Sermon Tone Analysis

Toil and Joy

This morning we are going to talk about something that everyone just loves to talk about.

Work.

It’s a natural thing in our world.

We have to work.

And sometimes we love our work.

Sometimes we hate our work.

Often we can’t wait for our work week to end so that we can take a break from work.

Maybe you know someone or are someone who simply works for the weekend.

That on the day you go to your job you can’t wait for the end of the week to come.

Most of you know that for some 15+ years I worked in the Restaurant industry.

Waiting tables, bar tending, some managerial work as well.

And during that work, I would envy my friends who had what we referred to as “grown up jobs.”

They would get the normal M-F work week.

Meanwhile our week wouldn’t really start until the weekend.

But I could also see in my friends and co-workers the dread with their job.

It wasn’t very often that someone was excited to go to work.

That they were thankful they had a job.

That they were grateful for the opportunity to use their minds, hearts, and brains to help further their company’s mission.

Not only that, many people look forward to retirement.

The time in which they spend the last part of their life not working.

I’m not saying that weekends and retirement are bad.

But if you see working as simply an obstacle to get over so that you can enjoy the weekend or retirement.

Then maybe it’s time for a shift in perspective.

Instead of thankfulness and gratitude often times we see work as a burden.

As troublesome and tiresome.

And endless toil without any meaning.

Work can be tiresome.

It can be troublesome.

It can seem pointless, meaningless, and like Solomon says futile or vain.

The old preacher, Charles Spurgeon put it this way

We have worked, we have even worked hard; but the question comes to us—“What have we worked for?

Who has been our master?

With what object have we toiled?”

Charles Spurgeon

When Solomon looks at work, he feels this same way.

I have worked.

I have labored.

I have toiled.

But what does it all mean.

Is there any meaning, any point, any thing to gain through the work of ones hands.

Or did God make a mistake when he created man to work and labor?

Why is it that work feels so meaningless?

Why does it feel like it’s pointless drudgery?

Do we only work in order to provide for our family?

Or so that we can be “productive members of society?”

B/c if those are the only reasons we work, then we can rest assure that our work is vanity.

Meaningless.

Toilsome.

And that’s exactly what Solomon found.

Work in and of itself is void of meaning.

It is a vain pursuit.

Let’s look at how bad Solomon thought it was.

Toilsome Labor

In just these few verses, Solomon looks at his work.

He looks at all the homes, the gardens, the parks, the conquests and realizes that all his work is toilsome and despairing.

Remember, Solomon had accomplished a lot in his life.

If we remember back to a few weeks ago, he boasted about the things he had acquired.

Servants, Slaves, land, gardens, buildings, homes, parks, livestock, singers.

And he found them to all be empty.

But surely the pursuit of these things.

The energy expended to get these possessions had to be worth it.

As the saying goes, it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey.

But here, Solomon doesn’t agree.

He uses very negative language to convey his point.

In fact, the language he uses passes negative judgement on the journey and work involved in what he gained.

Let’s look together real quick at some of the language.

in v. 18 he hates the work.

v.20 it causes him despair

v. grief, also translated pain, sorrowful, and no rest.

Solomon is really pointing out the fact that it seems that we work and we die.

Remember he has just finished lamenting the reality of death for everyone in v. 12-17.

And here he notices that the other thing that people have in common is the toil of this life.

The work of our hands.

And that it is meaningless and has no enduring value for us.

Many people try to find meaning in their work.

Or they try to make meaningful work.

They expect that the things they produce and work on here are going to have meaning in someone’s life.

And we should, at times think about work for the benefit of more than ourselves.

But at the same time, we should recognize that there are many problems with work.

Scholar and Theologian, Leland Ryken gives a list of problems with work:

some have poor work ethic combined with undervaluing work

others, overvalue work and become workaholics

Many workers feel separated from corporate goals and corporations themselves

Or they find that the corporate goals ethically oppose their own

anxiety in job security, a feeling of no long term loyalty to employees

A view from employers that workers and work are purely economic terms of a means of production.

So b/c of the fallen nature of the world, many times the work that we do, or the work we are called to feel empty and meaningless.

And to be honest this isn’t just true for corporate america.

Even for those of us in careers that are viewed from the outside as inherently meaningful, pastors, teachers, non-profit organizers, stay-at-home moms, and the like, struggle at times with the seemingly meaninglessness of our work.

So as long as a person works, there is most likely going to be a struggle to find meaning.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that we are going to hate work, but that there is going to be dissatisfaction with work.

And you may end up hating work if working is what you live for.

If working is where you find your identity.

I think this is an interesting point to dwell on for just a moment.

As far as work is concerned most of the time this is how we identify ourselves and how people identify us.

If you meet someone new, what is the most common question that is asked of that new person?

So, what do you do?

Almost as if what you do defines who you are.

And that’s not necessarily how the question is asked or even perceived, but we give so much credence to a persons career that we think it should be one of the first things we ask about to get to know them.