Ecclesiastes 2:24-25 24 A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?
This is one of the passages in Ecclesiastes that is quoted by a lot of different biblical figures, including Jesus. Everyone who quotes it has a dislike of the statement. The Teacher in Ecclesiastes is the only one who offers an alternative. Enjoy life! This is a message not expressed enough in the church or by well meaning Christians. The facts are we don’t know anything about what happens when a person dies. We have faith that there is a bodily resurrection and that we spend eternity in Christ’s presence. That being said we need a healthy dose of what the Teacher has to say. Eat and drink, enjoy life because in the end this maybe all we have. The Teacher sees this as a gift of God, when you realize that you need to actually enjoy life, I would add while holding on to your other faith elements. The end of verse twenty four and verse twenty five lend themselves to the idea that not everyone gets this. In fact the Teacher is claiming that this is a gift by God. I’ve heard people understand this as predestination, so that would again mean there is no point to this activity. I don’t think that is what the Teacher is expressing here. The fact of the matter is the people who figure out how to hold onto their beliefs and enjoy life come from all areas of life, rich, poor, wise or fool. Being one or the other doesn’t guarantee that you will ever figure this out or actually put it into practice. We need to remember that God has given us this life, and while we may not understand why things happen or why the evil succeed and the good are oppressed. Sometimes we need to remember that we need to take a step back and remember this life. Eat, drink, and enjoy.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Ecclesiastes 1:11
"There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow." Ecclesiastes 1:11
I've been one of those people who always struggled to do devotions. I've always tried to read through the bible (which I have done several times) during devotions, but for devotional purposes I am rarely successful. So I've decided to take to heart a lesson taught to me by my college theology professor. That is instead of spreading yourself thin in devotions concentrate on one book of the bible so that you can make research, and devotional advancement for other people. Basically so you can make your mark on biblical scholarship. Now that is not the reason I decided to do this. I decided to do intentional in depth study of one book for my personal development, hence I choose Ecclesiastes my favorite book of the Bible. For my first reflection on Ecc. I was struck by this verse in chapter one for several reasons. For one its a direct contradiction to the reason my theology professor suggested in depth biblical studies. But also because I am a fan of John Lennon. Most atheist I have heard or read of believe that the best we can hope for after we die is that people will remember us, remember our works. The eleventh verse of chapter one in Ecc. points out the futility in relying on people to remember your works. We as humanity have a tremendous ability to forget where we've been and who or what exactly got us where. Most of the historical figures in the deep past are lucky they are remembered, and yes it is in fact luck that their works weren't burned up, or their memory erase (not for lack of trying) by the next group of winners. Remembrance is not all its cut out to be, looking forward in salvation history it is only by the love of Christ that we are able to have comfort for our future. When all of humanity forgets us, God still remembers.
I've been one of those people who always struggled to do devotions. I've always tried to read through the bible (which I have done several times) during devotions, but for devotional purposes I am rarely successful. So I've decided to take to heart a lesson taught to me by my college theology professor. That is instead of spreading yourself thin in devotions concentrate on one book of the bible so that you can make research, and devotional advancement for other people. Basically so you can make your mark on biblical scholarship. Now that is not the reason I decided to do this. I decided to do intentional in depth study of one book for my personal development, hence I choose Ecclesiastes my favorite book of the Bible. For my first reflection on Ecc. I was struck by this verse in chapter one for several reasons. For one its a direct contradiction to the reason my theology professor suggested in depth biblical studies. But also because I am a fan of John Lennon. Most atheist I have heard or read of believe that the best we can hope for after we die is that people will remember us, remember our works. The eleventh verse of chapter one in Ecc. points out the futility in relying on people to remember your works. We as humanity have a tremendous ability to forget where we've been and who or what exactly got us where. Most of the historical figures in the deep past are lucky they are remembered, and yes it is in fact luck that their works weren't burned up, or their memory erase (not for lack of trying) by the next group of winners. Remembrance is not all its cut out to be, looking forward in salvation history it is only by the love of Christ that we are able to have comfort for our future. When all of humanity forgets us, God still remembers.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Ruth 1:16-18
Ruth 1:16-18 16 But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
In thinking about the first chapter of Ruth, I am always pulled toward this particular part of the story. In reading commentaries I found out several things about this verse. The first thing that I learned is that this verse is often used in traditional wedding ceremonies, even though it wasn’t in mine. The second fact is that the English translation doesn’t capture the anger and frustration that Ruth has in her voice as she makes this statement back to Naomi. In the rest of the first chapter we see Naomi ignoring Ruth the rest of the way. Scholars argue about what kind of ignoring this is, is it because Naomi is angry, is it because she is grateful for Ruth and doesn’t really want Ruth to see it. Personally I think Naomi is angry. She has been corrected by a younger person, not only a younger person but someone who she is technically in charge of. My experience has been that few if any people are very gracious when this situation happens to them. In our lives now this maybe one of the biggest challenges facing the “older” generations of our church. I’ve watched repeatedly as church people act patronizing to younger people in the church, “we’ll teach them right,” “they’ll grow out of it.” Instead of taking seriously that the individual may be spiritually more mature and may seriously have something to teach. My hope and prayer is that I never fall into this danger, and that those in my church can move beyond this. This is the only way that we will grow, if we learn from each other, not just try to use one another.
