“Tearing Open the Heavens” Isaiah 64:1-9, Mark 13:32-37 preached at Trillium United Church, Mono Mills Ontario Advent 1 2017

Isaiah:

Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!  As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you! For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways.

But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins. Yet you are our Origin. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people. *****************************************************************************

Mark 13 In those days, following that distress, ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’  At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. He will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens. Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.  About that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor Jesus, but only the Creator.  Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back - whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn.  If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”

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(Scrooge clip)

Scrooge fell upon his knees, and clasped his hands before his face.

"Mercy!" he said.  "Dreadful apparition, why do you trouble me?"

"Man of the worldly mind!" replied the Ghost, "do you believe in me or not?"

"I do," said Scrooge. "I must. But why do spirits walk the earth, and why do they come to me?"

"It is required of every man," the Ghost returned, "that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death.  It is doomed to wander through the world -- oh, woe is me! -- and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness!"

Again the spectre raised a cry, and shook its chain and wrung its shadowy hands.

"You are fettered," said Scrooge, trembling.  "Tell me why?"

"I wear the chain I forged in life," replied the Ghost. "I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you? Or would you know," pursued the Ghost, "the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself?  It was full as heavy and as long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it, since. It is a ponderous chain!"

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"Oh! captive, bound, and double-ironed," cried the phantom, "not to know that ages of incessant labour, by immortal creatures, for this earth must pass into eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is all developed. Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life's opportunity misused! Yet such was I! Oh! such was I!"

"But you were always a good man of business, Jacob," faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.

"Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"

"At this time of the rolling year," the spectre said "I suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds of fellow -beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode! Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me!"

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Although there is some controversy about how Dickens expressed his opinions about faith, it is agreed that he honoured the figure of Jesus, and was characterized as a professing Christian with deep religious convictions. For Dickens, the true spirit of Christianity was important.

During the industrial revolution, Dickens wrote about the abysmal conditions in which most people lived. Whole families were consigned to work in factories, children did not go to school, wages were minimal, and those unable to work or who lived on the streets were carted off to asylums or poor-houses where they generally died. Dickens was a journalist, and highly critical of those who controlled the economy. He believed Christian charity and concern had been pushed aside in the name of progress and greed.

In the first part of “A Christmas Carol” we meet two men of wealth - Scrooge and Marley. And we meet two men of little means – one despised and even hated, the other used and oppressed. Opposite Scrooge and Marley are Fred – Scrooge’s nephew, and Bob Cratchit, Scrooge’s overused and abused clerk; one who is considered poor although he has work, the other whose life is hard, whose child is ill and dying, and yet who remains full of Hope; Christmas is for him a time to celebrate and give thanks. Fred and Bob, for the purposes of this story are ‘everyman’, the common people. In this story, wealth is no guarantee of happiness, and poverty is no means of despair, and the judgment of humans is turned upside down in the eyes of God.

Scrooge is portrayed as a stunted soul, who walls himself off from the world to avoid personal pain. The acquisition of money becomes his one purpose. He cannot fathom how his nephew Fred, and his clerk Bob Cratchit, can find joy in life even while poor - yet he remains unaware of the poverty of spirit he carries himself, despite his monetary wealth. In fact, Scrooge’s living quarters reveal his stunted soul – for he does not use any money for himself. The acquisition of money for the sake of its acquisition has become who he is.

And then the heavens are torn open, Scrooge is caught totally unawares – he’s one of those who has been asleep. In the wail of Marley’s returned soul we hear the wail of the Psalmist, calling out to God as Marley does to Scrooge. “Do not be angry beyond measure; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people.”

When we read of King David, we find that in his life he has the opportunity to look back on his life – as a boy, the confrontation with Goliath, King Saul who was his mentor; and when he is King, his greed and dishonesty, rape and murder – he has a chance to beg God not to hold those things against him, to help him turn around.

And Marley, only after his death, realises his single-minded focus on only being “a man of business”, until it is too late.  “It is required of every person that their spirit must go forth in life, walk amongst other human beings, connect with other human beings – and if the person does not do so, the spirit is condemned to go forth in death, dragging the chains of greed and corruption invisibly formed in life – and be unable to offer any help any assistance.”

