Disappointment with church runs through the post-christendom emergent movement. It is the response to the can-do seeker movement where going through the seven steps or running the bases led to predicable results of Biblical wisdom combined with American financial/psychological know-how. The book of ecclesiastes is one of the most awkward inclusions in the canon. One of my small group members said to me “it’s a depressing book!”

I pastor a church where a core group of people who were in their early 60s when I came are not in their mid seventies with all of the symptoms any insurance actuary reliably predicts. Some in this group have been successful in life according to the terms of our culture. Others less so but the theft of the age of decay takes it toll on all.

This morning I am preaching in a different congregation in the Bay area. I’m early so I stopped to get a small bottle of juice while I decompress from the drive down. In this shopping mall on a Sunday AM well put together people driving nice cars are getting their starbucks and noah bagels. Their stylish exercise outfits, purebred dogs and confident gates express a mastery of this world that few in its history have accomplished.

Many in the emergent movement know how shallow the veneer of our accomplishment is. I also witnessed a child handoff. Mom dropping off two sons not looking too happy to dad. Time for the weekend exchange so Dad gets his time with the boys. Off they go to join the parade hoping no one sees too closely.

Ecclesiastes meets CS Lewis here when we see that regardless of our mastery of the considerable blessings of planet earth they always fall short. Something in us was designed for a place we recognize through the manifest glory even of this age but cannot fully be satisfied.