As Unitarian Universalists, we look to many sources for wisdom. The Hebrew Bible is one of these. For the song we just sang, ‘Turn! Turn! Turn!,’ Pete Seeger selected words from Qoheleth, the Hebrew name of a Biblical wisdom book. You may know it from its Greek name, Ecclesiastes. Both words mean teacher, or preacher, a wise sage. “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” The complete text is often used at funerals because it acknowledges the rhythm of life and death. It is also used at rallies to protest particular wars.
But this scripture, written in about the 4th century, has meaning beyond funerals and wars. Just like our song, its original author wrote of life as pairs of opposites, “a time to plant, and time to pluck up what is planted; a time to weep, and a time to laugh,” etc. In using these pairs, the author lifts up the full variety of human experience. He was not indicating that one was good and the other bad, because there is a time when either can be good or bad.
I was a chaplain at Georgetown University Hospital this summer and I can attest that there are times when death, for example, is indeed good, despite our sadness at a loved one’s passing. If you have watched loved ones suffer, regretfully, I’m sure you know this to be true.
The biblical text includes seven pairs of opposites. He (and I say ‘he’ because nearly all Hebrew sages were men), he might have added an eighth pair: “a time to work and a time to play.” But, in fact, the biblical text on either side of the song focused on these very subjects. Labor Day weekend is our season, our time to consider work and workers, and as we leave behind summertime play, it seems appropriate to reflect upon these themes.
I hope you wore your sandals or flip flops some time this summer. If so, you know summer is a time for lightening up, a time for relaxing a little bit. It’s no mistake that our newspapers give us lists for summer beach reading. No heavy political tomes, just fun mysteries and romance novels. Even our clothes are light and playful; we trade our dark heavy suits for colorful shorts and bathing suits.
I was a child in New England back in the late early 60s, and I remember a rule of Labor Day—it was the time to put away your whites—your white shoes and purses, your white dresses and shorts. Is there anyone here today who, like me, still feels like their making a social faux pas when wearing white sandals after Labor Day, even when it’s 90 degrees outside? Oh, how the past haunts us.
Summer is the Sabbath, or rest time of the year, just as Sunday is the Sabbath time of the week. If you didn’t get a chance to lighten your burdens any this summer, I hope you’ll do that tomorrow, when many businesses give workers the day off to observe Labor Day. I intend to. But, if you’re a salesclerk, or in a similar job and need to work tomorrow, I hope you’ll find another day or time to relax. For we do need to relax. There is a season and reason for play. Another ancient wisdom writer said, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” It’s true for Jill’s too.
Summer ends and autumn approaches rapidly. On Sept. 23rd, just a few short weeks away, the fall equinox will occur. This is when the light of day is equal to the dark of night. Not until winter solstice in late December will daylight begin to increase. As religious people have done through the ages, we note the celestial turnings and seek its meaning in our lives. Just as there is a time for day and a time for night, I’d like to turn back to the source of the song’s biblical text for some illumination.
To set the stage for the words we sang in “Turn, turn, turn,” the author of Qoheleth writes of his quest for the meaning of human life. It was this quest that led him to understand indeed, there is a time for every matter under heaven. He discovered this by first leading a life of pleasure. He sampled all that life had to offer. He gave it his best shot. But he realized that pleasure is transitory; it is a vanity and a chasing after wind. “Of pleasure, what use is it?” he asks. We sometimes yearn for a life of pleasure, but I think we know it wouldn’t sustain us for long, either.
The author next tries a life of toil with the intent of accumulating wealth and prestige. But that too was empty, for he realized you can’t take wealth with you when you die. Again he writes, “Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and all was vanity and a chasing after wind.” We seek wealth and comfort, too, but wealth for wealth’s sake I think we know cannot be meaningful.
The author next pursued wisdom, thinking that was mankind’s purpose. But eventually of wisdom he writes that the wise die just like the foolish, and each generation must learn its wisdom anew. And so he despaired and hated life.
With no other purpose for life evident, he thought labor must simply be the business God has given us to keep busy. This is not a satisfactory purpose for living, for him or for us. He asks again, “What do mortals get from all the toil and strain…? For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest.”
Is this not a question you have asked? Have you not considered these very points this wise teacher raises? Although this was written in the 4th century, it sounds like it could have been written today. What is the meaning of life? What is our purpose? Why are we born, just to die?
Our author comes to a wise conclusion; perhaps this is your conclusion, too. He says, “There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their toil.” Does anyone have a t-shirt that reads, “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you may die.” This is a more hedonistic version and approach to life than our ancient teacher intended, for remember, he had earlier discovered the emptiness of pleasure.
Instead, he meant was that we should play, that’s the eating and drinking part, but that we should also find merriment, or enjoyment, in our toil. I agree with him, for I know how terrible it is not to enjoy work. I left a job a few years ago after it reduced me to tears. My work did vex me, I did lose sleep over it, just as our ancient sage said work could do. I was so stressed, my job no longer brought me the joy it once had. It was time to for me to leave.
I then pursued a dream I had abandoned after college. I turned to church work and I enrolled at Wesley Theological Seminary. My being with you this year as your new intern is one of my ordination requirements. I expect it to be work, but I expect it to be enjoyable, too. I do find joy in being with you.
But in that time after I left my old job and before I found a new job at a church, I was empty. I hadn’t realized how much my sense of self was wrapped up in my work. Work gave me an identity; it helped me to answer the question our sage raised, “Why am I here?” Have you felt like this when you’ve been out of work? Did you feel lost, in despair, maybe depressed? If you have ever been without a job, been fired, or if you’ve retired and are searching for something new to fill your days, you may know the emptiness that accompanies this. You know that we need a purpose in our life. There is a season in our lives for work and toil. Just like Chester in our out-of-work dog story, we need a purpose. Play alone is not enough for a satisfactory life.
But let’s return to our biblical sage. He concludes by emphasizing again that, in the face of this life as the only certainty, “I know that there is nothing better for [people] than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil.”
As Unitarian Universalists, however we may envision God, we affirm this view. This is the only life we can be certain that exists. That’s not to say there isn’t something more. Many people believe our spirits or souls live on or return, but we can’t be sure. This nearly 16 hundred year-old approach to how we lead our lives may not be terribly deep or rocket science, but it still makes sense for us today. A lesson for us is not to lead our lives for an end, for profit, for accumulation. Instead we should enjoy life’s journey.
I encourage you to consider your work and your play, and the meaning of your life, for your journey does matter. I hope you have work, that it gives you meaning, and, if it vexes you, that you seek out something that will give you more satisfaction. Physical labor can meaningful, as can mental labor. Our labor, our work, may or may not be paid work. It is not pay alone that gives our work meaning or gives us the satisfaction we seek in our work. I hope your volunteerism in this church and in the larger community brings you meaning and satisfaction.
If you are not happy where you work, if you are not treated with dignity, if you are not proud of what you do, if you are not allowed to work because of your status, be it immigration, sexual orientation, ethnic or something else, than you, no we may need to work for a change—in our jobs, in our culture and in our country. You know this.
Summer has ended. It is time to put away our toys. Everything has its season. Although we can’t take what we accumulate in life with us, we can leave behind us a better world. Just as there is time for weeping and laughter, there is a time to make a difference.
The Persian poet Kahlil Gilbran wrote, "Work is love made visible." Let us remember, we can work so that others may not want. We can work, not only for ourselves, but for those who come after us.
May it be so.
