Seasons and Time

Introduction

We made it to 2023! We have entered the new year! Have you made all your new year’s resolutions yet? Have you eaten your greens, black eyed peas and ham yet? Are you starting any new habits this year or a new tradition?

New Years day is that one time of the year where we get a new beginning don’t we? It is where we can put the painful, embarrassing, or any other moments of last year behind us. It is a new start to a new year.

For some people this is a new start on life, a new season in a sense to who they want to be. For others it is another day just like any other because they don’t like new year resolutions or they don’t want to make any.

Moving past New Years, how many of you have a favorite season? Spring? Summer? Fall? Winter? Season mark off different parts of each year where different things happen like flowers blooming, dead trees come back to life, and for some, it is the start of a new allergy season. What about hot summer days where you could see the fireflies at night or during those heat waves you would rather be in a place that you could find relief from the heat. What about fall and all the beautiful colors of the leaves? Or maybe it is round two of allergy season for you?

Our views on seasons change over the years don’t they? Sometimes we loved certain seasons as a child but now we don’t love them or look forward to them as much because they are quite different to us now. Maybe you had special memories at one time but then had life happened and now that season holds different significance.

All of this leads up to what the writer of Ecclesiastes was driving at. These seasons over time change and there is nothing that stays the same. As we go over these, think back to your own life and what you might learn from those past seasons and what you are going through today.

For everything there is a season

Lets look at the first 8 verses again for the list of things that there is a time for. In verse 2 there is time for each of us to be born and there is a time for each of us to die. There is a proper time for planting and there is a proper time for plucking up what has been planted. It is not random and it is not coincidence you were born when you were born. It is part of God’s plan and there is order to it all. We can sometimes miss that part and mistake it as random but God knows both our birth and our death. There are times we focus on the new births around us and there are times when we focus on the loss of loved ones around us. Each of us goes through these times but we can be encouraged here because births are not mistakes and deaths are not something to avoid but something God knows and supports us through.

God appropriates when it is time for us to be planting seeds for fruit and when it is time for the fruit to be harvested. If all we did was reap the benefits of what others have sown, where would we know the work and experience of planting to bring forth new fruit? If all we knew was the work and effort of planting but never witnessed fruit coming forth from that effort, we may lose hope that all is in vain. God has made a time for us to plant and a time where that which has been planted will be harvested.

Some scholars take this farming example in another way. They suggest that there are times in life where what has been planted isn’t working out so it must be plucked up to plant something new. You have to make new room in the garden when what you planted is fruitless. There are things such as habits or activities which bear no fruit that must be plucked up and removed to make room for something that can bear fruit.

Going further with that analogy in verse 3, there is a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down, and a time to build up. Again, there is a time to destroy parts our lives and there are times we need to nurture and heal parts of ourselves. There are times when we must destroy that which harms us and there are times where we must reach out to heal those who are broken around us.

I am sure each of us has had a bad relationship, a bad habit, or something that you knew was bad for you but held on to it regardless for a time. Maybe you got into something or involved in something that you didn’t think was bad but turned out to be. You also likely know the pain and difficulty of removing or killing that relationship or habit that caused you harm. Maybe you know someone who went through this and you were trying to help them see it themselves. You watched the pain and harm it caused them and wanted to help them find healing beyond that relationship or bad habit.

There is a season for building up ourselves and a time for building up others around us. There is a time when we need to break ourselves down in order to rebuild something better. If you have gone through a career change in mid-life, then you know what starting over means. You reached a point where what you had was not what you needed. You then sacrificed what you had to start over on the path you should be on.

Verse 4 is difficult for us because it reminds us that life is full of ups and downs that we have little control over. There is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance. These times or seasons in life and all the ups and down we go through. You can also look at it as promises of peaks in between those valleys in life. While you may experience emotions of mourning and weeping from loss, you will also experience laughter and dancing in life. In other words, while you are mourning and weeping from losing loved ones, you will one day experience laughter and dancing again. God will not leave you stuck in that valley of sorrow but will bring you through that valley back to the mountain of joy, love, and hope.

