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“Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity”.  At least that’s the way the NRSV renders Ecclesiastes 1:2.  The New International Version translates it as “Everything is meaningless”.  The New Jerusalem Bible translates it as “sheer futility: everything is futile!”  Ecclesiastes begins and ends with this observation and in between discomforts us with its observations on the fleeting nature of life.  So what is the point of including today’s lesson scripture from Ecclesiastes under the title “Remember and Rejoice”?  Remember what?  Rejoice in what?

Well, let’s read the scripture first -

7 Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.
8 Even those who live many years should rejoice in them all; yet let them remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.
9 Rejoice, young man, while you are young, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Follow the inclination of your heart and the desire of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.
10 Banish anxiety from your mind, and put away pain from your body; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.
1 Remember your creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come, and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;  Ecclesiastes 11:7- 12:1 (NRSV)

So, we are to rejoice in every day – both those of us who have lived many years and those who are young.  And we should remember our creator in the days of our youth and that the days of darkness to come will be many.  Is this not a little bit contradictory?  We rejoice while we’re young, but remember that the days of darkness to come will be many?

It really isn’t.  Remembering that life is short, that life is ultimately fleeting and ephemeral – meaningless, futile vanity – points us toward the way in which we should order our priorities.  Rejoice in each new day, giving God the glory and thanks and putting him first.  It’s really the same lesson that was taught by Jesus to his disciples:

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life ?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.
29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.  Matt 6:25-34 (NIV)

He’s not saying that we shouldn’t work; rather, he’s saying that we shouldn’t make work our first priority.  We should consider and remember God’s eternal nature versus the finite nature of the world and focus on the former.