Trinity 20 2024

I think what you may find is that the appetite for wisdom grows as many of our other appetites shrink over time. The week there was the Monthly bourbon night where many of my friends congregate, and the old me would have dropped everything to disrupt my schedule to get there right away. But I skipped. It would have been nice to attend but I did not have the urgency of earlier.

But if there had been there a source of wisdom to help make sense of this season of life, I would have gone there right away. I think Age has calmed my appetites for some things and increased it for others like wisdom.

Those of us who are a little older also know how hard it is to get wisdom into those who are younger. Age has given a perspective that we cannot grant to others for age truly is the variable that makes wisdom palatable.

And before we start looking down at those younger than us, know that since the young have not our perspective they are willing to take bigger risks, climb that extra hill, to test boundaries and find new process that we have all ruled out. Both things are necessary for a vibrant community. So no getting a big head about being old!

The book of Proverbs, Eccl, and Job are all books about having Godly wisdom passed down from once generation to the other. Proverbs tells us rules to living a orderly and happy life. Ecclesiastics asks the question about if that truly does satisfy, and Job helps us to walk through it when it all falls apart around us.

Today we are looking at wisdom from Eccl. The Author is going to invite us to consider the joy of recreation, that is RE-Creation.

We are designed to celebrate, we do not have to walk away from this part of ourselves, and the Prayer book can help.

The Text

Verse 4- We are alive…dont take that for granted, even at your worst. A dead lion is nothing, a dog that is alive at least has something, HOPE.

Verse 5 - Remember that our hope comes along side the urgency that one day we will die. We can work on behalf of our God. The dead have no such knowledge or hope. And after a while even the dead are forgotten.

Morris Hall OU

Verse 6 re-animates the point. Your hottest emotion will parish with you. And your reward from labor also parishes.

Verse 7 - In light of this being true, we can take joy in spaces where God has given space. The prayer book can be a help in this. There are days in the prayer book that direct us to fasting and mourning. At the same time we have seasons and days of feast. Yes the prayer book seeks to make us Christ like in refusing to eat or make merry at certain time, and yet it also invites us to keep feasts, especially the Eucharist

Hallelujah Christ the Lamb is sacrificed for us, let us keep the feast.

Verse 8 - If you prosper to having nice garments and oil, you are blessed. Be sure to be mindful of the poor, but you can also celebrate what God has done for you.

Verse 9 - Here there is an example of something to enjoy, that is the enjoyment of your marriage. The prayer book lists a few things that marriage is intended to do, glorify God, create offspring, and the mutual enjoyment of those in it.

The second half of the verse reminds us that much of life is toil, that we need to counter balance with the enjoyment of the days.

Verse 10 - Do life, do the heck out of it. One day you won’t be able to in Sheol.

Okay time to pause: What about heaven? Is not heaven a way to return to the things the earlier verse tell us we will miss.

Remember that the writer of this book had not yet gotten the revelation of everlasting life in Christ. We know what they do not. Yet, with all their wisdom they are inviting us to consider our days here. If our time on this side is limited then we should live a certain way. Death brings our projects to an end, no one will remember us after a time, there are ways to take joy amongst the hardships of this life. Enjoy the fruit of your labor, not as a glutton but as a creature of thanksgiving. (wisdom)

Lean into the things that God has given for enjoyment, the wife of your youth, you families, the seasons of feasting.

St. Pauls directions Eph 5:15-21

The Blackstones: They needed a break. (wisdom)

Here is the boundary: A world that celebrates to death. Boundary-less headonism. The emptiness of celebrating for its own sake not know how it serves the greater good. And how it is to be punctuated with fasting and mourning (invisible death). (wisdom)

Jesus when among us showed us how. Jesus fasted in the desert, he cried at the grave side, he prayed fervently to the point of sweating blood, he forgave his torturers. He also attended the wedding and kept the celebration going, he had dinner with folks who could serve a big meal, he celebrated with children. we have the example how.

He also reversed the fears of Ecclesiastes. The dead have no hope at the beginning of the reading. But know we know the dead do not stay dead. No one remembers the dead, but in being made alive Jesus writes our names on his hand, remembering us forever. He makes our garments white by washing us with his blood.

He uses the joy of our earthy marriage to remind us of the marriage of the son. His death on the Cross leads us to our greatest feast, the feast of the resurrection day, easter day.

Hallelujah Christ the Lamb has been sacrificed for us…therefor let us keep the feast.