Day 152 – March 18, 2026 – Ecclesiastes 1-6

This is thought to be written by King Solomon, which makes sense because he repeats a number of times that he has the type of wisdom that is not understandable for others. God allowed him to ask for anything, and he asked for wisdom so that he could rule his people well, that’s pretty self-sacrificing. Which is surprising as we read Ecclesiastes. We find here an author who seems pretty grizzled and disenchanted with life in general. All is vanity, is the refrain. We know chapter 3 from the song by the Byrds, to everything there is a season, but do we know the context within which it is written. It is written by a king who has tried everything and discovered that there is nothing new under the sun.

This reminds me when I was on spring break while I was studying abroad in Italy and went to Germany. It was the spring of 1990 and the wall had just come down so I made my way to Germany. I got off the train at Check Point Charlie and walked across the border between East and West and saw people like ants scurrying up and down the wall and taking pieces and tearing it apart. I found myself not wanting to take a piece, because everyone else was, and there was something a bit like holy that it struck me. I decided to sleep on a park bench in East Germany right outside the Brandenburg gate because I knew that no one had ever done that. The way the East Germans had cracked down on people sleeping outside, homelessness was not allowed, made me realize that I could finally do one thing that had never been done before in the history of the world. Sleep on a bench in East Germany. There was something new under the sun for me, but it was in no way tied to righteousness.