Ecclesiastes 3
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. What do workers gain from their toil? I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRg9NkIdjVs
The book of Ecclesiastes is part of a genre of writing in the Hebrew Scripture known as Wisdom Literature. Job, Proverbs, Psalms are other examples. This particular passage is most often read at funerals, but the more I hear it the more I wonder if we are hearing it with the right pair of ears. We tend to hear it as if everything is preceded by “God has ordained........”, as if everything is out of our hands - and I am not convinced that’s what the passage means.
The question I have, always, is “Is this something God will do without us? Or is this something God will do together with us, when we have the will to do it.” Does planting just happen by itself, and harvesting? Or is it something we have to work at? Does loving and hating happen by itself?
Does peace just happen? Is it just absence of violence? Or is it a choice? I think peace will only happen when people have such a collective desire for war to be ended that there will be no other option, and there will be the will to make it happen. It is not that the differences between nations cannot be overcome - it is that we make choices, and get so attached to believing in the rightness of our way, that we cannot see beyond those things to a different way of being and doing.
It seems to me that this passage is a perfect description of the human condition. Yes, for each of us there is a time to be born and a time to die - and there are times between birth and death where we have a life to live; when there is death we mourn and where there is new life we celebrate. But we also make choices in the life we are given. Remember the words from Deuteronomy - “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.” Choose life!
So re-read Ecclesiastes now - but read it this way -
*we* choose the time to plant and a time to uproot,
*we* choose a time to kill and a time to heal,
*we* choose to tear down or to build up
*we* choose to weep and to laugh,
*we* choose to search and to give up
*we* choose to embrace and to refrain from embracing
*we* choose to keep or to throw away,
*we* choose to love or to hate
*we* choose to be silent or to speak
*we* choose war, and *we* choose peace
Between birth and death, our life is a journey. We are travelling a road, whether we like it or not. At Christmas God brought us life and light, and through the Christmas season and Epiphany, the light shines on the road. Every Christmas, God sets before us life and death, blessings and curses - but the *choices* are ours.
As I wrote this I had in the back of my mind the phrase “history repeats itself”, and a kind of niggling memory that it has its roots in Ecclesiastes. Sure enough, in the very opening passage of the book, we read Ecclesiastes 1:9-11
“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, ‘Look! This is something new?’ It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who come after them.”
In Viet Nam I saw enough of war to believe that if we spent as much time and effort on making peace as we do on making war, we would have had real peace a long time ago. As I watch the news, and people who have become so obsessed by power and control that they will crush others, it becomes almost too much to bear. It seems as if people never change, and the possibility for change is not there.
And yet, the Revelation of John tells us that God creates a new thing, God can do something new, and will bring about a time when there is no more suffering or sorrow, no more pain, only peace and fulfillment for humanity. The question for me is, again, does God it alone? Or are we the ones who make choices to work for those things, with God’s help. As human beings there are lessons we need to learn, and choices which only we can make. As long as we choose hatred, or tearing down, we will not find love, or the building up. The new heavens and the new earth cannot come, so long as we make the wrong choices.
The birth of Jesus, and the life and teaching of Jesus, were a statement that it *is* possible to choose love over hate; it *is* possible to choose peace instead of war; it *is* possible to speak out instead of choosing to remain silent. So in this time, as we step off into a new year, another season in the life of faith, we have to ask what it means to us, individually and as a congregation. Do we take Christmas seriously? Do we take the birth, life and death of Jesus seriously? If we do, we have to believe that life and death, blessings and curses - are ours to choose - and that God wants us to make the right choices - but make no mistake, the choices *are* ours. And we want to make sure that the generations which follow will remember those lessons, instead of repeating the cycle, as we have been doing. Doing nothing is also a choice we make. Trying to hang on to things and keep them from moving is a choice - and with every choice there are consequences.
In his teachings, the Dalai Lama talks about basic steps for everyday living. Here is a smapling of them - what would happen if we all worked at these things?
Great love and great achievements involve great risk.
When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
Follow the three R’s: Respect for self. Respect for others. Responsibility for all your actions.
Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.
Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.
Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.
Be gentle with the earth.
Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.
There is no other person on this planet exactly like you.
“I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life, so that you and your children may live.”
May it be so.
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