what-s-the-point-of-our-calendars-sermon-notes

What’s the Point of Our Calendars?

Ecclesiastes 3:1-15a

Let’s think about time today. The Bible opens by letting us know that God brought time into being. In Genesis 1, we’re told that before there ever was a morning or night to mark the days, God already was. God isn’t bound by time. He made it.

But we’re bound by time. And, the longer I live, the faster I feel like time flies. Do you know the poem by Dr. Seuss? “How did it get so late so soon? It’s night before it’s afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?”

The longer I live, the more I agree with Dr. Seuss!

On the other side, when I was a child, I had many times when time seemed to drag by – as I waited for dinner, for the journey in the car to end (“Are we there yet?”), or for Christmas to come. It’s like an advertisement that shows Cookie Monster waiting for cookies to get baked: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCbWyYr82BM

I’ve been told that some people feel Cookie monster felt when they think a sermon seems to be going too long! But, today, let’s see what the Creator of time says about the times and seasons of our lives in Ecclesiastes 3:1-15. This is both the most familiar and least understood passage in all of Ecclesiastes. The way it’s put together in the Bible probably by Solomon, whom I think wrote it, is profoundly simple:

1. Solomon tells us a fact about time that changes everything (3:1).

2. He then describes what this fact is like in our experience though a poem, a work of art (3:2-9).

3. Finally, he applies the fact about time to how we should live our daily lives (3:9-15).

#1: God’s Fact about Time: For everything there is a season and a time for every activity under heaven (3:1).

Do you grasp what God’s Word says in this verse? God says that every part of this world is His world including each second we live each day. That means there is nothing that happens in your life that catches God unaware. No situation baffles him. Nothing that transpires to you is outside God’s control and irrelevant to his purposes. God knows what he is doing. He made time and he has a purpose for what happens in time.

As always in Ecclesiastes, what Solomon will say is about life “under the heavens” or “under the sun”. But, in this passage, he speaks about the fact that there is a God in the heavens who is in charge of what happens under the heavens. There is a God who promises to make “everything beautiful in its time” (3:11).

Like what?

#2: God’s Poetic Description of How We Should Experience Time: A time to… a time for… (3:2-8).

In these 7 verses, we find a masterpiece of ancient poetry. I can almost hear you thinking, “But, I don’t like poetry. I don’t understand poetry.” And if you think that, then I say this back to you: If you really want to know God, you should learn to understand his poetry. The entirety of the Psalms, the Song of Solomon, Proverbs and Lamentations is poetry. A huge percent of the prophetic books, Job and Ecclesiastes is poetry. I think God must love poetry – so I want you to know how to read it. Therefore, notice these things in 3:2-8:

The word “time” is used in v.1 and repeated 28 times in vv.2-8. It covers 14 pairs of descriptions about time – that’s 7 X 2. Because the number 7 is the number in the Bible for perfection, this poem then is God’s perfect poem about time! He wants us to grasp that, in a world in which time is used imperfectly, God knows perfectly well what he is doing -- and what he will accomplish in time.
The repetitive nature of this poem makes it both memorable as well as beautiful. It gives rhythm to the poem, like the tick and tock of a clock. We read it and realize that God has ordered each part of his world. It’s almost like breathing. “A time for this and a time for that.” Inhale, exhale, inhale…
The most basic way that Old Testament poetry is constructed is with parallelism: A time to be born -- a time to die… A time for war – a time for peace. I don’t have time (!) to say as much as I would like about this. But, each time you read the poem, you will see in fresh ways how one line is related to and informs the next line. Each time you read it, if you read carefully and prayerfully, you will discover that it communicates something new to you – if… if you take time to hear God’s voice in it.

Ecclesiastes 3:2-8 is a poem about what has happened to time since sin entered the world. The God who made the world and rules over the world knows what happens in time in his world. God knows there is death, weeping, mourning, hatred and war. But, it will end in peace. This is all a part of time – “under the sun”.

So, notice the last word in God’s poem in v.8, i.e., “peace”. It’s the Hebrew word “shalom”. What you should begin to recognize when you read the poem from beginning to end is that there is weeping, pain, hatred and war in the times and seasons of this world – but it all will ultimately end in God making everything right. The God who made time is still at work in time in such a way that, when he’s done, a kingdom of shalom will reign. The poem declares that all the evil in this fallen world will not thwart Good’s plan. God even uses realities like death to bring about his salvation. This poem calls you to believe that this is true. Even while you and I spend our time “under the sun”, we are called to live in trust of the God who is over the sun.

