In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

I begin by wishing God’s blessings upon you in this new year. So did you make any resolutions for 2006? Certainly lot’s of people do. For those of you who like lists the top five resolutions are to get personal finances in order, lose weight, stop smoking, become more physically active and improve personal relationships.

Unfortunately, statistics indicate that after only week, almost a quarter of us, have bailed out on whatever it was we had resolved to do. After a month almost half have given up. After two years only about one in five are still hanging on. No doubt the resolution failure rate is what keeps many people from making them. Half of us will not bother.

Still, as failures go, we’re in good company. Take the noted American Benjamin Franklin for example. As a young man, Ben composed a master list of 12 resolutions, later tacking on killer 13 – (Imitate Jesus and Socrates).

Ben kept track of his performance in a small book in which he entered a black mark each day for each resolution broken. He had intended to reuse the little book, erasing the old black marks as his performance improved. Well, you can guess what happened. So many black marks appeared on top of black marks that the pages in the little book developed holes. He had to resort to keeping his records on a piece of ivory, from which the black marks could be wiped off with a wet sponge.

So Ben, like many of us, had not progressed at all, his performance had not improved. Another year is added to our lifespan. A year, full of our various endeavors, has gone.
And so as an old year ends and a new one begins, we move to our text from Ecclesiastes. This is a treat for we rarely meet Ecclesiastes in our three-year cycle of lectionary readings.
Our reading from chapter 3 is a familiar one- “A time for everything”.

The author begins by reciting the many seasons of our lives, all the good and the bad times. He then asks, “What does the worker gain from his toil?” Now for Ecclesiastes there is little to gain in all our toil- nothing is permanent, nothing will endure. The best we can do is enjoy the present, to eat and drink and find some satisfaction in the work.

His words are a confession of disillusionment about life in general and the frustration of work in particular- “there is nothing new under the sun”. His words echo in many ways the spirit of our times- a spirit of cynicism. Right now we are in the midst of a federal election. But despite the policy pronouncements and promises, poll after poll indicates that Canadians have no expectations that politicians will keep their promises once they get elected. That politicians at all levels are as crooked as a dog’s hind leg.

And yet on the other hand we live in a society of achievement and acquiring things, whether that be in the world of politics, business, raising children, personal growth or even ministry. We are ambitious, constantly making plans, setting goals, striving and moving forward. We have embraced the myth of progress, ever moving forward. But where does it all lead?

The poet Shelly once wrote concerning the king Ramses II,
“I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said – “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert….”
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings, Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing besides remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck,
boundless and bare. The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
Our goals, our great objectives, are often simply “striving after the wind”.

Now Ecclesiastes is not saying that we should not have goals and objectives. Our lives could not exist without them. But the danger lies in attaching our personal fulfillment, our personal worth, to the end result, to the fulfillment of the goal. It’s all too easy to pin all our hopes on our capacity to fulfill the goals, only to have them sacrificed upon the altar.

Some of the worst trouble we get into is due to our pretensions, our need and desire to have something that lasts because of our own efforts.
As Brian Mulroney said to Peter Newman, “Nobody has achievements like this, Peter.
I can say that to you objectively. You cannot name a Canadian prime minister who has done as many significant things as I did, because there are none.”
How arrogant we are about our achievements.

We try to do something, or say something, build or produce something that will last forever, just like God whether that is a great empire, a legacy, a denomination or a single congregation. But we are not God. We are creatures rather than the Creator. It is wise then to keep our achievements in humble human perspective.

There is little joy in simply piling up more and more possessions. None of this stuff goes with us to the cemetery. Better to find joy, peace in the pleasures of everyday.
For it is there in the ordinary moments of our daily lives that God is present. In our relationships with our family which is so much a part of the season. In our relationships with our friends, in the glories of God’s creation. But we miss this presence, this gift of enjoyment because we are to busy looking to the future and making our plans.

Ecclesiastes invites us to embrace his philosophy, to live each day and to work, not seeking results, but rather enjoying the process of the toil. Only God knows where all of this leads. We can stop anxiously worrying about what will last, keep working and enjoy the labour itself.

In the end the most we can hope for is that God will take our humble efforts and make them part of God’s eternal purpose. All these strivings may then count for something. And perhaps in this new year, it is this modest hope is that for which we can hope,
“That every person may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil-this is the gift of God.
THANKS BE TO GOD, AMEN.