Engaging Scripture

Why I like weddings better than funerals, and why I might be wrong – Ecclesiastes 7:1-14, Part 2

I like weddings more than funerals. At a wedding there is excitement and joy and dancing. At a funeral, while there is sometimes laughter remembering stories about the deceased, and while there can be joy that the person is suffering no more and is at home with the Lord, let’s face it that funerals are filled with sadness. Weddings are filled, however, with the promise of the beginning of a new family unit, with all kinds of hopeful expectation for a future. Funerals mark the end, emphasizing that a person is gone and is not coming back.

The first two “better thans” are very similar. First, thinking about the Day of Death is better than thinking of the Day of Birth (Ecclesiastes 7:1-2) and second, sorrow is better than laughter (7:3-4). Pause reading this post and read those two passages in your Bible.

Did you hear that? Whew. Right out of the gate, the Teacher shares dark wisdom, and I have to admit I do not like it. Celebrating death is better than celebrating birth? I want to sit down with the Teacher and say, “Wait a minute. You’ve been talking about finding joy in the Lord, and now you’re telling us that funerals are better than child dedications?” This is the kind of stuff that gives Ecclesiastes the label of the most depressing book in the Bible. Who would rather go to a house where the family just suffered a tragedy than a house where the family is throwing a celebration?

But that is precisely where the Teacher locates wisdom. As much as I disagree emotionally with the Teacher, as much as I feel within me that I would much rather go to a party than to a wake, as much as this first section of the poem is a bitter pill, I have to admit that, like a bitter pill, the Teacher’s wisdom here has the purpose of healing us. We need to hear what he has to say, which is the wisdom that we humans would do well to face the reality that we will all die.

The Teacher isn’t saying that we need to like this truth, that we need to feel good about it, but he is saying that it will be really helpful to us if we take it to heart. In other words, the reality of our mortality should give us cause to think about how we are living our lives. We so rarely think about that, because we’re too busy, or we simply find it extremely uncomfortable to think about death. At funerals, though, we can’t get away from it. At funerals we are confronted with death. At funerals we can consider, “Am I wasting my life?”

As a preacher who has officiated funerals, I always wrestle with this reality. I know I have the audience’s attention for about thirty minutes. At a funeral people are thinking about death. Because of that I know they are feeling uncomfortable. Yet, people who would almost never want to have a serious conversation about death are open to it now. Try it out with your friends, “Hey, I just wanted to talk with you about the fact that we will all die.” How would that go over? Probably not too well. At funerals it is expected, and yet even at a funeral I know people can tune me out, because talk about death is expected. The people at funerals hopefully don’t go to a lot of funerals, but they still know the drill. At a funeral, the sermon will be about death. So I wrestle with how to talk about death in such a way that people will listen.

Because the Teacher is right. We need to talk about death. His larger purpose is that we will be able to live well if we are ready for death. From a Christian perspective, Jesus’ answer to this is his repeated teaching, “Be ready.” No one knows the day, time or hour of his return, or of their death, so be ready. Live life not in fear of death, but in a perpetual state of readiness. How? By making discipleship to Jesus our first priority. By following the way of Jesus, we will always be in a state of readiness. Ignore the topic of death, and it could be possible that we are spending our lives on lesser things, or it could be that we are not ready for death. Not ready physically, spiritually, or otherwise. That’s why Jesus was often talking about it, and so should we.

Of course the Teacher didn’t know anything about Jesus. The Teacher lived hundreds or maybe thousands of years before Jesus. But the wisdom in these “better thans” is right in line with what Jesus taught, that we should focus our lives on the way of discipleship, or the way of his Kingdom.

A poem that can help you have a better life? – Ecclesiastes 7:1-14, Part 1

Have you ever longed for a better world? 2020 is a good year to long for a better world, isn’t it? Or maybe I should say it is an easy year to long for a better world? But while it is easy to long for a better world, actually achieving that better world can seem impossible. Maybe “world” is too wide a scope. So let’s talk about achieving a better life or community. Those can seem more attainable.

Even at that smaller scope, fairly quickly our longing for a better life or community is put to a halt when we realize that there are many different opinions about what constitutes a better life. Who gets to decide what a better life would be? Where do we find wisdom about how to live a better life? As we continue our study through Ecclesiastes, we have arrived at chapter 7, and the Teacher discusses the concept of what a better life looks like, sharing with us practical wisdom about how to actually live a better life. Turn to Ecclesiastes 7:1-14.

Scholars tell us that this section of Ecclesiastes seems to be a matching section to 3:1-15. Remember that one? You can glance back at it, and it should be familiar. It’s the famous poem about how there is a season for everything. In the poem the Teacher illustrates this with a bunch of opposites, starting with “a time to be born, a time to die,” and finishing with “a time for war and a time for peace.” Is the Pete Seiger song, “Turn, Turn, Turn” playing in your minds right now?

