Under the Son

This past weekend, our high school students were up at Hume Lake for winter camp. This was my first Hume experience and it did not disappoint. I enjoyed taking in the snow, the hype, the connections with students, and our chapel sessions. I’d like to share a reflection inspired by our winter camp theme, “Under the Sun.”

Ecclesiastes 1:1-3

The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: 

“Meaningless! Meaningless!” 

     says the Teacher. 

“Utterly meaningless!

     Everything is meaningless.” 

“What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?” 

We are in the midst of a meaning crisis. Now more than ever, people all over are feeling detached from the stories and practices that once gave them meaning. The meaning crisis may come to a city near you. Or, more likely, it’s already here. That’s why I was relieved to see the speaker at Hume hone in on the topic of meaning using the book of Ecclesiastes. The meaning crisis can be identified by the question asked at the beginning of this book: what is all this for? 

That word which our NIV reads as “meaningless” is the word for vapor or smoke. This word is a metaphor for the flux and unpredictable nature of life. You can see smoke, but you can’t grasp it. It is in a constant state of change. What you desire is gone before you know it. Life is smoke. What you want doesn’t satisfy you. In his book, the teacher walks through the chief pursuits of life and finds them wanting. Wealth, career, status, and pleasure are all smoke. There is no moment of arrival where you can say “Aha! I’ve made it!” In doing this, the teacher undoes our basis of meaning and purpose apart from God.

Ecclesiastes 3:11

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

The teacher points out the magnitude of our desire. We have eternity set in our hearts. Everything is good when put into its proper place in God’s created order. But none should be sought as an end in themselves. None of them can fill the eternal desire of our hearts. Only an eternal God can satiate our eternal hunger. This was the realization we discovered with our small group when pondering an important question, “What do we mean when we say that only God can satisfy us?”

We are only in a state of meaning when we are pursuing something, not when we hypothetically arrive. This leaves us with the only option: continually seeking our eternal God.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

Now all has been heard;

     here is the conclusion of the matter:

Fear God and keep his commandments,

     for this is the duty of all mankind.

For God will bring every deed into judgment,

     including every hidden thing,

     whether it is good or evil.

To fear God is to seek him, to worship him with reverence. Fear is associated with worship through the experience of awe. Awe happens when we gaze at something ineffable, something not described by words. That’s when the hair begins to stand on the back of our necks. It’s a state of heightened awareness of something more. 

But we who can do more than fear God. The teacher is talking to us “under the sun,” that is, outside of Eden. This is the backdrop of Ecclesiastes. But we who are in Christ are under a different reality. We have been made new creations in Jesus. It’s as if Jesus is beginning a new garden in us. While we remain under the sun of the old creation, we are in the process of being transformed by the Holy Spirit into Christ’s image. Stated differently, we might say we are “under the Son.” Worshipping God under the Son is something we do in conjunction with the Spirit. This is what we call sanctification. 

I was delighted to hear a subtle reformed accent in our sessions at Hume. I don’t imagine John Calvin quoted in large multi-denominational spaces like winter camp, however he was this week. But more importantly, our group got to hear how the process of growing closer to Jesus we call sanctification is a gift. The Spirit draws us deeper into communion with our infinite God. 

This brings us back to the meaning crisis. The only pursuit that will satisfy our souls is the process of sanctification. We desperately need the Spirit of God and one another to draw us deeper into the mystery of our infinite God. This is fear of God under the Son. Much of this world is still under the sun, suffering from loss of meaning. But by grace, we might find ultimate meaning and awe drawing closer to our infinite God.