.
Ecclesiastes is a book of wisdom that offers some great insights into life and our relationship with God. Unlike many passages in the Bible, God is not shown as speaking to anybody at any point through this book. There are no peals of thunder, no stone tablets, no displays of fireworks. At no point does the Teacher, as the writer of Ecclesiastes calls himself, hear the voice of God speaking to him directly.
If there ever was a book that we could relate to the most, it should be this one. More It has an unflinchingly realistic perspective on the value of life. There are no rose-coloured glasses… no sentimental sayings… and yet his observations about life are timeless… and for that reason alone, I think this book is an overlooked gem that can help us really develop our Spirituality… and therefore is appropriate for this season of Lent.
The Teacher opens with what is really a rant… using the translation we have in the pews, it goes like this:
Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
What do people gain from all the toil
at which they toil under the sun?
Vanity is often described as the greatest of the “Seven” deadly sins. That sense of excessive pride, self-importance, or arrogance that presumes that we ourselves can do no wrong. Sometimes we call it hubris. This is either because we make the presumption that God is on our side no matter what, or worse yet, that we presume to speak for God. This is all true, but there’s another important piece that in the midst of that self-important pride that really, at the core of it all it is empty and meaningless. Vain pursuits are those things that we do for personal gain, and yet don’t amount to a thing.
All is vanity, or chasing after the wind.
This past Tuesday night, I was moderating a Session meeting at Norval Presbyterian Church, and I decided to open with this passage… but the only translation they had was the Good News translation of the Bible… which is often considered a very accessible reading. So I flipped it open, and began to read… and instead of it saying “All is Vanity” it said “Life is useless!” Whoa…
Now there’s an inspiring way to start off a meeting!!
After that, decided I checked out a few different translations to see what other scholars had to say, and discovered that in every English translation I consulted, the Hebrew word “Hebel” produced a different word. Among them were Vanity, useless, meaninglessness, smoke, vapour… all those fleeting things that don’t mean a thing…
…you get the idea. It’s not a terribly good way to start out a book, and it’s not surprising that we don’t see this passage making the rounds in the pulpit. At the same time, the Teacher is trying to set the stage by shaking us out of our complacency, and for us to begin considering the things that really matter in life. Taken alone, these words that open Ecclesiastes are hardly inspiring at all, in fact, they’re downright depressing… but that’s the idea… and all throughout Lent we’re going to come back here, and begin to see the real wisdom that the Teacher has to offer.
Ecclesiastes attempts to look at the totality of life, at the same time trying to point out the futility that we cannot fully understand all that is… because doing so would be presuming that we could become like God. Vanity… pride… hubris…
It’s curious, especially in light of the markets not only in the past week, but really since the effects of the economic recession are being felt more and more. On more than one occasion in the past few months, I’ve heard someone on the radio comment that with everything being stripped away, people are being forced by circumstance to realize what is really important in life… and it isn’t in the things that we acquire…
Ironically, this is what Ecclesiastes is doing as a part of this work –he strips away all the vain things, and at the same time comments that “there is nothing new under the sun.” –remarking that it is human nature to forget the lessons of the past. “Vanity strips life of all great promises, and any appearances to the contrary are precisely that, appearances.”
In many ways, in the midst of Lent, what we’re trying to do is consider those things that are really really important in our life, and in our relationship with God. Even so, we need to be cautious against anything that somehow over-inflates our importance, that somehow we are better than the person next to us in any way, including in our spirituality. It is not for us to judge… anything else is indeed, vanity.
One commentator wrote, “No matter how hard they try, human beings cannot secure themselves or fill the void any more than they can drink water from a mirage. We are not the masters of our destinies, the sage claims, for the wall of human limitations can never be breached.”
Ecclesiastes gets into what those vain things really are… or maybe what they aren’t…
It is entirely possible for us to read this book with a sense of despair, that in the end, everything that we strive for is ultimately a vain pursuit, but I don’t think that was what the Teacher was after. His goal was to turn our thinking, our conventional wisdom on its ear, and see life through the eyes of eternity. When all is said and done, what is it that truly matters for us as human beings? When our life is but a fleeting instant in the time of the universe, is building monuments to ourselves really what God wants of us? Probably not. Is puffing ourselves up at the expense of others what God wants of us? Definitely not… and yet really, so many of us do that even within the context of a church. The Teacher was painfully aware of this, and sought to demolish it by turning wisdom on its ear… forcing us to realize what really matters.
When we reading or listen to this book through the lens of Lent… in trying to reclaim or deepen our relationship with God, these opening passages are a warning for us to consider those things that we place too much stock into. What are those vain things that charm you the most?
We can look to the usual suspects… money, wealth, power… stuff… we all know people who are materially vain. That’s not the hard part. I could line this sermon with a dozen stories lifted from any issue any newspaper or magazine over the past week… the recent economic turmoil finds is source in vanity… but ironically, it would be vain for us to pronounce judgment on them.
The lens that Ecclesiastes provides with us, he layers on an even more devastating challenge. What if our Spiritual pursuits are vain as well? If we are carrying out our prayers, reading the Bible, attending worship as a way to curry favour with God, that is vanity… If we are trying to get other people to think or talk the way we do, that is vanity… According to the teacher, even the gathering of Biblical wisdom and knowledge for selfish gain is vanity. A danger sign is when we begin to judge the Spirituality of those next to us. Healthy Spirituality seeks a relationship with God purely for the sake of the relationship with our Creator.
If I were to give you a challenge for this Lent, especially in light of the wisdom of Ecclesiastes, is ask yourself what are the vain things that charm you most? In our relationship with God, what is it that we are hoping to gain? In the end, what really is the most important thing in your life? As Ecclesiastes would later write, the enjoyment of life itself is what might actually matter the most… our relationship with God helps us to realize that. The season of Lent is exactly the right time under heaven to be asking those questions. Those vain things that charm us most are all those things that get in the way of having a healthy relationship with God. Perhaps this is something we really need to struggle with before we survey the wondrous cross on Good Friday.
Amen.
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