Robert Lopez de Castilla 5-3-26

My name's Robert. I'm one of the university ministers here, and it is my pleasure and honor to speak with you today while Shane is on sabbatical. This reading is from Ecclesiastes. But before we dive in, I want to pose a question to you. What would it take to make you truly happy?

Our focus today is on Ecclesiastes, and if you're not familiar with the book, it's a book of wisdom and philosophy, considering life's most perplex topics. And it has two main characters, although we're going to get to three characters today by the end of our journey. The first character is the author, who introduces our second character. The author both begins the book and concludes the book. And our second character in Hebrew is kohelet, which means something like to gather.

In this scenario, I want you to think about gathering to teach. So the teacher. We have the author and the teacher. And the teacher is actually either Solomon, if you remember back to what you know about Solomon. Solomon asks for wisdom, and God grants Solomon the wisdom.

Perhaps it's a different descendant of David, or maybe the teacher is someone teaching in the spirit of Solomon. But in either case, the teacher wonders the same question that I posed to you today. What would it take to make me truly happy? And to quote the teacher in chapters one and two, the teacher says, I applied my heart to seek and search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. And whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them.

The teacher goes on to say, I kept from my heart no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil. So in our terms, in colloquial terms that we might understand today, the teacher says, how much money will satisfy my desire for wealth? How many partners can I have to quench my sexual desires? How hard can I work to appease my desire for status? And how many facts can I learn and wisdom can I store up to satiate my desire to control a world marked by chaos and a million things outside of my control?

And do you know what the teacher found? The answer was heavel. Heavel. Everything is heavel. Now, you might be wondering what hevel is.

You might not be familiar with that word. Now, maybe your translations say, much like the one we read today, some. Something like meaningless. Meaningless. Or maybe you have a translation in front of you that says vanity of vanities or futility or maybe even absurdity.

And while I think these begin to get at what we understand about Hevel, there's something much more that hevel has to offer for the sake of today, I want you to think of Hevel not as meaningless, but as smoke, as vapor. Heavel is a very robust concept. It should draw images in our minds of something that's deep, difficult to hold onto, hard to even explain, something impossible to control, and definitely something that cannot fulfill us in life. Heavel is like a chasing after the wind, as the teacher says. The teacher really offers us a beautiful gift throughout Ecclesiastes.

But I will admit it is wrapped in some very disturbing paper. I hope you get the chance to read Ecclesiastes if you haven't before or if you haven't in some time. It's about 12 chapters, and what you will find is what I promised. Some difficult things to understand, some hard topics to confront. But I want to open that gift that the teacher has to offer together today.

So what does the teacher identify as heaven, as smoke, as vapor? To start wealth and how much of it you can amass? Pleasures. Think food, wine, entertainment, sexual intimacy, work, or as the teacher often refers to it, toil, career, think. My status in the office, legacy and being remembered.

And finally, even wisdom itself. Heavel. Heavel. Everything is Heavel.

Now I want to turn and explore two things that I think we chase to fulfill our happiness. But. But before we go there, I want to thank one of our college students who actually drew me back to this book this semester. This student asked if we could study the Bible. And as you do, we jumped right into Ecclesiastes.

And although I remembered some of the lessons I had learned before from Ecclesiastes, I'll admit there was something about it this time that piqued my interest. I think what it probably was is that I turned 30 this semester and I thought, what better time to think about the fleeting nature of. Of my existence and my imminent death.

I don't know why my generation is so scared of turning 30, but just know that you wouldn't have this sermon without it.

On a more serious Note, entering my 30s has been marked by a realization that the temptation to stake my happiness on something other than God alone is nearly ever present. I sense this temptation not only in myself, but also in my peers around me. I wish I could say that greed wasn't present among my Christian friends, or that marital unfaithfulness was unheard of from the friends who got married from undergrad, or that desperate attempts for security and comfort were far off from the people of God. But they're not. So in case you can't take my word for it, let's recall what the teacher says.

He applied his heart to seek and search out all that is done under heaven. He left no sample untasted. And this is what he has to say. The first is work. Work is heavel, or as I mentioned earlier, the teacher often refers to it as toil.

He says in chapter five, as everyone comes, so they depart, and what do they gain? Since they toil for the wind all their days they eat in darkness with great frustration and affliction and anger. Toil is not the work that God intended. Toil is the work that is demanding, relentless. It never goes the way you want it to.

It's always asking more. He also, says the teacher in chapter two, I built gardens and reservoirs of water to bring fruit to my trees. I had massive projects like the world had never seen. And what did he realize? That when he dies, he's going to have to pass all of that work on, potentially to a fool who will ruin his work in a moment.

Bobby Jamison, who I'll reference throughout our journey today, wrote this book Everything is never Ecclesiastes Surprising Path to Resilient Happiness and he has some very interesting thoughts that add perspective for us in our time about the Teacher's sayings. He says about work, no matter how much you love your job, it won't love you back. Work is unfit to bear the responsibility of making you truly happy, says the teacher, because your projects bring you frustrations. You can't control who takes them over when you die. And no matter how much time and energy and love you give to cannot love you back.

