Blogotional: I Love Ecclesiastes

Monday, December 17, 2007

I Love Ecclesiastes

Milt Stanley links to a post about Ecclesiates. The post oversteps a bit in its declaration of an author (Qoheleth?) for that particular bit of scripture, but the essential point is an excellent one:

Qoheleth is not being negative--a party pooper, a nay-sayer. He's being realistic. We live life in a world created by God and that world has suffered a severe blow because of sin. Qoheleth wants us to wake up and smell the coffee, to hear the screams of the oppressed, to ponder the debauchery of the rich, to smell the nauseating odors of death, to grapple with unexplainable injustice, to monitor our own hearts and honestly admit the evil that is there.

We humans know that things are "not the way they ought to be." We all long for something more, something deeper, more fulfilling. We commiserate, "There's just got to be more to life than this." Even the restless longing is an evidence that we've been touched by God. "[God] has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end" (3:12). We want to know what will happen next and we can't know it (8:7). Here is the smartest thing in the book about meaninglessness: "No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all his efforts to search it out, no one can discover its meaning. Even if a wise person claims he knows, he cannot really comprehend it."

I do truly love that book of scripture precisely because of this particular viewpoint.

I was treated to a lovely sermon a few weeks ago, particularly lovely in my highly rationalistic Presbyterian tradition called "Embrace the Mystery." This was a sermon in which the preacher contrasted the western Protestant tradition of trying to figure everything out, with the Eastern Orthodox tradition of simply wallowing in the mystery of some things. Leading into a celebration of the sacrament of communion, we were admonished to put aside questions of transubstantiation and forms and simply enjoy the fact that Jesus told us to do it.

Smart as we are - we are not as smart has God. Our understanding is indeed limited - it is indeed "vanity," or as the blog post calls in "meaningless."

God comes to us not in out strength, but in our weakness. It is when we discover the folly of our ways that we truly encounter God. That is the beauty of a book like Ecclesiastes - it is a message we do not hear enough of in the church today.

Eccl 1:2-9
"Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher, "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity."

What advantage does man have in all his work Which he does under the sun? A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. Also, the sun rises and the sun sets; and hastening to its place it rises there again. Blowing toward the south, then turning toward the north, the wind continues swirling along; and on its circular courses the wind returns. All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, there they flow again.

All things are wearisome; Man is not able to tell {it.} The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing. That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done. So, there is nothing new under the sun.