The Message of Ecclesiastes

As I've been preaching through the book of Ecclesiastes, I've been helped by Vaughan Roberts' sermons (on the St Ebbes, Oxford, website). He suggests that two key messages of the book are:

(1) Face the Facts: Don't be Naive

(2) Fear God: Don't be Cynical

The book calls us to a mature, realistic faith that is able to live with questions, tensions and lose ends with practical wisdom. The Teacher would have us recognise that life is neither entirely starightforward nor entirely meaningless. The book encourages trust in God and enjoyment of life without ignoring the frustrations and difficulties of life. Believe, but not make believe.

Better Wise Up!

God-willing I will be preaching on Ecclesiastes 7 on Sunday morning.

I may or may not to some extent plagiarise Vaughan Roberts' sermon from the St Ebbe's church website that goes:

(1) Embrace suffering (vv1-6)

(2) Avoid temptation (vv7-10)

(a) Extortion / bribery

(b) Impatience

(c) Anger

(d) Nostalgia

Above all, (3) Fear God (vv11-18)

(4) Accept limitations (vv19-)

Who wants to be a millionaire?

As I've said before (perhaps), sermons are not the place for footnotes or acknowledgements, but I feel I ought to confess to largely plagarising Vaughan Roberts' sermon (preached at St Ebbe's, Oxford) on Ecclesiasties 5:10-6 today at Holy Trinity, Eastbourne.

My working title was: Money & Meaning: Are the better off, better off?

The headings went something like this:

Wisdom about Wealth

(1) The frustrations of wealth: it doesn’t satisfy

(2) The fragility of wealth: it doesn’t last

(3) The fount of wealth: it’s God’s gift

(4) The futility of wealth: it isn’t ultimate

Sorry for more alliteration!

No comforter or friend?

I'm pleased to see that the LXX for "comforter" in Ecc 4:1 seems to be "Paraclete" and reckon that might give a nice conclusion to my sermon. There is a Comforter, the Holy Spirit (John 14-16)!

Jesus is also a friend in need (Ecc 4:10), one who sticks closer than a brother (Prov 18:24; John 15). He is the Supreme Good Samaritan - the one who helps us up when we have Fallen.

Preaching footnotes

Footnotes are not really possible nor appropriate in preaching - hence blogging!

Tomorrow, I'm thinking of using Vaughan Roberts' headings for Ecclesiastes 4:

(1) The way of the world - the absence of love

(2) The way of the wise - the centrality of love

A 9min 50sec wedding sermon on Ecc 4

Rory & Anne-Marie’s Wedding

Well, it’s an emotional day for us all.

I bet even the cake’ll be in tears!

(Boodoom choo!)

(Tough crowd)

(You are allowed to laugh in church – try to get the right moments)

Do you know the story about the Old Vicar rehearsing nervous bride for her wedding?

It’s simple, he said.

All you have to do it walk down the aisle, to the altar and we’ll sing a hymn.

Just remember that:

The nervous bride comes in on her wedding day and is heard muttering to herself all the way in:

AISLE, ALTAR, HYMN!

I’m sure Anne-Marie wasn’t saying that

And even if she was, I suspect the Markhams are a determined plain speaking lot, and she might have a life-long project on our hands!

Rory and Anne-Marie chose our Bible reading from Ecclesiastes.

It speaks of the advantages of a partnership.

2 are better than 1.

That’s true, and very applicable to marriage.

Here are some of the blessings of a good marriage.

Today, Rory and Anne-Marie will become one.

The Bible says its not good for man to be alone, so God makes a helper suitable for him.

Woman is equal to the man but different – complimentary!

Imagine 2 Rorys!

Those of you who know Rory better than I do know what that would be like!

(Best man’s job to be nasty about Rory, so I’ll try to resist!)

How much better a Rory and an Anne Marie than 2 Rorys!

They’re suitable for each other, they go together.

