Ecclesiastes
5:1-17
March 10, 2013
Guard your
steps when you go to the house of God; to draw near to listen is better than
the sacrifice offered by fools; for they do not know how to keep from doing
evil. Never be rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be quick to utter a
word before God, for God is in heaven, and you upon earth; therefore let your
words be few.
For
dreams come with many cares, and a fool’s voice with many words.
When
you make a vow to God, do not delay fulfilling it; for he has no pleasure in
fools. Fulfill what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you
should vow and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth lead you into sin, and do
not say before the messenger that it was a mistake; why should God be angry at
your words, and destroy the work of your hands?
With
many dreams come vanities and a multitude of words; but fear God.
If
you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice
and right, do not be amazed at the matter; for the high official is watched by
a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them. But all things considered,
this is an advantage for a land: a king for a ploughed field.
The
lover of money will not be satisfied with money; nor the lover of wealth, with
gain. This also is vanity. When goods increase, those who eat them increase;
and what gain has their owner but to see them with his eyes. Sweet is the sleep
of laborers, whether they eat little or much; but the surfeit of the rich will
not let them sleep.
There
is a grievous ill that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their
owners to their hurt, and those riches were lost in a bad venture; though they
are parents of children, they have nothing in their hands. As they came from
their mother’s womb, so they shall go again, naked as they came; they shall
take nothing for their toil, which they may carry away with their hands. This
also is a grievous ill: just as they came, so shall they go; and what gain do
they have from toiling for the wind? Besides, all their days they eat in
darkness, in much vexation and sickness and resentment.
Do
you remember the song “Every Breath You Take” by The Police. It was a very
popular song when it came out in 1983. The song could feel a bit creepy, like
something that a stalker would sing. But if you come at it from a different
perspective, you can hear the song as one in which God is speaking to you.
I
learned a little trick back in seminary. I grew up not really loving Christian
hymns, and I never really got into Christian contemporary music. Still, many
popular artists sung about faith and God. For example, the Doobie Brothers sang
that “Jesus is just alright with me,” and the Byrds put Ecclesiastes 3 to music
in their song “Turn, Turn, Turn.” Earth, Wind, and Fire, as well as Stevie
Wonder, often sung about experiencing God and praying to God. So I started
imagining that the words of love songs were either God speaking to me, or me
speaking to God.
If you take “Every Breath You Take,” and imagine that it
is God speaking to you, it really is a powerful song. Read the lyrics (or sing
them, if you know the song), and see what you think:
Every
breath you take
Every
move you make
Every
bond you break
Every
step you take
I'll
be watching you
Every
single day
Every
word you say
Every
game you play
Every
night you stay
I'll
be watching you
Oh
can't you see
You
belong to me
How
my poor heart aches
With
every step you take
Every
move you make
Every
vow you break
Every
smile you fake
Every
claim you stake
I'll
be watching you
Since
you've gone I've been lost without a trace
I
dream at night, I can only see your face
I
look around but it's you I can't replace
I
feel so cold and I long for your embrace
I
keep calling baby, baby please...
Other than the “baby, baby please…,” this song captures
the essence of our passage for today, which is that God is paying attention to
us in all we do. God’s not paying attention as a judge, watching with a wagging
finger, ready to punish us for our bad behavior. God is watching more like the
Prodigal Son’s Father.
If you think about the parable of the Prodigal Son, after
the son leaves to go off on his own, the father stands watching. We’re left
with the impression that every day the Father is watching for his son to
return, waiting patiently, but also painfully, hoping that the son will come
back. You even get the impression that no matter where the son is, the father
is completely aware. He hears rumors, speaks to witnesses, always gathering
news so that he will be ready for when his son returns.
God is like that with us. God keeps an eye on us because
God loves us and wants what’s best for us. And Ecclesiastes reminds us that wisdom
comes when we realize that God is always paying attention.
I’m not sure we always live as though we are aware that
God is watching. In fact, I think that most of us compartmentalize our lives in
a way that allows us to live without the sense of God watching. We secularize
our lives. We see certain areas of our lives as being filled with God (church,
prayer, etc…), while other parts are separate from God.