It seems to me, if I believed in hell, that this would be hell – to realise the potential of our lives, but come to that realization too late. Marley has no opportunity in life to ask forgiveness, and repent – repentance meaning seeing the errors of one’s ways, and turning in a different, better direction. And yet, the chance for repentance is offered in death, and in reaching to his old friend Scrooge.

Allow me to paraphrase Dickens a little – or perhaps bring the story into today.

“You were always a good man of business, Jacob.” says Scrooge.

“Business!!!” cries Marley “Humanity was supposed to be my business; charity, compassion and mercy, kindness and forbearance, all were supposed to be my business. The dealings of my occupation were but a drop in what was the great ocean of my true business. At this time of the rolling year”, he says “I suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds of fellow human beings, my eyes turned down, shutting them out and pretending I didn’t see, or that it didn’t involve me? Instead of looking up to that Blessed Star which led others to a poor and humble abode. Not even to be aware that no regret can make up for missed opportunities in one person’s life.”

This statement of Marley’s echoes the thoughts of Martin Luther, who believed that the theology of merit” in the church, which rewarded people for good works, actually further impoverished those already poor. He also believed that the raw power of any superior group would always exploit the lesser group for its own greed. Dickens assessment of the conditions in England are precisely drawn from Luther’s assessment of the failure of the church to live up to itself. For David the Psalmist, Martin Luther the reformer, and Dickens the writer – there is the matter of a covenant with humanity, broken – for our covenant with God means that we are the extensions of God in the world. If we do not take that seriously, the covenant is broken by us.

Today, we are faced with many situations which in some ways parallel the world of Dickens and Luther. We don’t allow child labour in our own countries – and yet we allow and exploit it in other parts of the world, so we can have cheap goods for ourselves. Think Trans-Pacific Partnership, which might help some businesses, but what about those who are displaced from their work, or poorer places on the other side of the Pacific? We exploit people who, truth be told, we do see as lesser than ourselves – so we don’t mind if they are consigned to poverty. The tiny amount earned from the work they do goes into a family pool of funds….often at the expense of education or health. We exploit our own in some ways, paying them below a living wage and ignoring the fact that many have to work two or three jobs to live. And we don’t lift our eyes up to the star, and a poor and humble abode.

And today we are faced with, yet again, another influx of people desperately running for their lives. As Christians, what should be our response? Worry about our own safety first, and then everyone else next? Turn them away, send them back to certain death? We hear people complaining about “looking after our own”, the homeless and the veterans – and yet those complainers are often the ones who don’t really do much for the homeless or the veterans, for whom it is convenient to keep looking down, looking away. Over against that we have even those who are poor, offering what they can to help others who they perceive need assistance. We forget that Jesus himself was a refugee – his parents took him and ran from Herod. Although the Gospel stories as we go along into Epiphany tell us of Mary and Joseph taking Jesus and running to Egypt, my guess is that a whole lot of people ran into Egypt to escape Herod. And Egypt accepted them. And I don’t think it’s any accident that the story tells us they ran to the country which had made slaves out of their ancestors.

Mark’s Gospel is a good example of what is called apocalyptic theology, the coming of the end times. Wars, famines, people fearful of what is happening in the world. And Jesus says all of this will continue, none of it will pass, until the word of hope, peace, the worth of all human beings, has happened. Marley’s words precisely echo the Gospel – “for this earth must pass into eternity before the good of which it is actually capable is fully developed. Not being aware that any Christian spirit, working even just in its own little sphere, will never be able to do all the things of which it is capable in one life. Not to know that no amount of regret can make up for opportunities missed.”

Marley says clearly he was so focused on one tiny part of life, that he blanked out all those instances of the breaking in of the realm of God, where the heavens are torn open for God to enter, where he could have had a part and maybe added his tiny bit to the coming of that realm. Now he is doomed to keep reliving those times when he could have been paying attention and was too busy with himself. The chains which he carries are of his own making, binding and blinding him – until the chances he missed. 

