The Meaning of Life, Part One
July 8, 2007 Rev. David C. Huffman Eccl. 1:1-5 & 2:1-11
Back in the sixties a popular movie title asked the question, “What’s it all About, Alfie?” Since the beginning of time, people have been asking that question in some form or another: why are we here, what is the purpose of human existence, what is the meaning of life? And as anyone who has ever taken a basic course in religion or philosophy can tell you, there is no end to the answers people have come up with to these basic existential questions. When we look at the human condition, we can see some basic things that all of us have in common: we are all born; then we eat, drink, sleep, learn, work, laugh, cry, pay taxes, grow old, and die.”
Anyone would have trouble avoiding any of these certainties, with the possible exceptions of working and paying taxes. One day when I was out jogging, I ran past a car with a bumper sticker that said, “Eat right, exercise daily, and you still die.” I felt like turning around and going home to have a candy bar and a Coke.
I
What is the meaning of life? Why are we here? How can we find happiness and peace in a world that offers an insane array of possibilities? In one of Woody Allen’s early movies – before he went off the deep end – his mother was scolding him for not studying for a physics exam in Middle school. He replied, “Mom, just last week we learned that the universe is expanding and will one day explode. So, what’s the point of studying?” This was the same movie where he got an F on his philosophy exam for cheating: he looked into the soul of the person sitting next to him in class. Before we are tempted to lapse into despair or cynicism, let’s take a look at what the Book of Ecclesiastes has to say about this in our scripture passage today. Ecclesiastes is one of these little books in the Old Testament that few read, even fewer preach on, and is one that I would not recommend you read on a rainy day in January.
It is something of a downer that offers very little spiritual edification; it even had to struggle to make the cut to stay in the Bible. But it has one thing of value: Ecclesiastes, the Greek word for the Hebrew word koheleth, best translated as teacher or preacher, conducts a careful examination of all the world’s philosophies and finds their Achilles Heel. Although he is very vague in prescribing a cure, he is very clear in diagnosing the problem. He examines things like wisdom, wealth, food, sex, entertainment, power, status, and beauty and finds them all lacking, because none of them is able to carry the freight of explaining or providing the meaning of human life on planet earth.
Twenty-three hundred years have come and gone since Ecclesiastes wrote his book, and we are still trying to convince ourselves that money, power, and fame cannot make us happy. When I spin the television dial, so to speak, the Epicureans are on several channels trying to convince us to eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow may never come. The Food Channel, HGTV, and the shopping channels are the chief offenders in trying to convince us that we can eat, drink, build, or buy our way to happiness. Now, I love a fine meal, a comfortable home and clothes as well as anyone, but you and I both know that they cannot make us happy or fulfilled. Life is more than food and creature comforts. These are material things; they may taste good and feel good, but they do not bring us joy because they cannot.
Spin the dial further and the History, Discovery, Animal Planet, and National Geographic channels would convince us that knowledge and mastery over nature will bring meaning to our lives. As much as I value knowledge and learning and enjoy them, education cannot save us from the human condition and bring us the meaning and joy we all crave. Paschal, one of the greatest mathematicians in history, once said that God has created us with a God-shaped vacuum in our souls, one that only God can fill. And yet we try to fill it with any number of false gods.
We ministers often get a bum rap when we are accused of being party poopers by condemning all worldly and material things as sinful. Au contraire! The Bible said that God created the world and all that is in it and declared that it was all good. Food, money, sports, music, art, education, and material things are not intrinsically evil or sinful; they are just unable to satisfy the deep spiritual hunger that we all have. They have their place in our lives, but we get into trouble when we place these material things at the center of our lives and expect them to make us happy and fulfilled. That comes from somewhere else.
II
In the fourth century A.D. Augustine of Hippo prayed, “O God thou hast made us restless, and we remain restless until we find our rest in thee.” The problem of living in a fool’s paradise like the United States and the Triangle is that we are confronted everyday with an army of imposters claiming to have the secret to happiness. And we are tempted to believe and follow them. When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai he was amazed at how quickly his people had tired of waiting on a word from the Lord and had taken their own gold jewelry, melted it down and transformed it into an idol, a golden calf which they were worshiping.
