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The Mystery in the Muddle (6)

Ecclesiastes 11:1-12:8

The path of courage

Introduction
So we come to the last in this series on Qoheleth; the Teacher. We have imagined the record of his thoughts to be like a journal. A book of reflections and musings of a person, who never knew Christ, was writing without the guidance of the Holy Spirit and without the support of a church.
It is the voice of someone who believes in God and this is the way to a fulfilled life.
As we have gone through E. we have noted the great themes he has explored. His creed is this:
trust God, do good,
let life happen, work to achieve what you can, enjoy the results
and don't let what you cannot understand put you off what you can enjoy.
A theme he constantly returns to is this:
There is an appointed for everything
God works through these times.
GOD has set eternity in our heart,
A sense of the past
A desire to know the future
But never
Gives the satisfaction
Of fully understanding
What He does.
And along the way he drops in short sharp observations which may make life more bearable. This is what he and other Wisdom writers did. They offered God-honouring common sense.
For example
A good reputation is better than a fat bank account. What's said at your funeral is of far more importance than the number of birthday parties you've had. 7:1
Don't be quick to fly off the handle. Anger boomerangs. You can spot a fool by the lumps on his head.7:9
Don't be too quick to tell God what you think he wants to hear.
God's in charge - not you - the less you speak in God's presence the better it will be for you. 5:2

And at the beginning of our final reading from his journal we have another:
"Ecclesiastes 11:1-5 (NRSV)"
He's found out that life cannot be trusted.
He's found out that God keeps his cards close to his chess.
So the only way forward is to be courageous.
We can't hide just because life won't cooperate
So
Be generous; cast your bread (what life has given) in all directions.
Don't hoard your goods: spread them around.
Speculate using more than one vessel to carry your wealth to different shores.
Never think there will not be another Northern Rock and you've found the bank that will never sink.
Challenge life's unpredictability - never trust a weather forecast or which way you think a tree will fall.
Don't cower under the bed clothes - who knows? your upstairs room may fall through the floor and if you move downstairs the ceiling may collapse.
The very inscrutability of God is better than knowing what God is up to - you might not like what you discover. Who really could cope with knowing what the future holds for us.
The only way forward is to be courageous.
We can't hide just because life won't cooperate.

As Roland Murphy says
The great doubter? No! Qoheleth is the great believer.
He believed when there was no evidence for believing!

And so we come to his final chapter which is poignant and so cool it casts a chill

"Ecclesiastes 12:1-5 "(EP)

We have two choices when we read E. It is the voice of a harsh realist or the whisper of a gentle pastor.
Once upon a time a man came to Jesus. He was sensing the first glimpses of his Autumn years and Jesus gave him a precious gift. It was the gift of a life that cannot be taken away by the number of years we live.
Christians call it being born again or born from above.

Q never had the consolation of such a conversation with our Lord. But we can. He had a certain sort of faith in life after death and here it is.

"Ecclesiastes 12:6-8" (EP)

When I began this series I told you how important this OT book was as I became an agnostic Christian whilst I was training to become a Baptist minister. It suited my iconoclastic rejection of the Christian fundamentalism that I felt went for being a follower of Jesus in the Baptist world in those days. I could now rant like Q.
But now I don't think he was ranting; he was far wiser than that. His is the voice of a brave faith. It takes a lot of courage to believe the way he did. Here more of his discoveries:
Even when bad things happen, they are still under the complete control of God.
When bad things happen, be careful to watch your attitude to God.
Don't wait for God to reveal your future, obey God and follow your deepest convictions.

For him our life is a mystery to be explored not a problem to be fixed.
I've preached that before and this is Scripture that shows what that means.
May God bless us with a brave faith as we walk with him along the path of courage.
It's strange my spell check wanted to end that sentence with a question mark.
May God bless us with a brave faith as we walk with him along the path of courage?
…….only we know whether it should.

These helped in the preparation of this sermon.

A Life well lived. Tommy Nelson. Denton Bible Church *
When all you've ever wanted isn't enough. Harold Kushner, Rabbi
Encountering Ecclesiastes. James Limburg A Lutheran OT teacher

The interest in this series within the church has been very helpful. I had already used the material in a different form for the Minding the Gaps Conference in May. The result is that I am now working on a 'one-man show' in which I will explore the ideas and journey of faith described in Ecclesiastes by re-creating the voice of Qoheleth . There is a possibility of a book too.