Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Tone of specific sentences
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IBM has been around for a while.
IBM stands for International Business Machines.
The company started out in 1911 as a manufacturer of tabulating machines.
Back then, the machines used punch cards to make their tabulations.
In 1953, IBM made its first computer.
It was a machine that worked on a vast combination of glass vacuum tubes which filled an entire room.
And the first IBM computer was nothing more than a giant calculator.
But it did mathematical calculations instantly in a way that had never been thought possible before.
The first IBM computer was groundbreaking technology that opened an entire new field of electronics.
Thomas Watson, the pioneer of IBM’s computer development division, was instrumental in creating the first IBM computer.
But even Watson, with all of his ingenious innovations, had no idea where his invention would go from there.
It is famously recorded that Watson once stated in a presentation during the 1950s that he predicted the world would not need more than five computers.
With all the imagination, foresight, and innovation it took to come up with the first computer in the world, Watson sure missed the mark on his prediction of where the computer would go from there.
Five computers.
Today, just about every one of us carries a computer in our pockets that is more than 10,000 times more powerful than that first IBM computer.
The predictability of where life would take the steps of Watson’s actions were wildly elusive.
Nobody saw it coming.
Nobody back then knew where computer technology would take us.
There was no way to know.
The predictability of life is pretty hard to figure out.
I think the wisdom teacher who wrote Ecclesiastes understood this.
Time and chance happen to all of us, he says.
There is simply no way to know any predictable certainty in our lives and in our world.
So, how do we land on any kind of ‘up next’ moment in our faith in a world which is so wildly unpredictable?
The writer of Ecclesiastes gives us a hint in this passage at what that next step forward looks like in a world like this.
Understanding the Moment
Ecclesiastes is a tough book of the Bible to comprehend.
The writer is taking stock of everything he observes in the world around him and searching for a way forward.
He is seeking to understand the moment in which he finds himself.
Let’s consider, then, a few details about Ecclesiastes that will help us understand the words of this Bible passage.
understanding “meaningless” life
Hebrew hebel = momentary, fleeting, brief
One of the key words in Ecclesiastes that keeps repeating over and over again from the very beginning of the book all the way to the end is the Hebrew word hebel.
In the NIV English translation we use here it is translated as “meaningless.”
If you are familiar with other English translations of the Bible, then maybe you recognize this repeated word from Ecclesiastes as “vanity.”
I agree with many biblical commentators that the better understanding of the Hebrew word hebel is “momentary.”
One of the points that the wisdom writer of Ecclesiastes is observing is how fleeting and brief our lives are in the grand scope of God’s universe (everything under the sun, as the writer poetically puts it).
Chapter and chapter, the writer describes everything in life he sees as momentary, as brief, as fleeting; here for a short while and then it’s gone.
This is the backdrop of today’s passage.
Look at everything in this life that is so very momentary.
His writing about the grave is not meant to be morbid or depressing; it is a simple reminder that our life on this earth as we know it is not forever.
time and chance happen to all, and all arrive at the same end
And in the span of years that we have in this life, he goes on to say, there is no certainty of what we can predict or control in our world around us.
Here again, he is not being depressed or sad about it.
He is simply stating it as an observation.
You and I cannot stop the passing of time.
You and I cannot control the world in which we live.
Make the most of the moment in which God has placed you.
So then, what can we do?
What is there left for us to do?
This is the question that remains for the wisdom writer.
And after all the chapters that the writer uses to chronicle everything he observes in the world, the answer seems rather simple and basic.
Make the most of the moment in which God has placed you.
He says enjoy food and drink and family.
Accept the blessings that God provides with gratitude.
understanding my "lot in life"
Hebrew heleq = portion, share, distribution
He says in verse 9 this is your lot in life.
Other English translations state verse 9 as this is your portion in life.
I think the word portion is a better translation of the Hebrew word heleq.
It carries the idea of a share or distribution.
God measures and portions out the shares of his blessings day by day for the people he created and loves.
Portion control is something that I am not always very good at.
I will admit that when there is delicious meal in front of me, I love a second helping, not because I need it or because I am still hungry, but because it tastes so good.
I often want to take more than the portion of what I need even though I have already had enough.
portion control
We all struggle a bit with portion control when it comes to God’s blessings.
He has given me a portion of blessing that is enough for what I need.
And how often it is the case that I still want more.
How often isn’t it true that when I think about the next step of faith God has for me, I cannot help but project grandiose wishes on an enormous scale.
I want to reach for the Elijah on Mount Carmel kind of moment.
I want a David and Goliath kind of event.
I want a Moses parting the sea event.
I want a Peter walking on water moment.
Okay then, here is where Ecclesiastes hits me smack between the eyes.
God has placed most of us into rather ordinary lives filled with ordinary activity.
And the portion of blessing he has given to each one of us fits exactly perfectly into our lives to be enough.
And so then, God gives me steps forward in faith that also fit into my ordinary daily routine.
My portion from God, my share, my distribution is exactly what it needs to be in order for me to take that next step forward; however ordinary that may seem.
Physics and Faith
law of inertia:
object at rest will stay at rest
object in motion will stay in motion
satellites in space
And now for the part about stepping forward in faith.
Isaac Newton states in his law of inertia that an object in motion tends to stay in motion until acted upon by another force.
And also that an object at rest will remain at rest until acted upon by another force.
Satellites that orbit our earth in outer space keep on moving around the earth at the exact same speed because in the vacuum of outer space there is nothing to slow it down.
It will keep on going just as it is going until something else makes it move differently.
Here on earth we constantly have other forces acting upon our motion, forces like gravity or the friction of moving through the air.
But if you take away air and you take away gravity, objects stay perfectly motionless unless something else, like a rocket engine, makes it move.
is my faith at rest, or in motion?
So often faith can work that way too.
If our life of faith stays sitting at rest without any movement forward, it is absolutely going to stay that way unless acted upon by another force.
Sometimes God comes and pushed our faith in directions we maybe were not looking for without us asking or seeking it.
But let’s face it, often it seems that God choses to place his Holy Spirit in tandem with his church.
Often God works in and through and with his people.
There is a cooperative mission at work in our faith.
There is a partnership of God’s Holy Spirit placed upon his church.
There is a part of this calling to follow Jesus in which we are given the task of faithful obedience.
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