But. But you might say, consider what I get from all the work and the toil. Money. It's the sedative that promises to numb all those frustrations and afflictions caused by the toil. But money too, says the teacher, is heavel.

In chapter five he says, he who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income. This is also heavel. As he came from his mother's womb, he shall go again, naked as he came, and he will take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. Money, says the teacher, is not legal tender in the afterlife. Why are you storing it up?

It can't go with you. Jameson adds to this again in our time and in our language, by reminding us that the bigger your pie, the more of it you see, eaten away by retainers and taxes and repairs and inflation.

Money is unfit to bear the load of your happiness because when you die, you can't take it with you. You could lose it in a bad venture. The accumulation of more money famously means more problems, and those problems will keep you awake at night, bringing you not the happiness that you had hoped for, but that low hum of anxiety wondering if you'll ever have enough. But maybe you don't toil for the money. Maybe you don't care about it.

Maybe you toil for the reputation at work and the feeling of others seeing you as important. And the teacher says in chapter one, as we read earlier, there's no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after. He's saying to you and to me, whatever you do now, that people celebrate and love and sing your praises, for they'll forget. And again in chapter eight, he reminds us, as no one has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has power over the time of their death. He says, don't forget your obsession to control public opinion about yourself pales in comparison to how little control you have, even over your very life.

In Jameson's book, when he talks about work, he quotes a historian. Her name is Mary Hartman, and she just had this very short line in the book, but it's the one that stuck with me the longest. This is her quote. In the modern era, work has become the chief repository of male identity. And I said, ouch.

The temptation to seek all of my belonging and fulfillment and what I put my hands to, and then what people think about it, status, power and influence in your spheres of work, identity, in your job, they're all heaven. They can't hold the weight of your happiness because the reputation you have is fleeting. The projects you complete and the plaques in your honor and the awards on your walls will all be forgotten. And no one, says the teacher, will remember your name. And all this leads to our final observation of hevel, another vapor that we would be fools to cling to for our happiness.

Pleasure, says the Teacher. He hasn't kept it from himself. He finds pleasure in toil. He finds pleasure in male and female singers, which is to say entertainment. He finds pleasure in owning things that no one else owns.

He finds pleasure in what we might call consumerism. And the problem, the revelation to the teacher. The reason that pleasure is heavil is found in chapter six, when he says, everyone's toil is for their mouth, yet their appetite is never satisfied. The moment you finish indulging in that craving that you've had for so long, you find yourself craving something again. And to Quote Jameson one more time.

Desire can always outrun fulfillment. So will pleasures make you truly happy? Will a 10% increase in your current salary help you to arrive at the destination of ultimate fulfillment? Will one more recognition ceremony quench your heart's desires?

Let's pause in our conversation about heaven. It's worthy of a pause. It's a lot to consider. If you decide to read Ecclesiastes after this, you'll need some pauses. You'll need to take some breaths.

You might wish that I had never turned 30 at this point, or that they would just keep me on announcements around here so they didn't have to hear these words of the teacher. Maybe you're thinking, I'm not going to read Ecclesiastes after this. It is too perplexing, too confusing, too heavy, too much. But Hevel isn't all bad. The teacher doesn't just deconstruct these things, he reframes them.

Heavel, as it turns out, is a two sided coin. And on the other side of that coin, what you will find is that these things are not gods to fulfill your happiness, but they are gifts. The teacher charges us more than ten times in the twelve chapters of Ecclesiastes with hope. Here's an example from Ecclesiastes 3. I perceive that there is nothing better for humans than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live.

Also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in their toil, for this is God's gift to man. And again in chapter nine he says, go eat your food with gladness and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved of what you do. So the hope of heaven, the other side of that coin, is that it's a gift only when you accept that it will not and cannot fulfill you. Money and wealth and your job and drink and sex were all gifts that point you to a benevolent God. Heaven is not evil or even meaningless, as some of our translations might say.

It's simply a realization that you can't hold onto them firmly. They rightly disappear and slip between your fingers and as an indication to you that you must stake your happiness on something firm, something solid.

And this side of the coin should encourage us to accept that we should consult the Maker of all things on the proper use of his gifts. This is also the same reality that leads our author from the beginning of the book to these famous words in the conclusion when he says, the teacher searched to find just the right words and what he wrote was upright and true. The words of the wise are like goads, and their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails given by one shepherd. Be warned of anything. In addition to them of making many books, there is no end, and much study wearies the body.

Now all has been heard, and here is the conclusion of the matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing which, whether it is good or evil. A couple of notes on this final charge. I hope that they can give you some hope.

You might have heard that it's like a goad, and you might not know what a goad is. A goad is a tool used to prod cattle or sheep in the right direction. And the author is saying, this is what the teacher's words are like. He's going to say, it hurts and it stings to think about the fleeting nature of time. It hurts and it stings to consider my own death and what that might mean and how that informs my life.

And it hurts to realize my limitations and everything outside of my control. But they should push me toward a path of happiness and fulfillment that is lasting and not established on things that will fade. And that is where the book concludes with the one thing that will not fade and will not slip between your fingers. Fear God and keep his commandments. The teacher asks, what would it take to make me truly happy?

