Youth and Old Age (Ecclesiastes 11.7-12.8)

Introduction

There were men who retired in a certain town. They met up for a chat every day on a particular park bench. Ten years passed, then twenty. One day one said to the other, ”You know, my memory isn’t what it used to be. Can you remind me of your name?” Silence. So he repeated the question. Again there was a long silence. Finally, the other bloke turned to his friend and said, “When do you need to know by?”

The thing is, the older I get, the less far-fetched that story seems… As it says on the birthday card; “At my age I’ve seen it all, done it all, heard it all. I just can’t remember it all.”

The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that we left off at the end of chapter 6 last Sunday and today we’re picking up in the middle of chapter 11. So what happened to chapters 7, 8, 9 and 10?

There are three answers to that question; and they are each practical in nature. The first reason is that chapters 7-10 repeat the exact same themes as chapters 1-6. There is very little that’s new there (in fact, nothing new under the sun) but so as not to send you home feeling entirely short-changed, I am going to summarise those 4 chapters in a hundred words after I give you reasons 2 and 3.

The second reason, I have to be honest, is that Ecclesiastes is a challenging book to preach on and, because of its recurring themes, I was beginning to run out of material that enabled me to say anything new.

The third reason is that I want to finish Ecclesiastes before Palm Sunday, which is three Sundays away. Then it’ll be Easter. It wouldn’t do to have a reading on the Day of the Resurrection saying “life is meaningless and we’d all have been better off if we’d never been born!”

So here’s the summary of chapters 7-10; basically they say this: you may as well face the facts about life and death. None of us know in detail how it’s going to unfold, whether things will work out well or not; some things are beyond our control. Nevertheless, one thing is certain; the same fate awaits us all. One day, none of us will be here. In the meantime, do what you can to live wisely rather than foolishly and don’t put all your trust in people – they’ll let you down. It pays in the long run to be respectful rather than rude. Most of all, enjoy life’s blessings as a gift from God.

There you go; four weeks of sermons in one minute. Some of you look like you’re thinking “why can’t it always be like this?”

We all want to live happy lives. The Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote, “Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” That was one of his most famous quotes but Solomon, hundreds of years before him, said much the same thing in this book.

But both were mistaken. There is something even better than happiness. Happiness is the emotional response we have to circumstances around us. If good things keep happening to you, chances are you’ll be happy in life.

But God wants to give you something better than a happy life; he wants to give you a blessed life. You can enjoy a blessed life even when bad things keep happening to you. That’s why in the same passage where Jesus says, “the world is going to hate you” he also says “your joy will be complete.” To be blessed is to have God’s amazing grace and abundant favour lavished on you.

Youth

Today, as we draw towards the end of the book, after going round in circles a bit, Solomon at last gets to the point. I think the whole book can be summed up by what he says in 12.1. “Remember your creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say ‘I find no pleasure in them.’”

We’ll come to old age in a while, but I want to begin by looking at youth. 11.7-10 is about enjoying yourself while you’re young. God wants that. As I mentioned a few weeks back, it says in 1 Timothy 6.17, “God richly provides us with everything we need for our enjoyment.”

“Light is sweet” Solomon says “and it pleases the eye to see the sun.” This is probably why Barbados is a more desirable holiday destination than Bolton. I woke up on Wednesday, drew the curtains, and there was this dazzling crimson, orange, purple sunrise stretching out on an opal blue sky. Birds were singing. There was dew on the grass. The air smelt clean. I was in Stockton on Tees but, just for a moment, it felt like paradise.

Life is a gift. There are so many blessings to being alive. When you take the time to count them one by one, you see how many there are. Even simple ones like opening your eyes every day and seeing the light of the sun. Learn to cultivate a grateful heart. It’s good to start each day by saying, “thank you Lord for every good gift.”

“However many years anyone may live, let them enjoy them all” it says in v8. You appreciate life more when you’re satisfied with what you have than when you’re envious about you don’t have. You’re better off being a contented person with little than a covetous person with much.

Being young has some obvious upsides. On the whole, you’re healthier, you’ve got more energy, greater physical strength, fewer creaking joints, you tend to adapt better to change, you’ve usually got a better memory and you’ve got your whole life ahead of you.

