MPC
28th December 2008.December 28 - Ecclesiastes 4-6 - "Climbing the Ladder to Nowhere"
MPC
28th December 2008.
Phil Campbell
I've been reading an interesting book over Christmas called Outliers - The story of success. It's by Malcolm Gladwell, and it tracks the career stories of the exceptional people who achieve so much more than the rest of us. And tries to fathom why. So for one thing, he says, and this is backed up by some serious statistics, it's important to be born at the right time of year. Especially if you want to rise to the top of the pro ice hockey league. Where more than 40% of the top players were born in the first two months of the year.
The theory of course being that in the junior league intake every year, the kids who are oldest by even a few months have a distinct advantage. And are the most likely to be selected for the regional teams. And then beyond. If you want to succeed, make sure you're born at the right time of year.
Number 2, if you want to succeed and be outstanding in your field, Malcolm Gladwell has discovered it's essential that you put in over 10 thousand hours practice. Which is a sure indicator of a combination of passion and commitment whether you're a world class violinist or or a software engineer like Bill Gates or a rock band like the Beatles. When you do the analysis, says Malcolm Gladwell, it's always there. They've put in at least ten thousand hours hard work to get to the top.
Now you might find that depressing. Or you might find it strangely reassuring that the only reason you haven't made the top yet is you've got 8,250 hours to go. Keep at it.
But while you do, and I don't know what your ambitions hold for 2009, while you do, it's good to ponder some of the questions being raised by this troubling Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes. Which Derek has introduced to us over the last few weeks. Ecclesiastes is the book that asks all the hard questions. Like why do we do what we do. Like what's life all about. And dismantles all the world's best answers and philosophies, and by the final chapter comes to the point of saying without God in the picture and without the prospect of a life beyond this life... if this is all it is and it's all about me me me, then you can succeed as much as you like. And you can climb the ladder of success as high as it goes. And it's all just a ladder to nowhere.
First of all, lets have an honest look at the question, what drives us? I mean, what's the motive for all these people who are running themselves into the ground to succeed? What is it that motivates people to make more and more and more money and get more and more and more ahead? What is it that motivates us in our aspirations for our kids?
We're in Ecclesiastes chapter 4 verse 4, and here's how the teacher sees it. He's cynical, I know. But he's casting his eye in every direction as he tries to work out how to make life work. And here's what he sees. He says, I looked around. "And I saw that all labour and all achievement spring from man's envy of his neighbour."
We used to call it keeping up with the Joneses; next door gets a swimming pool. I want a swimming pool. Next door gets a ride on mower. I want a ride on mower. Next door gets a PhD, I want a PhD.
The teacher looks around, and he says, all this labour and achievement going on around me, it's just driven by pride and envy. Everyone just wants to top the next guy. If you're chasing after success, at some level you're working to prove a point. Either to take pride in the fact you've finally made it to the top of the ladder; or because you're so peeved that someone else is up there and you're not.
I wonder if that is how it works with you? It's certainly what the teacher sees all those years ago. And I suspect these days we're not really so different.
It's a pretty bleak picture isn't it? See, obviously some people aren't motivated by success so much as just a passion for music or a desire to improve things for other people. But on the other hand in the deceptive wickedness of the human heart, maybe we just say that. And really our labour and our achivement really is just motivated by envy after all.
And the trouble is, the teacher goes on to say success isn't what it's cracked up to be anyway. He's looked at the motive. Now he's going to tell us the five big downsides of living with success. Five facts of life that make chasing after success look just as silly as chasing after the wind.
Number 1. You can be so busy chasing after success that you forget to put people first. Which leaves you with a success that's absolutely futile.
You see it all kinds of ways. You see it in families. Where the carrot of success is dangling in front of the husband pulling one way and it's dangled in front of the wife pulling the other way and in the end they're just pulled apart. And they say they were doing it for the kids.
Or a passion to succeed that just leaves no time for anybody else because you're just so busy putting in your 10,000 hours to be the best.