They’ll go together like salt and pepper or a horse and carriage

Or to quote those immortal words from Danny and Sandy in West Side Story:

We go together like
rama lama lama
ke ding a de dinga a dong
remembered for ever like
shoo bop shoo wadda wadda yipitty boom de boom

Hopefully they’ll not go together like chalk and cheese or itchy and scratchy!

From now on, Rory and Anne Marie are a kind of BOGOF – a buy one get one free.

Buy Anne Marie, as it were, and you’ll get Rory thrown in.

The Bible says, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh”

Husband and wife become one.

Leaving and a cleaving (cleaving, separating)

It’s healthy for the parents to have a good old cry today

You might have said, “we’re not losing a daughter, we’re gaining a son” – and that’s wonderfully true

But Anne-Marie’s first loyalty now is to Rory, not to Mum and Dad.

Rory and Anne-Marie will form a new household, a new social unit, friendly and welcoming to their former families and friends, but not run by them!

There’s a sense in which Rory and Anne-Marie do have to forsake all others – at least kind of, a little bit.

From this day on, no one else is a prospective husband or wife till the current one drops off the perch.

Rory and Anne-Marie’s 1^st relationship is now with one another, and that will change all their other relationships – we trust for the better.

Marriage is a life-long exclusive unique relationship.

It’s no good if you live as if you’re not married, or as if you’re married to your family and friends, or your jobs, or your hobbies, or whatever.

Remember your married!

And remember to whom your married!

So back to our reading.

“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work”

Rory and Anne Marie, you’ll be more effective together than you would have been apart.

Marriage is not just an addition, it’s a multiplication.

Anne Marie, you’ll have strengths that make up for Rory’s weaknesses, and presumably vice versa, too.

In our house, I come in handy for emptying the bins and lifting heavy objects.

Mrs Lloyd is marvellous and pretty much everything else.

(She even likes putting up flat pack furniture, can you believe it? What a catch is that!)

2 are better than 1!

“If one falls down, his friend can help him up”

You’ll both fall and fail many times.

You probably will have squabbled by the end of the honey-moon if you last the day!

So be quick to say sorry and forgive.

Don’t get into the blame game

Be friends!

Yes, be lovers and husband and wife and housemates, and partners, and all that: but never forget to be friends!

Help one another.

Be kind and considerate.

“Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves”

Be intimate allies.

Be on one another’s side.

Defend one another.

At times, it may have to be Rory and Anne Marie against the world.

And Rory and Anne-Marie right or wrong.

Even when the other person messes up, be there for them, back them up.

No little comments that put him down.

No jokes at his expense.

No criticizing him behind his back with your friends.

So 2 are better than 1.

Marriage is (normally speaking) better than singleness.

But marriage is for better or for worse.

You need to be committed to this marriage even if it doesn’t work out quite as you dreamed:

If one of you, gets sicker and poorer and you think you could maybe upgrade to a better model, that’s when the solemn vows you make today will kick in.

It’s easy to be in love on your wedding day, the challenge comes when you’re tired and broke and one of you is puking up in the middle of the night again, or whatever…

But last of all, how can you make your marriage better and not worse?

Finally, “a cord of three strands is not quickly broken”

Until now its been 2.

Why suddenly this talk of 3?

Remember that Princess Di famously said of her marriage to Prince Charles that:

"There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded”

Make Jesus the only 3^rd person in your marriage.

He wont make it crowded.

He’ll make it better, not worse.

(Triangle – Jesus at the top, you 2 at the bottom) as you grow closer to Jesus, you’ll grow closer to one another too.

He needn’t come between you.

Wedding at Cana. Water into wine. Amazing transforming power.

He produced 750 bottles of the finest Châteaux Neff d’Pap

A watery marriage would be good.

A wine-filled, Jesus empowered marriage would be better.

Invite Jesus not only to your wedding, but into your marriage and lives.

Amen.

Well, it’s not too late to change your minds?

You still want to get married?

Okay, let’s do it!