That’s the reason you don’t find many atheists in the world. Everyone needs to worship something. Even though there has been a bevy of books about atheism on the best sellers’ list in recent years, very few people believe in nothing. That’s why the polls consistently reveal that 95% of Americans say they believe in God. This has always puzzled me because on any given Sunday only about 40% of them are in church or synagogue demonstrating that belief. I guess it takes a certain kind of chutzpah to tell a pollster that you don’t believe in God. Perhaps people are hedging their bets just in case God does exist.
Spin the dial further and we find an endless list of substitutes for the real thing: ESPN, AMC, Golf, Martha Stewart, Disney, and so on. Again, nothing intrinsically evil or wrong with these pastimes; but not one of them is able to deliver the level of happiness and meaning we seek. Of course, if we spend a little extra money and get HBO and the X-rated movies, then we have begun a slide down a slippery slope that rivals the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. The problem with the mavens of modern culture is that they think that just a little more money, a bigger house, a faster car, more exotic food, and enough frequent flyer miles to keep us flying free for the next forty years is going to make us happy. But they won’t because they can’t.
So Koheleth, the preacher, concludes that a wise person learns that beating a dead horse is no way to make him get up and pull the wagon. It would be far better to find another horse. If a doctor treats an illness with the wrong medicine, giving us more of the wrong medicine won’t fix the problem; she needs to give us a different medicine. As the old saying says, hearses do no not have trailer hitches. I have a bumper sticker in my study that says, “The One with the Most Toys Still Dies.” But my generation has had difficulty figuring that out. So, we tell the pollsters that we believe in God, but we do this on our cell phones in our BMW’s or Hummers on the way to the mall to buy more stuff, thinking that’s the ticket to happiness and success. And we are dead wrong. We may be a nation of believers, but we are still a nation that is not on our knees at church on Sunday mornings and is in real danger of losing our souls.
III
A few months ago I saw Bill Gates and Warren Buffet on television. Bill Gates is from my generation, the Baby Boomers, and Warren Buffet is from the Greatest Generation, the one that survived the Great Depression and made the world safe for democracy by defeating Adolf Hitler in WWII. Right, Dad? Buffet’s is also the generation that forewent luxuries for themselves and saved their money so they could send my generation to college and have a better life than they did. Hold on to that thought.
Now, Bill Gates is the richest man in America, and Warren Buffet is the second richest. I was intrigued but not surprised to hear that Bill Gates lives in a 30 million dollar palace, while Warren Buffet still lives in the same house he and his wife moved into forty years ago, before he became a billionaire. I rest my case. I think Warren Buffet gets it. He has not let his vast fortune corrupt him. I don’t know a thing about his religious beliefs, but I think living in the same house he started out in leads me to believe that he does not worship his wealth, because he knows that it cannot give him happiness. Maybe that is why he gave half of his fortune to Bill Gates’ foundation. Maybe he has discovered the secret to happiness.
Years ago I preached about happiness being like a slippery pig that people used to chase at county fairs. The problem with catching a pig slathered with lard or extra virgin olive oil is that if we do catch it, it slips out of our grasp because it is too slippery to hold onto. The first sermon I wrote in seminary was on the passage of the rich fool who had such a big harvest one year that it would not fit into his barns. So, instead of sharing his surplus with others, he said, “I will pull down my barns and build larger ones to store all my grain. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him “Fool! This night your soul is required of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be.” (Luke 12:17-20)
Yes, this happiness thing is a slippery pig. We chase after it at the mall, at the beach, in the mountains, at work, at school, and just when we think we have enough money in the bank, enough diplomas and awards hanging on the wall, and the admiration of our friends and neighbors (have I stepped on everyone’s toes yet?) – it slips through our fingers and we are left holding an empty bag. Maybe that is why Jesus said those who seek to save their lives will lose them, but those who lose their lives for his sake and for the sake of the gospel, will find them. Maybe only if we are willing to let go of our schemes and plans to achieve success and happiness, can God give us true peace and joy. Maybe that is why the Preacher in Ecclesiastes said, “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity and a striving after the wind; there is nothing new under the son.” Something to think about and pray about.”
This constitutes the end of part one of my sermon on the Meaning of Life. I hope you will stay tuned for parts two and three next week and the next. It is now time to go home and tend to our barns and figure out a way to get the grease of our pigs. Let us pray.