In thinking about the first chapter of Ruth, I am always pulled toward this particular part of the story. In reading commentaries I found out several things about this verse. The first thing that I learned is that this verse is often used in traditional wedding ceremonies, even though it wasn’t in mine. The second fact is that the English translation doesn’t capture the anger and frustration that Ruth has in her voice as she makes this statement back to Naomi. In the rest of the first chapter we see Naomi ignoring Ruth the rest of the way. Scholars argue about what kind of ignoring this is, is it because Naomi is angry, is it because she is grateful for Ruth and doesn’t really want Ruth to see it. Personally I think Naomi is angry. She has been corrected by a younger person, not only a younger person but someone who she is technically in charge of. My experience has been that few if any people are very gracious when this situation happens to them. In our lives now this maybe one of the biggest challenges facing the “older” generations of our church. I’ve watched repeatedly as church people act patronizing to younger people in the church, “we’ll teach them right,” “they’ll grow out of it.” Instead of taking seriously that the individual may be spiritually more mature and may seriously have something to teach. My hope and prayer is that I never fall into this danger, and that those in my church can move beyond this. This is the only way that we will grow, if we learn from each other, not just try to use one another.
Job 2:3b
Job 2:3b And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason."
Job is a difficult book to study. It deals with topics that most Christians I’ve met don’t want to deal with, and things said in ways we don’t want them said. This particular passage is one of those verses. God is replying to Satan in the heavenly court. Its not disturbing that God is replying to Satan, its Gods own admission of destructive acts on Job’s life that he just performed, notice “you incited me against him” (emphasis mine). I don’t have an explanation about God’s responsibility in the actions against Job. But I did start to think about how we handle problems as they surface in our lives. The inclination in this part of the story is to blame Satan, or blame Job himself (as we shall see his friends do later). We push the blame, yet here is a text where God seems to be clearly stating “I did this”. Maybe the task here is not push blame somewhere else. Maybe we need to learn that sometimes God is responsible and even though we don’t know the reason things happen we can, as odd as it sounds, allow God some grace in his decisions and his direction.
Job is a difficult book to study. It deals with topics that most Christians I’ve met don’t want to deal with, and things said in ways we don’t want them said. This particular passage is one of those verses. God is replying to Satan in the heavenly court. Its not disturbing that God is replying to Satan, its Gods own admission of destructive acts on Job’s life that he just performed, notice “you incited me against him” (emphasis mine). I don’t have an explanation about God’s responsibility in the actions against Job. But I did start to think about how we handle problems as they surface in our lives. The inclination in this part of the story is to blame Satan, or blame Job himself (as we shall see his friends do later). We push the blame, yet here is a text where God seems to be clearly stating “I did this”. Maybe the task here is not push blame somewhere else. Maybe we need to learn that sometimes God is responsible and even though we don’t know the reason things happen we can, as odd as it sounds, allow God some grace in his decisions and his direction.
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