Now turn back to Ecclesiastes 7:1-4. There is evidence that we have another poem here, and one that seems to match with that previous poem in chapter 3. What evidence?

First, both have 14 verses comprised of 7 couplets.

Second, both address opposites. We see both talk about Birth & Death, Laughter & Mourning, Good times & Bad times.

Obviously, though, what we read in 7:1-14 is different from the previous poem. Dorsey sees the poem in 7:1-14 as a practical application of wisdom, based on the poem in 3:1-15. For example he says, “Yes, there is ‘a time to be born and a time to die,” as we read in 3:2; but now the Teacher says, ‘The day of death is better than the day of birth’ (7:1). “Yes, there is ‘a time to be born and a time to die,” but now the Teacher says ‘it is better to go to a house of mourning that to go to a house of feasting; for death is the destiny of every person; the living should take this to heart’ (7:2).”[1]

Do you see how the Teacher is discussing the same opposites, but he is expanding on them, talking about the real-world ramifications of the wisdom they discuss? He continues this approach in the next few verses.

“Yes, there is ‘a time to weep and a time to laugh’, and Yes there is ‘a time to mourn and a time to dance’ as he said in 3:4; but now the Teacher says, ‘sorrow is better than laughter’ (7:3), ‘the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning’ (7:4), and ‘like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of fools’ (7:6).”[1] So where the previous poem in chapter 3 observes the truth about life, the poem here in chapter 7 helps us think about how to actually live life in light of that truth.

Notice that the seven parts of the poem each have a “better than.” In the NIV you can see most of them fairly easily. As we’ll see there are a couple that are hard to find! The Teacher uses this word to help us contrast what he believes is wise and what is not so wise. Check back to tomorrow’s post as we begin to try to find all seven “better thans” in this poem. What we will discover is the Teacher’s wisdom about how to live a life that is “better than.”

[1] Dorsey, David A. 1999. The Literary Structure of the Old Testament: A Commentary on Genesis—Malachi. Grand Rapids: Baker. Page 195.

The ancient secret to finding true fulfillment in life – Ecclesiastes 5:8-6:12, Part 5

Look at the joy on the girl’s face in the picture above. Isn’t it wonderful? We can only imagine how she got covered in paint, but there is no mistaking that she is feeling deeply joyful about it. Perhaps we adults should let our hair down and have a paint battle from time to time. I say that because so many of us are struggling to find true fulfillment in life. We can feel trapped in the doldrums and frustration of the real world. Is it even possible to find true fulfillment?

The Teacher in Ecclesiastes would answer that with a resounding, YES, it is possible to find true fulfillment in life! To learn how, read on.

After reviewing the misguided pursuit of meaning, the Teacher returns to the solution of how to find fulfillment in life in Ecclesiastes chapter 6, verses 8-12. We begin with Dorsey’s translation of verses 8-9: “This is why the wise person is far better off than the fool; for the wise person has learned to enjoy what he has. It is better for a person to enjoy what he has than to crave what he doesn’t have—which is elusive and ethereal, like a breeze that cannot be held.”

In verses 8-9, the Teacher returns to what truly brings meaning in life. A wise person is one who learns to enjoy what he has. Do not crave what you don’t have. Instead learn to have joy right where you are. This is another way to talk about satisfaction. We can learn to be satisfied no matter the circumstances of our lives, when we have joy in the Lord. There will always be more things we can wish for. There will always be different circumstances we are hoping for. But don’t wish away the difficult spots you are in, and don’t wish for other gifts and provisions than what you’ve been given. Be grateful. Have eyes to see God in all the facets of your life, and find joy in who God is. Find joy in the fact that he loves you. Then allow the joy of the Lord to be your strength. Find strength to be grateful, to be satisfied in the fact that you bring him joy and true joy can be found in him.

This doesn’t mean that we turn a blind eye to the reality of our lives. This doesn’t mean that we don’t seek to live wisely. This doesn’t mean that money and wealth are inherently evil. It means our deepest desire and passion should be to find joy in the Lord, to find our satisfaction and stability in the Lord.

Notice how the Teacher points us to seek our satisfaction in the Lord in verse 10. Again, hear Dorsey’s translation, “God has already determined what a person should have, and what a person should be. One cannot dispute with God over these things, for his authority is greater than that of human beings.”

Upon reading that, you might think, “Joel, I don’t see anything in that verse that sounds like the Teacher pointing us to seek our satisfaction in the Lord.” Instead, verse 10 could sound like fatalism, the idea of “what will be, will be,” as if the pathway of our life is already determined, and we have no choice, no hope. But the more I study the Bible and get to know God, the more I’m convinced that he has created us with genuine free will and thus he has given us choice and hope in life. So how does free will jive with the phrase, “God has already determined”?