July 8, 2007 Rev. David C. Huffman Eccl. 1:1-5 & 2:1-11
Back in the sixties a popular movie title asked the question, “What’s it all About, Alfie?” Since the beginning of time, people have been asking that question in some form or another: why are we here, what is the purpose of human existence, what is the meaning of life? And as anyone who has ever taken a basic course in religion or philosophy can tell you, there is no end to the answers people have come up with to these basic existential questions. When we look at the human condition, we can see some basic things that all of us have in common: we are all born; then we eat, drink, sleep, learn, work, laugh, cry, pay taxes, grow old, and die.”
Anyone would have trouble avoiding any of these certainties, with the possible exceptions of working and paying taxes. One day when I was out jogging, I ran past a car with a bumper sticker that said, “Eat right, exercise daily, and you still die.” I felt like turning around and going home to have a candy bar and a Coke.
I
What is the meaning of life? Why are we here? How can we find happiness and peace in a world that offers an insane array of possibilities? In one of Woody Allen’s early movies – before he went off the deep end – his mother was scolding him for not studying for a physics exam in Middle school. He replied, “Mom, just last week we learned that the universe is expanding and will one day explode. So, what’s the point of studying?” This was the same movie where he got an F on his philosophy exam for cheating: he looked into the soul of the person sitting next to him in class. Before we are tempted to lapse into despair or cynicism, let’s take a look at what the Book of Ecclesiastes has to say about this in our scripture passage today. Ecclesiastes is one of these little books in the Old Testament that few read, even fewer preach on, and is one that I would not recommend you read on a rainy day in January.
It is something of a downer that offers very little spiritual edification; it even had to struggle to make the cut to stay in the Bible. But it has one thing of value: Ecclesiastes, the Greek word for the Hebrew word koheleth, best translated as teacher or preacher, conducts a careful examination of all the world’s philosophies and finds their Achilles Heel. Although he is very vague in prescribing a cure, he is very clear in diagnosing the problem. He examines things like wisdom, wealth, food, sex, entertainment, power, status, and beauty and finds them all lacking, because none of them is able to carry the freight of explaining or providing the meaning of human life on planet earth.
Twenty-three hundred years have come and gone since Ecclesiastes wrote his book, and we are still trying to convince ourselves that money, power, and fame cannot make us happy. When I spin the television dial, so to speak, the Epicureans are on several channels trying to convince us to eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow may never come. The Food Channel, HGTV, and the shopping channels are the chief offenders in trying to convince us that we can eat, drink, build, or buy our way to happiness. Now, I love a fine meal, a comfortable home and clothes as well as anyone, but you and I both know that they cannot make us happy or fulfilled. Life is more than food and creature comforts. These are material things; they may taste good and feel good, but they do not bring us joy because they cannot.
Spin the dial further and the History, Discovery, Animal Planet, and National Geographic channels would convince us that knowledge and mastery over nature will bring meaning to our lives. As much as I value knowledge and learning and enjoy them, education cannot save us from the human condition and bring us the meaning and joy we all crave. Paschal, one of the greatest mathematicians in history, once said that God has created us with a God-shaped vacuum in our souls, one that only God can fill. And yet we try to fill it with any number of false gods.
We ministers often get a bum rap when we are accused of being party poopers by condemning all worldly and material things as sinful. Au contraire! The Bible said that God created the world and all that is in it and declared that it was all good. Food, money, sports, music, art, education, and material things are not intrinsically evil or sinful; they are just unable to satisfy the deep spiritual hunger that we all have. They have their place in our lives, but we get into trouble when we place these material things at the center of our lives and expect them to make us happy and fulfilled. That comes from somewhere else.
II
In the fourth century A.D. Augustine of Hippo prayed, “O God thou hast made us restless, and we remain restless until we find our rest in thee.” The problem of living in a fool’s paradise like the United States and the Triangle is that we are confronted everyday with an army of imposters claiming to have the secret to happiness. And we are tempted to believe and follow them. When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai he was amazed at how quickly his people had tired of waiting on a word from the Lord and had taken their own gold jewelry, melted it down and transformed it into an idol, a golden calf which they were worshiping.