Verse 5 is a little different though. What does it mean to gather stones or throw away stones? What does it mean a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing? Some scholars think if we stick with the farming analogy, perhaps the stones are simply throwing away the stones from fields as preparing the fields for planting. For the fields, there are appropriate times for preparing and there are times when it is appropriate to get rid of things collected that need to go. You could also take this as the way in which we gather up things and we need to also get rid of things. Think if you are a pack rat that has gathered much but needs to get rid of things now!

Some scholars refer to the gathering of stones and throwing away as the same as the embracing parts of this verse in that there are appropriate times for affection and other times it is not. In the cultural setting this book was written there would have been more strict cultural rules for when it was appropriate for sexual relationships.

In verse 6, there is a time to seek and and time to lose, a time to keep and a time to throw away. We could say this is way in which there are things we need to try and find in life and we reach a point of seeking things that we have to relent they are gone. There are things in life we must hold on to regardless of circumstances and then there is the opposite where we need to let go of things.

We all have lost things and know the feeling you find that lost thing. We also know of things lost that we had to give up the search for because they were truly done and no further efforts would help. I am sure each of us are sentimental about certain things so we hold on to things that bring us happiness or remind us of positive memories. On the other end, you have probably also reached a point where you have to get rid of things you like or enjoy to get rid of clutter in your life or make room for something else. These go hand in hand with searching and seeking the lost things in life. This also includes those things which we hold on to and determining the things we must let go of to move on with life.

Verse 7 changes to a time to tear and a time to sew, a time to keep silence, and a time to speak. This means there are appropriate times in life when we should tear apart that which we made and a time which we should sew up what has been torn. There is a time to cut out things in our life and there is a time to repair things in our life that have been damaged. There are things which we need to remove and there are things which we can fix to make better.

The second half of this verse is a easy to read yet more difficult to practice. There are times in life where silence is appropriate. There are times when there are no words that should be spoken because the silence says everything that needs to be said. In other words, your presence is better than your words in some situations. There are other circumstances when your words are more appropriate than your silence. This is tough knowing the difference though.

Think of a funeral and losing a loved one. Often times, you don’t remember the words someone spoke to you to comfort you but you remember their presence with you during that time. In other ways, someone sharing a story about your loved one warmed your heart and gave you comfort during that difficult time.

Moving beyond a funeral setting there are other ways this applies. Think about times in which griping and complaining about something got you nowhere, yet when you fell silent and remained silent, you got the attention of others. If you are one who normally speaks up, yet remains silent on this issue, you draw attention by your silence. In other ways, if you are typically silent yet you speak up, this too draws attention. Social justice issues can easily fall into this category but that would be another sermon for another day.

Verse 8 rounds out all the above. A time to love, and a time to hate, a time for war, and a time for peace. These are all seasons of life. There are times when we should focus on loving others better, there are times in which go through the emotions of hating, there are times in which we go to war about some issue either metaphorically or literally. There are times in which we learn to make peace or seek peace instead of war.

I am sure you hear the words love and hate a lot. You know Jesus taught us the law summary by saying to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Yet, we don’t do this all the time do we? We go through periods where we hate our enemies. This is part of life and if you don’t understand the opposite of is hate, then you don’t understand the full experience or meaning of loving your enemy. If you don’t go to war and understand the emotions and experiences of fighting others, metaphorically or literally, then you may not fully appreciate what it means or is like to bring peace or seek real peace with you enemies.

We have covered a lot in these 8 verses and I would encourage you to look back on your life to see if you can find these seasons or times in your life where you have experienced these. God has made a time and a season for everything. Often we think we are stuck in a season but take heart because no season lasts forever and each season has its set time. The write hear summed up life in that it is a gift. Verse 12-13 says

Ecclesiastes 3:12–13 NRSV

12 I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; 13 moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil.

All these positive and negative experiences in life, don’t take away that we should simply enjoy all that life has to offer both the good and the bad, the ups and the downs. In some ways, life is like that roller coaster full of ups and downs and twists and turns. Enjoy the journey as it is set before and remember God is with you in all these seasons. Take pleasure in knowing God is with you in all seasons of life.