Life Under the Sun

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Thursday, January 10, 2019

These are the words of the Teacher, King David’s son, who ruled in Jerusalem.  “Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!”  What do people get for all their hard work under the sun?  Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes.  The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again.  The wind blows south, and then turns north.  Around and around it goes, blowing in circles.  Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full.  Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea.  Everything is wearisome beyond description.  No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied.  No matter how much we hear, we are not content.  History merely repeats itself.  It has all been done before.  Nothing under the sun is truly new.  Sometimes people say, “Here is something new!”  But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new.  We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.  Ecclesiastes 1:1-11(NLT)

No matter how many times I read Solomon’s words I cannot shake off thinking he had to have spent time on a psychiatric ward due to extreme depression.  These are words for a deep blue Monday.  We are 10 days into a NEW year and the lectionary comes up with the text that says it out-loud and very plain:  THERE IS NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN! 

Ok…it’s confession time:  Sometimes I just want to close the Bible and go back to bed.  But, just like life, we don’t get to do that; we breathe in and out, we get up, we go on, we keep searching for meaning while we wash the dishes and listen to the old dog snoring over by the treadmill (the one I haven’t used in 3 months).

Part of the meaning for which we’re mining during these 24 hours until the sun hurries back around, is an answer to that question:  why?  Frankly, we get tired of the next sentence, because, at the deep base of our souls we suspect that the only answer we’ll get includes something about God knowing, and we don’t, and can’t.  Yet, we keep on looking.  We look into the bottom of a bottle, drug vial, or the next party.  Solomon did just that, and concluded where he began, that all that searching is meaningless!

And so, (with apologies to Rafiki) the circle of life comes back around again, and we find ourselves once again at the starting line, a bit older, but no closer to having the answers in hand.  

We feel like Bill Murray’s character, Phil Connors in the movie Groundhog Day[2].  Connors, a TV weatherman, arrives in Punxsutawney, PA to cover the day’s events.  Taking a room at the local bed & breakfast, Phil awakens the next morning to the clock/radio belting out Sonny and Cher’s I Got You, Babe.  Everything moves along during the day, and Connors spends another night at the B&B, awakening in the morning to Sonny and Cher, and the day repeats itself…exactly!  Phil is stuck in a loop that goes on for days – groundhog ceremony, breakfast, conversations, bed, sleep, and then Sonny & Cher…over and over again!  No matter how much Phil Connors scrambles, he can’t make anything new or different happen – the wheel turns, and it’s back to Sonny & Cher.

Now, in case you’re already depressed enough by what you’ve heard/read to go join Solomon on the shrink’s couch, hold on just a second; there really is some redeeming purpose in all this treadmill trudging.  Dig into the New Testament with me for just one game-changing word:

And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!”  Revelation 21:5(NLT)

“New” is translated with several different meanings in Scripture.  This kind of “new” is new in kind, a transformed, changed world, re-formed by the hand of God.  In one sense it is still the world, the earth, the universe God created ages ago.  In another sense it is all new; it is new in purpose, purity, reason, fellowship, relationship.  Everything changes because God’s hand puts everything in a new perspective.

My bride just finished seeing the eye surgeon; both eyes had the cataracts removed, and I hear a new thing in our home:  the colors!  Oh, the colors!  Elizabeth is looking at the same rug we’ve had in front of our couch for 18 years, but now it is defined, brighter, it has been renewed in her mind. 

Like that, but not so trivial and insignificant as an old rug, is the kind of new sight with which we’ll see when God puts meaning into all that is around us.

For You Today

I have heard from many older people, especially in places like Hospice, that I should treasure each moment because it goes quickly in this fleeting thing we call our life.  Now I can add to it:  treasure each moment, experience, relationship, and thought, because not only is time fleeting, but everything and every person is a part of the meaning you will take with you through eternity.  And God will open your understanding to all of it.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com

[2] Condensed information & image from Wikimedia Commons

Out of the Frying Pan Into the Fire

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Wednesday, June 13, 2018

“When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, searching for rest.  But when it finds none, it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’  So it returns and finds that its former home is all swept and in order.  Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there.  And so that person is worse off than before.”  Luke 11:24-26^(NLT)

It is some incredible thing we humans do, jumping out of the frying pan, only to land squarely in the fire!  We leave a bad choice behind, cleaning up our act so we have a fresh start (usually at someone else’s expense), and promptly wade right back into our destructive behavior. 

The apostle Peter wrote one of his epistles about the human condition of despising God’s way in favor of following every twisted and destructive human desire that comes our way:

These people are as useless as dried-up springs or as mist blown away by the wind. They are doomed to blackest darkness.  They brag about themselves with empty, foolish boasting.  With an appeal to twisted sexual desires, they lure back into sin those who have barely escaped from a lifestyle of deception.  They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption.  For you are a slave to whatever controls you.  And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before.  It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life.  They prove the truth of this proverb:  “A dog returns to its vomit.”  And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud.”  2 Peter 2:17-22^(NLT)

A life of deception, uselessness, corruption, enslavement, being controlled, tangled up, returning to our vomit or mudhole, and drawing others into all this woe and misery to keep us company and soothe our guilt – this is the life of addiction.