It seems to me that the Teacher is saying that God has already decided what is best for us. Verse 10, in other words, is a commentary on verses 8 and 9. God has made it known what is the best way to live, the way that will bring the deep satisfaction we crave. We don’t need to go looking for that satisfaction anywhere else because God, who is all knowing, all powerful, has already made the truth known to us. The truth is that God has determined that humans can only find deep, sustained satisfaction in Him.

As he nears his conclusion, in verse 11, then, the Teacher summarizes the false road that people so often travel in their search for meaning. Here is verse 11 in Dorsey’s translation, “People desire many things that ultimately are of no value to them.”

As he already taught, the Teacher here reaffirms that we humans so often search for fulfillment in money and possessions, and it while those things provide pleasure for a moment, that pleasure always fades away, and we are faced with the harsh reality of emptiness again, and again, and again. So what do we do?

I think the answer to “What do we do?” is how the Teacher concludes. But remember that this is poetic wisdom literature, and it is not as straightforward as we might like. In fact, it doesn’t seem straightforward at all. Look at verse 12. It might seem like a strange way to end this section, as if the Teacher is asking penetrating questions with no answers. Here again is Dorsey’s translation: “How can a human being even know what would be best for him in this life, during the few fleeting days that he lives like a passing shadow? How could he know what would be best for him in his future?”

It seems to me that the Teacher intends us readers to look at those questions as having obvious answers. How can a human being know what is best for him in this short life? He can’t! How can he know what is best for his future? He can’t. The teacher finishes this way as if to put an exclamation point on verse 10. God is the source of wisdom. Though humans can’t know what is best, and though humans try like crazy to find fulfillment in life, on our own we fail to do so, but thankfully there is another source of wisdom and truth. It is found in God!

So let us rejoice in God. Let us follow the joyful way of life that he calls us to. Let’s not think that consuming goods and services and seeking to live lives that we see portrayed by others will fulfill our longings. Only God can fulfill. Therefore, we can stop striving to find meaning and fulfillment in any other things, and we can rest from our striving, and we can enjoy what God has given us.

This is a picture of deep satisfaction in God. While life in our culture is rarely one in which people feel satisfied, we can learn to find our satisfaction in God, living joyfully no matter the circumstances. Here’s what I recommend. Start your day by being thankful. Spend time dwelling on your memories of God’s faithfulness. He is our only hope. Not a celebrity, not money, not a government leader. Let’s us commit anew to say, “Christ is Lord, Christ is King,” and then make choices to live like we mean it. If you’re wondering how to go about that. I would be glad to talk further. Comment below and let’s talk.

Are social media companies making promises they can’t fulfill? – Ecclesiastes 5:8-6:12, Part 4

Have you seen the recent commercials by Facebook or Tik Tok? Look at the smiles and joy emanating from the people in the commercials. What message would you say these commercials are sending? Here’s what I think the message is: “If you participate in our network you will experience joyful life, true community, fulfillment and depth of meaning.” Look at the people in those commercials. They are so incredibly happy on their screens.

The problem is that our society and culture is often described as the most depressed, anxious and lonely of all time. We continue our study of Ecclesiastes 5:8-6:12, and while we’ve looked at where to find joy, the Teacher knows that life so often distracts us, wears us down. Let’s follow his logic in chapter 6, verses 1-7, as he moves back to a discussion about the how difficult it can be to find lasting joy. Pause reading this post, open a Bible and read Ecclesiastes 6:1-7.

Did you see the Teacher’s exaggerations in this passage? He talks about a man with one hundred children or a man who lives two thousand years. While there have probably been men throughout history who have sired a hundred children, it is super rare, and furthermore, no one has lived for two thousand years. That is precisely the Teacher’s point: even if those feats were possible, in the end the person who accomplishes those feats has the same fate as anyone else. They will die.

So the teacher concludes in verse 7, when your life is focused on seeking happiness and fulfillment through accumulation, believing that money and possessions will bring you happiness, you will eventually realize that money and possessions simply do not have the ability to fulfill the hole in the human heart.

That hole is a bottomless pit that some have called the Empty Self. The Empty Self is the inner part of our being that craves satisfaction.

In our society it has become big business exploiting the hungry desires of the empty self. This is what companies tap into when they advertise to you. Much of advertising is designed to make you feel the longing, the emptiness, promising to you that the company’s product will fulfill that longing, helping you find the satisfaction you are looking for.

The psychologist Carol Moog writes about this, “I became concerned about the impact ads had on people’s self-concept, not only as a psychologist, but as a mother of a growing little girl whose idea of who she was and who she was supposed to be was going to inevitably be influenced by models persuading her to be like them as well as to buy like them…As I look at the products that were being marketed, I became more aware of how these products were integrated into my patients’ own searches for identity…for a fantasy of life.” (Are They Selling Her Lips?)

If Moog were writing in 2020, I think she would also talk about social media.