Verse 1 sets the stage for the rest of the poem. It describes the whole of your life (and mine). “Under the sun”, you and I have “a time to be born and a time to die.” From that beginning, Solomon tells us about what happens between birth and death: planting & reaping, breaking down & building up, weeping & laughing, holding on to things & letting them go, keeping our mouths shut & speaking out, etc. etc. The one who wants to please God and live wisely asks, “What time is it for me, Lord? What would you have me to do now?”

I’ll tell you this: The more you meditate on God’s poem, the more you will see it speaks to every moment of your life. For example, this is Memorial Day weekend here in the USA. We remember that many people gave their lives in our nation’s history so that we might experience the kind of freedom to worship that we are experiencing this moment. Does this poem say anything to us about that today?

It tells us that killing and war were not a part of the Garden of Eden when there was no sin in the world. But now, “under the sun”, do you think there “a time to kill and a time to heal”? Is there “a time for war and a time for peace”? Are such things purposeless? Do they thwart God’s plan to bring about shalom? Surely, killing and war often are senseless in our fallen world. They often are excuses for evil people to exert personal power and are done out of evil motives. But, God’s Word says that there are “times” – times “under heaven” when things like war will happen and will be used by God ultimately to bring about shalom. Do you believe Him?

So, God is in charge of every matter under heaven. He is working out his plan in good times and bad: in times of birth and death, of mourning and laughter, of love and hate. He wants you to know him, to live a life of faith in him – until his work is done and peace/shalom reigns.

But, I must admit one thing now: As I read this poem over and over the past week, I found myself saying, “Lord, I think I understand a lot about this poem but I feel unsettled about it too. I still can’t understand some of the mourning and pain in the times of our world.” Those of you who have lost children as Chris and I have must sometimes wonder as we do about what God is doing. Just look at our world -- at what’s happening in the political campaigns in our own country, in the refugee crisis in the Middle East and in Europe, in the lives of families who are homeless. I sometimes feel like the disciples who said to Jesus, “Please don’t tell any more stories. Just explain to us what they mean to our lives.” I’ve prayed, “Lord, explain to us what your poem says about how we should live in these difficult times under the sun.”

And, God speaks about that in vv. 9-15.

#3: God’s Explanation of How We Should Be Stewards of Time -- Whatever God does endures… (3:9-15).

This section opens in v.9 with the question that people have always asked and still do ask when a message like this is proclaimed: “If God is in control of every matter under heaven, what difference does anything I do make?” If you’re asking that, then you join people throughout all of history and throughout the entire world who have asked and still ask that question. If God controls everything, is every moment a matter of fate? Is there a “god” or some kind of force that determines everything. If so, what difference does my life make?

Solomon teaches in these verses that we who believe in the God of the Bible do not resign ourselves to fate. On one side, God tells us that he is in control of every activity under heaven and promises to bring to completion what he has started. That’s why we always have hope. At the same time, God tells us he is personal and interacts meaningfully with people made in his image. Throughout the Bible, God tell us that our decisions really matter. For example, the Bible says you must decide to believe in Jesus. You must decide whether to abide in Christ or to walk away. You must make real decisions about whether to obey God or to engage in sin.

So, how should we live in this world knowing that God is here and wants us to trust him and obey him? In vv. 9-15, you read about several ways that God’s Word says all this should change your life:

#1: Learn to live in your time with a reliance on the God who is not bound by time but is nonetheless involved in time. I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race.On one side, he is making everything beautiful in its time. On the other, he has set eternity in the human heart. Yet no human being can fathom what God has done from beginning to end (3:10-11).

In these verses, we find one of the main ways the Bible calls people to seek God. What Solomon is saying in these profound verses is that, ever since sin entered the world, people find it hard to grasp how God uses things like weeping, mourning and war to make things beautiful. People wonder how there can be a God who allows things like pain and death at all. And, they find it hard to see how God could ever take the ashes of this world and bring beauty out of it. Bottom line: The pain of this world makes no sense to those who don’t know that God is working out a plan to bring peace to people and to the world.

At the same time, God has put “eternity in our hearts”. That means that human beings know intuitively that there must be more than just a material world “under the sun.” Made in the likeness and image of God, we have a conviction in our inner beings that plants and animals don't have. People have a deep sense that there is more to live for than we can find only in things in this material world.

But, God says, even though we have eternity inside our hearts, we human beings still can’t make sense out of the world on our own. If we have no relationship to God, life remains a mystery to us. So, people without a knowledge of God live in the world under the sun made to know God but without a relationship to God. As Solomon says here, on our own and without God’s revelation, we cannot grasp what God is doing from beginning to the end.