The Psalmist, David, was lucky – he had the chance to turn his life around, despite his transgressions and his age. Scrooge was lucky. Somehow, even though Marley had been denied the chance for redemption, he has somehow been allowed to return, and offer Scrooge the possibility of repentance. Scrooge, the man whose heart had been so weighted down by despair and pain that he cut himself off altogether, and could not see the coming. In the Gospel, Jesus says take care that you don’t get side-tracked by things in this life, don’t let your heart be weighed down with despair, be alert for signs of the coming realm.

And when Marley says there is a chance for Scrooge to be redeemed, but will be faced with the very real work of change, Scrooge does the completely human thing and says he thinks he’s rather pass on the opportunity, and just remain the way he is. Or perhaps take all three at once and get it over with.

And yet – the light of hope and redemption shines through – he will be given three more chances to reverse the course of his life, and make amends. So we go forward with the largely unwilling Scrooge, on this walk to Bethlehem – with the light of Hope on the road. May it be so.

Sources:

1.      “A Christmas Carol” Stave 1. Text, spelling, and punctuation as published by Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, E.C., London, 1890, from 1881 photographs of the author's original 66-page Chapman and Hall manuscript and compared with the genuine First Edition {brown cloth}. 

2. “Blessed Are the Poor?” Pamela D. Couture. The Churches Centre for Theology and Public Policy. Washington, DC.

3.       “Scrooge and Marley” sermon by Rev.  Fran Ota, December 2011.

“Who is My Church” A reflection based on 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 November 19, 2017 Trillium United Church

 I don’t think, friends, that I need to deal with the question of when all this is going to happen. You know as well as I that the day of the Master’s coming can’t be posted on our calendars. He won’t call ahead and make an appointment any more than a burglar would. About the time everybody’s walking around complacently, congratulating each other—“We’ve sure got it made! Now we can take it easy!”—suddenly everything will fall apart. It’s going to come as suddenly and inescapably as birth pangs to a pregnant woman.

But friends, you’re not in the dark, so how could you be taken off guard by any of this? You’re sons of Light, daughters of Day. We live under wide open skies and know where we stand. So let’s not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let’s keep our eyes open and be smart. People sleep at night and get drunk at night. But not us! Since we’re creatures of Day, let’s act like it. Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation.

God didn’t set us up for an angry rejection but for salvation by our Master, Jesus Christ. He died for us, a death that triggered life. Whether we’re awake with the living or asleep with the dead, we’re alive with him! So speak encouraging words to one another. Build up hope so you’ll all be together in this, no one left out, no one left behind. I know you’re already doing this; just keep on doing it.

Yes, this is my Starbucks cup.

Each year as Christmas advertising begins, Starbucks comes out with a Christmas-themed cup. Back in 2015 the cup was a bright Christmasy red. And oh what a firestorm of controversy erupted. The fanatic pseudo-Christian pastor who started this stated that Starbucks is part of the ‘War on Christmas’. He said the cups don’t have any snowflakes or Christmas designs, they aren’t Christmas-y enough. He said they are “taking the Christmas out of Christmas”. Some people went into the stores and insisted that servers write “Merry Christmas” on their cups.

In response, a whole lot of people, me included – have been responding with a defense of Starbucks as a business, not in the work of promoting any faith stance, but a general holiday; that Starbucks cups have never had any kind of Christian motif on them anyway; that Starbucks DOES sell Advent calendars, and Christmas coffee. Starbucks has also been collaborating with local charitable organisations in different places, providing food. Now, Starbucks food is pretty classy – I can recommend the cranberry dream bar, for those who love gooey frosting-y things.

The fuss was started by Josh Feuerstein, a video rant from a self-described “disciple of Jesus”. He’s been doing things like this for years. In this case, he claims that Starbucks hates Jesus. How Jesus has become associated with snowflakes and reindeer and Santa and all that other stuff isn’t clear. Starbucks "hates Jesus," Feuerstein ranted, because the multi-billion dollar international coffee conglomerate decided to change its holiday cups from red with winter logos, to red. Just plain red. Which makes Jesus cry, I guess, and does absolutely nothing to strengthen and uplift people. And now it’s white with these Christmasy motifs. I can’t wait to see what he will do with this one.