Though social media commercials a filled with smiling joyful people on their screens, disconcerting studies report to the contrary, suggesting that the claims of social media companies might not only be false, but actually devious. Netflix has a documentary titled The Social Dilemma (watch trailer here) which clearly explains the dangers of social media, how social media is purposefully engineered to make money from us, all the while addicting us to its services, even as it lies to us through its promises of fulfillment.

This is expertly illustrated in Season 3, Episode 1 of the show Black Mirror (also on Netflix). The episode is called “Nosedive,” (see the trailer here) about a woman who tries to boost her approval rating on a social media app. We are familiar how most social media apps include likes and shares. Imagine if the app kept an ongoing tally of how people responded to not only your posts, but also every interaction with you, giving you an overall approval rating. Then imagine if society starting using that approval rating as a measure to give you access, or deny you access, to various parts of society. For example, want to live in a particular neighbor? You need to have at least a score of 7 out of 10. But if you have a 6.9, you can’t live there. Or if you want to get your kids on a soccer team, you need a score of 6.5, but in the last month you’ve had a series of bad interactions with people at work, at church, and with the other parents in your kid’s school, and all of the people have downgraded your rating, so now you’re at a 6.4. “Nosedive” imagines a near-future world like that. Sound like a fantasy? Look into it. China’s already doing something like that in real life. Not to mention that our current social media apps already operate on a premise of social approval. If you get likes and hearts and shares and comments, you feel great. If you are a business page on Instagram that gets more shares, more likes and more comments, then your posts show up more often for more people to see. If you don’t get attention online, though, you can feel empty, alone, discouraged.

One of my favorite scenes in the Black Mirror episode is when the woman is talking with her brother who has what she considers to be a very low ranking life based on the social media app’s approval rating scale. But he couldn’t care less. He stopped using the app! He has freedom. He has found peace and meaning and wholeness elsewhere.

How do you struggle with the empty self? Maybe for you it’s not social media. But do you feel the emptiness, the longing? Is there any solution?

Check back tomorrow because the Teacher concludes this section with a possible solution!

The Source of True Joy – Ecclesiastes 5:8-6:12, Part 3

*Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash*

If money can’t buy happiness, what can?

In the previous post I mentioned that we humans can allow ourselves to believe that wealth is our hope, our savior, our peace, our life. As we continue this week’s five-part blog series on Ecclesiastes 5:8-6:12, open your Bible and read how the Teacher illustrates this false trust in chapter 5, verses 13-17.

Did you hear how he depicts the wealthy, grumpy miser? The miser’s passion is his fortune. His life is dominated by his desire to sit on his fortune, to count it over and over, to grow it, and not lose it. The Teacher says that this is a futile pursuit, a sad way to live. Why? Because you cannot take it with you when you die.

Clearly, the Teacher is not saying that when you have money and wealth and possessions you will instantaneously and consistently be dissatisfied. The emotion connected with wealth and possessions is way more devious than that because wealth and possessions actually can give us a great feeling. Whether it is the new car or the new house or the new clothing or gadget or game…you name it. Think about what you are longing for. It could be a meal at a great restaurant, a vacation, a TV show, a football game. They all give us a shot of enjoyment and satisfaction. They feel wonderful…but only for a time. Maybe you know the feeling I’m referring to, the feeling of fading enjoyment as a new belonging that once gave you satisfaction starts to feel old. The Teacher is saying that wealth and all that money makes possible cannot give us sustained peace and tranquility. We will always lose out, if we look for satisfaction in the wrong place. Worse, the Kingdom of God will lose out too, because when our hope and our faith in is earthly things, we are not focused on living for God’s Kingdom as we could be.

So if it is not found in money and possessions, where can we find satisfaction and peace and joy and hope?

That’s what the Teacher attempts to answer in verses 18-20. Read those verses and then continue this post below.

Did you hear the deep joy the Teacher conveys? He is describing joy that is founded on God. This joys flows from an attitude of heart and mind that trusts in God, rejoicing in God no matter the circumstances of our lives.

Has God blessed you with wealth? Than rejoice in God, not in wealth. Has God blessed you with work? Rejoice in God. Eat and drink and find satisfaction in the Lord. Find joy in all the circumstances of your life.

What to do when money keeps you up at night – Ecclesiastes 5:8-6:12, Part 2

I never used to understand how people could struggle with restless nights. I understand now. For a number of years, I’ve battled anxiety and panic, and one of my triggers is money. Will there be enough? Are we saving enough for retirement? Can we do a better job with spending? How can we pay off debt more quickly? My mind can race. I can believe that if I had wealth, I would sleep much easier. Sound familiar?

