On the Way to Wonder

3 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

2 a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5 a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6 a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;

7 a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8 a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

Ecclessiastes 3:1-8

Now we come to some of the most famous verses from Ecclesiastes,  The Byrds sang them to fame.  After they were set to music in 1962 by Peter Seeger but shot to fame in 1965 when sung by the Byrds.  These verses are also commonly shared at funerals as, like the Teacher, we come to grips with the inevitability of death.  Seeger wrote the song as a peace ballad because of verse 8.

As we put the verses in the context of the Teacher’s thinking, we could possibly see the circles of life that we pass through.  This normalizes our experiences and helps us to look at our lives not as victims but as people walking in the footsteps of those who have gone before.  We are experiencing that which is common to life.  We draw closer to the grieved in the face of death as we realize our day will come too.  We realize war will not last forever but that hopefully peace will result.  There is a kind of tension created between some of the poles of our lives that help us gain perspective.

So today, read through the “time” tables of Ecclesiastes.  Which time grabs your thinking right now?  Just pick one.  Sit with it for a moment and ponder what prayers spring from your heart, either praise or supplication, and lay them on the altar for a God who watches over all the times of our lives.

24 There is nothing better

 for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God; 25 for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 26 For to the one who pleases him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the work of gathering and heaping, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind. Ecclesiastes 2:24-26

We come to the end of chapter 2 of Ecclesiastes.  The author who calls himself The Teacher and identifies as a son of KIng David, opened his book lamenting that life is meaningless. He realized the circles of life, of history, of our days and it all seemed meaningless.  He tried pleasure and found that empty too.  He pondered how death awaits all and after our deaths fools may  inherit our work and squander all we worked so hard for.  Toiling to create something a fool cannot care for feels pointless.  

Similar to the end of the book, the Teacher concludes that enjoying our work, having sufficient food and drink, all comes from God.  So perhaps the question to ponder before the Lord today is to ask ourselves what “toil,” what work has God given to you? Perhaps fold a sheet of paper in half and on one side write the blessings of your work and on the other side write down the challenges.  The challenges could be points of prayer as you consider what “attitude adjustments” you might need.  The blessings could make for points of praise.  Acknowledging God’s hand in your life is always a challenge to honest reflection.  Blessings.

“I hated all the things I had for under the sun, 

because  I must leave them to one who comes after me.”

Ecclesiastes 1:18

Yesterday the Teacher, writer of Ecclesiastes, lamented because he realized that death is the great equalizer.  The wise and the foolish all die so what’s the point?  Today in versus 17-23 he again despairs as he looks at his toil, the works of his hands and realizes they will be inherited by someone after him and he does not know if that person will be wise or foolish.  So what is the point of work if it will be inherited by someone who will foolishly squander the worker’s creations, he ponders.  He concludes it is all meaningless.

My first thought is that when we worry about how others might use our stuff, we open ourselves to accusations of having “control issues.”  The Teacher does not want a foolish person to inherit that which he has worked so hard to create.  I bet we can identify with that feeling.  But then I think of the hard work to make a birthday cake but the fun of watching the kids dig in and laugh.  I think of the hard work of labor and the joy of birth and the amazement of seeing that new little life.  My husband loved to run a marathon and collapse in exhaustion at the end with all of us cheering him.  The Teacher ponders how his toil will be treated by another.  Perhaps that gives us some insight into the heart of God who toiled over his creation for six “days.” He still gave humanity free will.  I suspect it grieves his heart even as it grieves the Teacher’s heart when someone misuses or abuses his creation.  

 You are God’s toil and he grieves when some foolish person does not respect you.  You are important to him.  Wow!  That is not meaningless.

“Like the fool, the wise too must die.”

Ecclesiastes 2:16b

Yesterday we celebrated Memorial Day.  We remembered those who have served in the armed forces to protect our freedoms and some who have given their lives in war.  The Teacher in Ecclesiastes in chapter 2:12-16 too contemplates “death”, the ultimate equalizer, as he turns to comparing people who live wisely versus those who live foolishly.  He reflects that his follower will have a hard time following him and doing more than he has done.  Will anyone remember him?  He compares the wise to people walking in the light as opposed to the foolish who are like people stumbling in the dark.  But then he laments that the fate of both is that death awaits both.  And so he ponders  what the advantage of living the good life is questionable if ultimately we all die.  That is a good question that might not be so obvious in it’s answer.