Feuerstein’s extremism is part of his public persona. When he appeared on CNN in 2015, he said he knew “America is a Christian nation because Barack Obama had to pretend to be Christian to get elected.” Feuerstein is a sometime pastor, strongly anti-gay, a racist, and a gun nut. And it’s clear – at least to me - he has no idea who Jesus is or what the Gospel message is.

Just a couple of examples of the lash back at Feuerstein:  three Starbucks cups, and a photo of a homeless man sleeping on a bench, and the caption says “If you’re more offended by these, (pointing to the cups) than by this (pointing to the man), then you’re part of the problem.”

Then there’s one of someone giving an African child a simple cup of clean water, and the caption is “Yeah, that Starbucks cup is a real problem.” 

Three years ago there was a statue called Homeless Jesus, designed by Timothy Schmalz, a Canadian sculptor. It depicts Jesus as a homeless person, sleeping on a park bench. His face and hands are hidden under a blanket, but crucifixion wounds on his feet reveal his identity. The statue has been described as a "visual translation" of the passage from Matthew in which Jesus tells his disciples, "as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me". The first casts were offered to St. Michael's Cathedral in Toronto and St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, but both churches declined, citing issues of restoration on their buildings. In 2013 the original sculpture was installed at Regis College, the Jesuit School in Toronto School of Theology.

In 2013 the first cast was installed in the United States, at the St. Alban's Episcopal Church in Davidson, North Carolina. The rector, Rev. David Buck, says "This is a relatively affluent church, to be honest, and we need to be reminded ourselves that our faith expresses itself in active concern for the marginalized of society". In an interview he said "We believe that that's the kind of life Jesus had. He was, in essence, a homeless person.”

For me, this is where the hoopla over a coffee cup collides with the Gospel. What is really important is not whether a secular business organisation opts for a plain red cup. What is really important is how we use that cup, what we put in it, and how we share it. What is really important is who our church is and how we live the mission of the church. What is really important is what we do to and for others, and for the world. What is really important are those people on our streets, in our cities, homeless and hungry; drowning in a frantic run to get away from war, lining up to come to a place where they can just have a life. What is really important is how we encourage one another in this thing called life. How we encourage those who are struggling with living – how we reach out, with something so simple as a cup of coffee. Remember Jesus’ words  “If you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of these….”

Think about a cup of coffee. We sit around a table on a Thursday morning, eating and drinking and talking, and that’s as much ministry and a time of faith as our service on Sunday. It's a ministry to the community, over coffee and food. It’s breaking bread together at table and it's a place to encourage, build up, support – even those who are not part of this congregation. It’s too easy to get sidetracked by things like the colour of a cup, and then persecute other people out of our own fear. It’s just too easy – and maybe that’s why it happens. Really looking at ourselves – how we reach out, what we believe our church is for, how we encourage and build up – aren’t those the things preparing for Christmas should help us to do? Shouldn’t we be about the business of encouraging, of building up, of ministering to each other, and to our neighbourhood, and community?

Well, I get really worked up over this one, every year, because there is a side of me which does make judgment. I read the comments about the cup and the non-existent war on Christmas and think “Seriously??? Really??? Is that all you have to worry about??? Why are you so afraid??? Why don’t you get out and really follow Jesus, even in the simple act of offering a cup of coffee to someone who really needs it, and yes even in a bright red cup.”

A cup offered to someone who needs. A simple thing, but it can be so much.  In ‘A Christmas Carol’, which we will be looking at, the Ghost of Christmas Present offers Scrooge a cup – filled with the milk of human kindness.  Instead of seeing the cup as a war on something, why not see it as the opposite  – a cup which carries the milk of human kindness – from each of us and others, to each of us and others. Why not see the cup as the vehicle of making change?  Offer someone who could really use it, a simple cup of coffee – and go from there. What is there to be afraid of, in building up and encouraging those around us? It’s what the church, all the churches, including this one, claim to be about. The mission of the church is best exemplified by open doors, open hearts, open minds, openness to uncertainty, but a commitment to encouraging each other. At least in my view.  I hope it is.

Author and poet Maren Tirabassi, whose is a friend via Facebook and now editor of a book in which I have part of a chapter, is a gentler soul than I in stating her positions.