That’s the reason you don’t find many atheists in the world. Everyone needs to worship something. Even though there has been a bevy of books about atheism on the best sellers’ list in recent years, very few people believe in nothing. That’s why the polls consistently reveal that 95% of Americans say they believe in God. This has always puzzled me because on any given Sunday only about 40% of them are in church or synagogue demonstrating that belief. I guess it takes a certain kind of chutzpah to tell a pollster that you don’t believe in God. Perhaps people are hedging their bets just in case God does exist.
Spin the dial further and we find an endless list of substitutes for the real thing: ESPN, AMC, Golf, Martha Stewart, Disney, and so on. Again, nothing intrinsically evil or wrong with these pastimes; but not one of them is able to deliver the level of happiness and meaning we seek. Of course, if we spend a little extra money and get HBO and the X-rated movies, then we have begun a slide down a slippery slope that rivals the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. The problem with the mavens of modern culture is that they think that just a little more money, a bigger house, a faster car, more exotic food, and enough frequent flyer miles to keep us flying free for the next forty years is going to make us happy. But they won’t because they can’t.
So Koheleth, the preacher, concludes that a wise person learns that beating a dead horse is no way to make him get up and pull the wagon. It would be far better to find another horse. If a doctor treats an illness with the wrong medicine, giving us more of the wrong medicine won’t fix the problem; she needs to give us a different medicine. As the old saying says, hearses do no not have trailer hitches. I have a bumper sticker in my study that says, “The One with the Most Toys Still Dies.” But my generation has had difficulty figuring that out. So, we tell the pollsters that we believe in God, but we do this on our cell phones in our BMW’s or Hummers on the way to the mall to buy more stuff, thinking that’s the ticket to happiness and success. And we are dead wrong. We may be a nation of believers, but we are still a nation that is not on our knees at church on Sunday mornings and is in real danger of losing our souls.
III
A few months ago I saw Bill Gates and Warren Buffet on television. Bill Gates is from my generation, the Baby Boomers, and Warren Buffet is from the Greatest Generation, the one that survived the Great Depression and made the world safe for democracy by defeating Adolf Hitler in WWII. Right, Dad? Buffet’s is also the generation that forewent luxuries for themselves and saved their money so they could send my generation to college and have a better life than they did. Hold on to that thought.
Now, Bill Gates is the richest man in America, and Warren Buffet is the second richest. I was intrigued but not surprised to hear that Bill Gates lives in a 30 million dollar palace, while Warren Buffet still lives in the same house he and his wife moved into forty years ago, before he became a billionaire. I rest my case. I think Warren Buffet gets it. He has not let his vast fortune corrupt him. I don’t know a thing about his religious beliefs, but I think living in the same house he started out in leads me to believe that he does not worship his wealth, because he knows that it cannot give him happiness. Maybe that is why he gave half of his fortune to Bill Gates’ foundation. Maybe he has discovered the secret to happiness.
Years ago I preached about happiness being like a slippery pig that people used to chase at county fairs. The problem with catching a pig slathered with lard or extra virgin olive oil is that if we do catch it, it slips out of our grasp because it is too slippery to hold onto. The first sermon I wrote in seminary was on the passage of the rich fool who had such a big harvest one year that it would not fit into his barns. So, instead of sharing his surplus with others, he said, “I will pull down my barns and build larger ones to store all my grain. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him “Fool! This night your soul is required of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be.” (Luke 12:17-20)
Yes, this happiness thing is a slippery pig. We chase after it at the mall, at the beach, in the mountains, at work, at school, and just when we think we have enough money in the bank, enough diplomas and awards hanging on the wall, and the admiration of our friends and neighbors (have I stepped on everyone’s toes yet?) – it slips through our fingers and we are left holding an empty bag. Maybe that is why Jesus said those who seek to save their lives will lose them, but those who lose their lives for his sake and for the sake of the gospel, will find them. Maybe only if we are willing to let go of our schemes and plans to achieve success and happiness, can God give us true peace and joy. Maybe that is why the Preacher in Ecclesiastes said, “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity and a striving after the wind; there is nothing new under the son.” Something to think about and pray about.”
This constitutes the end of part one of my sermon on the Meaning of Life. I hope you will stay tuned for parts two and three next week and the next. It is now time to go home and tend to our barns and figure out a way to get the grease of our pigs. Let us pray.
© 2006 Trinity Presbyterian Church Raleigh, NC 
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