The Teacher concludes that life is meaningless if we all die.  How would you answer?  I would argue that the value of life does indeed not lie in the “goodies” we accumulate or who remembers us but in the quality of the relationships we generate.  Part of the answer might, lie in the difference between light as illumination and light that gives sight and understanding.  The sun shines for all people, the good and the and the bad.  We all have “illumination” during the daylight hours and can see the world but that does not mean that we “see” or can grasp the meaning of that which we are experiencing.  Fools have the light of illumination but the wise also have insight into what they are seeing.  Being able to leap and jump is better than falling and stumbling and limping along with bruised knees and twisted ankles.  It is true that we all die but quality of life is important and not meaningless.

As we pray today let us pray for eyes to see and understand what is going on around us.  Lord, guard us from foolishly stumbling through today and missing the gifts you have for us.

“I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” Ecclesiastes 2:1

Hedonism is defined on the Internet as “the ethical theory that pleasure (in the sense of the satisfaction of desires) is the highest good and proper aim of human life.”  In the book of Ecclesiastes, we read that “the Teacher,” gifted with wisdom when he became king in Jerusalem set about studying life to see what was meaningful.  He studied the circles of life found in nature and history.  He pondered who would remember him.   He even pondered folly but found that meaningless too.  He next turned to hedonism in chapter 2 where he allowed himself all pleasures that delighted his senses.  He pleasured himself with wine and food, built projects that delight himself, had servants, herds, wealth, a harem and pleasures we only imagine or create in movies.  He denied himself nothing that pleased him.  I suppose as king he could do that.  

It makes me think of the “if onlys” that often niggle away at our thinking.  It is so easy to think that life would be much easier if only someone was not blocking our way or if someone would only give us or if only we had that one more dollar.  John D. Rockefeller was asked how much money it would take to make a man happy.  He replied, “Just one more dollar.”  Let’s stop and think, what would it take to make you happier or more content with the life you are leading now?  Would you want servants to do your housework or perhaps a bottomless trust fund to draw from so you would not need to work or maybe the loss of weight or a new car or new house or new spouse would be your choice.  The Teacher was able to command that all his “if only” thoughts were satisfied.

His conclusion:

”Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. V. 11”

All his efforts felt like chasing after the wind.  Wind we feel for a moment but then it moves past us.  Wind is not permanent.  So let’s go over our “if only” list again and ask ourselves which of our desires offers a true long term permanent improvement to our lives.  Let’s try an acrostic with the word “content.”  For each letter write an adjective to describe true contentment.  

C is for _____, 

O is for _____, 

N is for _____, 

T is for _____, 

E is for _____, 

N is for _____ and 

T is for _____. 

Lord, help me be content with the gifts from your hand.

First Reading: Isaiah 6:1-8

1In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3And one called to another and said:
 “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
 the whole earth is full of his glory.”
4The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. 5And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
  6Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” 8Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”

Psalm: Psalm 29

 1Ascribe to the Lord, you gods,
  ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
 2Ascribe to the Lord the glory due God’s name;
  worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
 3The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders;
  the Lord is upon the mighty waters.
 4The voice of the Lord is a powerful voice;
  the voice of the Lord is a voice of splendor.
 5The voice of the Lord breaks the cedar trees;
  the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon;
 6the Lord makes Lebanon skip like a calf,
  and Mount Hermon like a young wild ox.
 7The voice of the Lord
  bursts forth in lightning flashes.
 8The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
  the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
 9The voice of the Lord makes the oak trees writhe and strips the forests ​bare.
  And in the temple of the Lord all are crying, “Glory!”
 10The Lord sits enthroned above the flood;
  the Lord sits enthroned as king forevermore.
 11O Lord, give strength to your people;
  give them, O Lord, the blessings of peace. 

Second Reading: Romans 8:12-17

12Brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—13for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

Gospel: John 3:1-17

1Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” 3Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” 4Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” 5Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.”   8The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
  11“Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. 12If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
  16“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
  17“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

CHILDREN’S SERMON:  I want to open today asking an age old causality dilemma question.  Which came first, the chicken or the egg? If you think it is the chicken, raise your hand?  How many vote for the egg?  I can not see but I suspect we know this question and our hands are in our laps because the argument is circular.  A chicken lays eggs but the chicken comes from an egg.  The question involves a cycle and so choosing either option leaves us open to laughs.  Faith is a causality dilemma that Nicodemus brings to Jesus today.  As an old man, how can he experience the kingdom of Heaven?. He must be born to believe but we must believe to be born into the kingdom of heaven.   It is the tension between the truth that we are saved by God’s grace and the reality that we have free wills and are saved through faith.  “Saved-by” and “saved-through” start our Pentecost series.  Let us pray.

Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.

SERMON: I am NICODEMUS 

We have now come to the “After” Pentecost season, the 27 weeks following Pentecost Sunday and the Easter season.  We change our church colors to green and we focus more on life.  Jesus came that “we might have life and have life more abundant.” But perhaps like me you are dealing with the decline or death of a loved one and the sadness that leaves our lives somehow flat. We believe… but there is a kind of dullness in our souls.  It is also true that when we face major changes like graduations this month, marriages, medical diagnoses or moves, we face the challenge of not just believing in the risen Christ, but living into that new reality.  How does life come alive?

    The first half of the liturgical  year we focused on who our God is.  World religions talk about some super-being or godlike being that exists beyond our senses and people grapple with what that being is like.  Christianity for the first half of the Christian year presented a God, the creator, who prophesized his coming, incarnated in the baby Jesus, lived among us teaching and healing, was crucified and resurrected.  Last week we heard that we now experience this God reaching out to us through the presence of the Holy Spirit.  The Pentecost season for the next weeks focuses on how we live in this reality of a triune God reaching out to be with us.  So rather appropriately we start today with the encounter of Nicodemus who came to Jesus by night asking, “How?”  How does all that Jesus taught get incorporated into our everyday reality?  How do we see the kingdom of heaven?

​In the Old Testament reading today, Isaiah saw God and realized he was a sinful person.  “ 5And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”  We start our church service every Sunday with a similar confession.  We bow our heads and admit our limitations.  We have sinned every week by what we have done and what we have left undone.  Did I hear an “Amen!” to that?  We are sinners. We have not loved God with our whole heart, soul, strength and mind nor have we loved our neighbors as ourselves.  We confess in our opening our identification with Nicodemus, the Pharisee in the Gospel reading, who goes to Temple, goes through spiritual rituals and disciplines but somewhere within his soul he still has questions and knows he falls short.

​Nicodemus came to Jesus at night.  Perhaps he was afraid of public impressions but perhaps it was when he could not sleep as he pondered the events of the day. He did not have a TV to turn on and hear the exciting news about sports, or hear about the fighting going on in the Middle East, or about the politics of disagreement in Washington.  He did have, though, Jesus walking around his world doing new and remarkable things.  Often in the dark, the voice of the Evil One whispers in our ears, “Is God really in control?”  It is easy to hear the voice asking, “Does God really care about you?”  It seems to me that Nicodemus speaks into all those times when we come to Jesus, not with our arms waving praise but on our knees seeking understanding and life.

​Nicodemus addresses Jesus as Rabbi, teacher, the one who heals the blind, raises the dead, and loves the children.  We know that what Jesus does must be of God.  But how does that become real in my life?  Nicodemus lived under the sacrificial system but Jesus who seems to come from God is not talking sacrifices.
Jesus goes straight to the point, “no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”  Wait, it is night and Nicodemus is walking in a fog of uncertainty.   Jesus is talking about seeing, seeing the kingdom of God.  We have heard sermons from December/Advent to May/Easter but we are still faced with how we get that eternal truth to become dynamic, powerful reality in our everyday lives.  Like Nicodemus we see what Jesus can do and we know it is of God but getting faith from my head to heart is challenging – how does that work? With Nicodemus who was faced with the truth that we must be born again, we ask,

How can anyone be born after having grown old?

​I suspect many of us can identify with this if we are honest.  Most of us know that tired, old feeling.  We feel the weight of years?  We are no longer giggling with girlfriends about how to catch a husband.  We are now walking with friends who have dementia, cancer, and we have lost important people to death.  I suspect we doubt that a vaccine can stop illness and death.  We fear for our kids and grandkids.  We know the pain of divorce.  We doubt the promises of politics.  We just plain doubt that the innocence, the hope, the enthusiasm of young faith can return because we have grown old and skeptical. We feel more like a chicken than an egg.  We wonder if we are doomed to be chicken stew.