“This is my Christmas cup of coffee.

Yes, it is in a red cup and I like it rather strong

so I can make it very sweet and light

and I want to sip it slowly

because today someone is willing to listen to me,

and hear any loneliness, any grief, any sorrow.

The star shines in kind eyes,

not really in either the brand name of the store, (though I smile)
or the words of a story, told out in pageant, sermon, or so-called live nativity.

And the stable is this coffee shop –

for it always happens in some latte or manger

where no one ever expects something holy to be born.

There are so many people watching over their laptops by night,
and, while my friend listens to me, I eavesdrop on all their angels.”

May it be so.

Sources:

1.      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeless_Jesus

2.      Rev. Maren Tirabassi, Pastor, Union Church of Madbury (United Church of Christ), New Hampshire.

3.      “For Just a Cup of Coffee” by Rev. Fran Ota November 14, 2015

“Never Again” (“For Such a Time as This”) A Sermon based on Ecclesiastes 3 November 4, 2017 Trillium United Church Caledon

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?

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRg9NkIdjVs

One of the pictures in my head, which has never gone away – as fresh today as it was then, and still brings tears even as I speak of it, was sitting on the organ bench in the chapel at Tan Son Nhut airbase in Saigon, watching a young man crying his heart out, calling for his mother. He had to be over 18 but he looked twelve. 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 went home to his mother – in a body bag.

Another memory – sitting in an ice-cream parlour with my friend Hong – and being approached by a young mother holding a baby with a cleft palate – except that as she got closer I could see that the cleft had been made worse to make the baby more pitiable. My immediate response was to want to take them both to hospital – but Hong said if I did that, they would be on the street again anyway. Better, she said, to give money so they would be able to get off the street. I went home that afternoon, and sat holding my own infant son – the first – born beautiful and clean, not like babies usually look. And I wept – for the privilege even there of being protected – if there was a crisis there were six different embassies which would take us out. For my beautiful healthy son, and for that mother born into a war she had nothing to do with, a life forced on her by the circumstances of dishonest corrupt people and geo-political manipulations.

I remember my second job – working with the YMCA Refugee Service headquartered in Geneva  but active wherever refugees are found. Office administration, bilingual French-English communications, and working in the refugee camps – cleaning people’s hair and cutting it, picking out lice, distributing food where possible – Norio digging latrines out behind shelter tents which didn’t even reach the ground or keep water from flowing through in rainy season.

Or sitting around a lunch table in the elegant back yard of a French-style villa, at lunch with the United Nations Human Rights Ambassador and his wife, his daughter our friend, and one of those incredibly macho US military generals who sat over lunch talking with glee about how many ‘gooks’ they had killed the night before, and how many ‘captured’ weapons. And his assumption that everyone agreed with him. Those ‘gooks’ were people who wanted their country free of any foreign occupation – they were human beings with husbands, wives, children – relatives on the other side.

Most people don’t know that front-line deaths in the war were the tenth cause of death in Viet Nam. Cholera, typhoid, cancer, ectopic pregnancies were the top four. Agent Orange was used  as a defoliant. It is a primary cause of cancer and neurological disorders, and it never leaves the system. Once you’ve been exposed, that’s it. So even if that war is over, the deaths continue – everyone who was exposed carries it. There are still land-mines throughout southeast Asia, particularly Viet Nam and Cambodia. People still die from unexploded ordnance, poisoned water and food.

The book of Ecclesiastes is part of a genre of writing in the Hebrew Scripture known as Wisdom Literature. 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.

Ecclesiastes is a pen-name which means ‘preacher’ or ‘teacher’; but this writer was completely pessimistic about life, politics, and God. So the 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 and harvesting happen by itself? 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? For me, peace will only happen when there is such a collective desire for an end to war, that there will be no other option but 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.

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

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 (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 realise that if we spent as much time and effort on making peace as 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 even 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 inspires, moves and 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 building up. As long as history is erased, textbooks sanitised, and leaders who would take us back to a more destructive time are not 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 remaining 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 God wants us to make the right choices - but will not make the choices for us. 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.

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, when once again we realise there is truly nothing new under the sun, I turn to the words 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.