Vanity of Vanities

Suppose in church one Sunday, after the Gospel is read and you and all the congregation have seated yourselves comfortably, smoothing out the creases in your Sunday attire, the preacher were to embark on a sermon that said nothing was worth anything. Imagine the preacher continued to explain that a stillborn child is luckier that a person who lives many years. Or what if the preacher said that because both rich and poor, wise and foolish, die alike, there is no reason to exert yourself?

Last week my study group undertook the Book of Ecclesiastes. We were told that because God has already created and made everything as it is, there is no point in exerting ourselves (3:14). We also found that there is no sure promise of afterlife (3:21) and that, though wisdom is better than foolishness, in the end, the fool meets the same end as the sage (7:15)

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Vanity of vanities. All is vanity says the preacher (1:2).

Throughout Ecclesiastes the “preacher” reminds us that all our strivings, all our arguments, all our accomplishments are vanity. He adds that they are chasing after the wind.

There has been some study of the word “vanity” which is repeated many times in this book. The Latin vanitas was used by Jerome when he translated the Bible into Latin. So when translators wrote the book in English, the word “vanity” seemed the obvious choice. Some modern scholars have interpreted the word to better mean meaninglessness. If, however, we go back to the Hebrew word hebel, we find that it is mostly used to refer to smoke or mist or fog.

I prefer an actual image over a concept every time, so, for me,  mist it is. But if all my work is mist (as opposed to vanity), I’m still not very satisfied with the result. Granted “mist” seems a bit less condemnatory than “vanity”. Nevertheless, mist is nothing to be proud of.

Is there any comfort here at all? I think there is a little.

If I am working tirelessly to have my own bookstore (or anything) and even after all my effort and received advice, my effort fails, I am comforted that every other thing that anyone has ever done will also fade into nothingness eventually. I can look with some distance on my work. I can take a long view.

Suppose I have a child. Suppose then she grows up to be an addict. This does not reflect on me. She is the same as everyone else in the end. She is mist, just like an Olympic medalist or a poet or a priest.

Is there any comfort in that at all? Not a lot.

Granted, there is some value in seeing our efforts as meager before God and eternity. People get so enthralled with their own "legacy" that they fail to understand their place in the whole of God's order. Paul tells us not to live for earthly concerns but to live in the Spirit. The problem is, Ecclesiastes doesn't give us the Spirit.

Our faith is a faith of reward. Rewards are promised to us and Ecclesiastes sees no reward beyond the merest daily pleasure in work, food and drink (8:15). Certainly the Old Testament was heavy on rewards: the Promised Land, prosperity, reputation, issue, triumph over enemies.

But what rewards are promised to the follower of Jesus? Certainly no land or goods. No money, no Mercedes Benz. Not even victory in sports or war.

The Christian lives his or her life with the promise of a heavenly reward, right? Actually, I am going to walk right past this promise of heaven because I have no idea what heaven is like and it’s too abstract for me.

Paul said in Romans 8:32 “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” What things? Is God promising us safety? He is not. Look around. Many people, many faithful people do not live in safety. Nor do they live in prosperity. Christians starve, sicken, die. Christians are poor and homeless. Christians suffer and mourn. What is our promised reward? What does God give us?

Very simply, the reward promised to the follower of Jesus is Jesus, is God.

Let’s go all the way back to Genesis 2. Here we are in the Garden with God, made in his image and given lovely tasks to perform. This is our reward. Certainly our imperfection surfaced and we lost that intimacy with God, but, thanks to our Redeemer, we can have it back. Do we get it back in heaven? On earth? We get it back on earth as in heaven.

Every act of Christian kindness, every loving word, every brave proclamation lands us, for that moment, right in the kingdom of God. We do not have to wait for heaven. We are to live our lives on earth as in heaven.

The preacher in the beginning of this post better have something pretty terrific up his or her sleeve or people are either going to force an intervention or just walk out.. The preacher, Ecclesiastes, had nothing particular up his sleeve. He ended with an exhortation to obey the law of God and await his judgment. 

I’m sure Ecclesiastes is now in the presence of God and feeling much better about things. After all, no lesser American treasure than Pete Seeger wrote a song based on his third chapter and no lesser 60’s icon than the Byrds covered it. You call that mist?