The Puritans had a way of reminding church members that
God was watching. Old Puritan churches were built a bit differently from ours.
They had a large pulpit shaped like a box, which the preacher preached from.
The box was suspended off the front wall, beginning about 5 feet up. The
preacher had to walk up stairs to get in it. Typically those churches didn’t
have crosses, but they did paint a large eye on the front of the pulpit to
remind people that they were being watched by God as they listened to the
sermon. Of course those sermons were 2 and ½ hours long, so they eyed helped
motivate the members to stay awake. I use a different strategy. If I see people
sleeping, I just get louder ;-).
Their eye was the eye of a judging God. I think
Ecclesiastes has more in mind the eye of a loving God. And the writer of
Ecclesiastes has 3 nuggets of wisdom that come from being aware of God’s
watchful eye:
First, be aware of what you say and how it affects
other people because God cares about how we impact others. What the writer of Ecclesiastes says
is, “Never be rash with your mouth, nor
let your heart be quick to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven, and
you upon earth; therefore let your words be few.” The point is that what we
say matters because relationships matter. And God cares most about our
relationships. Christianity is really, above all, about the quality of our
relationships—with God, with others, with ourselves.
Last weekend I was in Texas doing a weekend workshop for
a church. The focus was on helping them to discern what their calling is
regarding worship, especially if they want to be more multigenerational. After
I preached on Sunday, a friend of mine whom I hadn’t seen in over twenty years,
took me out to lunch and then to the airport. As you can imagine with old
friends, much of our talk was about who she was or wasn’t in contact with, who
I was or wasn’t in contact with, what they were doing, and why we were or
weren’t still friends with them.
She made an interesting observation about a lot of them.
She noted that there were a bunch of friends that she had lost touch with, and
she had a category for them: Givers and
Takers. Her categorization was a bit basic, and perhaps over-simplified,
but it was also brilliant and accurate. For example, we ended up talking about
one of our shared friends, and she said, “She’s
a taker. I’ve been there for her through many of her problems, and I’ve
listened to her complain, cry, and struggle, sometimes for three hours. But
then if I need to talk to her, she can’t listen for more than a minute before
getting distracted.” She would talk about other friends and say, “She’s
such a giver. Sometimes she’s been hurt because of her giving, but she’s
willing to listen to everyone and do anything for anyone.” This friend of mine
is also a giver, and this simple category helped her to understand how to avoid
being taken when we give.
Basically takers don’t care about the impact of what they
say or do has on others. To them, it’s all about themselves. They don’t guard
their talk to protect others from being hurt by their words, and they don’t
look at themselves through others’ eyes. They expect the world to be forgiving
to them, but they are not as forgiving toward others. Yet God wants us to be
givers rather than takers. God wants us to give not only materially and
financially, but in the way we talk with others. God wants what we say to be a
blessing rather than a curse. And the writer of Ecclesiastes reminds us of this
by saying, “Never be rash with your
mouth, nor let your heart be quick to utter a word before God,…”
A second lesson from this passage is
that we need to make and keep
commitments because God cares about the strength of our relationships. The fact is that we are in a commitment deficient
culture. We are a bit commitment-phobic. This is true in so many areas. We are
commitment shy about institutions, and you see so many institutions suffer as a
result, whether it’s Kiwanis, the Lions, or many other service organizations.
Look at churches. One of the big reasons so many people
have walked away from church is NOT because of how bad or irrelevant churches
are. It’s because of the fact that church requires commitment. It requires a
commitment to get up on Sundays to worship and commit to a relationship with
God. It requires a commitment to membership and to other people. It requires a
commitment of love that leads to ministry and mission. And the thing most people
are the least committed to are committees. Why? The answer is in the name.
Committees require commitment, and people don’t want to commit long-term. The
biggest problem with churches is that they require commitment, and our culture
doesn’t like commitment in this present day and age.
Our whole culture has problems with commitment, also, to
relationships and marriages. People move in together prior to marriage because
they fear the break-up of a marriage. And so they test the waters first. It may
make rational sense, but it also demonstrates a fear of commitment. And studies
show that these relationships have an 80% failure rate. Presently 50% of all
marriages end in a divorce. I will never criticize those who get divorced
because the reality is that some marriages need to end. When there is a
persistent cycle of neglect, abuse, addiction, and destructiveness in
marriages, they need to end. But the reality is that so many relationships end
prematurely because the couple won’t stay committed enough to find a way to
work through the relationships.
