Sermon.Ecclesiastes 11-12
Dealing With Life’s Uncertainties
Ecclesiastes 11
I once went to a 3rd-form camp where we got taught how to rock-climb.
It was the first time for me that I had climbed up such a tall cliff, and so the teacher who was our instructor went up alongside me.
I’m normally perfectly fine with heights, but about halfway up this big cliff i started to panic.
I had to push off one foot hold to go to the next, and I didn’t know if I could make it.
Fear, uncertainty about what to do.
Does that sound a bit like life in general?
How do we handle fear and uncertainty when we face the future?
Read Ecclesiastes 11.
Cast your bread upon the waters,
for after many days you will find it again.
ECC 11:2 Give portions to seven, yes to eight,
for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.
ECC 11:3 If clouds are full of water,
they pour rain upon the earth.
Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north,
in the place where it falls, there will it lie.
ECC 11:4 Whoever watches the wind will not plant;
whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.
ECC 11:5 As you do not know the path of the wind,
or how the body is formed n in a mother's womb,
so you cannot understand the work of God,
the Maker of all things.
ECC 11:6 Sow your seed in the morning,
and at evening let not your hands be idle,
for you do not know which will succeed,
whether this or that,
or whether both will do equally well.
ECC 11:7 Light is sweet,
and it pleases the eyes to see the sun.
ECC 11:8 However many years a man may live,
let him enjoy them all.
But let him remember the days of darkness,
for they will be many.
Everything to come is meaningless.
ECC 11:9 Be happy, young man, while you are young,
and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth.
Follow the ways of your heart
and whatever your eyes see,
but know that for all these things
God will bring you to judgment.
ECC 11:10 So then, banish anxiety from your heart
and cast off the troubles of your body,
for youth and vigor are meaningless.
ECC 12:1 Remember your Creator
in the days of your youth,
before the days of trouble come
and the years approach when you will say,
"I find no pleasure in them"--
Life is full of uncertainties…
Ecclesiastes 11 is full of “you do not knows”. Did you catch them?
V2 - “you do not know what disaster may come upon the land”.
More bombings at Bali
V5 - “you do not know the path of the wind”
The softest of breezes blowing in from the Waitemata Harbour is a mystery to us - we don’t know where it has been or where it will go.
How much less the rest of the natural world.
- “you do not know how the body is formed in a mother’s womb”
Scientists have unravelled wonderful facts about how a body is crafted inside the womb but at the heart of this process there is a mystery, even thousands of years after the writer of Ecclesiastes wrote this sentence.
The presence of uncertainties normally makes us want to tuck our heads in … to play it safe.
We feel fear.
We don’t know where any action will take us, and so we do nothing.
… With one great certainty
… the fact that we will all die.
A man's ashes have been used in a firework display. Ronald Cook's remains were packed into 18 of the fireworks let off in a field behind his home reports The Sun. His widow Olive, 76, of Old Harlow, Essex, UK said: "Our local cemetery is running out of room and I wanted to celebrate his life." The display was the first by new Essex-based firework funeral service Heavens Above and cost 1,500 pounds sterling. Boss Fergus Jamieson said: "It's like life - short but sparkling."
The Teacher thought about death a lot. Not in a bad way, but in a positive way.
One thing I like to do every now and then is to take a walk through a graveyard.
Why? Cos you get to read the summary note for people’s lives. Anywhere up to 100 years is condensed down into a few words that you could print on a t-shirt …
100 years of living, laughing, loving, hating, doing good, doing bad, achievements, failures … all condensed down
… and it kinda makes me think – what will be said about me.
Walking through a graveyard doesn’t make me gloomy – it makes me try to live life better.
It’s the same with the Teacher. The presence of death is the wallpaper on his computer screen - it’s the backdrop.
In chapter 12 he paints an incredible word picture of someone whose body is winding down towards death.
12:6 the silver cord is severed
the golden bowl is broken
the pitcher is shattered at the spring
the wheel is broken at the well
and the dust returns to the ground it came from.
And with death there is also the knowledge that we are all going to be judged.
Ecclesiastes 11:9 … know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment. (NIV)
Normally uncertainties and fear makes us want to freeze.
1. Go hard
In the face of uncertainties … get stuck in!
With the certainty of death … get into life!
Cast your bread upon the waters (take a risk) … why?
after many days you will find it again.
Give portions to seven, yes to eight (give it heaps) … why?
because you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.
So active!
Amazing! Totally opposite to what popular wisdom says. No talk of:
· hesitation
· consolidation
Uncertainties shouldn’t paralyse us … they should spur us to action.
The writer goes on and gives a warning:
v 4 “Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap”
Beware of overanalysing everything … of listing the pros and the cons … of understanding the situation so well but being left so passive.
Trivial Pursuit
Because of life’s uncertainties, get involved in life
Ecclesiastes 11:6 6 Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.
2. Enjoy Life
Me – it wasn’t spiritual to enjoy life!
9 Be happy, young man, while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, …. banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles of your body,
God gives us permission to enjoy life! What does that mean?
· To sing in the shower because you feel like it
· To walk in the rain,
· or take in a good movie,
· or spend a morning pulling in snapper from the Pacific Ocean
· changing the head gasket on your project car
· to curl up with a good book and a cat on your lap
A woman called Nadine Stair who lived in Kentucky, America, was asked when she was 85 years old what she would do if she had her life to live over again.
“I’d make more mistakes next time,” she said. “I’d relax. I would limber up. I would be sillier than I have been this trip. I would take fewer things seriously. I would take more chances. I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I would eat more ice cream and less beans. I would perhaps have more actual troubles, but I’d have fewer imaginary ones.
“You see, I’m one of those people who live sensibly and sanely hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I’ve had my moments, and if I had to do it over again, I’d have more of them. In fact, I’d try to have nothing else. Just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of each day. I’ve been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, and a raincoat. If I had to do it over again, I would travel lighter than I have.
“If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances. I would ride more merry-go-rounds. I would pick more daisies.”
The Teacher is an old man too! He has lived much of his life and he is wanting to pass on advice to us young-uns before he dies.
Remember, the Teacher is probably quite an old man when he writes this.
But how can we enjoy today knowing that trouble may come tomorrow?
How do you know that when you cast your bread upon the waters it’ll come back to you?
How do you know that when you give life heaps, when you give portions to seven, yes to eight, it’ll work out?
It is because of one more thing that you don’t understand.
The power and the love of God.
Ecc 11:5 As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.
We don’t understand God
There is a mystery to God
God is a God who chooses not to show us all his cards.