A Time for Everything

If you could have one superpower, what would it be? Sometimes kids imagine this. But you can only choose one superpower. Maybe you would want to fly, or have super strength, or teleport. Perhaps it sounds like a silly question. After all, this is a game for children who have vivid imaginations. But generations of people throughout many cultures have stories of heroes with superhuman abilities. Something about it resonates with people all over the world. So, let’s play with the idea for just a few minutes today. Pick one superhero power. Now, the next question goes one step further. Choose one thing you would do with your superpower. Don’t choose something generic like, help other people. Think of something specific; one particular activity that you would do using the superpower you choose. Like this, I would use my laser vision to bake chocolate chip cookies. Or I would use my power of invisibility to sneak into the teachers’ lounge and see what really goes on in there.

Alright, what’s the point here to all this wondering and imagination. When you think about it, our thoughts of a superpower and what we might do with it all comes down to control. If we could, in fact, possess some superhuman ability, we would use it to attempt to gain control over some aspect of our lives or of our world over which we cannot control otherwise. After all, that’s what power is; it is control. In our moments of being and feeling the most helpless, what we feel is that there is some part of our lives or some part of our world which we cannot control.

This is sort of what the wisdom teacher in Ecclesiastes is getting at in the passage today. he is not talking about superpowers or heroes. But he is talking about the way in which he sees the world around him as a place in which we may all desire some sort of power over circumstances that are simply beyond our control.

Ecclesiastes 3:1–14 (NIV)

Ecclesiastes 3:1–14 NIV

1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: 2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, 3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, 5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, 7 a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, 8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. 9 What do workers gain from their toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

list of times is description of the world, not prescription for the world

What is the wisdom teacher in Ecclesiastes talking about in this list of times that we read today? A time to gather stones, a time to scatter them? A time to search and a time to give up? What is this about? It is important that we first of all remember that Ecclesiastes is about observation. It is a writing about a description of the world the way he sees it, not necessarily a prescription for what ought to be. Those are two different things, description and prescription. Describing an event is simply stating what we might observe—good, bad, right, or wrong. Prescribing an event is scripting what we think ought to happen; what we should do. Much of what is listed in Ecclesiastes is a description.

Paul & slavery | time to hate, kill, war?

It is good that we stop to note that. Because so often we make a mistake in reading the Bible that anything and everything must necessarily be the mandatory will of God just because it shows up in writing in the Bible. Of course, there are parts of the Bible that are mandatory prescriptions for the people of God. Jesus summarizes the law to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; and to also love others as ourselves. Jesus is prescribing a principle of God’s law that is meant to universally apply to all of God’s people at all times and in all places. But when the apostle Paul writes about how masters should treat their slaves, he is not prescribing the institution of slavery as being God’s will in all times and for all places. Rather, he is describing an aspect of the world in which he lives, and applying a biblical principle into that description—that observation.

Maybe this all goes without saying. Maybe it is already obvious that these items in Ecclesiastes 3 is not necessarily listing a mandate of God’s will. After all, that would raise some questions. What do you mean it is God’s prescribed will that there ought to be a time to hate? That there ought to be a time for war? That there ought to be a time to kill? That simply doesn’t make any sense because it would contradict what God has said elsewhere in scripture. But this list is not a prescription of God’s mandated will for all times and places. It is much more simply a description of the kind of world that the teacher sees around him.

This is a world that includes both birth and death. In this world we see examples of love and examples of hate. There are those in this world who build up and there are those who tear down. It is not the Bible’s way of telling us that we necessarily ought to do all these things. It is more simply the Bible’s way of telling us that this is what all is included as part of this world—a world created good by a good God, and then broken by evil through the sinful natures we carry. Times and events and circumstances will continually fall on either end of the spectrum—as good or bad—and there seems to be nothing the wisdom teacher can do about it to make our world any other way.

what parts of my world do I wish I could change?

if only statements

But we all wish we could. We all have moments of wishing we could control certain aspects of the world around us. If only I could make that winning play and be the star of the team. If only I could stay healthy and not deal with chronic pain all the time. If only I could have landed that big account at work and got the promotion. If only I hadn’t said those mean words and ruined a friendship. If only I had superpowers and could go back and control these parts of my world.

I bet we all have wish lists filled with ‘if only’ statements. But as life keeps going on there are things that come along which are simply beyond our control. That seems to be what the teacher is writing about here in Ecclesiastes.

thinking about New Year’s resolutions

This is the time of year when many people think about New Year’s resolutions. That means we spend time looking back over the year that is now coming to a close and looking ahead at the new year which is about to begin. Let’s talk a little bit today about New Year’s resolutions using this passage from Ecclesiastes as a guide for our consideration. It seems to me there is both an upside and a downside to New Year’s resolutions. The upside is it helps us think about setting some worthwhile goals to become better people. The downside is that sometimes we reach for resolutions that are reactionary and beyond our control.

You probably know what some of the most common New Year’s resolutions are here for Americans. Eat healthier and exercise more. The staff at the local YMCA by my house notes how there is a surge in new memberships and gym activity every January. And by the middle of February, it always seems to trickle back to where it was before. Notice how grocery store weekly ads will all feature health foods on sale in the first weeks of January. But by the time we get to Superbowl Sunday, the sales are all back to snacks and chips and junk food. Sure, we all have great intentions for starting the new year right with better habits, but why does it seem like those things are so difficult to keep hold of by the time February rolls around?

The wisdom writer in Ecclesiastes begins chapter 3 by noting that the world is full of both good and bad. Why do you think he takes inventory of these observations? What’s the reason for telling us this? It is the overarching theme in Ecclesiastes that so much of what we observe in this world is temporary and only lasts for a moment. The NIV Bible translates that as “meaningless.” Older English versions like the King James Bible translates it as “vanity.” But the precise meaning of the Hebrew word hebel is momentary, temporary, fleeting. It is here today and gone tomorrow and does not last.

do I look back to a golden era I want to get back again?

do I look ahead for a moment when life will be different?

