What's the Point?

What's the point of life? (Have you ever asked yourself that question? I know that I have!) That's exactly what I consider in this sermon. Even if you disagree with me, I hope that it makes you think.

Our little community of faith has experienced a lot of loss recently. In the past three weeks, two longtime church members and the son-in law of another have passed away. In addition, the husband of one of my personal friends died suddenly and unexpectedly. The grief of one death is difficult enough. But dealing with four deaths in such a short period of time… Well, that gets really tough. And the experience of four deaths so close together tends to move us away from focusing on any one of those losses and invites us to look at the bigger picture. At times like these, many of us find ourselves asking, “What’s the point of life, anyway?” After all, the moment that we take our first breath, we might as well start making funeral plans. One day, every single one of us will be just a name on a tombstone; and all that most folks will know about us is the day that we were born and the day that we left this earth. If that’s how we all end up, what’s the point? What gives any meaning to these short lives of ours? That’s a question that has been asked for thousands of years, from Socrates to Monty Python. As long as people have considered themselves and how they fit into the grand scheme of things, they have wondered how to give their lives meaning. And they have come up with all kinds of answers.

Some people conclude that the wealth they possess gives their lives meaning. Their philosophy: is summed up by the bumper sticker that says “The one who dies with the most toys wins.” These folks value their lives by the size of their bank accounts, the square footage of their homes, and the amount of their investments. But if money is the answer, then the only people that have value are the rich ones. That means that most of us are chopped liver! I don’t buy that; and I’ll bet that you don’t either.

Other people decide that fame is what gives meaning to life. If everybody knows your name, then your life has been worthwhile. If we agree with these folks, then the lives of Isaac Newton and George Washington and Florence Nightingale had meaning. And those lives did have meaning! The trouble is that Emperor Nero and Jack the Ripper and Adolph Hitler are equally famous (if not more so). So is fame really all you need to have your life mean something? And on the flip side, if only a few people know your name, is your life any less meaningful? I don’t think so.

And then there are the people who decide that our lives have no meaning at all. They look at the vastness of the universe and at the long parade of history, and all they can see is how brief our lives are. And when we compare our lives to everything that has come before us, everything around us now, and everything that will come after us, they are short indeed! Shakespeare’s Macbeth famously said, “Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player who struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” That’s the conclusion of the Teacher in Ecclesiastes. I read it just a few minutes ago. (Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23) Life has no meaning, the Teacher says. It’s like a puff of smoke that drifts up into the sky and vanishes even while we stand watching it.

Now, it’s true that the Teacher did a lot of work before he came to that conclusion. He looked carefully into everything that we do on this earth, and he decided that none of it was worth a hill of beans. He became wise, as wise as anyone could be; but then he realized that even wisdom has its limits. “God has set eternity in the hearts of men,” he says (3:11), “yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” We can’t know everything. He acquired all kinds of possessions: silver and gold and herds and flocks. He built palaces and gardens and parks – and then realized that when he died, they would all belong to somebody else. He used his money have the most fun that anybody could have. He drank fine wine and traveled all over the world. He did everything that he wanted to do, only to discover that the fun ended when he went to bed at night and couldn’t sleep for worrying. Nothing, he found, is permanent. Can you blame him for deciding that nothing has any meaning, either?

But the Teacher of Ecclesiastes missed something really important. In fact, it’s the key to the meaning that eluded him for so long. He almost gets there as he gives his final piece of advice (9:9): “Enjoy life with your wife whom you love all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you.” I’m surprised that he didn’t see it, because it’s right there in front of him! The meaning of life is in the connections that we make as we journey through our lives. The Teacher told us to enjoy life with someone else; and he’s right! Real meaning is only possible when there’s someone else in the picture that you care about. You can call it love or empathy or a yearning for the greater good; but it all starts with the loving connections that we make.

There are all kinds of those connections! The obvious ones are the ones that we have with the people we love, our family and our friends – you know, the people that we’d take a bullet for. And those connections are certainly the deepest ones; but they’re not the only ones. We connect with other people when we give of ourselves in any way at all. Teachers connect with their students as they not only convey information, but help to mold their lives. Writers connect with the people who read their books; and sometimes they transform lives in the process. Scientists connect with those who will benefit from their work, whether it is through technology, medicine, or social studies. And it’s not only people with whom we connect! If you own a dog or a cat, I’m sure that you’ll agree that you connect with them. I certainly do with my own dogs! As we connect with other people, or with animals, or with nature, or with the vastness of the universe, we are pulled out of ourselves and into something that’s bigger than we are. I am convinced that the connections we make strengthen the very fabric of creation itself! Now, I don’t have any idea exactly how that works; and it may be that our human brains are too limited to understand it. But I believe that it’s real.

The foundation of all these connections with other people is the one that we have with God. That connection begins with the acknowledgment that Someone exists who is much greater than we are; the understanding that Someone wants to help us give our lives meaning; and the willingness to open ourselves up to wherever that Someone is leading us. We Christians call that Someone God; and we believe that God came to us as Jesus Christ and lives among us and in us as the Holy Spirit. And as we connect ever more closely to God, we are able to connect ever more closely with one another. When one of the Jewish teachers asked Jesus “Which is the greatest commandment in the law?” Jesus replied, “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Then, just in case we didn’t quite understand what he meant, Jesus showed us through his life and death how to do just that. Connecting with God and connecting with one another – that’s what gives our short little lives eternal meaning.

So let me revise the Teacher’s advice that he offers to all of us. “Enjoy life with all those whom you love all the days of this meaningful life that God has given you.” What’s the point of our lives? That’s the point!