In our study of Ecclesiastes, the Teacher, as we saw in the first post in this series on chapter 5:8 through 6:12, has been talking about money. He in verse 9, and at first glance I thought he contradicted himself. See if verse 9 makes sense to you: “The increase from the land is taken by all; the king himself profits from the fields.” When the Teacher says, “the increase of the land is taken by all,” he is not trying to say that all the people in the land benefit equally from the produce of the land, or that all people have equal opportunity to benefit from the land. He is saying that the increase from the land is taken by all the powerful he just mentioned in verse 8, the leaders that have each other’s backs, making sure they control the wealth. And the king? Well, he benefits most of all. The king and the officials in power are very concerned about keeping power and wealth in their control. All of this sounds very familiar, doesn’t it? A king who leverages his position to stay in power, to get rich, on the backs of the working class? It’s like the Teacher is watching our news reports or something.

This talk about oppression and injustice gives the Teacher an opening to comment on the temptations of wealth. He says in verse 5:10, “Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.”

In other words, as Dorsey says, “Wealth cannot give a person lasting satisfaction.” That idea reminds me of the phrase, “Money can’t buy happiness.” We sure try to buy happiness, though, don’t we? We believe money is the ticket to happiness. I can convince myself that if I pay off all my debt, and if I work hard to make money and if save money, I believe I will experience a deep peace like I have never known. As if the answers to all my problems is increased cash flow!

The Teacher goes on to debunk that theory. Look at verse 5:11. “As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them?”

Dorsey’s translation shows that what the Teacher is trying to say is, “The more a person has, the more he needs. Rich people expend much energy watching and guarding their wealth.” Bigger homes take more electricity, need more furniture, cost more in upkeep, need security systems. Newer cars…higher insurance rates. On and on it goes.

Money can keep us up at night. Have money and bills and retirement and the car repairs or the house repairs ever made it hard for you to sleep? It has definitely caused me to have some rough nights. That’s what the Teacher says in verse 12, “The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep.”

What’s the difference between these two, between the laborer and the rich man? The Teacher says that wealth can cause us to fixate on what it will take to keep that wealth. If we have a large investment in the stock market, and the market is volatile, or if we own property, and natural disaster is impending, we fear we are going to lose our wealth, and we start to devise all kinds of plans. Those are the worries that can keep the wealthy up at night. Those are the worries that can lead us to commit acts of oppression and injustice, because we fear the loss of protection and ease and freedom that we enjoy because of our wealth. What this reveals is that our trust is placed in our wealth. That our vitality is based on our wealth. That we believe we can find security in wealth.

But those who do not own stocks or properties don’t have to worry about them. When we moved eight years ago to live in the same school district as our church, our previous house didn’t sell, so we rented it. We didn’t have the ability to pay two mortgages. I found that year and a half renting that house to be so stressful. Every month we anxiously wondered if our tenants would pay us on time, because we needed their rent money to pay the mortgage on that house. There were many times they arrived handing us handfuls of cash the day the mortgage was due. Those were stressful times, I think for both them and us. Then there were times they would contact us with problems: the dryer broke, there are beg bugs, and we had to expend the energy and emotion and money to deal with the problems. I was so glad to get out from under that! Me and being a landlord didn’t mix well. Yes, I get that there are advantages to investments. If we could have just stuck it out, that property would be worth a lot more now, and we would have an additional source of income once the mortgage was paid off. So the Teacher is not saying that investment and wealth are inherently evil. He is simply saying that they can become fixations. They take extra time, and worry and energy. We can start to believe that wealth is our hope, our savior, our peace, our life.

What is the solution to this misplaced trust? If we struggle with sleepless nights because of worry about money, what can we do? Check back into the next post, as the Teacher is guiding us to some help!

Are the rich getting richer, while the poor get poorer? – Ecclesiastes 5:8-6:12, Part 1

What are you looking forward to? How would you fill in the blank in the following phrase: “I can’t wait for _______”?

Here are some that I’ve heard recently, from myself and others.

I can’t wait until we have a vaccine for Covid, so we can get back to normal.

I can’t wait until this election is over, so we don’t have to deal with ridiculous debates and nonstop election commercials.

I can’t wait until this week is over, so I can enjoy the weekend.

I can’t wait until I pay off this loan, and life will feel so much better.

I can’t wait until I’m done with school, so I don’t have the pressure of classes and assignments.

I can’t wait until summer’s over, so I don’t have to deal with the heat and humidity.

I can’t wait until retirement, because I’m so sick of years and years of the grind.

I can’t wait. I can’t wait. I can’t wait. Have you ever noticed that when what we can’t wait for happens, then there are more things we can’t wait for? When will it all stop? Or are we just doomed to be dissatisfied?

We continue our study through Ecclesiastes, this week concluding a three-part mini-series on the central section of the book, chapter 5, verse 8, through chapter 6, and the Teacher drives to the heart of our dissatisfaction.

Let’s starting by reading, chapter 5, verse 8. Initially it might seem unrelated to the theme of dissatisfaction, but the Teacher is building his case. Here’s how the NIV puts it: “If you see the poor oppressed in a district, and justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things.” Dorsey’s translation clarifies that the Teacher is saying that it is the “rich people in a particular district defrauding the poor or depriving the powerless of justice and due process.” Not surprising, the Teacher says. In our world, injustice and oppression abound against the poor. But how does this relate to dissatisfaction?