No wonder people covet youth. Bob Hope once took a massive risk and asked a woman her age. This is how he remembered her reply. “She said she was approaching forty, and I couldn't help wondering from what direction!”

Solomon lived before the new covenant, before Jesus, before God’s revelation of eternity was fully made known. So for him, when he says in v8 “Let them remember the days of darkness, for here will be many. Everything to come is meaningless” we need to remember that this is what it looks like “under the sun” rather than beyond the heavens.

All the way through this book his basic point has been, “you will value life much more if you remember that you are going to be dead much longer.” It’s what we call today a secular outlook.

This is Solomon confirming what the New Testament says; without Jesus it’s all loss. There is no hope for those who have obstinately shut Jesus out of their hearts, lived for themselves instead, and taken that stubbornness to the grave.

One day, Jesus met a rich young man (Luke 18). He was just like Solomon in his prime; he had it all. He was young. He was privileged. He was loaded. He was free. He could do what he wanted.

But he’d just got to a point when he realised that one day all his wealth would be gone. And that his money couldn’t buy him everything. So he started wondering if there was maybe a way he could keep it and, maybe like Peter Pan, stay young forever… He was looking for the secret of eternal youth.

So he approaches Jesus and says, “Teacher, what must I do to get eternal life?” And Jesus looks at him and says, “You know, don’t you? You’ve read the Ten Commandments.” “I’ve been doing all that ever since I was in shorts, I can tick all the boxes; I’m good” he says.

But Jesus, as always, sees the real issue. “Your identity, your security, your pleasure is in all your money. You want to have your cake and eat it. No, you have to choose. If you’re really serious about living blessed, leave that behind. I’m telling you, you’ll have spiritual treasure instead. Then you can come with me.” The Bible says his face fell. He was crestfallen.

Two people watched a hearse drive by on the way to a funeral. It was a very well-known celebrity who died with fabulous wealth. One said, “How much did he leave?” and the other said, “Everything.”

So Solomon continues. He could have written this for the rich young ruler;

“You who are young, be happy while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.”

In other words, it’s a fascinating world, travel well, live adventurously, explore possibilities, avoid pain if you can and don’t let anxiety consume you. But, whatever you do, remember God.

The Passage of Time

Time drags when you’re young and time flies when you’re older. Einstein was once asked to explain his famous theory and he famously replied, “Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.”

Five minutes of added time for a fan whose team is desperately hanging on seems like a day, but five minutes for a fan whose team has failed the entire second half to breach the opposing defence feels like 10 seconds.

All my childhood I wished I could grow up more quickly. Did you? But the older I get, the more time seems to accelerate. There’s a clock in Chester Cathedral with a short poem by Henry Twells called Time’s Paces and it talks about this phenomenon.

When as a child, I laughed and wept, time crept.
When as a youth, I dreamt and talked, time walked.
When I became a full-grown man, time ran.
When older still I daily grew, time flew.
Soon I shall find on travelling on - time gone.
O Christ, will You have saved me then? Amen.

So Solomon comes to a conclusion from all his swaying to and fro, from all his internal debating, from all his glass half-empty and glass half-full moods.

And here it is (12.1): “Honour and enjoy your Creator while you’re still young” as The Message version puts it. How many of you came to faith before you were 25..? That’s why it’s vital to remember your creator when you’re young. In later years, the human heart becomes harder. That’s not to say you can’t become a Christian when you’re older – but it’s rarer.

The easiest time in life to forget God is, in my opinion, in your twenties and thirties.  I used to belong to a Youth Discipleship group when I was in my late teens. Kathie used to go too. There were maybe 20 of us and we’d meet for simple life-related Bible teaching, testimony, prayer and praise every Tuesday night. It was the highlight of my week. Everybody there was full-on for God.

But when we got into out twenties and thirties, we all got busy. Some got diverted and distracted. Others moved away and couldn’t find a good church. Some of us had problems. Now, only four or five of us as far as I know are committed Christians.

