Richard Davenport
August 3, 2025 – Proper 13
Ecclesiastes 1:12-14, 2:18-26
The book of Ecclesiastes is one that’s very different from the tone and character of other books in the Bible. Some books, like Philippians, express the joy we have in Christ and his salvation. Other books, like Job and Lamentations, share the sorrows that we face in a sinful world that can strike us with great tragedies. Some, like many of Paul’s letters, express frustration with the state of affairs and attempts to steer God’s people back onto the proper course.
Ecclesiastes doesn’t really do any of those things. The author, most likely King Solomon, doesn’t express much joy here, certainly not like he does in Song of Songs, where he is almost giddy, filled with the joy of youth and sharing life with his beloved. He also doesn’t share in our sorrows. He talks about sadness and sorrow, but he isn’t really empathizing with our woes. Here, he’s more like the old man who’s trying to share some of his hard-earned life lessons with his children, in the hopes that they don’t get into the same kinds of trouble he did.
While Solomon is no stranger to wisdom, what he does here still feels different from what he offers his listeners in the book of Proverbs. It’s still his wisdom, but it comes with a certain vibe, a nonchalance that you don’t really get elsewhere in the Bible. “You could do this, or you could do that. You can do just about anything you want, but none of it really matters. There’s no point really worrying about anything because you can’t control it anyway. Just do whatever. It’ll all be over soon enough.” You can almost see him shrug it all off.
Is it laziness? Perhaps, but he’s not really advocating for doing nothing at all. He’s just saying that whatever you choose to do won’t end up making any difference in the end. It all ends up the same. You probably shouldn’t do absolutely nothing, though I suppose you could go that way. Again, what difference does it make? Still, it sounds more like you should just do those things that sound good to you. You’re just going to die eventually anyway, and anything you leave behind goes to those who come after you. They might be good and dutiful. They might be wastrels. It doesn’t really matter to you at that point. You’re dead!
So, you may as well live it up. Enjoy yourself! Have fun! Do what you like and squeeze every last bit of pleasure out of life, because it’s all you have and you won’t care about any of it once you’re gone. The oft-repeated wisdom says, “You can’t take it with you.” So why bother trying?
Taken just on its surface, this reading of Ecclesiastes doesn’t fit with what we would expect to find in God’s Word. It sounds like the same kind of hedonism that most of the world runs with anyway. “Do whatever feels good,” has been kind of the mantra for our country since the 60’s. That sentiment has driven a lot of what people these days think is good and right and, well, our country hasn’t done so well as a result.
It all ends up being self-centered and empty. None of it sounds very godly. If all you do is whatever feels good to you, you’re sure to run afoul of more than a few commandments. Maybe that doesn’t make a huge difference to your salvation. Jesus still died for your sins. So, unless you’ve abandoned the faith altogether and no longer see the need for forgiveness, then his grace is still there for you.
What about helping your neighbor and caring for others and all of that stuff? Well, he doesn’t really say anything about that. He leaves it all hanging. If you were looking for a step by step list of things to do that would make God happy or that would gain you some sort of spiritual benefit, he doesn’t give you any of that. He doesn’t give you any kind of real direction at all. Like opening the back door to let the dog out, he just says, “Go, play, have fun!”
There’s a lot that appeals to us in what Solomon says to us in Ecclesiastes. Freedom from the need to worry about what we do with our lives is rather invigorating. But, we see where that leads everyone else, those who simply throw themselves into a pursuit of pleasure. Solomon’s wisdom doesn’t sound very wise at all. It sounds irresponsible.
Is it irresponsible to be enjoying life? Is it irresponsible to take what God gives you and use it to the fullest extent. If he gives you wealth, it is his gift to you. If he gives you peace, it is also a gift. If he gives you success, more gifts. Why not kick back and relax? Why not just soak up all of the good stuff God has given you?
It all ends up rather confusing. We can’t just throw out Ecclesiastes. It’s the Word of God. But, we also can’t ignore other parts of Scripture that say we should care for others. We also know laziness and hedonism aren’t things God approves of. Are we supposed to work or not? Are we supposed to enjoy what he gives us or not?
It isn’t really so confusing when you read a little deeper. It sounds confusing, but that isn’t because what it says is confusing, it’s because we’d rather hear something different. We’d much rather God give us a license to party and have fun. We’d like to be free of all obligations and just do whatever feels good to us. When we hear Solomon telling us that working hard is pointless and doesn’t accomplish anything, you can see whole groups of people saying this very thing. The hippie mentality of the 60’s, where everything was flowers and rainbows and all you had to do all day was smoke some pot and talk about peace is still very much alive. Each generation has taken that idea and made it their own.
Now, you might be tempted to look at all of these folks and call them all freeloaders and layabouts, leeching off of society and doing nothing productive. Many of them are, but some arrive at this conclusion, not out of laziness, but because they’ve seen exactly what Solomon is talking about. Kids growing up in the Great Depression, watching all of the family’s hard work literally turn to dust. Floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, all sweep away a lifetime of hard work and leave nothing but splinters and debris in their wake. It doesn’t really matter whether you slacked off every day or whether you were there on the job putting in 60, 70, 80 hour weeks for years on end. Nothing is left, and what do you have to show for it?