Let’s follow the Teacher’s logic, as he continues talking about the wealthy and powerful. In the NIV, halfway through verse 8, the Teacher goes on: “For one official is eyed by a higher one, and over them both are others higher still.”

Does that phrase in verse 8, “one official is eyed by a higher one,” sound odd to you? My first thought was that the Teacher must be talking about a boss holding her employees accountable, making sure they are doing a good job. But that’s not quite what the Teacher means. Dorsey’s translation is helpful: “Influential men protect one another; and they, in turn, are protected by even more powerful men.” See the difference? When the Teacher talks about one official eyeing another, what the Teacher is referring to is wealthy and powerful people watching out for each other, making sure that they stay in power and retain their wealth. They don’t want the poor people to get their wealth. Ah, now we can just barely hear how the Teacher is scratching the surface of the theme of dissatisfaction. Even though the rich and powerful have so much, they are not satisfied, so they oppress the poor, committing injustice to make sure the poor people stay in their place.

It’s similar to the phrase, “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” It’s similar to the talk we hear about the widening gap between the ultra-wealthy and poor. It is similar to what we hear about the erosion of the middle class.

Did you hear what happened since the start of Covid in March?

Business Insider reported in August that “When you add up the numbers, billionaires in the United States have increased their total net worth $637 billion during the COVID-19 pandemic so far. At the same time, more than 40 million Americans filed for unemployment. With tens of millions of Americans out of a paycheck and the stock market plummeting by 37% in March, how is it that the rich have continued getting richer?”[1]

Great question. There are two reasons, Business Insider reports:

The government disproportionately gave more aid to banks and corporations, and
When the stock market bounced back, the unequal bailouts meant that the wealthy still had money on hand to invest and thus profit, while the middle and lower classes did not.

This is a classic example of how the rich and powerful tend to protect the rich and powerful, and it is contrary to the heart of God. His heart beats for oppression and injustice to cease. That’s why Christians should fight against oppression and injustice. Because God created and loves all of humanity. So his heart hurts when those he created, people he made in his image and loves, aren’t being treated equally. How are you fighting oppression and injustice?

Check back tomorrow as we continue to follow the Teacher’s thinking and advice about addressing dissatisfaction in our lives.

[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/billionaires-net-worth-increases-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-7

How God really wants us to worship – Ecclesiastes 5:1-7, Part 5

What is awe-inspiring to you? I have never seen the Northern Lights, but I can imagine how the guy in the photo above would find them awe-inspiring. How about you? What causes you to have wonder and amazement? It is very common for us to declare that all manner of things are “awesome.” This week we’ve been studying Ecclesiastes 5:1-7, starting here, in which the Teacher has been talking about worship, focusing on three common elements of worship: rituals, prayer and vows.

Now the Teacher concludes his thoughts on worship in verse 7, asking us to consider what is truly awesome. If you read this verse in ten different translations, you will probably get ten different renditions of the verse.

One person says that what the Teacher is trying to say is that “people are prone to carry their illusions with them while they worship and also to talk without thinking. If a vow is made this way, the worshiper is treading on dangerous ground. The remedy is to fear God.” (Eaton, Tyndale OT Commentary)

The phrase “fear God” is found in the Bible a lot, and it is confusing because we don’t use the word “fear” in modern English the way it was used in the older English of the 1600s when the Bible was first translated in English. So the NIV says, “stand in awe of God.”

Or as Dorsey puts it, “respect God and submit to his authority.” That’s a definition of worship in a nutshell: Respect God and submit to his authority.

When we gather for worship, this is why we sing. Singing transports us to a different plane of existence. Something about the combination of the music and the lyrics and voices together singing helps us experience a taste of the transcendence of God. When we sing, we not only make vows to God, we also stand in awe of God. Our hearts and minds are filled with wonder, as we consider who he is and what he has done.

Especially because it is not all that often during our hours and our days that we make time just to stand in awe of God. We should do this a whole lot more, possibly. Back in verse 2 the Teacher told us to be silent before God, like the Quakers worship, and I said we would come back to that idea. Now we’re back, because it is not just by singing in worship that we can be in awe of God, but we can also express awe to God in silence. In the silence we contemplate, thinking about who God is, about our relationship with him, and the fact that the Spirit of God is with us. In the silence we contemplate Scripture and we reorient our lives to the truth. The silence of contemplating God, being in awe of God, actually does change our hearts and minds.

The travesty of life in America is that there is so little silence.

How can we be in awe of God? It means that we need to intentionally add regular times in our lives when we turn off as much of the noise as possible. For me, in the afternoons I will either walk down to the church library or sit in the sanctuary. Those places are very quiet, and I will take time to contemplate God, trying to just stand in awe of him, thinking about him with respect and wonder.

