The first reading is from Ecclesiastes, which you can find right after the book of Proverbs just a little past half-way through your Bible. Like Proverbs, Ecclesiastes is an extended reflection on the general character of human life, with advice about how we might live a life that is fulfilling and rich. {See the appointed readings for the day}
Unlike Proverbs, though, Ecclesiastes is a profoundly pessimistic book. What is life? “It is an unhappy business that God has given human beings to be busy with.” That’s cheerful. It’s a refrain heard again and again through the first half of Ecclesiastes. All is vanity. Literally like a breath, a puff of smoke, a cloud of steam. All is vanity – it has no structure, and it will be gone in a few seconds.
You can do all this work, you can toil and labor, and for what? To leave it to your children? Well, who knows whether they will be wise or foolish?
As you plunge deeper into the book, other cheerful themes emerge – the inevitability of death, the pointlessness of work, the notion that our labors are only what God has given us to keep us busy while we’re alive. It’s really glass-half-empty stuff.
This is the book that gives us that famous passage that Pete Seeger and the Byrds made famous in song: To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, a time to reap that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up.
It’s a good song, and it sounds beautifully philosophical. When we keep reading Ecclesiastes, though, we see a poem about the tedious cycle of life. Ecclesiastes really does wonder, “What is the point of all of this?”
A little while later, in chapter 3, Ecclesiastes turns to what happens when we die: All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knows whether the human spirit goes upwards and the spirit of animals goes downwards to the earth?
All he can see is that when you die, you die, rich or poor, free or oppressed. Your children may squander their inheritance. Your grandchildren may forget where you are buried. The only possible thing to do, says the author of Ecclesiastes, is to Eat, drink, and be merry.
You only live once, after all.
Consider the parable that Jesus gives us in the gospel. This parable is about a wealthy farmer who has toiled and labored and now has plenty. Perhaps he has just finished reading Ecclesiastes, and so he relaxes. He eats. He drinks. He’s merry. And then he runs into trouble on the night that he dies.
So, here’s the question, if we are striving to live a Christian life, should we, or shouldn’t we, eat, drink, and be merry?
What is our attitude towards life’s pleasures? Can we enjoy ourselves? Can we take delight in music and food and companionship and travel? Can Christians party? Is there room for joy in a Christian life?
I would answer that Christians can enjoy themselves. I would go further to say that joy is a key element of the Christian life. If Jesus showed us anything, it was the compassionate goodness of God, the beauty of creation, and the wonderful news that we are not lost forever, but have had the doors of heaven opened for us. Of course, this good news, this gospel, brings us joy, the deepest sense of contentment and gladness that we are woven into the harmony of God’s kingdom.
Right after his baptism, Jesus begins with the message that the kingdom of God has come near. It is near. And the kingdom of God is marked with joy – the joy of the garden of Eden before the fruit was eaten, the joy of the peaceable kingdom described by Isaiah and Hosea. The kingdom of God is a kingdom of Joy, and as Christians we live our lives with one foot already in that kingdom.
Now, there are 2 sources of joy in our lives. The first is the pure, spiritual joy that comes from God as a gift of grace. This joy is God’s own joy which spills out and pours down on creation. That’s the nature of joy. It’s infectious. It’s this joy that we discover or rediscover in moments of prayer and contemplation and healing.
The second source of joy derives from the sensual delights of our earthly life. This is the “eat, drink, and be merry” stuff. A good wine, the best tomato of the summer, presents on your birthday and your favorite piece of music. A good game, a new pair of shoes. These things delight us.
Do earthly pleasures distract us from God? Certainly many Christians have denied themselves the enjoyment of pleasure in order to focus entirely on the divine joy. Some of us are called to that life, but God has given us the ability to experience joy and delight and pleasure, and there is nothing inherently wrong with having a good time.
There are some dangers, of course, and since we are about the business of mature spiritual faith, we ought to be aware of them. There are some delights that are harmful to us, that drag us away from the deeper joy of fellowship with God. This is what we heard about in the portion of Colossians. We are exhorted to put to death the actions and attitudes that feel good in the short term, but which act against the joy of heaven. For today, abusive language and wrath feel good, at least while we’re shouting at our targets. For today, greed feels good too. We all want more stuff, and the ads on tv tell me I deserve more stuff.
There are a whole host of these temporary delights that fill us with hollow regret on the morning after the night of drunken revelry.
There is a second danger, which is that our pleasures take a hold of us in an unhealthy way. This is the nature of temptation. It is the nature of addiction. It is good to enjoy our food. But when the pursuit of food blinds us to everything else in life, it twists and turns into the sin of gluttony.
As Christians, we are strongest when we take the long view that all of life’s true pleasures draw us towards the deepest joy of communion with God and God’s creation. If we feel terrible tomorrow morning, then today’s pleasures were a curse in disguise. If, however, we eat a peach and think of the wonderful Creator who made it, our joy is perfected.
So Joy is a vital sign in our spiritual health. From time to time, take stock of the joy in your life. Take stock both of the pure joy of the presence of God, and the natural joys of life. See if your joys are directly you towards God, or if they are haunting you with regret and sorrow, anger or alienation from others.
True joy builds us up and helps us in our journey. True joy wants to be shared with others. True joy leads us towards God with gratitude, and awe, and contentment, and desire.
Ecclesiastes realized that nothing else matters, so eat, drink, and be merry. Christians respond to say eat, drink, and be merry, because everything matters. God has given gifts to be enjoyed and to be shared. Break the joy out of your storehouses and share it with your neighbors.
Eat, drink, and be merry. Now that I think about it, that’s the perfect definition of a Eucharist.