(Please stand)

Poetry to go with Ecclesiastes 3

Shakespeare’s All The World’s A Stage / Seven Ages of Man speech from As You Like It - Jaques (Act II, Scene VII, lines 139-166)

Solomon Grundy

Andrew Marvel, To His Coy Mistress – “Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime…. But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near;”

Dylan Thomas, Fern Hill

The Weaver by B.M. Franklin

Contrast W. E. Henley’s Invictus – “In the fell clutch of circumstance … I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul”

Ps 31:15 - “My times are in your hands”

Ps 33:10-11 – “The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. ¹¹ But the plans of the LORD stand firm for ever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.”

Is 45:6b-7 – “I am the LORD, and there is no other. ⁷ I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.”

Ps 131 – “My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. ² But I have stilled and quietened my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. ³ O Israel, put your hope in the LORD both now and for evermore.”

Prov 26:1-12

A Search for Meaning

Some jottings towards a sermon on Ecclesiastes 1:12-26.

Ecclesiastes 2

A Quest for Meaning: Living With Death

(1) A search for significance (1v12ff)

The paths of …

… Study / wisdom / knowledge (1v13, 16-18)

… Pleasure / laughter / wine (2vv1-3)

… Great projects (2v4-6) / riches (2v7-9)

… Entertainment (2v8) / self-indulgence (2v10)

… Work / labour / toil (2v10, 17-23)

(2) Dead ends – vanity / foggy vapour

2v5 – “few days”

2v14f – the same fate for wise and foolish

2v16 – quickly forgotten

2v16 – the wise man too must die

2vv18-19, 21 - Who will get it when you’re gone? - 1 Tim 6:7

(3) A way forward (2vv24-26)

Better to be wise (2v10, 13-14)

Don’t make the penultimate ultimate / confuse gifts and Giver

Death defeated -1 Cor 15:54-58

Matthew 6:19-21; 24-34

Ecclesiastes

If anyone knows of any convincing structures or useful outlines of the book of Ecclesiastes (especially ones that lend themselves to a sermon series maybe of about 6 sermons!) I'd love to hear about them.

This from Barry Webb drawing on de Jong's 1992 work has the look of objectivity about it:

1:1 Introduction

1:2 Motto

1:3-4:16 – Observation

5:1-9 - Instruction

5:10-6:9 - Observation

6:10-7:22 - Instruction

7:23-29 - Observation

8:1-8 - Instruction

8:9-9:12 - Observation

9:13-12:7 Instruction

12:8 Motto

12:9-14 Epilogue

(5 Festal Garments, p87)

But quite what the coherent themes are in these sections (if there are any!), and what the snappy titles for the termcard should be?

All is vanity and a chasing after the wind! Foggy vapour everywhere.

Preaching Ecclesiastes (plans)

I'm wondering about perhaps preaching Ecclesiastes on Sunday mornings when I finish my current series on the 10 Commandments. We learnt about honouring our parents on Father's day, by the providence of God or the contrivance of the Vicar, or both, but certainly not the careful planning of the curate.

Any thoughts? Tips? Resources? Esp. free online stuff?

I'm wondering how many sermons to go for. 3 might be good for the main thrust. But I'd like to get into some of the detail so I reckon maybe 6? Would 12 be too much for people / a bit samey / not a healthy balanced diet? (I'm preaching a long sermon series on John in the evenings. The Vicar is doing Philippians in the mornings and Amos in the evenings at the mo.)

At the moment I have Derek Kidner (IVP BST), Jeffrey Meyers and Barry Webb, Five Festal Garments on my shelf. I'm thinking of getting a couple more. I need one big technical commentary for help on details. I'm wondering about maybe Tremper Longman, Charles Bridges, Michael Eaton, James Limburg and or Craig Bartholomew. Any others?

The person to ask about all this is Dr Thomas Renz, of course, but it seems a bit cheeky to email him about it. He can't be expecting to bother with every former student who wants to know anything about the OT after all. He might have better things to do. Like write books about Old Testament Wisdom literature, for example....