There are more ways we can stand in awe of God. We can observe nature. Whether you like the starry sky at night, or whether the moon freaks you out like it does me (but you still look at its craters with your binoculars). Whether you love the woods, or you love the ocean. Whether you love the rolling farmland hills like we have in Lancaster County, or you love the mountains. There are so many ways that we can stand in awe of God, by getting out in nature. It is one of the reasons I love running. When I run, I get to spend time breathing our country air, passing the cows and sheep, and the manure-drenched fields. If I have the right attitude, all of it can make me stand in awe of God, even as I run.

How do you stand in awe of God? On a walk or hike outside? Looking in the eyes of your child? Maybe watching your grandkids grow up? It could be by reading a great book about God. Of course it means studying the Bible. But studying the Bible should not be an isolated practice that we always or even mostly do alone. Remember that that Teacher, in Ecclesiastes 5:1-7, is thinking of a person going to the temple, something that was most often done in community, with other people. In the same way, gathering with your church family is quite important. There is something formative about being together, to sing praises together, to pray together, to study God’s word together. It forms us, changes us, helps us to grow. We stand in awe of God together.

What this requires is practice. We are called to be people who stand in awe of God. To accomplish that requires the practice of observation, setting aside regular time in your life for quiet contemplation of God. Maybe you do this best in a quiet room alone. Maybe you prefer being in nature. Maybe there is a group of friends you can practice contemplation of God with together. No matter the method, the intention is to stand in awe of God, to give him credit and glory and praise for who he is and what he has done, to “be still and know that he is God” (Psalm 46:10).

But it can take practice. Are you out of practice? What do you need to change in your life to stand in awe of God? Do you need to make it an actual appointment on your calendar?

Then keep that appointment with God. Spend time listening to God through his word, through the voice of his Spirit, and then do what he says. The greatest worship you can give God is a life lived for him, at home, at work, in school, in your neighborhood.

Is it really that important to be committed to a local church? – Ecclesiastes 5:1-7, Part 4

What commitments do you have to your church family? Do you serve on a committee? Do you help with a ministry? Are you a member of a church? Participating in a small group? How are you doing keeping your commitments? How do you view those responsibilities? Would you say that they are vows you need to keep?

As the Teacher continues in verse 6, he keeps talking about vows, which we started discussing in the previous post. The NIV translates the next phrase, “Do not protest to the [temple] messenger, ‘My vow was a mistake.’ Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands?”

It seems that the Teacher is describing a worshiper who has made a vow of some kind during temple worship. It would be the kind of vow that is noted, recorded and remembered by temple officials. Maybe the worshiper promised to give a donation. Maybe the worshiper signed up to teach a class, fix a wall, or serve on a committee. There are many potential vows that one could make in the context of a church.

But the Teacher says that the person doesn’t follow through in keeping the vow. There are plenty of reasons why we don’t keep our commitments. Sometimes we just forget. If I don’t respond to a text message in a matter of hours, that text message will get buried way down the list below the flood of newer messages. I don’t mean to not follow through, but it can happen. Or breaking a vow could happen simply by laziness, lack of commitment, procrastination, or maybe we bite off more than we can chew, especially in the busyness of life. Have you ever heard yourself say, “Why did I say, ‘Yes’ to that? Why can’t I just say ‘No’ more often? This people-pleasing is getting me constantly over-committed. But I just have a hard time saying ‘No’.” Or maybe your spouse volunteered you for something and you say, “Why did you volunteer me for this?” And you’re thinking, “How can I get out of this commitment?”

Then the church staff person calls you, like the messenger in verse 6. They want to know where you’ve been. Why you have missed meetings. Why you haven’t been in worship. And how do you respond? Inwardly you probably have a mixture of feelings. Guilt. Shame. Embarrassment. Frustration. A desire to do better. A fear that you probably won’t do better. Maybe you want to people please, and say, “Sorry, I promise I will be there next time.” But you know deep down inside what you’re really thinking, “Making that commitment was a mistake. I never should have said Yes to that.” And in a moment of courage and clarity and honesty you blurt out to the person calling you, “My vow was a mistake.” And you want out. You want to be free of the commitment. You want them to say, “It’s fine, I’ll let you off the hook.”

But the Teacher is not so happy about this in verse 6, is he? He says, “Do not protest” that your vow was a mistake. Instead keep the vow. Or don’t make the vow in the first place. Why? Because our worship is loaded with vows. See, for example, the previous post about how singing songs in worship is a form of making vows. And in today’s post we’ve looked a numerous other ways we make vows in worship. Our vows are ways that we demonstrate our relationship to God. When we vow to give, vow to serve, or vow to do anything for the Kingdom, and then we fail to keep the vow, that is hurtful to God.