As a pastor I’ve had some front row seats to what addiction does to families.  Frankly, the word “addiction” is almost too sanitized; Jesus characterized it as demonic possession.  Peter compared addicted humans to “unthinking animals” describing the way we become when enslaved to our particular substance of choice…alcohol, drugs, power, sex, or just plain evil for the sake of wickedness.  We leave a wake of discarded relationships, destruction, and regret in our pathway.

If the subject comes up there is almost no human alive who cannot contribute to the conversation.  Every family has its stories about the alcoholic, or the one with the gambling gene, or the one who, as that “fun-loving, lovable, impossible-to-dislike party guy or girl” could never be depended-upon, except for failing to show up at the most important time.

The space available for this devotion in your day hardly has time to say anything comprehensive about our 21^st century problems and their solutions about this addictive culture in which we live.  So, let me just cut to the bottom line.  We have graduated from the kindergarten of an uncomplicated trust in being obedient to God; we have enrolled in the lower education process of doing it our way.  And that change of major includes a heavy emphasis on feel-good, avoid-guilt or accountability at all costs, obliterating all mention of sin or self-control and discipline.  Make certain to satisfy every desire you have, and whenever something goes wrong with your plan, find an excuse that keeps your self-esteem intact!

In other words – avoid going to the altar to get right with God; just jump out of that frying pan of pleasing self, and right into that fire of addictive behavior, destroying whatever is left of the imago Dei – God’s image in your soul.

And…as long as we’re in revival mode here, let me just complete the picture:  in that fire, you’ll meet the one who is stoking-up all that mess, God’s enemy, Satan, who is laughing with uncontrollable, wicked glee to meet you there.

For You Today

Wow!  Who expected to start the day with THAT kind of tirade over sin?  Well, better to address our sin by naming it in confession, than to live like an empty, dried up spring, or a dog returning to the vomit; Peter said that is a useless life, bound for the blackest darkness.  And who wants that?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day. 

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com FIRE and FRYPAN

Lent, Beer and Other Festivities

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Friday, March 20, 2015

 Don’t drink only water. You ought to drink a little wine for the sake of your stomach because you are sick so often.  1 Timothy 5:23 (NLT)

Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,  Ephesians 5:18 (NLT)

Paul urged his young protégé, Timothy to use a little wine to help with his stomach ailments.  Some have offered the opinion that being a pastor is an open invitation to ulcers and other gastric woes.  Largely this isn’t true about pastoral ministry, but the thought is understandable; in every area of life there are difficult people that make a hard job harder.

On the other side of the wine line, in his letter to the Ephesian church Paul warned against using too much of the stuff.  Certainly we can understand the problem associated with public (or private) drunkenness!  Paul didn’t forbid the use of alcohol; he did require moderation!

And speaking of “spirits” – here we are, dead in the middle of the holy Lenten season, and my morning news carried the story of Starkbierzeit, which, in German means “strong beer season”.  It is actually …the first of Germany’s spring beer festivals, and it focuses on drinks traditionally consumed during Lent.  The tradition was started by Paulaner monks in the 1600s, when fasting allowed the consumption of only liquids. They decided they could get nourishment through more potent beer.[2]

Isn’t that just grand?  Beer made these days has about twice the alcohol content of beer in the 1600’s, and I serve a church and denomination that honors abstinence from alcohol.  (It’s obvious Mr. Wesley didn’t agree with 17^th century monks on this one!)

Well, strong wine or beer, verses medication for the tummy, what’s a Parson to do?

I don’t really know…other than to suggest another of Paul’s statements:

Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.  Philippians 4:5 (NLT)

And Solomon tells us why “moderation” is best:

Wine produces mockers; alcohol leads to brawls.  Those led astray by drink cannot be wise.  Proverbs 20:1 (KJV)

Who has anguish?  Who has sorrow?  Who is always fighting?  Who is always complaining?  Who has unnecessary bruises?  Who has bloodshot eyes?  It is the one who spends long hours in the taverns, trying out new drinks. Proverbs 23:29-30 (NLT)

And just for good measure, let’s throw in a little contemporary medical finding about the deceptiveness of alcohol.  You recall all those St. Bernard rescue dogs with the brandy casks dangling from their necks?  And did you ever hear any stories about ice fishermen drinking to keep warm?  Well, over in Sweden (a very cold place) medical research says this:

Alcohol is a dominant cause of death in urban hypothermia. Drinking alcohol gives a pleasant feeling of warmth….Longer exposure to colder environmental situations has, particularly with addition of strenuous exercise, revealed enhanced heat loss….[3]

So that first flush of alcohol going down warms you up, but only serves to hide the real effect it is going to have on your body – alcohol cools you down!  That sounds vaguely like what the writer of Hebrews said about all forms of sin…they are pleasurable for a season! ^{(Hebrews 11:25)}   And when the season is over…watch out!

For You Today

It’s hard to require total abstinence where alcohol is concerned.  But God has put common sense in our hearts and minds.

So, short answer:  read God’s Word; study and meditate on what is written and what speaks to your heart.  Balance that with the Church’s tradition, and what reasonable medical and scientific research has revealed.

And then act like a Christian who is concerned about his body (the Temple of God), his community (the people of planet earth) and his conscience; the integrity of a believer.

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[1] Title Image: Coyau / Wikimedia Commons, via Wikimedia Commons

[2] ©NYTimesNOW daily briefing March 19, 2015

[3] Article: Alcohol and cold Department of Surgery, Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. (read here)0