Sermon Tone Analysis

As many of you know my other job is in aquatics and I’ve worked for the Y for over 40 years.

At meetings discussing risks in our pool areas I’ve watched a lot of videos as we talked about best practices for keeping our pools safe.

I’ve watched security videos of pool staff around the country miss what is going on in their pool as a swimmer suffers a heart attack and sinks to the bottom, or a child slips off their flotation and quietly slips below the surface.

I’m thankful that in my 40 years in aquatics there has never been a drowning at a pool where I was working.

You don’t know what you don’t know.

There is great truth to that statement.

It applies to a lot of areas in our lives.

It’s a phrase I use a lot in my job with the Y.

In life as in aquatics you don’t know what you don’t know.

If there is glare on the water you don’t know what’s under the surface.

You may think it’s clear but you really don’t know unless you change your perspective.

You need to get a different angle, look at the same spot from a different height to be able to see below the surface.

The same is true in our lives.

We all have blind spots in our lives.

And there’s a difference between a blind spot because we just hadn’t noticed before, and a blind spot because we don’t want to look.

Imagine for a moment that a lifeguard realized there was glare on the water and didn’t get another perspective.

Perhaps they just didn’t want to expend the energy to get a better look.

We’d call that negligence or dereliction of duty.

We’re continuing on in our journey through an Old Testament book and one that doesn’t get a lot of attention, Ecclesiastes.

And the Teacher, or Preacher depending on your translation, gives us the warning:

“Guard your steps,” says Qoholeth.

Specifically addressing when you go to the house of God.

The Preacher then says, “To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil.”

They do not know!’

They do not know what they do not know!

They are foolish because they don’t take the time or energy to see a perspective other than their own that they are doing evil.

They simply do not see it.

Now Qoholeth says, “they”.

What about us.

What about the ones to whom the teacher is speaking?

What about those hearing the message “Guard your hearts?”

The Preacher goes on:

Ecclesiastes 5:2 (ESV)

Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God,

You may have sung the powerful hymn, “Take my life and let it be, consecrated Lord to Thee.” a friend once referred to this as the lie we tell in church, especially what is commonly vs. 4, “Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold...“

Qoholeth gives us the warning,

The Preacher wishes to keep people from uttering rash or meaningless words during worship, specifically speaking to vows of an act of piety.

Jesus warned us against making statements we couldn’t fulfill, in the Sermon on the Mount we read about oaths:

Let your Yes be yes, and your no, no.

It’s that simple.

There are those today who believe that some, most often I hear said of young people, that they say “yes” but it’s tempered with “unless something better comes along.”

In other words there is a lack of the ability to commit.

When we come to God, we want to fully commit, and we try.

And still the preacher challenges us:

All of us are to guard our steps.

This is where our statement comes in:

You don’t know what you don’t know.

I think that our teacher, the Preacher, Qoholeth as we have referred to the author of Ecclesiastes is giving us a clear warning and an invitation to change our perspective, to look beneath the glare of the surface and to be honest in our own self examination.

The second sentence in verse 1 we haven’t looked at very closely, and I want us to do so.

Ecclesiastes 5:1 (ESV)

Guard your steps ...To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil.

The Preacher is speaking to actions within the context of worship, being in God’s house.

“To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools...”

When we come to worship, we gather around God’s Word.

What is it that God calls us to know, feel, do, and be?

Let’s step back once again to the beginning of our passage:

Ecclesiastes 5:1 (ESV)

Guard YOUR steps ...

We’re all very quick to go after another’s actions, and yet the Bible more often than not comes directly at us, as individuals and as communities of faith.

There is no diffusion of responsibility here because it’s not at all focused on the judgment of others but it is an invitation to self-examination.

Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount said,

It’s not about our judgment of others, but how do we look at ourselves?

And so we return to our phrase, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” and I want to add to that just a bit.

You don’t know what you don’t know…unless you look.

When Qoholeth invites us to guard our steps, we’re invited to take a look.

To look for that blind spot, that place where there is glare.

We’re invited to self-examine and to change our perspective.

To draw near to listen to the Word of God, and to others, and to recognize ourselves as an ongoing work in progress.

You and I are works in progress.

We come to worship, we come and we make statements of faith, and commitment - and we’re not to make these flippantly or rashly.

And as we make them, we are invited to go ever deeper in our look into ourselves.

I started with an aquatic illustration so I’ll end with one.

We tell our lifeguards, “you don’t know what you don’t know” and then we challenge them,

When in doubt, check it out.

Do you think you see an area to grow in?

Do you think you might need to change something?

If in doubt, check it out.

Change your perspective.

Take a second look.

Don’t just wonder, do something about it.

That really is what walking with God is all about.

It’s about our constantly drawing near to listen to God and then looking at ourselves and committing to making the changes that God reveals to us.

It’s all to God’s glory.