Scriptural Sermons

“There is nothing new under the sun.” This is the contention of the book of Ecclesiastes. “There’s nothing new under the sun.” But is this good news or bad news? You could certainly make the case that it’s good news. If there’s nothing new under the sun, then whatever befalls us has befallen others. Others have shared our successes and failures. Others have known our joys and sorrows. That’s not bad news– that the realities of life play upon us all. It leads to the conclusion that we’re in good company, that we’re all in it together. I’d say that’s good news. However, this is not the case the book of Ecclesiastes makes. The book of Ecclesiastes makes the case that it’s bad news. It makes the case it’s bad news because its author, known enigmatically as Qoheleth, has taken a long hard look at life and has seen that the wicked people prosper at the expense of the righteous, that fools decline to let their words be few, that oppressors prey upon the vulnerable, that achievements are dismantled by their inheritors, that one’s memory is quickly forgotten; and there’s nothing new under the sun. Just that, again and again and again. So it’s bad news. And so, given that its bad news, the only positive advice Qoheleth has to give, if you can call it positive advice, is this. If you can derive any enjoyment from anything in this life then by all means do so, for that’s all life will ever afford you. But, no sooner does he give, and give meagerly, with one hand than he takes away with the other, for he documents in painful detail his own failed attempt to derive any enjoyment from this life. First, he documents, he sought to derive enjoyment from wisdom, from a wise understanding of life over against his own dismal sense of it. And indeed he pursued wisdom, surpassing, in his words “all who were over Jerusalem before him.” But wisdom only confirmed the bad news. “In much wisdom,” he wrote, “is much vexation, and those who increase wisdom increase sorrow.” After wisdom, he sought to derive enjoyment from pleasure, from all the diversions that make for laughter, but found that there is only, under the circumstances, the laughter of fools. After pleasure, he sought to derive enjoyment from wine, not so much to “make merry the heart” but to dull the senses and nerves. But wine only underscored the need for escapism. After wine, he sought to derive pleasure from productivity. He built houses, vineyards, gardens, parks, orchards, and pools. After productivity, it was possessions. He acquired slaves, herds, flocks, gold, silver, and other treasure. After possessions, it was concubines. Ironically, in these pursuits, he became the greatest man of his time. But all to no avail. There was no enjoyment to be had in any of it. There is nothing new under the sun. According to Qoheleth, very bad news indeed. I doubt many of us hold Qoheleth’s position quite as staunchly as he does. If we did, we’d be curled up in fetal balls. But don’t we all, from our own vantage points, at least have some sense of what he is talking about? I must admit I do. Having spent most of my life studying ancient thought systems, I’m here to tell you there’s nothing new under the sun. There have been no new thought systems to come down the pike since ancient times. But what, you may say skeptically, of humanism, the belief that took root at close of theological age that humanity is capable of mastering its own destiny, of achieving its own fulfillment? Humanism is just a secularized version of Pelagianism, the fourth century belief that humanity can earn its own salvation. Well then you may say, what about Marxism, the belief that an inevitable clash will end the problems of history and usher in utopia? But Marxism is just a secularized version of apocalypticism, the 2 nd century BCE belief that God will destroy history in a cataclysm and usher in his reign. Well then, what about the entire advent of science? Science is not per se, a thought system. Science, rather, endeavors to understand physical reality, but once it goes beyond that to the belief that understanding physical reality can disclose ultimate reality, that’s just pantheism, the belief that “God” is the sum total of the cosmos, which in its rudiments predated the Old Testament period. There are no new thought systems, only the resurrection and rehashing of old ones. And so, I have sometimes wondered, what’s the point? What’s the point of thought systems if the ancient ones are obsolete and the new ones derivative? Who cares what they all have to say anyway? What’s it all been for? All our thinking hasn’t improved us much, or at all. The twentieth century was the bloodiest century in human history, unless the twenty-first beats it. And from your own vantage points, you probably have a sense of what he’s talking about too. Maybe you always hoped that you’d rise a bit higher in your career, but from whatever glass ceiling you’re trapped under -- the ceiling of gender, the ceiling of age, the ceiling of politics, the ceiling of talent – you come to realize you’re just one ox in the herd in the workaday world. Soon you’ll retire and someone much like you when you first started out will take your place. After your retirement party, you’ll be forgotten, so what was the point of all your exertions? Or maybe you’re already retired and you find there was some small point of all your exertions -- your nest egg. But then, before you’ve even begun to go blue in the gills, the kids eye your nest egg. One seeks to borrow against it and that makes the other nervous and mistrustful. They get to feuding over it, and both end up blaming you. So what was the point of the kids? Whatever your vantage point, you probably have at least a sense of what he’s talking about. There’s nothing new under the sun. So what’s the point? At this juncture you may be wondering, why all this bad news at church? Don’t I come here for the good news? There’s enough bad news out there right now. Where are the wonderful words of life we were just singing about? Well, friends, they’re not in the book of Ecclesiastes. In fact, many biblical scholars have questioned, why was the book of Ecclesiastes even canonized? And the question remains an open one. It’s been raised but has never answered. Some scholars have offered the theory that the canonizers believed it to have been written by Solomon, but that theory is seems rather weak. Even if the canonizers did believe it to have been written by Solomon, which is dubious, that wouldn’t necessitate that it be canonized. The canonizers would have realized that the canon shouldn’t include every word written by every biblical player. What next, David’s love letters to Bathsheba? I have my own theory as to why the book of Ecclesiastes was canonized, but it’s not a critical theory like scholars offer. It’s more a faithful theory, like pastors offer. Maybe the canonizers realized that the book of Ecclesiastes documented a legitimate problem of existence, a problem that at some point in God’s salvation history that God would answer. It’s kind of like when the book of Hebrews declares of Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham that they “died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them.” The book of Ecclesiastes was canonized because it documented a legitimate problem of existence and, in faith, from a distance, saw and greeted an answer to it. Because look how it all played out. Something new finally came -- the God/Man Jesus Christ. He seemed to think that there was a point, and that point was his love – his limitless, uncompromising, universal, self-sacrificing love. And his love has made a certain point in history, to my mind the only point in history. And when we ourselves practice his love, it will make a point in our lives. It will make us new. “The old will pass away; everything will become new.” There is now something new under the sun. It is the Son of God. All praise be unto him! Amen. Holy Lord God, In the light of your son, each day holds for us the possibility to speak the truth, to act justly, to forgive, to witness, to love, and so to bring newness of life to a weary world. Help us each to find our own direction and path, our own way of following him..