And the author affirms, God alone. Now I know some of us in this room. When we think about and hear keeping Commandments, it might bring back memories of a time when we thought we could earn our way into God's kingdom. It's a temptation we all face. Maybe it's not a memory, maybe it's a temptation.

Right now it's marked by checking all the boxes, showing God that you've done everything he's asked, and then hoping that it's just enough to squeak into the gates of heaven. But this is where our third and final character enters the story. The third character is the good teacher, who resolves all the anxieties of Ecclesiastes and says, yes, it is all vapor, and you can trust in God alone. But the good Teacher also says, don't think that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets, for I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. If you couldn't tell, the good Teacher is Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, chapters five through seven.

And I want to put these two in conversation with each other to See to see how the good Teacher does fulfill the law and the prophets, to see what more wisdom is offered to us today. If the Teacher of Ecclesiastes has to hoard all the money he can to determine that it cannot make him happy. The good Teacher in Matthew models for us the good life and reminds us that everything is fleeting. When he says, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves will come in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust will not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

And again, if the Teacher of Ecclesiastes and if you sitting there and if me up here struggle to believe that money really won't fulfill us, if the teacher of Ecclesiastes finds himself awake at night answering to his money, his money governing every step, his decisions in life being centered around what will bring me more wealth, then hear these words of the good Teacher again who says about money, no one can serve two masters, for either he will love the one and hate the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. And if the Teacher of Ecclesiastes and if you and me face the temptation to worry about material things, if they'll satisfy us, if we'll ever have enough of them, then remember the words of the Good Teacher who beckons us back to the question, why do you worry about food? Why do you worry about drink? Don't you know that your Heavenly Father knows what you need before you ask him?

The Good Teacher says this, Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other heavels will be added to you. And why will they be added to you? Because we serve a good God who gives good gifts and already knows what you need.

Finally, the good Teacher ends his sermon in Matthew with an ending very similar to that of Ecclesiastes, where Ecclesiastes says, fear God and keep his commandments. The Good Teacher reminds us of this. Everyone then who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like the wise man who built his house on the rock and the rains fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat at that house, but it did not fall because it was established on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a fool who builds their house on the sand. And the rains fell and the floods came, and the winds blew, and Beat at that house and the house fell, and great was the fall of it.

Sand vapor. The building of our lives on something that will fade.

Or the rock. Jesus teachings. The building of our lives on something that will not fade.

Jesus is the good teacher and he's also the good shepherd. The words of his Sermon on the Mount are like the goad mentioned in Ecclesiastes. You can almost hear Jesus telling you as he prods you in this uncomfortable sort of way, enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy. That leads to destruction.

And those who enter by it are many. But the gate is narrow and the way is hard. That leads to life, and those who find it are few. He's prodding you to enter into the way of Jesus.

Jesus models a life for us completely detached from the expectation that Heavel will fulfill him. He tamed his desires for earthly pleasures and desires in the wilderness. He faced loneliness, estrangement, starvation, thirst, temptations for power and control. And then tells his disciples that if you want to follow after me, you should deny yourself and pick up a cross and follow. And then he asks Peter a question that I think he's asking many of us today.

What good would it be for you to gain the whole world but forfeit your soul? What good would it be, church to have all the accolades, all the money, all the pleasure filling you up and exotic experiences, all the reputation, all the wisdom, but have not God?

Will it make you truly happy?

At this point, you might be thinking, I do follow God's law. Robert. I'm sitting here at church right now doing what I'm supposed to be doing. This isn't news to me. I don't kill people.

I don't cheat, I don't steal. And all of that leads us to our final passage for today in Mark, chapter 10, verse 17 opens with the story of the rich young ruler declaring Jesus to be the good teacher. He's wise to note this because unlike the teacher of Ecclesiastes, Jesus didn't have to fill himself up to know if that's where the good life was. He committed himself not to the pleasures of his heart, but he committed himself to the commands of God. The ruler comes to him and he asks, how do I inherit eternal life?

And Jesus response, keep God's commands. And like many of you today, the rich young ruler goes, oh, thank God, that's what I'm doing. He says, I've kept them all, Jesus. I've done everything that I know I'm supposed to do. And Jesus examining the heart of the man and loving him, says, one thing you lack, and that is to rid your life of the heavel that you've been storing up to part from your riches.

Because one day they will depart from you. They cannot and will not make you happy. They cannot satisfy the desire your heart yearns for. They will not address the eternity that God has placed in the heart of people. Sell them and you'll have treasure in heaven.

And follow me.

How many of us, like the rich young ruler, walk away sorrowful because we have great possessions, because we have great accolades, because we have great pleasures? Jesus, looking at you and loving you, tells you leave them behind because he already knows they will not make you happy. The command from Jesus to the rich young ruler is the same one to you and me. Leave it and follow me.

So here's what the teachers have revealed to us. Everything is heavel. Heavel is a gift, but it is not God. And a full life is built on Jesus alone. So what would it take to make you truly happy?

Letting go of all of the things in this world that will fade away and building your life on the one thing that won't. Will you please stand for our benediction?