Finding the Center: Ecclesiastes part 1

Ecclesiastes 1:2–3 ESV

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,

vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

What does man gain by all the toil

at which he toils under the sun?

Ecclesiastes asks big questions and expect big answers.

People are asking big questions these days. You may be here because of that. And the church, the church of all places, should be the location that answers them.

We never stop searching for meaning. All is Vanity!

Ecclesiastes 1:3–5 ESV

What does man gain by all the toil

at which he toils under the sun?

A generation goes, and a generation comes,

but the earth remains forever.

The sun rises, and the sun goes down,

and hastens to the place where it rises.

Ecclesiastes 1:11 ESV

There is no remembrance of former things,

nor will there be any remembrance

of later things yet to be

among those who come after.

All of Creation and the world around you will last longer than you. “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.” There is no remembrance of the things that have come before. They are forgotten.

Analyzing the disruption: We cannot truly find meaning on our own. All is vanity!

Ecclesiastes 2:1–6 ESV

I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees.

Ecclesiastes 2:9–11 ESV

So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

But we begin to see something I think is clever in this idea of vanity.

What this word means is not that life is meaningless, but that meaning is hard to grasp. Like trying to hold onto smoke or vapor, meaning is hard to understand. It is before us, it is real, but we cannot master or control it. It is like, fog, a little murky and blurry. But it is there. It is enigmatic but present (Bartholomew 2014, 105).

One of the great gifts of Ecclesiastes is to show us that we are not the center of the world. That even in all of our pursuits, all of our aquisitions and additions to our lives, we cannot get it all. We are not in the center. If we are subject to murky vanity then we cannot possibly be in the center of everything, not in not in the center of the world, not in the center of my circle of relationships, not in the “center of history, action, or culture” (Ellul 2021, 115).

We are Dependent People.

We have limits: Thank God!

It is good to find our boundaries. It is a grace to find our limitations.

We can’t ultimately escape our limitations. We will collapse before we reach whatever solution we have been trying to find.

In our search for meaning everywhere, Christ has come to us as the Source of all Meaning

The wisest thing we can do in our limitation is see that Christ is present to restore everything that we have broken in our vanity. Our sin that propels our pursuits toward meaning, keep us located in the “infinite workday.”

1 Corinthians 1:24–25 ESV

but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Embrace Vanity by Clinging to Christ

Ecclesiastes 3:12–14 ESV

I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.

I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.

If there is someone who you have been praying for to know the goodness of the God who came to us, then maybe one of the best ways you can show them what God is like is to embrace their pursuit of vanity.

Invite someone to a meal to embrace your and their own search for vanity. Send someone a card, or invite someone to coffee. Take a hike in the woods, and push your relentless pursuit aside for a bit. It will come roaring back, but remind it that your dependency is in the One who is Center and who holds all things together.