Vapor

A thought from the book of Ecclesiastes

Just what kind of a book is this? Well that is a good question. Ecclesiastes is a counter-intuitive book. It is a book that is brutally honest about life and death.  Because it is a very honest book it is often difficult to read and often over looked. The master teacher of Ecclesiastes begins and ends his book by calling life meaningless.

If you peel back the English translation of meaningless you will discover the Hebrew the word הֶבֶל (hebel). Hebel (pronounced heh'vel) in Hebrew means vapor or mist. If you read chapters one and two the master teacher says that wealth, horses, gold, silver, money, cars, boats are all vapor. Wisdom, understanding, knowledge, intelligence, learning, education, thoughts are all mist. Vineyards, trees, fruit, sun, water, wind, stars, sky, generations, wise, foolish are all vapor. Your body – vapor – it will drupe and sag. Your life, your friend’s life – here today and gone tomorrow. Life itself according to the master teacher is vapor. Life is not meaningless it is just temporary. It is vapor.

The master teacher continues  that all of life happens “under the sun” or “under the heavens”. It is a metaphor for this life. From cradle to grave the totality of your life is “under the sun” or “under the heavens”. You are born and then you die “under the sun”. Everything the teacher is talking about happens between birth and death. “Under the sun” is another way of saying that we live in the realm of that which we create or cook-up or plot, plan, paint, build, plant and construct. “Under the sun” is that moment when you breath your first breath to the moment you take your last breath.

The was some conventional wisdom about life in ancient Israel. The book of Proverbs offers two paths in life. One path is that of the foolish and the other path is that of the wise. These are the two paths in life. You can choose to be wise or you can go the way of the foolish.

The book of Proverbs suggests that the wise are careful with their money while the foolish are not. The wise are careful with their words the foolish do not consider what they say. The wise are patient the foolish are quick tempered. Proverbs suggest is that if you do the wise thing then your life will head in a certain direction and if you do the foolish unthinking thing then your life will go in a different direction.

This is not what is happening in the book of Ecclesiastes. This is not a master teacher saying here are the two paths of life and here is the right way to go. The book of Ecclesiastes is for those who did the right thing. The book is for those who played by the rules. Master teacher is talking to those who were moral, upright and righteous. You gave life your best shot and you still got screwed over.

This master teacher is challenging the notion that life and living can be reduced to two simple categories. If you do this then you get this. If you do that then you get this. This writer is questioning the very nature of the categories themselves. How many people have played by the rules and did the right thing only to have it go upside down on you? This teacher is taking us into new territory. How many have done the right thing only to have everything still fall apart?. Maybe we have made completely destructive choices and those choices had serious consequences. Yet, in the midst of those serious consequences, when we slammed into the preverbal brick wall we discovered that God was on the other side of the wall.

The book of Ecclesiastes is suggesting that our nice neat little categories of life don’t work. This book suggests that there is no such thing a duelist approach to life. That the universe does not work within some two path system it works in some other way. Thus why be wise or foolish? According to the master teacher they are both going to die. You can make all of the right moves in the right direction and be morally superior to everyone else and the idiot may die after you. This master teacher is offering something else.

The master teacher is saying – Listen, I had it. I had it all. I bought it all. I built it all. I accomplished it all. I did it all. No one had ever done the things that I have done. Every single thing that you think in your mind or heart – if I just had that, if I just had her, if I just had him, if I just did this or that. I am here to tell you I did it – I purchased it, I financed it, I constructed it, I did it all and I am here to tell you about the day after that. I am here to tell about the morning after you get everything you ever wanted.

Everything that you could possibly achieve from birth to death I achieved it. Now that we have it established that I have a firm grasp of the created let me introduce to you something beyond the created. The master teacher is saying let me introduce you to something that is uncreated. God is that which has no beginning, no middle and no end. God is that which is not trapped in time. There is this realm of vapor that we know to be life. Finances, vineyards, horses, flocks, cars, bills, insurance, to do list – there is all of this stuff that we do. The created. The master teacher suggests that there is a wonderful gift which is uncreated that invades and extends into the realm of the created. In the first few chapters this idea just kind of lingers around edges.

Perhaps you can recall the Chilean miners from 2010. Due to a mining accident thirty three miners were stuck for 69 days underground. That is 69 days of wondering if I will ever see my family. Will I ever see the sun again? Will I breath my last breath here underground? When the miners started to be brought up out of the mine you might recall the great celebration for each one. When they came up out of the mine where they thinking how will the effect my 401K? Where they asking large questions about their place in the cosmos? Where they trying to make sure that their beliefs are lined up properly? No. Because in this moment they were overwhelmed with the simple undeniable fact that life is a precious gift. Not looking for meaning. A pure moment of awareness that life is to appreciated and enjoyed. There is nothing anything else. When you tap into that then you discover a way to process and deal with the vapor.

My experience has been that most people spend most of their time attempting to manage their vapor. It also seems to me that most people come to religion because they want somebody somewhere with some kind of authority to rearrange and fix their vapor. I want a better marriage. I want a better job. I need help me with my finances. I want help me with my heartache and pain in life. I want you to assist me in getting the vapor in my life arranged properly. The assumption being that if you get the vapor managed properly then that will somehow led to a place of peace, calm and joy.

Jesus says that we are to first seek God’s Kingdom. For most of us that means get busy doing stuff because when he comes back you don’t want to be caught doing nothing. When Jesus says seek first his kingdom and then all these others things get added. He is saying set your heart towards that which is uncreated and you will discover that you will be properly able to deal with the vapor. When you become the kind of person who is keenly aware that life is a very precious gift and it could all be gone at any moment. Then you find the ability to truly appreciate the vapor.

The master teacher is inviting you into is a starting point. There is an uncreated Kingdom that is all around you. When you tap into that which is uncreated – a God that has no beginning and end – then you can truly enjoy that which does have a beginning and a end. You are no longer confused and diluted and polluted. Life becomes more and more and more a gift and blessing. Jesus would say who among you can increase your life by one hour by worrying about the vapor?