Ecclesiastes...Pastor Phil Strong

Part 23

8-14-11

Text: Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 and Acts 17:16-34a

● Some centuries ago, humanity diverted from the notion of a “grand story”--- one epic narrative which made sense of everything in our lives and helped us to answer the really significant life-questions (Who am I? Where am I? Why am I here? What happened?). That epic story had God as its author and central character.

            But, we determined that we were somehow limited by that story; we weren’t realizing our full potential. So, we concluded that, given enough time and finally becoming freed from the restraints of the God-story, we could truly “progress”. We’ve certainly “progressed”, but we haven’t demonstrated much “progress” (one is about ‘movement’, the other about ‘advancement/improvement’).

● But, once you dismiss the story, you dismiss the author and you are left to fend for yourself. Now all that’s left are individual versions of the story with nothing to connect us in truly meaningful ways to God or each other.

● In this context, it becomes increasingly difficult to dialogue intelligently about the idea of “judgment” without it morphing into images of a deity with ‘borderline personality disorder’--- in one moment, he’s all loving and cuddly, the next he’s meting out punishment due to some personal insecurity about being God.

“life under the sun”--- nothing beyond the senses (existential); no one responsible for and no one to be accountable to; no story, only random and subjective experiences; no revelation; no God speaking and interacting… just life under the sun. Life is “inconsequential”.

● I can’t help but notice throughout the biblical narrative, in moments of observation and in honest introspection, some disturbing tendencies inherent in humanity…

            -- this ‘puzzling’ capacity which allows us to look squarely into truth (reality) and choose to believe something else. We tend toward “self-destruction”.

-- eventually, our stubbornness results in ‘delusion’ so pervasive that we can no longer recognize the severity of our situation and we become deaf to the warnings [never underestimate the power of ‘delusion’].

-- then, having experienced the inevitable consequences of our decisions, we project ourselves as the ‘victims’, crying out for help, with no sense of personal responsibility and no real determination to adopt a new way of life.

            There is a deceptive level of freedom associated with the apparent absence of consequences.

I have become convinced that there are (3) ideas/concepts/notions of which we are yet to be convinced:

1)       Evil as the defacing, degrading, de-humanizing

power at work in our world as a result of humanity’s determination to find life in something/someone other than their Creator-God.

2)      The extravagant, lavish love of God to capture the

heart and transform the human person.

3)      “The judgment” as God’s decisive “no” to

sin/evil/disorder and “yes” to shalom.

The judgment was never viewed as random and arbitrary acts of retaliation, but restoration of a good creation gone bad.

Judgment gives love a ‘bad name’.

Final judgment was not a “threat”, but a “promise”. But, it was a promise delivered with clear warnings for those who chose to ignore it.

For things to be set right, it means that God must deal with all that is wrong and all that stands in the way of peace.

God can’t come and say ‘yes’ to justice without addressing sin and the disorder that it has deposited on all of creation.