Solomon is speaking to their experiences, but he also says much more. To all of those who read or hear Scripture and only bother taking the very surface of what God says, you’ll run off into life throwing around the same kinds of pithy sayings you heard. You’ll pass them off as wisdom, even divine wisdom. You’ll expect it to guide your decisions and bring happiness and abundance. You’ll expect God to look on you with favor for following his guidance. You’ll expect this wisdom, passed down through the ages by God, to bless your life, and instead it will fail you.
Superficial wisdom, advice, wise sayings passed down through the ages, even ones that come from the Bible, may sound good. They may even have a degree of truth to them, but they will never hold up. The Joel Osteens of the world, who pass off their guidance as though it came through Scripture from God, gather a lot of followers. They read only the surface, skipping around the difficult portions that they don’t want to deal with, and they boil down even what they find into mush, bearing only the most superficial resemblance to the Bible. They take that mush, with its few Bible sounding words in it, and feed it to others who gobble it up by the bucketful because gives them what they want. They want something that allows them to do the things they like and also gives them a moral justification for doing it. As long as I have something to use to fend off those who might tell me I’m doing something wrong, that’s good enough.
Solomon isn’t interested in any of those things. Even his pithy sayings in the book of Proverbs have meat to them for those willing to consider them. Ecclesiastes is much more than little bits of family wisdom. It’s more than the ramblings of a bitter old man who is fed up with the world. Ecclesiastes is the collected wisdom of a man who started off on the right track but then veered off the path of righteousness rather badly. Solomon, the young man, was granted a wish and Solomon wanted the wisdom to govern God’s people well. Solomon, the mature adult, for all of his God-given wisdom, allowed false religions to spread right in front of him, as his wives brought their foreign idols and worshiped them. Solomon, the older man, looks back at all he has done and sees the value, or lack thereof, in all of it.
Will any of his wealth truly bring happiness to anyone? Was it worth all of the time and energy he put into collecting it? Are there other things, less tangible things, that should be worth more to us than riches? At the end of the day, when you climb into to bed, what is it that you’ll be able to look back on from the day that will truly bring you peace?
A superficial reading of Scripture might tell you that working just isn’t worth it. Don’t bother working your fingers to the bone to try to gain wealth, happiness, or even God’s grace. Like a firehose, God will just pour all of those things down on you in quantities you won’t even be able to grasp. Sitting back and doing nothing is not only good, it’s exactly what God wants you to do.
As those who follow this kind of lifestyle discover, it never really works out that way. It isn’t God’s fault you aren’t happy. It certainly isn’t his fault you have failed to receive his grace. Solomon isn’t advocating for people being lazy. He doesn’t say we should all stop working. In fact it’s quite the opposite. Solomon suggests that people reexamine what they think is truly important in life and what will actually bring them eternal peace and joy. Solomon found that, despite all of his work, all of his wealth, all of his wisdom, he was still a sinner and his sins affected a lot of people. None of what he had done would save him from the consequences of his sin.
Now, at long last, he understands. He knows nothing he had would save him. Nothing he did would save him. Nothing he did would bring him any good thing. Everything he had, had been given to him as a gift from God. There was no need to stress over it, and he would just get himself into trouble if he did.
Does God want you to be lazy? No, but neither does he want you to work thinking that your work affects how much God loves you or what he will do for you. Like those who read about God’s love superficially and think he approves of all manner of sinful behavior, failing to read beyond the surface leads to all manner of trouble, committing sins and supporting the sins of others.
As Jesus comes into the world, he travels about, healing people, preaching the good news to them, teaching them and leading them in the ways of righteousness. None of the people he encounters have to do anything to receive his gifts. They are gifts and they require nothing from those who receive them. Jesus sheds his blood as a gift, offers his life as a gift. He washes the dirt from your body and soul as a gift. Having received that gift, he then sends us out to work. We do not trust in the work. We trust in the God who made us clean and who sent us out.
Solomon’s wisdom here is his return to that trust. He knows he is forgiven and saved. He knows nothing he does could earn that or compare with that. He knows God has a plan for him, for those around him, and those who come after him. God will take care of them just as he has taken care of him. He does not laze about, because to do so would be to dishonor the one who gave him so many rich gifts. At the same time, he will not work himself to the bone to store up wealth or anything else for himself. To do so would be to dishonor the other gifts God has given, such as peace and joy, friends and family.
Solomon turns our attention back to what we should always have as our foundation, not our work, not even our lives, but the life and work of Christ, the one who makes our life and work possible. Solomon tells you to go about your work, whatever it is God has given you to do. Do your work with joy, knowing that through that work, God is blessing you and blessing those around you. Your work is a gift, as is everything else you have in life. Cherish it all, but do not trust in it. Put your trust in the giver of all good gifts, the God who made it all, so that you could enjoy it.