 Doubt is not just for us old ones facing death but it raises its head in the hearts of everyone.  As a child I played the popularity game as the five of us sought to be Jane’s best friend.  As a young adult I played the dating game.  As a college graduate I joined the professional search.  Doubt seems to plague our doorstep at all stages of life.  We are Nicodemus asking how we can live into our future.

​Jesus speaks into this exhaustion with a picture – rebirth. Often the opposite of a dynamic seems like the logical solution.  If I am fat then I must cut calories.  If I am tired then I need rest. If I am sick then I need a doctor.  Jesus prescribes “rebirth” as the solution to the exhaustion of our physical birth.  We need birth into the kingdom of heaven.  The answer to feeling old does not come from reading a book so you understand better, from watching a video so you feel happy ever after when you go to bed, nor from a peace accord where we all come to agreement.  It does not come from alcohol or drugs or sex.  New life comes from God.  Jesus uses the pictures of birth and wind that blows.  We see the leaves rustle but we do not see the wind itself.  We see the baby born but we do not see it growing in the womb. God touches our soul to bring new life.  He breathed into Adam and Adam became a living person.  We cannot be reborn if we were not first born.  We cannot be a chicken without being an egg but we cannot be an egg without a chicken.

​Nicodemus asks, “How can these things be?” 

Now I should hear a loud, “Amen!”  For truly we are facing mystery and not a question about how to manage God.  We are facing the God who spoke at creation and a world and life was created.  Whether in seven days or not, it doesn’t matter.  God spoke the Word (Jesus) and the Spirit hovered over the waters. A world and life came into being.  Wait, I don’t understand.  Exactly, God acted and we live into the result.  

We are living in the shadow of the cross where we saw Jesus die and yet he appeared, risen.  Wait, I don’t understand.  Exactly.  God blew like the wind and we saw the result, Jesus lives.

  On Pentecost we read that they heard the wind, saw the Spirit like flames, and scared disciples began to speak so all heard their own language.  Wait, I don’t understand.  Exactly.  We don’t understand but we believe and are reborn of the Spirit.  Science will never be able to explain it because it is of the kingdom of God.

​Jesus gave Nicodemus and us an example.  He referred to Moses in the wilderness with the grumbling people of Israel.  God miraculously delivered the Israelites from Egypt but they became impatient with the journey to the Promised Land and they grumbled.  The grass on the other side of the fence looked much greener.  The way forward looked hard and burdensome and not very logical.  They grumbled and we grumble.  We don’t like uncertainty.  God sent poisonous snakes and the people cried for deliverance.  Our dark hours of doubt are like being in the wilderness the Israelites crossed.  Those days stretch and grow our faith.  The Israelites did not understand the plan any more than we do because the plan is in the heart of God, not in our hands.  Just as Moses made a snake on a pole to look at for healing, Jesus was lifted up on a pole, the cross, and we must look to the cross for salvation, for life.  Wait, how does that work?  We don’t understand, we accept by faith.  It is not what we do but what God does that saves us.  God blows the wind we cannot see, God creates the life in the womb, and God saves us.  Somehow our faith, our belief is the key that unlocks the door of doubt and opens the door of faith that allows God to work in our lives.  We are saved by grace through faith.  The chicken lays the egg and life is created, a chicken is born.

So … How?

Nicodemus asks how questions that resonate with our lives even today. Questions like “How can I step into my future?”  How questions, though, are often questions that focus on ourselves. How can we decide what came first the chicken or the egg.  Jesus refocuses Nicodemus and us to start our journey to new life, the answer to who can give us a new birth, by a reorientation to a God who is like the wind moving in our lives.  God is not just sitting off in some other world.  He is unseen but present and impacting our lives. Jesus summarizes his thoughts with John 3:16-17 and gives us the starting point for our Pentecost journey.  He gives us a glimpse at God’s master-plan.

16“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
  17“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

God loves the world, God gives his Son and God sends his Spirit..  God’s goal is salvation.  When we feel old and tired and life doesn’t make sense and the Evil One would like to convince us that God doesn’t care and asserts that God is out of control, we turn from that voice and face to spiritual truth, God loves and God gives.  God loves the world. God loves you.  That is not a promise of health, wealth and prosperity.  It is a promise of love, of commitment, and of purpose. Sometimes we need a  spanking and sometimes we fall and scrape our knees but God is there to pick us up and to teach us.  His core motivation is love. Evil does not come from God.  In the chicken-egg dilemma there is a God working like the unseen air that rustles the leaves and to whom we turn like the Israelites turned to the snake on the pole of Moses.  This air holds the chicken and the egg in a loving heart.