Maybe we look back in our lives at some golden era in which we thought everything was perfect, and we just wish we could somehow get that back again. New Year’s resolutions which seek to turn back time rarely work out or come to fruition. As much as I might want to run out on a soccer field and play the game like I once was able, honestly the goal in any physical sport for someone my age is to just not get hurt. If I can walk off the field with no injuries, I’ll count that as a win.

At the same time, neither does it do any good to wishfully think about the future but then sit and do nothing about it. That’s what New Year’s resolutions are all about. We set a goal for something we would like to attain in the future, and then we do something about it. Ecclesiastes sets about beginning that process by taking an inventory of our time and place right here and now.

start with an inventory; what has God given me right now?

Start with an inventory. What do I have right now? What has God given to me right now? Don’t let yourself get hung up and sidetracked by the things that you wish could be different but that you cannot control. Don’t get sidetracked by trying to reach back in time and grab hold of some bygone era. Simply look at what it is you have been given by God right now at this time and on this day and start with that.

Second, acknowledge the realities of our world that we cannot change. I cannot change that I am in my 50’s and can no longer play sports like I did when I was a teenager. Look again at the list of things that begins Ecclesiastes 3. Times of laughing, times of weeping, times of tearing down, times of building up, times of fighting, times of peace. I have no doubt that looking ahead into 2024 our world will experience its share of all these times listed in Ecclesiastes 3. That is an observation the wisdom writer says is just a part of the reality we live within. The question for us is how are we going to choose to live within that reality—within a world like that.

The teacher in Ecclesiastes summarizes it this way in verse 12 that we read today.

Ecclesiastes 3:12–13 (NIV)

Ecclesiastes 3:12–13 NIV

12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.

This verse is a theme for the entire book of Ecclesiastes. The gift of God is the ability to rejoice and do good, to find satisfaction in the work that we do. Let me suggest just a few New Year’s resolutions that I would like us to consider as a congregation at Fellowship Church for 2024 on the basis of these verses from Ecclesiastes 3. Consider the four actions of verses 12 and 13. Be happy. Do good. Eat and drink. Be satisfied with our work.

1 - be happy | I choose to prioritize being joyful as more important than being right

One – be happy. The Hebrew in this passage translates better as “rejoice.” Find joy and pursue it. Here is a resolution I am suggesting for 2024, that we choose to let go of culture wars. Our society around us is so tense and divided and bitter about cultural disagreements. We cannot be happy and rejoice if we are people who obsess over culture war issues. We cannot be people who do good if we obsess over culture war issues. 2024 looks to be a year in which our country further entrenches itself in ideological differences. I choose to prioritize being joyful as more important than being right. I don’t need to win every argument. I don’t need to categorize other Christians as enemies based upon differences of opinion. Instead, I choose to rejoice that people who seek God in faith are welcomed into his church family.

2 - do good | I choose to embrace the fruit of the Spirit by being consistently embedded in scripture and prayer

Two – do good. Sometimes I tell my kids when they walk out the door to go be with friends to be good. When we tell someone to be good what we really mean to say is don’t be bad. The Hebrew word tov translated as good or goodness means more than simply not being bad. In the letter to the Galatian churches the apostle Paul identifies a list of characteristics or qualities that make up the fruit of the Spirit. One of those characteristics is goodness. As a fruit of the Spirit, goodness is something which is produced in us by the Holy Spirit as a result of our being sanctified in the image of Christ. In other words, the way in which we cultivate or nurture this goodness is by deepening our connection to the Holy Spirit. A resolution I am suggesting for 2024 is to deepen our connection to the Holy Spirit through the Word of God and through prayer. In 2024 I choose to embrace the fruit of the Spirit; and the way we do that is by being people who are continually embedded in scripture and prayer.

3 - eat and drink | I choose to build community by sharing life with others

Three – eat and drink. Every week those of us who are staff here at Fellowship Church get together for a weekly staff meeting. Once a month we extend that time by bringing in lunch. Those staff meetings are the best because it isn’t just about agendas and calendars and ministry activity. Instead, we sit around a table and share a meal and simply talk about life and family and friends and events. I cannot say enough about how much I love the people I get to work with here at this church. And I do not take that for granted; I’ve heard plenty of workplace horror stories. I am convinced one of the reasons this staff works well is because once a month we intentionally set aside the work agenda and share a meal together instead. Earlier this month we had a Sunday where we all stayed after the worship time and had a Christmas lunch together. It was wonderful to sit around tables and just share about life as we shared a meal. I suggest that in 2024 we ought to do more of that. Good things happen and community is built up when we sit together and share a meal. It can be meals altogether here at church or in smaller groups within our homes. In 2024 let’s eat together more often. It’s good for us and good for the church.

4 - be satisfied with our work | I choose to be a faithful disciple of Jesus within my church community

Four – be satisfied with our work. Rolling Stones fans might be familiar with the song “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.” It is true enough that satisfaction can be elusive and difficult to find. Perhaps that is because sometimes we are greedy and always want more. Perhaps that is because sometimes we compare ourselves to others. I think the key to satisfaction is faithfulness. God has not called me to do any more or any less than what I am able. As a church together God has not called us to be any more or any less than what we are. The key is to be faithful in being all that God has called us and gifted us to be at this moment. God has not called us to save the world—that’s his job after all. Our job is to be faithful disciples of Jesus. In 2024 I would love for us to explore further what it looks like to be faithful disciples of Jesus in this place and in our community at this time.

God has given us a time for everything. Let’s look into the new year making the most of it and making the best of it.