I’ll tell you what my experience is with many of the
marriages I’ve seen. My background is in marital and family counseling, and
I’ve been able to work with some couples to end their marriages, and with
others to save their marriages. The ones that have been saved have been because
the couples are committed enough to overcome some of the worst problems. Along
with this comes an observation, which is that some of the best marriages I’ve
seen in this church have been with couples who have gone through terrible
problems. I get to be privy to things that, fortunately, most people don’t know
about. Some of the best marriages in this church, and the ones that I admire
most, are between couples that have had bad infidelities in the past. I don’t
admire their infidelities, but I admire their ability to overcome them.
Often, as Christians, we judge people who’ve been
unfaithful in marriage as terrible sinners. Certainly what they’ve done is
sinful. But I believe that God cares much more about how we overcome these
problems than about the problems themselves. The fact is that people mess up in
life, and they mess up their marriages when they go through times of confusion.
With God, it’s really not so much about how much we mess up. It’s about how
committed we are to cleaning up. This is not my way of saying that everyone
should go out and have affairs to make their marriages better. It’s a way of
saying that what matters is how strong our commitment is, because strong commitments
lead to a strong life. As Ecclesisastes says, “When you make a vow to God, do not delay fulfilling it; for he has no
pleasure in fools. Fulfill what you vow. It is better that you should not vow
than that you should vow and not fulfill it.”
Finally, Ecclesiastes tells us, “don’t
get too jazzed up about injustices because God is taking care of everything.” The
fact is that in this day-and-age everyone gets so upset about every social
issue, and depending on what side of each issue we are, we can get up on our
soapboxes and scream at each other in self-righteousness. Ecclesiastes reminds
us that this can be damaging to our souls. It says, “ If you see in a
province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and right, do
not be amazed at the matter; for the high official is watched by a higher, and
there are yet higher ones over them.” The point is that we need to do what
we can, but not be so obsessed with injustices that it leads us to commit
injustices.
There’s an ancient story about this
kind of obsession that took place years ago. It’s one of my favorite stories. I
heard the Pittsburgh Steelers’ great Andy Russell talk about this story on
television. He said that back in the 1970s, after the Steelers had lost a game
that they should have won, coach Chuck Noll walked in and told this story.
After he left everyone on the team said, “What the heck did that mean?”
Being a bit more spiritually minded
than those Steelers, I think you’ll get the point. There were two monks who had
not only taken a vow of celibacy, but had vowed never to talk with women or
even to think of them. They were seeking purity, and they believed that contact
with women disrupted their purity. One day they traveled to a monastery many
miles away. As they walked they came to a river where the only bridge had
rotted and fallen. They realized that they had to swim across it if they were
to continue their journey.
As they prepared to swim, one of the
monks saw a woman crying. He walked over to her and asked her what the problem
was. She said that she had to get back to her family, but now didn’t know how
to get there because she couldn’t swim. The monk said to her, “I’ll carry you.
Climb onto my back.” With that he swam the woman across the water. When they
got to the other side, the woman disembarked, profusely thanked the monk, and
went on her way.
As the two monks walked, the other
monk criticized the first monk for not only talking with the woman, but with
touching her. For mile after mile the second monk berated the first monk.
Finally, the first monk replied, “Brother, I let go of the woman five miles
back. Why are you still carrying her?”
The story reminds us that we can
hold onto what we think are injustices to the point at which they become
obsessions that damage us. We are
called to do what we can, make a difference when it’s possible, and then give
to God what seems impossible. We make a difference when we can, but not to the
point at which it disrupts our relationships with God, others, and ourselves.
The point of all of this is that God is watching us because God loves us and wants
what’s best for us. God is watching in a way that is hopeful—hopeful that we’ll
live in the ways of wisdom that lead to a better life, and always ready to help
when we choose that path. The question is whether we are living as though God
is watching.
Amen.