Now here's something meaningless, says the teacher in verse 7 and 8. "Here's something I've seen over and over again. There's a man all alone. No family. No son. Not even a brother. But he's working flat out. There's no end to his toil. His eyes still aren't content with his wealth."
Why? It's a picture you see over and over again, isn't it? And yet success like that is just futile. Jesus puts it this way. What does it advantage a man if he gains the world... and loses his soul? What does it advantage a man if he gains the world... but loses his family, if he's only in it for number one and nobody else... if he gains the world, but loses touch with the one who made it?
The teacher looks around him. And sees people driven to succeed, but only driven by their envy. He looks around him. And sees people successful . But lonely. And it's exactly the same today.
Well, let's keep going. Cause if you reckon success is going to make life worth living, there's a few more things you need to know.
There's an old saying in business that you should always be kind to the people you meet on the way up because they're exactly the same people you'll be meeting again on the way down.
So here's the second reason the ladder to the top is the ladder to nowhere. If you want to make it to the top, if you want to be popular, if you want to be a success... beware. Because it never, ever, lasts.
Which is the point of the little story about the king that you get in verse 13 to 16. It's a story about an old king who's got all the fame and glory and power he's ever wanted. And then this young gun comes along. And suddenly, he's the flavour of the month. And the old king's out of fashion. You can see in verse 15, he says, "I saw that all who lived and walked under the sun followed the youth, the king's successor." Bad luck for the king. But here comes the rest of the story. And it's no surprise. Move a few years down the track. And guess what? Have a look at the second bit of verse 16. But those who came later... were not pleased with the successor." And before you know it he's heading for the chop as well.
See, here's how life works; you put your 10 thousand hours into making it to the top of the pile, you throw yourself into your business or your music or your sport; you say to yourself, if only I can make it to the top I'll be happy. And then after the briefest of moments on the top, the next thing you know you're on the scrapheap. Just ask Bob Hawke. Or Paul Keating. Or John Howard. Rooster one day, feather duster the next. It's chasing after the wind. And if that's what you're aiming for, be sure it's going to happen to you as well. Success is fleeting.
There's another problem to face up to if you're chasing success, and it's very real. It's the problem that's listed as number 3 on the outline. Enough is never enough. The teacher looks around, and here's what he sees. Rich people. Who've got everything a reasonable person could ever need. And yet somehow, it's never enough.
We've moved into Ecclesiastes chapter 5, and you can read it in verse 10. Whoever loves money never has money enough. Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless.
Someone once asked John Paul Getty, who was then the richest man in the world and comes in at number 43 in the list of the richest people ever, they asked him, how much is enough. And Getty rubbed his hands together and said, "just a little bit more."
There's the problem. If you're a lover of money, you can never get enough of it. Because you just love it. You're never satisfied. So you're never at peace. The labourer sleeps easy; the rich man lies awake worrying. And always wanting more.
Check yourself out. If you're a money lover, you're never satisfied. And no matter how much more you get, you never will be. It's a miserable life.
Okay, two more issues to highlight, and we'll just touch on them quickly.
Here's something I've seen, says the teacher, and he's looking at people who want to measure success in terms of making money. And it's a reminder that 2008 wasn't the first time there's been a market crash. The teacher says in 5:14 "I've seen a grievous evil under the sun, a terrible situation:- wealth hoarded to the harm of it's owner, or wealth lost through some misfortune, so that when he has a son there's nothing left for him."
It's gone. It's disappeared. The nest egg has turned into scrambled eggs. Besides which, in those famous funeral words of the very next verse, you can't take it with you. Even if you do manage to hang on to it til the very end, you're going to leave it all behind. Look at the words.
Naked a man comes from his mother's womb,
and as he comes, so he departs.
He takes nothing from his labor
that he can carry in his hand.
Is that what life's all about? Success. Making more money? Then what happens when it all just disappears? A bad season on the farm, a thief in the night, a house fire that takes it all, a recession; wealth lost through some misfortune. Or leaving empty handed. Which makes a life built on chasing success and money... a life that's built on a very shaky platform indeed.