I’m not totally sure what the Teacher is trying to convey with that last phrase, depicting God as getting angry and destroying the work of your hands. It sounds like the Teacher is saying that if we don’t keep our vows, God will punish us. Dorsey’s translation is not so harsh: “Why should God be angered at what you say and take away what you have achieved?”

Either way, it is very important to God that if we make a vow, we keep it, especially in the context of worship and a church family, especially as disciples of Jesus. And that leads the Teacher to his conclusion about worship in verse 7. If you read this verse in ten different translations, you will probably get ten different renditions of the verse. Check back tomorrow as we study the Teacher’s conclusion about how to worship.

What’s really going on when you sing worship songs (and why it might be making God sad) – Ecclesiastes 5:1-7, Part 3

We Christians give a lot of time in our worship services to singing songs, don’t we? How many songs does your church sing each week? At Faith Church we typically sing four songs, which are a mixture of traditional hymns and modern praise songs. What are we doing when we sing those songs?

It might seem like a question with an obvious answer, we’re singing praise to God. Yes, of course we are. But I would like to suggest that when we sing, we’re often doing something else very important, something that we really might not want to be doing, something we might not even realize we’re doing. I would like to suggest that our praises to God just might be making God sad. Why? Keep reading.

This week we have been studying Ecclesiastes 5:1-7, the central passage of the entire book. The Teacher has been talking about the meaning of life, and what he places in the center of his book is unique in that it seems like a departure from his main theme about the meaning of life. What is he talking about at the center of the book? Church worship services.

I would argue that he is saying that our attitude to toward gathered worship is central to how we find meaning in life, and as we continue this working our way through this passage, we’ll observe how he comes to that conclusion. We have see in the first post how he teaches about ritual in worship, and in the second post how he teaches about prayer. Now he shifts to the next worship topic.

Take a look at what the Teacher tells us in verses 4-5. Did you see the topic? Vows. Essentially, in verse 4, the Teacher says, “Fulfill your vows,” but then in Verse 5 it’s like he thinks about it a second, and says, “You know what, you’re better off not making vows at all! So much better to not make a vow, then to open your mouth, make a vow, and not keep it!”

What are vows? The commentator says, “When taking a vow, worshipers committed themselves to undertake some kind of action, often a sacrifice, if God would answer a specific request…or simply to curry God’s favor.” (Longman)

Have you done that? “Lord, if you just help me out this time, I swear to you I will come to church more often.”

Vows take many forms. They could be a pledge of time, talent or treasure. Could be a commitment to serve in a ministry. Could be a promise to another person, to your family, to God, like marriage vows, or your church membership vows. Once you make the vow, that person or people are all counting on you. This happens a lot in church. For example, my church has our annual congregational meeting in November, and for our church that’s a place where we make vows. First of all, we elect leaders, and second, we vote to approve a budget. You may not have thought of that as a vow, but it is. It is an agreement of a church family, together in unity, saying that we are going to support the budget throughout the next calendar year. What we mean by “support the budget” is that we are going to be giving financial gifts to the church throughout that next year so that we can, together, fulfill our vow.

There are many other vows in a church family. You make a vow when you agree to serve on a committee or when you agree to serve in a ministry. Because of all these vows, the Teacher has a strong caution in verse 6. Look at the first phrase. I like how Dorsey translates it, “Do not let your mouth get you into trouble.”

How many of you have allowed your mouth to get you in trouble? In this case, the context is making vows in worship. You might think, but Joel we don’t really make vows in worship very much. I would suggest that we make vows every single week in worship. How so? Songs.

When we sing worship songs, consider how similar they are to making a vow. When you sing to God you are making commitments to him. What happens, then, when you sing a worship song, which has amazing lyrics, but you don’t actually mean them or follow through with them in your life the rest of the week? Are you breaking a vow?

Think back over the songs you sang in your worship services recently. If you can’t remember, contact the people at your church responsible for selecting the songs. Ask them for the list of songs. They might even have the lyrics. Then as you read the lyrics, look for the lines of the songs that are vows. Here are some phrases that are vows that my church family sang this past Sunday morning:

“All our hope is in you.” Is your hope completely in God? It sure sounds good, but do we mean it?

“All the glory to you God.” Does your life really give all the glory to God? Or are you giving glory to lesser things as well?

“At the cross, I surrender my life.” What does that even look like? How does a person surrender their life to Jesus? Seriously. It is crucial that we Christians think about the lyrics of the songs we sing, because they are a vow that we take with our mouth.

Why is this so important? Because when we sing words, for example, such as, “I want to surrender all,” and then do nothing to change our lives toward the process of actual surrender, we are making a vow and then not keeping that vow. So we should ask ourselves, What does actual surrender look like? What do we do to make it clear to not only God, but also to the people in our lives that we are surrendering to Jesus?

Answer that question, and then consistently complete the actions that show you are surrendering your life to Jesus, and you will have made a vow and kept it.