I like to refer to Ecclesiastes as the Scripture’s “earthy sermon,” both because its message is matter-of-fact and down-to-earth, and because its deliverer is unassuming and unorthodox. There’s no spiritual parlance wasted in this text. All of it is gruff truth and gritty dialogue about the reality of “once-Eden.” What’s accomplished, though, through this earthy discourse, is the exposing of the soul’s agony after wholeness. This message speaks to all people, in all times, in all walks of life, giving voice to the universal clamoring of mankind to be filled and at peace. Yet, as is observed by our Teacher, nothing “under the sun” can quench this soul-thirst. And so long as earthy novelties are the means by which man seeks his fulfillment, he will always come up short.