Fatigue and the Beginning of Wisdom (sermon)

Preaching is a genre of speaking,where our goal is—through Scripture—to learn about God, the world, and eachother. Preaching should be edifying. And preaching should ultimately be aboutthe Good News of God in Christ.

So given this description ofwhat we might expect a sermon to contain—sort of the baseline qualifications,it’s perhaps understandable that you might wonder why today’s sermon is aboutthe reading from Ecclesiastes.

Vanity of vanities, says theTeacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

Things continue to godownhill from there, really. The Teacher writes that even though he was king,and had access to all the wealth and education that might make it possible to findwisdom, he’s got nothing. No lasting wisdom, just frustration, and someexhaustion to boot.

All is vanity, and a chasingafter wind.

After all, he continues, allof this work he does isn’t going to do him much good. He’s going to die. Justlike everyone else. And who knows if the kids or grandkids or great grandkidsare going to be wise or foolish? Is it worth it, really, to work work work allday and night, knowing that death is coming?

So as you can see, this isan incredibly uplifting reading. We’re all going to die. So what’s the point ofwisdom or of a “good” or “productive” life?

What’s going on here? Why isthis text in the Bible at all, and what are we going to do with it, on this EighthSunday after Pentecost?

This week, I was reading an articlewhich called out some of the human rights abuses occurring in our country, andin our common political life. And in the midst of this impassioned discussion,one particular paragraph stood out to me. In this paragraph, the writer saidthat “Protesting in the face of such outrageous abuses of power, of such truehorrors, can feel overwhelming.”.

This writer goes out of theirway to name that this work is exhausting, even while arguing that it shouldbe done. If you read a lot of work on social justice activism, you’ll know thatthis feeling of overwhelm actually has a name—“activism fatigue”.

Activism fatigue. Or maybe,you know it as work fatigue. School fatigue. Social media fatigue. Or justplain exhaustion at the hectic pace of life.

So when I read this part of Ecclesiastes,I hear this same sense of fatigue. Exhaustion at having tried just abouteverything.

Perhaps, for our Biblicalauthor, it’s a frustration that no matter how hard we work, no matter how desperatelywe seek wisdom, it all eventually feels like nothing. Perhaps, it’s that, asthe author says later in the book, “there are righteous people who are treatedaccording to the conduct of the wicked, and there are wicked people who aretreated according to the conduct of the righteous.” (8:14). The text describesthis as “vanity”, but you could easily substitute the words “ridiculous”, “unfair”,or even “sinful” or “futile”. ‘Unfair. This is all just unfair’ (I’m sure you’veheard, or said that before, right?).

This is all unfair.

The lectionary today has thisincredible contrast between Ecclesiastes and the Gospel. In the Gospel, we findthe parable of the man who thinks he has it all. Wealth, food, drink, a goodharvest. Jesus tells us God’s response to this—“you fool!”.

I don’t know what God’s responseis to the writer of Ecclesiastes, but I wonder if it might be the opposite? “youwise one!”

We find in Ecclesiastes,someone who has toiled under the sun. Who is exhausted. Who says that “all isvanity”, all is meaningless.

But we also find someone whois willing to recognize that he is not the greatest. He recognizes, like ourpsalmist, that our “graves shall be [our] homes for ever/ though [we] call thelands after [our] own names. He recognizes, unlike the rich man of the parable,that there is a season for everything, and that we are limited in what we areable to accomplish.

And most importantly, theconclusion of this book of the Bible is a reminder of what should center ourlimited, joyful, complex lives: he says in chapter 12 that this is “The end ofthe matter… fear God, and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty ofeveryone”.

The end of the matter. Liveaccording to the commandments of God. This is not vanity—in fact, any mentionof vanity is gone by this epilogue.

Fear God and live accordingto the commandments.

This is, as the Gospel mightsay, being rich toward God.

This is our whole duty.

So if you walked in thismorning, perhaps able to empathize with this writer in proclaiming that “all isvanity”, that “this world is unfair”, I hope you know that these words areenshrined in Scripture… for you. For us.

Because so much is unfair.There is so much pain, so many needless, senseless deaths—from guns and warsand our own inability to live together, to love each other. And I don’t know aboutyou, but I feel the fatigue of this reality weighing down upon me this morning,in the wake of yet another shooting, this time in Texas.

This is also vanity.

So what do we do now?  

Christ tells us the greatestcommandment is to love the Lord your God, and to love your neighbor asyourself.

This is not a platitude.

This is to fear God and liveaccording to the commandments.

And however hopeless orterrifying or strange things may seem—however much work and exhaustion we arein the midst of—this is our whole duty.   

In our limited, complex, andeven joyful lives, this is our whole duty: to love God and neighbor, and liveaccording to the commandments.

May we remember this on ourgood days and our bad days—our call is to be faithful.

This is not vanity. This is faithfulness.