Ecclesiastes
3
There
is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a
time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time
to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to
weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to
scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to
refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep
and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be
silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war
and a time for peace.
Moreover I saw under the sun that in the place of justice,
wickedness was there, and in the place of righteousness, wickedness was there
as well. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for
he has appointed a time for every matter, and for every work. I said in my
heart with regard to human beings that God is testing them to show that they
are but animals. For the fate of humans and the fate of animals is the same; as
one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and humans have no advantage
over the animals; for all is vanity. All go to one place; all are from the
dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knows whether the human spirit goes
upward and the spirit of animals goes downward to the earth? So
I saw that there is nothing better than that all should enjoy their work, for
that is their lot; who can bring them to see what will be after them?
Mark 12As he taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” |
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One of
the pictures in my head, which has never gone away – as fresh today as it was
then, and still brings tears, was sitting on the organ bench in the chapel at
Tan Son Nhut airport in Saigon, watching a young man crying his heart out,
calling for his mother. My guess, from the looks of him was that he was barely
18. He had signed up convinced that there was an enemy which threatened the US,
only to find that it was all a sham. There was no threat to the United States. Like
many young men who went over there, the only way to survive his year of duty
was drugs, mostly marijuana, and often cocaine. He didn’t survive Viet Nam. One
Sunday when I came for church, he was no longer there. He had been sent home,
in a body bag.
There
were many times in those years that I went home and hugged my own sons –
whether it was from chapel, or from the refugee camps – secure in the knowledge
that I was covered by at least four embassies, and would be taken out if there
were serious trouble.Most families in Viet Nam were not so fortunate.
The
book of Ecclesiastes is part of a genre of writing in the Hebrew Scripture
known as Wisdom Literature, which also includes Job, Proverbs, Psalms are other
examples. This particular passage is most often read at funerals, but the more
I hear it the more I wonder if we are hearing it with the right pair of ears.
We tend to hear it as if everything is preceded by “God has ordained........”
as if everything is out of our hands, as if it’s going to happen no matter what
we do - and I am not convinced that’s what the passage means.
It
turns out that Ecclesiastes is a pen-name which means ‘preacher’ or ‘teacher’, and
he was entirely pessimistic about life, politics, God, pretty well everything;
and that piece of information leads to my questions: Does God do these things? Is this something God
will do without us? Or is this something God will do together with us, when we
have the will to do it. Does planting just happen by itself, and harvesting? Or
is it something we have to work at? Does loving and hating happen by itself? Does
God make us hate? Does peace just happen? Is it just the absence of violence?
Or is it a collective choice? I think peace will only happen when people have
such a collective desire for war to be ended that there will be no other
option, and there will be the will to make it happen. It is not that the
differences between nations cannot be overcome - it is that we make choices,
and get so attached to believing in the rightness of our way, that we cannot
see beyond those things to a different way of being and doing.
It
seems to me that this passage is a perfect description of the human condition,
and I suspect that was at the root of the pessimism in Ecclesiastes. For each
of us there is a time to be born and a time to die - and there are times
between birth and death where we have a life to live; when there is death we
mourn and where there is new life we celebrate. But we also make choices in the
life we are given..” The book of Deuteronomy says - “This day I call the
heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life
and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children
may live.
Look at the second part of this reading –
wickedness present even in the places of righteousness and justice. This is
another comment on the human condition – that the wealthy, the powerful, the
politicians will manipulate even processes of righteousness. Is this something
God makes happen, or is it choices made by human beings who know their choices
are wrong? Jesus says beware of those who go about in long and fancy robes,
praying in public and giving huge gifts to the synagogue, while the ordinary
people who struggle from day to day give everything they have without complaint,
even if it means giving their life. Extrapolating from that, one can read
politicians and military leaders who are hypocrites in their search for greater
power, at the expense of the ordinary people whom they govern.
So let’s
re-read Ecclesiastes now - but read it this way -
*we*
choose the time to plant and the time to uproot,
*we*
choose a time to kill and a time to heal,
*we*
choose to tear down or to build up,
*we*
choose to weep and to laugh,
*we*
choose to search and to give up,
*we*
choose to embrace and to refrain from embracing,
*we*
choose to keep or to throw away,
*we*
choose to love or to hate,
*we*
choose to be silent or to speak,
*we*
choose war, and *we* choose peace..
As I wrote this I had in the back of my mind
the phrase “history repeats itself”, and a kind of niggling memory that it has
its roots in Ecclesiastes. What has been described is precisely the case of
humanity now – memory does not exist, and lessons have not been learned. Sure
enough, in the very opening passage of the book, we read Ecclesiastes 1:9-11
“What
has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing
new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, ‘Look - this is
something new?’ It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. No
one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be
remembered by those who come after them.”
In Viet Nam I saw enough of war to believe that
if we spent as much time and effort on making peace as we do on making war, we
would have had real lasting peace a long time ago. As I watch the news, and
people who have become so obsessed by power and control that they will crush
others, it becomes almost too much to bear. It seems as if people never change,
the possibility for change is not there. There are days when I understand how
the writer of Ecclesiastes felt, because some days it becomes too much to bear,
the thought of such things happening to my grandchildren or great
grandchildren.
And yet, the Revelation of John tells us that
God creates a new thing, God can do something new, and will bring about a time
when there is no more suffering or sorrow, no more pain, only peace and
fulfillment for humanity. The question for me is, again, does God do it alone?
Or are we the ones who make choices to work for those things, and God
strengthens us. As human beings there are lessons we need to learn, and choices
which only we can make. As long as we choose hatred, or tearing down, we will
not find love, or the building up. As long as the memories are erased, the
textbooks sanitised, the leaders who would take us back to a more oppressive
and destructive time are not checked and stopped, there will always be evil,
violence and war.
The birth of Jesus, and the life and teaching
of Jesus, were a statement that it *is* possible to choose love over hate; it
*is* possible to choose peace instead of war; it *is* possible to speak out
instead of choosing to remain silent. The question for us is, do we take the
birth, life and death of Jesus seriously? If we do, we have to believe that
life and death, blessings and curses - are ours to choose - and that God wants
us to make the right choices - but make no mistake, the choices *are* ours. And
we want to make sure that the generations which follow will remember those
lessons, instead of repeating the cycle, as we have been doing. Doing nothing
is also a choice we make, and with every choice there are consequences.
It
seems to me that this passage is a perfect description of the human condition,
and I suspect that was at the root of Ecclesiastes’ pessimism. For each of us
there is a time to be born and a time to die - and there are times between
birth and death where we have a life to live; when there is death we mourn and
where there is new life we celebrate. But we also make choices in the life we
are given..”
For
such a time as this, I turn you to the words of the writer of Deuteronomy – God
says ‘I have set before
you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life, so that you and your
children may live.” Choose life. May it be so.
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