Nicodemus is a person who has been taught all his life that God’s blessing comes from obeying the Law.  The sacrificial system that drew people to the Temple, dealt with sin, but did not eliminate sin.  Jesus challenges Nicodemus and us to understand that God is not some being sitting in the heavens keeping track of our mistakes but is more like the wind blowing through our lives.  God so loved his world that God did not stay up in the heavens but like the wind invaded our reality as Jesus.  God so loved us that God was willing to reach out to us while we were yet sinners, to restore relationship.  We can see with our eyes, touch with our hands and through the incarnation understand the character of God.  He reaches out to us but we must believe.  Even that is hard in our limitations and so the Holy Spirit, God’s Spirit, has come to stay and work in our hearts.  We are not drones, programed to believe and obey.  We are his children, the focus of his love.  God is not working to condemn us but to save the world through Christ.

 ​This is where the Pentecost season starts and it is where our faith journey starts. This is the only answer to that age old chicken or egg question.  There is a God surrounding the chicken and the egg and making both possible. And so we return to our children’s sermon.  We are saved by grace, by a God who creates, incarnates, and whose Spirit walks with us every day.  We are saved by grace, as a gift, but through faith, by receiving that gift, we live into new life.  The egg becomes the chicken but the chicken gives birth to the egg.  Both are true and live in tension by the grace of God.

I have heard people use John 3:16 inserting their own name because the faith journey is not just about me. It is about us.  Let me say the verse inserting “us.”

For God so loved US that he gave his only son that whoever believes will not perish but have eternal life. 17“Indeed, God did not send the Son to us to condemn us, but in order that we might be saved through him.”

Amen!  May it be so!

“To Everything There Is a Season”

Judy Collins & Pete Seeger – Turn! Turn! Turn!

I was surprised that this song based on Ecclesiastes 3 and a song that I loved in my young adult years was written by Pete Seeger in 1959 but was made famous in 1965 by the American folk rock group, the Byrds.  By the end of 1965 it was nearing the top to the popularity charts.  I was in college.  These words from the beginning of Ecclesiastes 3 are often used at funeral services.  King Solomon, son of KIng David by Bathsheba,  is credited with writing these words possibly around the 10th century BC.

We looked at Ecclesiastes 1 this week that the author opens with the declaration “Meaningless!  Meaningless!  Utterly meaningless!  Everything is meaningless!” V.2. The author then looks at the “circles of life” seen in nature and history.  The lyics based on chapter 3, add depth as we ponder life.

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

“A time to be born, and a time to die; 

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; 

a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; 

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew;

 a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate;

 a time of war, and a time of peace.”

Seeger’s song presents these verses as a plea for world peace with the closing line: “a time for peace, I swear it’s not too late.” This line and the title phrase “Turn! Turn! Turn!” are the only parts of the lyric written by Seeger himself.  The song is notable for being one of a few instances in popular music in which a large portion of the Bible is set to music. Because the lyrics can be dated back to the ancient texts in the Bible, the Byrds‘ 1965 recording of the song holds the distinction in the U.S. of being the number 1 hit with the oldest lyrics according to the Internet.  An illustrated book by Simon and Schuster was published in 2003.

“For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;

the more knowledge, the more grief.”

Ecclesiastes 1:18

And so we come to the end of the first chapter of Ecclesiastes written by “The Teacher” whom most identify as Solomon, perhaps the wisest man who ever lived and who was the son of King David.  His opening statement startles us as we read, “Meaningless.”  Is he really saying that all is meaningless?  He sees the circles of life, the circles of nature, the circles of history and wonders to what point. What really is memorable or permanent? “There is nothing new under the sun.”  He was gifted with wisdom by God when he became king and he used that wisdom to investigate life and folly.  Yesterday he lamented that the crooked cannot be made straight.  Nicodemus on Sunday will lament that he does not understand how he can be reborn, be made straight, to live in the kingdom of heaven.  Isaiah in the Old Testament reading sees God and realizes that he is a sinful, crooked man, living among crooked people.  “Woe is me,” he cries.  More knowledge means more grief.

