“I wanted to go out, but my phone isn’t
charged.”
“I have to blow dry my hair now I can’t hear
my music.”
“Someone on the Internet disagrees with me.”
They are called ‘First world
problems’. A photo depicts a woman breaking down in tears, overlayed with a
caption that says something like, “I accidentally clicked on Internet
Explorer.” These are problems that are funny, that make fun of people who don’t
have problems. These are problems that are familiar because many of us (reading
this) live in the first world.
In today’s passage from the bible,
we read these words, “That each may eat and drink and find satisfaction in
their toil - this is the gift of God.” (Ecclesiastes 3:13) It’s a complaint
that there is nothing more to life than to eat and to drink - he sounds Chinese
- and to write a really good essay. Sounds like a Cambridge student.
Are you surprised to hear the bible
saying this? Eat, drink and be satisfied with your toil. You don’t need to be a
Christian to know that; it’s common sense. But why is this is a gift from God?
Because it’s possible to have the best opportunities and to waste it, the best
of life and to throw it down the drain.
I want us to see three things from
today’s passage - (1) What life is like; (2) What life is for; and (3) How life
will end.
1. What life is like
I’ll begin with verse 1:
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the
heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-3
He goes on - “A time for this, and
a time for that…” - fourteen times, to tell us that life has its ups and downs.
Some days you win; some days you lose.
You don’t need to be at Cambridge
to know that. I remember an uncle who used to say, “I didn’t go to university,
but I went to the school of ‘hard-knocks’.” He was not a Christian and every
day for two weeks my uncle tried to convince me not to be a Christian. I
learned a lot for those conversations because my uncle was speaking from
experience; he had “eaten more salt than I had eaten rice.”
“Been there, done that.” Or for
those of you who remember Tan Ah Teck, played by Moses Lim on the Singapore TV
Series “Under One Roof,” - “Long before your time, in the southern province of
China...”
We roll our eyes when we hear words
like that - that speak to us as if we little kids. But what they are saying to
us is, “I been through this before.” Been there, done that. You learn about
life by living life - not by studying - but by going through it. And that’s why
they tell us stories about their childhood, their experiences.
The bible is saying the same thing.
Life is not static. God has put into motion times and seasons when you will
experience both pain and laughter, joy and sadness. The big question is this:
Are you prepared for those times?
This week, Facebook launched a
gimmick to celebrate its 10 year anniversary. Each user got a personalised
movie of their life. “A look back,” is what they call it. In a way, that’s what
this poem does - it looks back at your life - the happiest of days and the saddest
of days - saying: This is your life. The question is: How should you handle the
good and the bad moments in your life?
And he offers a suggestion: this
Uncle (I’ll call him that), he says - Enjoy it while you can. That’s the
surprising answer we see in our second point - What life is for. It is for
enjoyment.
2. What life is for
Verse 12:
I know that there is nothing better for
people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may
eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.
Ecclesiastes 3:12-13
That’s surprising because Uncle is
saying something very unChristian. He sounds atheist: Live each day for today.
No higher purpose; no grand scheme. Get what you can get today: get pleasure,
get happiness, get success. Don’t wait for tomorrow. He sounds atheist. Or he
sounds Buddhist. “A time for to be born; a time to die” Very Lion King; very
circle of life.
And yet, you can’t get away from
the fact that Uncle keeps referring to God. Verse 10:
I have seen the burden God has laid on the
human race. He (meaning, God) has
made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human
heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
Ecclesiastes 3:10-11
Why does this Uncle tell us: Make
the most of today! Seize the Day! Because God has put eternity in our hearts.
Inside all of us is an internal itch put there by an external God. You can’t
reach inside to scratch it yourself. You are not supposed to. God has put that
restlessness in our hearts to make us think of something bigger than ourselves.
You might say, “I don’t care about
that. The second advice about enjoying life - that makes sense; that I’ll
follow.” But you see, the two parts are connected because all of us worry about
tomorrow. What job am I going to get? Who am I going to marry? All of us worry
about tomorrow and that keeps us from enjoying today.
The secret is knowing God. You see,
if God is God, then today is just today. Jesus taught us to pray by saying,
“Give us this day our daily bread.” If you trust God for today - for today’s
bread, you can enjoy today’s bread. But some of us, even as we were enjoying
something better than bread - hot pot dinner - we were worrying about
tomorrow’s lunch. Why? Because we want the moment to last. We a want guarantee
it’s going to be just as tasty, just as enjoyable, but in doing so, we stop
ourselves from enjoying the meal right in front of us.