Jesus said build your house on the rock and not on the sand.
Here's the final point, it's the clincher, and you'll see it at the start of chapter 6. Because on top of everything we've already seen, there's this. The fact is, no matter how successful you become, no matter how wealthy... money can't buy happiness. And it never did.
So here at the start of chapter 6, it's the picture of the man who has everything. Wealth. Possessions. Honour. He lacks nothing his heart desires.
Except he just isn't happy.
Read from verse 3. He says a man can have a hundred kids and live many years - well, it'll feel like many years if you've got a hundred kids - but he says "no matter how long he lives, if he can't enjoy his prosperity and doesn't receive a proper burial, I say a still born child is better off than he is."
You can live a thousand years twice over, but if you're not happy, if you're not enjoying it, you're better off dead. And there's nothing you can do to buy happiness. Cause happiness is a state of mind.
It's interesting, I was reading in a psychology book recently that one of the key treatments for depression... is to start doing things for other people. If you find yourself profoundly unhappy, if you find you can't enjoy your prosperity... maybe it's because you're not serving anyone.
Which in the end, is exactly what Jesus says as well. As he challenges the whole notion of success, and he turns it upside down. The teacher in Ecclesiastes gives us five reasons that success always fails. Which is why Jesus pushes us in the exact other direction.
There's a passage we've visited a few times this year. But I want you to turn over to the new testament for a minute, and go to Mark's Gospel. Mark Chapter 10. Because these two disciples James and John are brim-full of ambition. They used to run a fishing business with their dad, but they've left it to follow Jesus because it seems they're thinking it's a smart career move. They figure Jesus ias going places. And they want to be up there with him.
It's Mark 10, and I want to read to you from verse 35.
James and John the sons of Zebedee come to him, "Teacher," they say, "We want you to do for us whatever we ask." What do you want me to do for you, he asks. They reply, "let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory."
See, these guys are ambitious. These guys want to succeed. These guys want the coveted spots on the right and left of Jesus when he comes into his glory.
And they've missed the point. Because for Jesus, the way to glory is always going to be the way of the cross. For Jesus, the way to be big is to make yourself small. For Jesus, the way to be greatest is to make yourself least.
And if they want the places on his right and left when he comes into his glory, they're already reserved in a scene loaded with irony a few pages later... for two thieves. One on his right, one on his left, nailed up beside him. You want those spots?
If they want the places on my right and my left, he says, then you'll have to be baptised with the same baptism I'm facing. You'll have to drink the cup I'm going to drink. That's what Jesus says to ambition as he prepares to give up his life on the cross for the sins of a rebellious world.
See, for followers of Jesus, real success comes through service. Not power. real glory comes through giving. Not getting. And yet we so easily forget that, don't we.
Jesus calls the disciples together in verse 42, because he wants to make it plain. He says, "You know those regarded as rulers by the gentiles Lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. not so with you.
Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Friends, I don't know what your ambitions are. I don't know what you're shooting for. I don't know what success looks like in your mind. But let me tell you, if your ambitions are pointing towards money and power and prestige and influence; if you're secretly driven by envy and you're never truly satisfied... if you're terrified by the thought of recession because your bank balance is all that truly matters... Ecclesiastes says, you're on a ladder to nowhere. And in the end, the only way up is the way down. Giving yourself up for others. Following Jesus.
Do we believe that? Probably not. Because it's not the message we hear from the world, is it. Or even from some Christians. But let's pray. Pray that God will move in us so we'll take his word to heart on this most important issue. And that we will have our eyes open really believe that money won't satisfy. And really believe that success doesn't last. And then let's trade our ambitions for something that will satisfy. And will last. The good news is, you don't even have to be born in the right months to make the A-team. And you don't even have to put in 10,000 hours.
So why not make 2009 the year you take some practical steps? Towards true success. Some practical steps. Towards the sort of greatness Jesus has in mind for you. As one who humbles yourself. And serves.