"NO PROFIT"
A Sermon on Ecclesiastes 1:3-8, 3:9-13, & 6:7-9
September 22, 2002
by Rev. Stephen C. Magee
Exeter Presbyterian Church
Introduction: Addressing the Success Cult: No Profit, No Progress, and No Legacy
There is a Success Cult that is very popular in our world today that is rarely challenged. According to this cult, it is very evident to all who are the winners and who are the losers. If you have no money, if you have nothing new or noteworthy to your credit, if you have nothing in particular that would cause people to remember you so that it could not really be said that you have left some legacy, then you are a loser. Other people are evidently winners. They amass large accounts and have many possessions. But if we look at things rightly, is there any abiding profit from all those labors? They are achievers and have created many new things or moved some efforts forward with obvious progress. But is there any abiding progress as a result of their work and wisdom? When a winner dies everyone says, we will not forget him. But how long does the supposed legacy last? Is there any abiding remembrance of him?
During the next three weeks we will consider three topics that appear throughout this ancient book of wisdom. These three topics have to do with life in a fallen world. Since Adam ate the fruit in the garden as the accurate representative of mankind, this world has been full of vanity. How are you and I to live in this dying world of work and wisdom? How can we have joy and purpose when every pleasure seems to be fleeting, every project is infected with futility, and every insight seems to miss the mark?
How can we live with contentment in a world that is under God's wrath and curse? What do we think is the godly path? Are we to grit our teeth, wear a blind fold, plug up our ears, put duct tape over our mouths, and then in despair beg God for the removal of every thought of our minds and hearts - tinged as they all are with sin? Or are we to ignore the law of God as unattainable, reassuring ourselves that the Lord surely understands the mess that we are in? Are we to laugh along with a world that has given up hope of making any sense of it all, and just collect toys or accolades according to the unexamined premise that this makes us winners - that this is success?
The author of this book, has organized the book into three structured cycles. At the beginning of each of the cycles, three issues are dealt with. In recognizing and dealing with these issues, I believe that we will have a more honest assessment of the condition of our world than we have ever had before. We will also be given some help for living, that we may have some help in avoiding the morass of discontentment all around us; help in finding surprising joy in the midst of this cursed condition.
With each of these three issues over the next three weeks we will have three passages from each of the three cycles. That is why we will be looking at three texts for each of the next three Sundays, so that we can see something of the depth of the problem before us, and then examine a statement for each problem that suggests a solution. Our first problem is summed up in two words. NO PROFIT.
This may come as a surprise to you, but I think that you will find much peace in the surprising teaching of the Scripture that there is absolutely no profit to be gained in this fallen world:
TEXT: Ecclesiastes 1:3-8, 3:9-13 and 6:8-9
1:1 Prologue
1:2 Motto
[1:3-3:8 Cycle 1 The Problem of Work and Wisdom]
1:3 What profit has a man from all his labor
In which he toils under the sun?
4 One generation passes away, and another generation comes;
But the earth abides forever.
5 The sun also rises, and the sun goes down,
And hastens to the place where it arose.
6 The wind goes toward the south,
And turns around to the north;
The wind whirls about continually,
And comes again on its circuit.
7 All the rivers run into the sea,
Yet the sea is not full;
To the place from which the rivers come,
There they return again.
8 All things are full of labor;
Man cannot express it.
The eye is not satisfied with seeing,
Nor the ear filled with hearing.
[3:9-6:6 Cycle 2 Work in Fear Before God Whose Work Endures]
3:9 What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? 10 I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
12 I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, 13 and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor -- it is the gift of God.
[6:7-12:7 Cycle 3 Wisdom in Humility Before God Whose Wisdom is Unfathomable]
6:7 All the labor of man is for his mouth,
And yet the soul is not satisfied.
8 For what more has the wise man than the fool?
What does the poor man have,
Who knows how to walk before the living?
9 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire.
This also is vanity and grasping for the wind.
12:8 Motto
12:9-14 Epilogue
The passages from the beginning of cycle one and the beginning of cycle three discuss and illustrate the problem before us. The central passage, from the beginning of cycle two gives us God's word of solution to those who would recognize the problem. We will deal with the problem passages first, and then see the wisdom of God's solution.
Problem: NO PROFIT
Pathway of Generations
A profit, is some lasting excess above what is used, that can be safely stored and counted upon for future days. I tell you that if you see this fallen world rightly, you will agree with me that profit is a mirage, like the glimmer of water in the dessert, it vanishes as your travels continue. There is absolutely no abiding profit for you in this world.
The numbers on our ledgers that tell us we will leave a great inheritance to our children can vanish in an instant. If this does not happen before we die, it can surely happen after our children would receive what we have planned to give them. One generation passes away, and another takes it's place, and before very long at all, there is nothing left of what we have stored up for our descendants. Some of it will be wasted. Much of it will go to tax-collectors. Moth and rust will in due time get the rest of it. Do you believe me? I know it is hard to fathom. There will be no profit from it all.
Perhaps you will be one of the few who will somehow see your estate grow and will make your children and grandchildren wealthy with your labors. What will they do with what you pass on to them? And what will it all mean to you anyway where you are going after you die? Will there be any profit for you at all? Will you be any better than the man who dies with nothing.
Think about that man with me for a moment - the man who dies with absolutely nothing left. I tell you, everything else being equal, that man who dies with nothing will be better than you, if He spent His resources fully as He thought best. He has spent his all perfectly. Like the runner who has given his best effort in every stride and has nothing left at the end of the race for another step, he has run the perfect race.
Yet we ponder the money and possessions coming to us. We make our plans as to how we will use it all. We think of what we will do with what we leave behind, and there is no profit in it all. All our labors have amounted to nothing for us, because we cannot take any of it with us where we are going.
