Ecclesiastes...Pastor Phil Strong

Part 22

8-7-11     

Ecclesiastes 12                              

Ecclesiastes has gone to great lengths to suggest that “eternity in our hearts” means that your life-pursuits, independent of God, will ultimately prove futile.

                Solomon is not afraid to say what all of us are thinking. He raises some really tough questions and leaves us, rather intentionally, I believe, with few concrete answers, so that the issues might continue to “ricochet” around in your heart.

● If you are looking for someone to blame for this inner-tension, you need look no further than God himself. It seems that while he was “knitting us together in our mother’s womb” (Psalm 139), in his own thought-filled, complex way, he knit something of himself into us; “subliminal messages” from God are embedded in the deepest, most authenticate part of who we are--- our hearts. Those messages are so subtle, but so persistent; so prevalent, but not so easily ignored.

Ecclesiastes has helped me to get in touch with my inner-skeptic.

            “skeptic” (def)- to suspend judgment (“It’s too early to tell”); to have doubts concerning the credibility of what you are experiencing. I’m not so willing to simply accept what’s offered to me as ‘reality’.

            It’s not that I am unwilling to believe at all, but that I want the best belief possible: no faith is not an option for any of us. I’m aching for something more and I’m not willing to accept anything less than eternal life...life that will stand up to anything.

Solomon wants us to know that death is inevitable and life is consequential.

 “… generations come and generations go…” 1:4

“… like the fool, the wise man too must die…” 2:16

“… there is a time for everything: a time to be born and a time to die…” 3:1-2

“It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart”. 7:2

[“Better a few moments spent at Wards Funeral Home than an afternoon at China Buffet!”]

Solomon warns that just because life is temporary, doesn’t mean it’s inconsequential.

Solomon’s point is not that life “under-the-sun” is meaningless, only that it’s momentary. It’s not worth attaching your heart to.

● When I was young, I remember thinking that death was for the elderly… you know, people in their ‘30s’.

When you’re young, your relationship to mortality is different (e.g. you’re taping together garbage bags and parachuting off the roof! Tuck-n-roll).

Invincibility… fearlessness… tempting death: now you are trying everything you can to avoid it.

But, the older I get, life seems to take more than it gives. But, the ‘taking’ causes me to loosen my grip on all that I have held onto for life apart from God.

● We are awkward around death; we don’t know how to act in its presence. There’s a certain level of discomfort of being confronted with your own mortality and frailty. So, we employ euphemisms to ease the discomfort (‘passing’, ‘no longer with us’, ‘expired’,… ‘dirt nap’ or ‘pushin’ up daisies’).

● The most attentive audiences I’ve spoken to were at funerals. Pithy little Christian clichés just won’t cut it: they are looking for answers.

                Some of the most ‘authentic’ conversations I have ever had have been with the dying: I’m listening. I’m looking for clues.

We notice all throughout the story, the juxtaposition of “sin” and “death”.

Death was never romanticized but always seen as an enemy. Death is the antithesis of all of God’s good purposes for his world and the great enemy of hope (we use phrases like, “death of a dream”, “death of a marriage”, to depict the end of something we looked to for life). Between ‘creation’ and the ‘new creation’, the Bible offers us a lot of anti-life stuff.

Death, not as some arbitrary punishment from God, but death as the natural consequence of cutting yourself off from God--- from life.

Death sets limits.

            My sophomore year of High School, we were each given a ‘block’ on the wall to paint something that we believed helped define us. We could only use the space provided and could not go outside the boundaries of the predetermined limits. Such limitations demand thoughtfulness and clarity.

You can’t live by avoiding death.

If you don’t give attention to death, you diminish your capacity to live.  If you are going to truly live, you will need to spend a healthy amount of time considering death. It’s not morbid, it’s just smart.

What you believe to be true about the future is the greatest determinant of the way you live your life right here and now; of how you determine your values and priorities.

He is reminding us that what we believe to be true of death will affect the quality of our life.

James frames it with this question, “What is your life?” (4:4) “Now, listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go this city or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money’. You don’t even know what will happen tomorrow.”

Predictability in life often leads to presumption and nothing combats presumption like death.

He is not saying, “Live cautiously”, he’s saying, “Don’t live so carelessly because every day is a near-death experience.” God’s not opposed his entrepreneurial spirit, but his “foolishness”--- self-directed life; presumption, not wisdom.

The gospels tell the unique story of the Creator-God taking responsibility for Creation; bearing the weight of its dilemma on his own shoulders---(Isaiah 9:6).

This is what it looks like when it is said of God, “…[he] looked and saw evil looming on the horizon--- so much evil and no sign of justice. He couldn’t believe what he saw: not a soul around to correct this awful situation. So, he did it himself, took on the work of salvation, fueled by his own righteousness” (Isaiah 59:15-16).

This is not an explanation. This is not a philosophical conclusion. It’s an epic story.

● We stand before this story, this meal, this commemoration with our theological explanations intact, but with a humbling sense of profound mystery.

The salvation story is embedded in the story of the exodus and rehearses the circumstances which made rescue seem so desirable, but so unlikely.

 “Exodus”, is a word derived from (2) Greek words meaning “out” (ex) and “way” (odos)… a “way out” [e.g. “exit”]

Exits are, at the same time, both “announcements” and “invitations”. Moses didn’t stand before the people simply to announce that God

was feeling warmly toward them or was saddened about their plight, but that he came ready to lead them to the “exit” of a death-dealing life and was announcing that they didn’t have to live like this anymore.