A statement like that is worth thinking about.  I first thought of a medical person with all their skill stepping in to scenarios of great grief, helping the sick and dying.  I next thought of soldiers going into war and the horrors they are exposed to.  Then I realized that with modern media we are more exposed to situations of drama and trauma around our world.  1 Corinthians 13:11 says, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”  As we grow in knowledge and awareness, we grow in our awareness not only of the beauty of this world but also we grow in our awareness of the struggles of this life.

Let us pray for those who work on the forefront of grief.  Let us pray for chaplains, law enforcement, courts, prisons, and medical services.  Let us pray for the grieving and those who deal with them.  Give them your wisdom Lord and give them compassion.  Guard them from despair and feelings of meaninglessness.

“What is crooked cannot be straightened;

What is lacking, cannot be counted.

Ecclesiastes 1:15

The Teacher, author of Ecclesiastes, is thought to be Solomon, son of David, and considered one of the wisest men who ever lived.  V.11 tells us he was king over Israel and we know it was a time of wealth and peace.  As he ascended the throne, his prayer to God was for wisdom to rule God’s people.  God spoke and said, “Wish granted.” V.12 tells us that the Teacher then set his mind on studying and exploring by wisdom all that is done under the sun.  That is certainly a step beyond “summa cum laude” in our graduation exercises right now. 

Perhaps you have lamented that if only you were a bit smarter, maybe you could do life right.  But we could wish to be a bit richer or a bit more talented or a bit more beautiful or a bit more whatever.  The “if only-s” can weigh our life down with a sense of failure and inadequacy.  The temptation is comparisonitis with others rather than focusing on God for our sense of value. 

 What we lack, what we don’t have, cannot be counted.  It can only be lamented.  Those laments can lead to a sense of meaninglessness and futility.  We are tempted to despair that our “crooked” life “cannot be straightened” and made successful.  On Sunday, Nicodemus comes to Jesus with the same dilemma.  “How can I be reborn?”  How can the crooked be made straight?  Without God, the struggle is meaningless.

So if you could straighten-out something in your life what might it be?  Yesterday I tripped on a throw rug and caught myself on a bookcase…in front of a whole waiting room full of people.  I sure wish I could walk and not trip!!  Then that scale just gives the wrong answer every morning.  Those are silly examples but we all have areas we would like to improve.  Pick your area and ponder if wisdom, or more knowledge really solves the itch. 

Our Sunday’s Gospel text will close with John 3:16-17.  “For God so loved….” You! Just as you are! Now! “That he gave his son…” Thank you Lord.

“All things are wearisome, 

more than one can say.”

Ecclesiastes 1:8

Moving to near Orlando, FL, I quickly learned that the Disneyworld lingo and experience was common small talk and fun experiences known by most.  Cruises compete for our attention, time and money.  But…graduation night from high school, my class climbed on a bus to spend the night at Disneyland in Los Angeles so I kinda understood.  I remember waiting three hours for the ride swirling through the mountain, arms raised over our heads, voices screaming, and water splashing us.  It was great!  We raced to the next ride for the next thrill.  Some genres of movies keep their watchers on the edge of their seats as the hero fights his way to victory.  Pornography offers titillating visual stimulation.  I need not go on to point out how experiences can become addictive as we become weary of the ordinary and seek a new thrill.

The Teacher says our eyes never tire of seeing and our ears never tire of hearing.  It’s true today too.  We love our TVs and we love gossip.  Stories of war and conquest, of mysteries and intrigues are brought to life from all epochs of history,  and of course great love stories and stories of heroism capture our attention.  Our heroes may change but there is a cyclicalness to the  experiences of our lives that can weary us even as we talked about yesterday.

Will future generations remember my life’s efforts asks the Teacher in v. 11.  Do I detect the whisper of the Sly One who tempted Eve with the promise of greatness if she would just eat the fruit.  Jesus was promised the kingdoms of this world if he would just worship Satan or jump from the temple.  That search for meaningfulness is core to all of us.  Most of us will never have our life story made famous by Hollywood or history.  Most of us are ordinary, doing deeds that are most meaningful to our loved ones.  It is only God who consistently is with us, caring and remembering us.  We claim Isaiah 49:15-16

Can a woman forget her nursing-child,

    or show no compassion for the child of her womb?

Even these may forget,

    yet I will not forget you.

See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands;

As you go about your life today and perhaps feel “ordinary,” may you remember there is a God who sees and uses our ordinary lives to make his great masterpiece.  We are the characters in his story and that means we are meaningful in the midst of what seems ordinary.  Blessings.