Old-Age

What about old-age? Remember Solomon is an old man when he’s writing down Ecclesiastes so he’s speaking from experience. Someone once said, “Youth for pleasure, adulthood for business, old age for God.” Solomon spent most of his life believing that and now he’s saying “no, that’s all wrong.”

Of course, to very young people, everyone looks old. A little girl came out of church once after learning about Noah’s Ark and she asked her grandfather, “Grandpa, what was it like in the ark with Noah?” He could have seen the funny side but, honestly, he was a bit offended. So he said, “Excuse me, young lady, I was not in the ark with Noah.” She looked very puzzled and said, “Well, how come you didn’t drown then?”

In v2-5 Solomon describes what life is like for him now he’s very old. This will one day be me. It occurred to me this week that I am just ten years away from qualifying as a member of the Lunch Club. The count down to the free bus pass has begun.

Verse 2: Remember your Creator before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain.

Growing old is like going from summer to autumn to winter. Days get darker, and the light fades more with each day.

Verse 3: Remember your Creator when the keepers of the house tremble, (he’s talking about his shaky hands) and the strong men stoop (in other words, my back is hunched over now), when the grinders cease because they are few (he’s talking about his missing teeth that can no longer manage steak) and those looking through the windows grow dim (this is about his eyesight. First he started squinting and needed glasses for reading, then he needed bifocals to see distances as well and no sooner was that sorted out he got cataracts).

Verse 4: Remember your Creator when the doors to the street are closed and the sound of grinding fades (he’s saying I no longer really understand the world with all its changes now my working life is behind me), when people rise up at the sound of birds, but all their songs grow faint; (he’s saying my sleep gets disturbed by the slightest noise and my nocturnal trips to the loo. The fading sounds are a reference to becoming a little hard of hearing).

Verse 5: Remember your Creator when people are afraid of heights and of dangers in the streets (he’s thinking I’ve become vulnerable; I’m less steady on his feet, I could fall down the stairs and I can’t defend myself like I once could); when the almond tree blossoms (that’s grey hair) and the grasshopper drags itself along and desire no longer is stirred (here’s Solomon saying ‘the spring has gone from my step. He looks at his harem and says ‘I’m too old for all that now.’)

It’s a very moving and poetic description of the declining powers of old age. Your grip weakens, your joints stiffen, you sag in all the wrong places, and your hair disappears from your head and starts to sprout in your nostrils and ears instead. One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that it is such a nice change from being young.

What a tragedy when, like Solomon, you have no assurance about life after death. You cannot look forward with anticipation. And you cannot look back with satisfaction. The silver cord snaps and the well is dry. The party’s over. The glass is empty. The bar’s closed. Life is done.

Solomon tried everything and summed up his entire life as useless, vanity. “A tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing” as Shakespeare put it. He took a lifetime to learn that the most important things in life aren’t things and the best things in life are always free.

Don’t get to where he got to. When I look back at my four score years and ten I want to see more than a broken rope and a shattered water jar.

Ending

John Wesley said as an old man, “When I was young I was sure of everything. After a few years, having been mistaken a thousand times, I was not half so sure of most things as I was before. Now, I am hardly sure of anything except what God has revealed to me.”

If your first 25 years are springtime, 25-50 is summer, 50-75 is autumn, and 75-100 is winter, what season of life are you in? When I was in the springtime of my life I never thought that one day I’d be in autumn, but here I am. And winter is next.

As surely as the earth turns round the sun, teenagers become adults, who become mature adults, who become elderly.

What if Solomon could log on to Ask Billy Graham.com? What if he asked, “Dear Billy, when I was young, I loved God and followed him with all my heart. But when I got older, I got distracted and wondered away from faith. Now, I’m close to death and feel I’ve wasted my life. I bet God is angry with me. Is it too late?

This is what the reply would be (and I know because someone did ask a very similar question).

“Yes, it would’ve been better if you had never turned away from God. But listen: he still loves you, and Christ died for you. God’s promise of forgiveness is for all who know they need him: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1.9). Don’t let another day go by without Christ, but confess your sins to Him and ask him to be your Saviour and Lord. Then ask him to help you walk with him every day.

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 19 March 2017