Know anyone like that? Who has the
wealth, the looks, the smarts yet the more he has, the more it crushes him. The
problem isn’t that he has too much money. The problem is he is trying to fill
that void, that vortex inside of him with money and it just doesn’t work. Someone
named Augustine once said, “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are
restless, until they can find rest in you.”
You see, if God is God, then food
is just food. Work is just work. You can enjoy your food; you can enjoy your
work, you might even begin enjoying God. But some of us turn food and our work into God
- we worship it, sacrifice to it - and it’s never enough. God has made us for
himself, and our hearts are going to be restless until they find their rest in
him.
3. The end of life
Finally, the end of life. Something
prompts Uncle to think about the end of life and it’s not death. I want you to
see that. Rather, it’s wickedness. Look at verse 16.
And I saw something else under the sun:
In the place of judgment—wickedness was
there,
in the place of justice—wickedness was
there.
Ecclesiastes 3:16
Earlier on, we said that life is a
mix of good and bad but that’s not the full story, is it? Wickedness tips the
balance towards the bad. People get away with evil things all the time.
And you guys - because of all the
doors that will open to you when you flash that degree from Cambridge
University - you guys will have a front row seat to wickedness. Because it’s in
the very places of power, privilege and influence where you will find wicked
people doing wicked things.
When that happens, you need to
remember what Harvey Dent said in the Batman movie (the second one with Heath
Ledger as the Joker). Harvey Dent said, “You either die the hero or you live
long enough to see yourself become the villain.” That’s just a movie, of
course, but consider what he is saying: You either try to be the hero - and die
trying. Or, God forbid, you end up becoming wicked yourself.
If ever there was a first world
problem, it is this: Wickedness. “In the place of justice, wickedness was
there.” People who have the resources to do help others but exploit others to
help themselves.
It is at this point, the bible
says: Don’t lose sight of God. Verse 17: “I said to myself, ‘God will bring
into judgement both the righteous and the wicked.’” Adding these lines, “For
there will be a time for every activity, a time to judge every deed.” Remember
that song we began with: “A time for everything… A time to be born, a time to
die…”? Well, here’s the last line of that song - A time to judge every deed.
Life ends with God’s appointed time of judgement.
If only for this life
A quick recap: (1) What is life
like? Ups and downs, good and bad. (2) What is life for? Enjoyment: Enjoy each
day is a gift from God. (3) How will life end? With judgement. God will call us
to account for all we’ve done in life. The conclusion to all this is to eat, to
drink and enjoy every second of your time here in Cambridge.
Except there is a place where the
bible also says this: “If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for
tomorrow we die.’” The same passage reads, “If only for this life we have hope
in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (1 Corinthians 15:32 &
15:19)
What’s it saying? If being a
Christian is only for this life, then don’t be a Christian. Why? Because
Christians get cancer, because Christians still die. In fact, if being a
Christian is just for this life, then like my uncle in Malaysia, I should be
discouraging you from being a Christian, not encouraging you.
So why should you become a
Christian? For one simple reason: Jesus Christ rose from the dead. And if Jesus
really rose from the dead, it means, firstly, that God can raise the dead.
Secondly, it means God can use our death, the way he used Jesus’ death and
Jesus’ suffering to bring life, to show his love. God is not just God of good
things, he is God over everything. Most importantly, if Jesus rose from the
dead, it means God has taken your death. Jesus Christ died so that you would
not die, he took your sin so you could receive his righteousness. If you are a
Christian, judgement is not something far ahead, into the future, judgement
happened on the cross. And the resurrection of Jesus Christ is there to show
you there is no more judgement for sin. You are free.
Valentine’s Day is happening this
week. Imagine on Valentine’s Day getting a card that said, “Today is going to
be a fantastic day. We are going to enjoy ourselves, have a nice meal, have a
good time… because tomorrow, we might break up. Tomorrow, I might find someone
better-looking than you.” Friends, you can’t build any meaningful relationship
if you’re only in it for the good times. “For better for worse; for richer, for
poorer; in sickness and in health” - that’s a promise that Christians make in
marriage, that’s a promise that Christians receive from God. He is God over
everything.
God has made us for himself and our
hearts are restless and they will continue to be restless until they find their
rest in him. And Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest.”
