New Years Day Ecclesiastes 3 January 1, 2006
Already 2006 is starting out better than 2005. A year ago, we were still trying to understand the size of the tsunami that struck South east Asia. A year ago, I couldn’t pronounce tsunami, but today I am able to spell it! Something like 200,000 people died that day, many children in several countries. This first Sunday of 2006 is starting out better. Today we can celebrate the future, and hope for a good year.
Our reading from Ecclesiastes 3 offers us a valuable lesson. All time is a gift from God. For everything there is a season; there is a time for everything under heaven. Life is filled with various seasons. Life has the new grow of spring. In the next season comes the heat of summer. Then we get the cool winds of the fall, and then comes the chilly dead of winter. Time gives us the seasons of life in the world.
Time is the second greatest gift God has ever given us. The greatest gift God gave us was Jesus Christ who gives us eternal life. Jesus gave the victory over evil and death by giving himself up on the cross. Through the resurrection we can follow him into eternity where every time and everyplace are under his dominion, and all is at peace. He was in the beginning with God before time began, and he will come at the end of time to judge the world with his mercy and his justice and rule the creation. Jesus is the greatest gift God has ever given us.
But the second greatest gift God gave us is time. I’ve preached several sermons about the stewardship of our money; this is the first one I’ve ever given on the stewardship of our time. Time is how we measure our life in the world. The New Year offers us the chance to start fresh, make changes. The Bible has much to say about the stewardship of our time.
Ecclesiastes, chapter three is one of the most thought provoking chapters in the Bible. The writer begins with the words, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, and chasing after wind. He’s saying what we do in life is just like chasing after the wind.” That’s a sobering thought, but there’s truth in it. In the fullness of generation after generation, our time on earth is filled with vanity.
To prove that point, let me ask you, how many of you can name your great, great, grand parents? Now there would be thirty-two of them, so I realize that it is very hard to name all of them. But can you name even one our two? (Only three people raised their hands)
Here’s the point. After just four generations, most all the things they did, the things they worried about have been forgotten. Four generations from now, our own great, great grand children will not know our names. That is a sobering thought, but it’s also good news.
The good news is that all the things we worry about, the issues we face are temporary in God’s creation. In Ecclesiastes, the writer is giving us wisdom for life. There is nothing better than for us to enjoy what we do, and give thanks to God for the time to do it!
Pastors like me often forget that we have to manage our time like we manage our money. Personally, the greatest lesson came when I was the pastor in Jonesboro, Arkansas in 1998. That was the year of the shooting at the local high school in Jonesboro Arkansas. It began on one sunny, windy afternoon in late March. I heard lots of sirens going past my window, and though perhaps there was a terrible car accident somewhere. But then the phone rang, and my wife told me that there was a shooting at the local high school, and that people were shot and killed.
I had members, neighbors and friends who went to that school. I immediately prayed to God that none of them were killed. And then it occurred to me that this was a selfish prayer. We need to pray for all who are suffering, not just our friends and family. So I prayed for all the students and teachers, and all those police and ambulance drivers who were already on the scene.
That afternoon in March of 1998, four 6th grade girls and one teacher died. In the hours and days ahead, the whole town was in shock, and my life was changed. There was a silence around the town. The same shock and silence that we all experienced after 9-11. The shooters were kids people knew, and their parents. No one could tell us why they did that.
In the days ahead, almost every pastor in town was involved counseling children, teacher neighbors, and parents. The president of the school board asked us to come to the school. The satellite truck rolled into town, and the media from around the world wanted to interview me anyone who could talk.
That year, I happened to be president of the local Jonesboro Clergy Alliance. It was one of those elections I won because I didn’t show up for the meeting. But immediately, we held a meeting and put together a memorial worship service at the local university. In the months that followed, I regularly met with the grieving families, I wrote letters, and I helped organize a camp for the whole sixth grade class to attend that summer. And the media still wanted interviews.
I was working hard, 70-80 hours a week. Being so close to the terror and death, it took its toll on my own heart, soul and spirit, my mistake was that I began working longer and harder. I had trouble sleeping.
Finally, the ELCA sent help. A Jewish rabbi, Rabbi Alan and came to visit with the clergy and leaders Jonesboro. He listened to my story and said, “You need to learn the meaning of the commandment, remember the Sabbath Day, and keep it holy.” The scriptures tell us not to work that day; don’t even make your animals work that day. Not only that, but it meant to observe the holidays that God gives us. The Old Testament is filled with holy days! The rabbi told me those holidays are in there for our benefit.
God gave us rest time so that we have time for our own healing and renewal. If we follow the teachings, the Bible allows for us to only work 48 hours a week. The problem is that when faithful people get overworked and stressed, they work harder. When we work more than 48 hours, we suffer either in our health, our spiritual life, or our family life, - or a combination of all three. Sabbath means rest. The reason God gave us Sabbath is to allow us to remember what grace is about. God wants us to live by grace alone, through faith alone.
Now I realize that there are many lazy people out there, but they didn’t come to church this New Years Day. There are people who really try to do as little as possible, and try to take anything they can get. They brag about what they can get from others. But faithful, committed people know that following that road goes nowhere. I’m not going to preach about them. But I do think that if we over-workers stopped overworking, many of the lazy ones would get working.
I heard the saying, “We need to turn our problems over to the Lord.” I’ve never been really comfortable with that saying. We can and should do some things, but we can’t do everything. Stewardship of our time is setting limits for ourselves. We can’t be all things to all people all the time.
I say, let us turn over our anxiety over to the Lord, and live by God’s grace. When I did that, I began to feel better physically. Spiritually, I found that if I just sit and allow God’s peace to come to me, God’s peace comes in places I never expected it. I began to enjoy my work again, even in the wake of deaths and shootings, and 9-11, and tsunamis, sickness, and funerals.
These things are all temporary. God’s glory is still shining on us, the glory of Jesus Christ, and his victory at the cross. He is still going to come again to judge the world in his time, in his righteousness, his mercy. Jesus has not forgotten that promise. That’s a lesson I need again and again, every year, every day. I pray we will have a grace-filled year. Amen
Amen!