Facing Absurdity

A fascinating book that I have down loaded on my Kindle is Immortal Words: History’s Most Memorable Quotations and the Stories Behind Them. I read that the Buddha supposedly recommended, “Doubt everything, find your own light,” as some of his last words. Well, It sounds like good advice to me but then I recognize that my heart invariably presses on to doubt itself!  After all, what kind of assurance can I have that this light is real light or true?  The hunger for meaning, the quest for understanding, the search for answers and solutions are central features of my condition. For instance, I ask myself, what is the nature of reality?  What is existence all about?  What is the purpose of life, if any, and what should I try to give answers to?  I'm a little more than chagrined and embarrassed to say there has been a much-neglected resource for reflection on these questions and in seventy two years it has been seldom consulted.  The book of Ecclesiastes.  From a preacher or Qoheleth in the language of Hebrew . A book that speaks profoundly to this time of my life by asking questions, by setting out contradictions, and by forcing me to feel what absurdity as an outlook is really like.

Opening the book, I am confronted with its most famous words, "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity and a striving after wind."   Or in another translation of Ecclesiastes 1:2: "'Meaningless! Meaningless!' says the Teacher, 'Utterly Meaningless!  Everything is meaningless.'"  Now that’s not a very inspiring start for Bill Prather, either!  He has devoted himself to explore life, to examine what is good for humanity to do under the sun, and his observations have yielded some depressing results:  Everything in life seems to be bound by inevitability.  Human freedom appears to be constrained by overwhelming necessities, leading to a sense of helplessness.  And the endless cycle of repetition leads to a sense of boredom, pointlessness, and despair.

In seeking what many sages, philosophers, and gurus have, I observe most of them have come to similar conclusions.  On the other hand, what is unique to Ecclesiastes seems to me to be is how the author tackles the issues and what he leads one to see. By laying out the vanities of life, the propensities of youth, the all-encompassing reach of death, and the vast urgency of wisdom as a potential life-philosophy, he engages a chaotic world with some serious reflections.  I’m a witness to the writer’s desire of taking the reader on a journey through life, and he deals with the questions and exasperation that, I think, humans will inevitably encounter.  He says his own desire was to try and figure things out so he could live well and be happy, and encourage others to do the same.  He likely hoped to discover the key or missing ingredient, the clues to true and lasting success and happiness.

Instead, the world he begins to see is one that displays both good and bad at the same time.  He sees the superiority of wisdom, yet even the wise are reduced by death.  He sees injustice being done and oppressors prevailing, yet he also notes there is a higher justice.  He cites the sayings and actions of wise people but then goes on to point out how quickly they are forgotten!  It is the tone that wears on me.  Like him, I see ambiguity and fuzziness, a mixture of pain and problems, food, friends, wisdom, and God!  These things all dwell in the same world at the same time, and this is a difficult reality for me to digest.  Especially because I’m a “fix it” kind guy.  Like Qoheleth, I want better answers, tidier analysis, more comforting visions—and I have them, but not here.

Now, I don't rely on the Qoheleth to give me a full theology or picture of God, because I don’t think that is not his purpose.  He shows the futility of life without God. Reading and rumination on his writing I think he is bringing to my attention what life is like from an honest look at how things truly are.  My observation is that he is giving a severe picture of reality and asks the reader to believe that God is sovereign somewhere in the midst of it.  Even prior to the coming of the Messiah, Qoheleth paints one’s stark need for a God who intervenes.  Today every person can read his words in light of the work of Christ and the cross.

Father, God, as I write this morning, this world as I know it is indeed disordered, damaged, and fallen.  I’m finding it absurd to look for a president candidate, colleague, priest, preacher, closest of friends, Bettyann, church, website, or anything else in this world to find the answers of perplexity.  And I thank You that you have not abandoned me to absurdity. I thank You that into this world, into its pain and confusion, You became flesh and dwelt among us.  And it ended for You as tragically as anything I have ever observed or could ever observe. Your Son, Jesus Christ went to the cross with the full force of every ugly, honest reality of Ecclesiastes on his shoulders.  And He stands, having risen from the dead, with me and every other human in that darkness, giving each and everyone of us an equally severe image of a sovereign God in the midst of it.  Amen