Lessons from Nature
Our text gives us some illustrations from the natural world that teach us this lesson. Look at the work of the sun in the sky. To our observation he is running a race which seems to amount to nothing. You think that he has finished his goal in the west only to see him again every morning in the east for centuries upon centuries. And he is none the better for all his efforts.
The work of the wind is much the same. He cannot be collected in a storehouse. There is no profit from his labors. When it seems to move profitably in one direction it will only whirl around in another direction continually over the face of the earth. Where is it coming from? Where is it going? What does it accomplish that lasts? It is so busy, but it never seems to arrive.
What about the waters? The rivers are working furiously to fill up the seas. They rush night and day, never allowing themselves any rest. But if we look at their accomplishment in this imagined task of filling up the oceans, they seem to make no progress. They somehow make their way back to the beginning and the ceaseless toil continues without any discernible profit.
Lessons from the Human Heart
The human heart echoes the same conclusion as the natural world all around us. The eye keeps on taking in stimuli everywhere but it can never say, "Enough, I have finally seen everything that I need to. All the puzzle pieces fit now with the last sight that I have seen." Never. It is never finished. The same is true of the ear, as it processes through the brain all the sound waves that it can take in, and still goes listening for more. Only the force of blindness and deafness can stop the unending work. It lusts for the next sound, but is never satisfied. It receives no profit that lasts. The eye and the ear have lost the last input from a microsecond earlier, sending a memory signal to the brain, and they are on to the next microsecond. They only know the "now." Everything else is gone in this fleeting world of sin and death.
The Work of Seeking Wisdom - Any Profit Here?
Even the work of wisdom yields no profit, according to the writer. Like the eye and the ear, the soul will not be satisfied. The more that we seek for wisdom, the more we see that we do not know. Early things that we once thought were mastered, have been opened up again like old wounds, as our minds desire wisdom that will last - and find that it all slips through our hands like the wind which we try to catch. The more we know, the more we see that we do not know.
NO PROFIT. Now I promised you that this would give you joy and comfort, and I must be honest with you that I have not yet delivered the goods. But there is already something here for you in the debunking of a false God. If you will give up the idea that you are here for the building up of earthly profits, the stage will be set for a better way. If there is indeed no profit for you, and you are willing to settle for this, than you will not be chasing the mirage with the success crowd, and your energy can be more fruitfully spent.
When we have rejected the world's games and goals, we are set to see a new way before us, that may be somewhat surprising. There is a solution for us, and it comes at the beginning of the middle cycle of this book.
Solution:
3:9 What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? 10 I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
12 I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, 13 and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor -- it is the gift of God.
1. The Enjoyment of God's Gifts
First, see that the tasks before us, our work - which we so often presume to be for our own profit - these tasks are God-given. He knows what He is doing with the sun, the wind, the rivers, the eye, the ear and the soul. And He knows what he is doing with your life and with the labors He has given you.
Despite the purposelessness to the observer of the unending activity of the sun, we do know that it would be a significant problem if God - who is the Almighty - gave the old fellow a break. The same is true of the winds, the rivers, the work of the various sensory organs of your body, your mind and your soul, and even the labor of your life. It is a task given by God. You need to trust that He knows what He is doing with this, just as surely as He has ordained the work of the sun in the heavens.
This has to do with his own eternal perspective of perfect wisdom, whereby He knows how your work fits perfectly into a larger quilt that He has designed for His own glory. You are to be occupied in that work, trusting that He will accomplish His purpose through it, and make everything beautiful in its time. God has put eternity in our hearts. We long for its perfections and for its author. We must trust Him that He has a plan for His eternal glory, and we can be satisfied that He brings eternal profit to His own name, as the one to whom all things must go. Trust your Father in heaven and be occupied with your good works, because you will not be able to fathom His eternal plan. It is a matter of trust.
Therefore, as you rest in Him, enjoy His gifts to you. Enjoy the work itself, and enjoy the fruits of your labor day by day. Enjoy the blessing of being a blessing to others. Enjoy your participation in the proclamation of His Word to the ends of the earth. Rejoice. Do good. Eat. Drink. Enjoy the good of all your labor. It is the gift of God.
2. Who Wins?
Your life is not about profit - at least not the kind of profit- slavery that the success cult would chain you to. You must reject at least this aspect of the success cult. These two ways of life are mutually exclusive ways of living. Either you live with the vain distraction of a supposed profit, or you live in the enjoyment of God, His plan, His tasks that He has given you, His gifts of so many good things. Rejoice in the Lord always.
I ask you, "Who wins?" Is it really the man with the most toys. Is it really the one who is able to store up the most for his own children, perhaps harming them by giving them more than they should receive? Is it really the one who has large accounts, and so many treasures that others may decide are a bother that have to be attended to - to their children part trash/part treasure - to their grandchildren mostly trash - to their later descendants unknown. Is this the one who wins?
Or is it the one who enjoys His work as a gift from God? Is it not the one who enjoy things that He does not fully understand with trust in the Lord - the one who enjoys life as a matter of faith - perhaps dying as a loser in the eyes of the success cult.
3. Christ Our Profit
There is only one way to embrace this eternal perspective. You must ground your work and wisdom in the eternal work and wisdom of God. God has sent His Son - the Eternal Word - the Wisdom and Power of God. He is your profit. He is your reward. And He has said, "What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?"
Christ has secured our eternal profit through his works, and through his death and resurrection. There is no other storehouse of profit that you can count on, religiously or materially. All else will fail.
After the fall of Adam, we live in a common curse world. There is no better way to live in this world, then to enjoy the common grace that we have day by day as a gift from God, and to live with eternal thanksgiving to Christ for the sure eternal profit that He has secured for us, and that He is and will be for us.