The way I read Ecclesiastes, I sense God is calling us to know that there simply must be a God like God reveals himself to be in the Bible. There is a God who knows us and is ready to enter into life with us. There is a God who is ready and able to help us make sense out of life. This is, of course, the God made known to us in Jesus. When we trust Jesus, we are “born again” – we’re made alive to the eternal God who has put eternity in our hearts.

So, today I call you, as I so often call you, to live life recognizing that God is with you – in every season and every moment of your life. I call you to believe in Jesus as your savior and to follow him – to walk with him day by day. When you do, you will find that, whatever time it is in your life, God is still in there and is in control. Learn to pray as David prayed in Psalm 31:14,15: “I trust in you, Lord. My times are in your hand.” It’s a little bit like flying on a commercial plane. You may not see the pilot but you learn trust in his ability to bring you home.

Let me tell you how I have experienced this kind of day-by-day presence of God in my life. I have often had times when I knew deep down that God had called me to do something – but I didn’t want to do it. (I confess that this has happened far too often.) I’ll tell you about one of them. When I lived in Germany, I was invited to be a part of a concert in Kiel in Northern Germany. I knew that the pastors of the churches there didn’t want us to come. They openly said they didn’t like “evangelicals”. The pastors only invited us because a small group of believing young adults pestered them until they did. So, I had said “no” to the invitation. But the leader of our team said yes. Then, at the last minute, he backed out himself and told me that I had to go with our pianist and guitarist.

So, I didn’t want to do it -- but, deep in my heart, I knew this was a time appointed by God. I went. As we drove to Kiel from Hamburg, I was a grouch. I complained. I was not at peace because I did not really trust that God could do more than I could ever ask or imagine. But God did. God did more. During that concert, there was an outpouring of God’s Spirit. Many people came to faith. Even one pastor, moved by God’s Spirit, committed himself to God. People there have remained these many years in their faith.

God knew what he was doing. I could not see it. When you give your life to God through faith in Jesus, you are making a decision to do life with the eternal God who made time and is making everything beautiful in his time – even when you don’t see it. I want you to learn to live each moment of your life being assured of that.

#2: Learn to be content – even to find joy -- in all your times: I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil -- this is the gift of God.I know that everything God does will endure forever (3:12-14a).

The Bible is saying that there is a potential for “happiness” (v.12) and “satisfaction” in all times in our lives – when we receive them as a gift from God and trust him to do his work. As the Apostle Paul wrote from a prison in Philippians 4, we can find contentment and joy in this imperfect world when we know that all times and activities are in God’s hand (Phil 4:4-13).It takes faith to believe that. It demands that your relationship with God is one of trust, i.e., that you trust that the life he gives you is better than the life you would choose for yourself. It means that you and I can find contentment and joy in those times when things seem to be breaking down as well as in those times when everything is building up; in those times in which we get to keep the things we cherish and in times when we must give them up.

This is such an important word for parents whose children are getting ready to go to kindergarten or off to college. I remember how hard it was for Chris when our first child went off to kindergarten. She didn’t want to lose those days together with her little girl. And I remember how hard it was for me when that same little girl went off to college and then got married. I wanted things to stay the way they had been. Chris kept saying, “Try to imagine what life would be like for her or for us if we kept holding on and trying to live life the next 30 years they way they have been up to now.” “There is a time to keep – and a time to let go.”

This is an equally important word for those of you going through any kind of transition: graduating from university, looking for a new job, or retiring. A few weeks ago, I was at Trustee meetings at Wheaton College. We celebrated the accomplishments of two men who had served well for many decades. The president said so poignantly, “All seasons are in the hands of God. There is a time to take up and a time to let go. A time to begin and a time to end. All those times can be beautiful when we know God is in control for we know that he is making all things beautiful in its time.”

Bottom Line: God is in charge of everything -- birth and death, laughing and weeping, war and peace. Nothing happens under the sun without His consent. This is what Solomon had discovered and what the Bible confirms on every page. This means you can trust Him. You can trust he has forgiven your sins -- even when you still feel guilt or shame. You can trust God is with you all the time -- even when you feel alone. You can trust your children to Him -- even when you've made a mess of their upbringing. Best of all, you can trust Him to bring about peace, even to come again and set things right I this world -- even when the world says he isn't doing that or that he cannot do it.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens (3:1).

God makes everything beautiful in its time (3:11).

Whatever God does, lasts forever… (3:14).