Calling all cynics!

Do you ever feel jaded or cynical?  Do you feel like nothing meaningful ever changes in the world?  Do you feel like people are hypocritical and selfish?  Anyone who's ever been a teenager, or who is a teenager now, may have gone through periods when it seemed like you couldn't trust anyone to give it to you straight and honest.  (This is why it was once said, "Don't trust anyone over 30.")  Cynicism can sometimes seem like the most logical response to life.

But it can also feel like you're not allowed to be cynical or jaded if you're part of the church.  Some people feel that, if they go to worship, they have to put on a happy face and pretend that everything is hunky-dory.  Periods of cynicism can become a barrier between people and their church communities, as though the church can't tolerate cynicism.

Well, if you've ever felt like that, and you've been thinking that the church can't make room for cynicism, allow me to introduce you to the book of Ecclesiastes.

The book of Ecclesiastes is an extended reflection on the absurd, pointless nature of life.  "Vanity of vanities!  All is vanity," begins the book (1:2).  Or as one translation has it, "There's nothing to anything -- it's all smoke."  For 12 chapters, the author wanders throughout the experience of life and observes the many things that just don't make sense.

For example:
"The people of long ago are not remembered, nor will there by any remembrance of people yet to come by those who come after them."   (1:11)
"Sometimes one who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by another who did not toil for it."  (2:21)
"In the place of justice, wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness, wickedness was there as well." (3:16)

"The fate of humans and the fate of animals is the same; as one dies, so dies the other." (3:19)

To some, these may sound like horrible things to say -- "How can you say such a thing?"  But anyone who pays close attention to life will have noticed that things don't always play out the way they "should."  Good people sometimes get burned, malicious people sometimes get ahead; horrible things happen to people who don't deserve them, good things happen to people who don't, and on and on.  It's enough to make a person cynical, or skeptical, or both.

Ecclesiastes is a ruthlessly honest book.  Ecclesiastes does not pull any punches for the sake of appearing "pious."   It is no accident that the book of Ecclesiastes has been a favorite of artists down through the years.  Artists, after all, are willing to see and say things that others won't.  (Cue the Dave Matthews Band, singing the refrain of Ecclesiastes, "Eat, drink, and be merry. For tomorrow we die."  Cue the Byrds singing Ecclesiastes 3.)

Ecclesiastes may not be a book for all the seasons of our lives.  By itself, Ecclesiastes may not provide an adequate foundation for the entire life of faith.  What it does, however, is to clear away some of the "religious noise" that can get in the way of a vigorously honest life of faith.  It provides an access point to faith for people who are put off by religiosity and by people who claim to have all the answers.

Ecclesiastes is about being brutally honest.  That is the path to God.  "The end of the matter; all has been heard.  Fear God, and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone.  For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil" (12:13).

What do you think of Ecclesiastes?