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The other day someone asked me a really good question: "Why do you think the Lord led you to preach Ecclesiastes right now? It's obviously a difficult book w/a challenging message, so why Ecclesiastes?"
I'm certain the Holy Spirit has reasons of which I am simply unaware, but /1
I'm certain the Holy Spirit has reasons of which I am simply unaware, but /1
my sense is that God led me and @BackCreekCLT to this book in part because it speaks powerfully to our moment.
- We can't go a day without hearing the word, "unprecedented." While that is certainly true in our lifetimes and experience, the Holy Spirit reminds us through /2
- We can't go a day without hearing the word, "unprecedented." While that is certainly true in our lifetimes and experience, the Holy Spirit reminds us through /2
the Preacher, "there is nothing new under the sun." Even this is not unprecedented.
- We rightly view death as an enemy and lament the loss of precious human life to this pandemic. But we also see fear paralyzing and dominating people as if death can be ultimately avoided /3
- We rightly view death as an enemy and lament the loss of precious human life to this pandemic. But we also see fear paralyzing and dominating people as if death can be ultimately avoided /3
yet in Ecclesiastes we are regularly (relentlessly?) reminded that death comes to and for us all.
- We also see foolishness run rampant as people deny the very serious reality we're living in and are willing to put others at unnecessary risk in the name of personal freedom /4
- We also see foolishness run rampant as people deny the very serious reality we're living in and are willing to put others at unnecessary risk in the name of personal freedom /4
but again, Ecclesiastes shows up to remind us that even in world filled with vanity, wisdom is still better than foolishness.
[By the way those two extremes of fear and foolishness are what we're (imperfectly) seeking to avoid at @BackCreekCLT in our approach to COVID /5
[By the way those two extremes of fear and foolishness are what we're (imperfectly) seeking to avoid at @BackCreekCLT in our approach to COVID /5
We reject paralyzing fear and are seeking to serve spiritual needs, but we also reject careless foolishness and are taking great care to serve physical needs as well through rigorous protocols]
- We tend to get caught up in the latest political or cultural controversy /6
- We tend to get caught up in the latest political or cultural controversy /6
(it seems like there's a new one every day), and allow them to produce anxiety in our hearts and take up our time, energy, and focus. These things are so obviously beyond our immediate control and yet we give them outsized significance and space in our inner and outer lives /7
Ecclesiastes reminds us that none of this is as significant as it seems in light of eternity, and much of it is pure vanity. This frees us to live for that which truly does matter.
- We also rightly have big questions about life: why are things the way they are instead of /8
- We also rightly have big questions about life: why are things the way they are instead of /8
the way we feel they should be? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why are satisfaction and joy so elusive? Why are there so many things that seem random and senseless and meaningless? Why are we even here?
Ecclesiastes acknowledges these questions and asks them right /9
Ecclesiastes acknowledges these questions and asks them right /9
alongside of us, reminding us that 1) we are not alone in asking them, 2) we are not wrong for asking them, and 3) God's Word is honest with us.
- Sometimes we press these questions because of our desire for certainty and simplicity - we want a world that makes sense to us /10
- Sometimes we press these questions because of our desire for certainty and simplicity - we want a world that makes sense to us /10
because that's a world in which we can at least maintain a semblance of the illusion of control. But Quoheleth does us the great service of confronting us with the world that actually is, in all its maddening complexity, unpredictability, and mystery. Ecclesiastes give us the /11
gift of unfiltered honesty and helps us be honest w/ ourselves about things we don't like to say out loud. It wrests the illusion of control from our hands through truth and move us to trust the God who actually holds the world in His hands and is in control of all we're not /fin
