the conclusion of the matter

Tremper Longman sees Ecclesiastes as written probably by one sage with reference to another sage, Qohelet (not an easy term to translate, so just the transliteration here). Longman says that Qohelet’s words, making up most of the book (1:12-12:7) are framed (“frame narrative”) with a “prologue” (1:1-11) and an “epilogue” (12:8-14), the third person being used descriptive of Qohelet moving to Qohelet’s own words, first person. So that the sage is letting Qohelet speak, then putting Qohelet’s words powerfully in perspective at the end.

We see this in the prologue (1:1-11) that for Qohelet all is utterly meaningless (Longman- not alone- does give a good argument in rendering hebel meaningless, contra Provan and others) under the sun. Next are all of Qohelet’s words, some that are contradictory. Qohelet does seem a bit confused. But overall coherent and clear within his theme.

In the epilogue the sage (meaning wise man, wise person) takes Qohelet to task, then in few words sums up what life is to be for God’s people. He tells us that Qohelet, a sage sought to render with beauty proverbs and words of truth. Longman doesn’t think Qohelet succeeded very well on the first count, and hardly at all on the second. His words end up causing undue pain (nails and goad given by shepherds/sages) in contrast to words that bring comfort along the lines of God’s truth. Indeed there is no let up from the pain Qohelet feels, expressed throughout his “autobiographical speech.” The first sage then warns against excessive writing and study of books, clearly pointing to Qohelet himself. And then closes with his conclusion.

The conclusion is short:

¹³ Now all has been heard;
       here is the conclusion of the matter:
       Fear God and keep his commandments,
       for this is the [duty] of every human being.

    ¹⁴ For God will bring every deed into judgment,
       including every hidden thing,
       whether it is good or evil.

TNIV

Fearing God here is a reverential fear, awe and trust in contrast to Qohelet who Longman sees as viewing fear of God as one who cowers and is afraid. This is because Qohelet sees God as distant and questionable as to his goodness evident in how life plays out under the sun, so that God’s judgment and justice are called into question. And then keeping God’s commandments. We go from a relationship of reverential fear of God, to the outworking of that in our lives: keeping/obeying his commandments. This is the entire duty, what life is all about for us humans. And we need to live in light of God’s judgment, that all that is done, good and evil will be judged by God. Those three things are “the central truths of revealed religion: the fear of God, obedience to his commandments, and an awareness of coming judgment” (284).

As a result life does have meaning, all of life, everything we do. We just don’t eat, drink, and enjoy our labor in a meaningless existence. This is the life of faith. What Qohelet pointed to is how we humans tend to think apart from the revelation given to us from God, or apart from idols we set up for ourselves which in the end leave us empty (idols not mentioned or alluded to in the book, I believe).

For me this makes plenty of sense and I can still read the book with a certain sense of delight, conveying truth to us when, as Longman points out, it is read in light of the rest of Scripture. And the meaninglessness of life under the sun changed through Christ who through taking on himself the curse sets us free to live in God’s new world where earth and heaven are one.

the problem of Qohelet

In our weekly team devotions at work I’m leading a study of Ecclesiastes, a book that has been a favorite of mine for years. A few years back I led a few weeks session on Sunday mornings through the book. We are slowly going through a study guide prepared by RBC Ministries (where I work) and of course Ecclesiastes itself.

Right now I’m experiencing something of a shock as I try to take in what Tremper Longman, a leading evangelical scholar is saying in his commentary on Ecclesiastes. To be truthful, I like another commentary, by Iain Provan, better, but I’m afraid that I’m thinking that Longman might be right.

Provan in an interesting way, along with a host of others, dating back to the early church’s treatment of the book, see Qohelet (translated “Teacher” or “Preacher” in versions I linked to above) in a positive light, giving a wisdom, or aspect of wisdom from God complementary to the wisdom we find in Proverbs. A wisdom gained through observation and experience. While there ends up being some truth to that- after all no matter how the book is interpreted, it is in the wisdom genre, and certainly ends up contributing to biblical understanding of wisdom- in the end we may be left with a sage in the wisdom tradition of Israel questioning the conventional orthodox wisdom such as we find in Proverbs.

I can’t sit down and read Ecclesiastes in Hebrew, and indeed what Hebrew remains for me is more than rusty. But the TNIV/NIV (probably the NLT as well) reflects in large part what Longman is getting at. Thematic to Qohelet is the conclusion that all is meaningless, utterly meaningless. To be wise or foolish, righteous or unrighteous, human or an animal in the end makes no difference, for death awaits all. And even life is hit and miss, with little or no rhyme or reason to it. God seems distant to Qohelet, and his goodness is questioned. Yes, there is judgment from God of every activity under heaven, but such judgment seems dubious at best, seeming to matter little or not at all in this life, with death awaiting and actually no hope of any future life. Even when God puts eternity in the human heart, it only adds to Qohelet’s sense of frustration, after all humans still can’t by any means really figure out what this sense of eternity means or what God is doing, not even the wise can do so. So that humans should simply enjoy eat and drink, their labor, and their spouse, and be satisfied with that.

Part of the problem for us in reading such a book (besides the fact that we’re dependent on translations and the thought of scholars) is that we come to it with our own eyes, our experience, and for us in Jesus with a faith, hope and love which sees everything in light of Jesus and God’s kingdom come in him. That is good and needed, but first of all, and fundamentally, we need to read any book, including those in the Bible in its own terms. Qohelet did not have the revelation of God in Jesus. And we have to try to see the entire book from his perspective.

I usually am up every day, but I can easily come down and see life in a rather dour way since there are problems galore. And to spend time at length in such a book which over and over in different ways sees life as something hardly worth having entered- I won’t say living because Qohelet find potential though not certain enjoyment in certain activities- could be a drain on the team. Though he contradicts himself, mostly Qohelet says it would be better to be dead than alive, and better yet to have never been born, so as not to see all the evil under the sun.

In the end while I’ll probably imbibe much of Longman’s take, I see glimmers of good in Qohelet’s thought (an example, the last link to the words, “Even when”). And in Longman’s read there is a second sage who assesses Qohelet’s work and puts in in perspective. 12:10 Longman renders, “Qohelet sought to find words of delight and to write honestly words of truth” (275). On that verse with reference to all Qohelet says in the book Longman observes, “Qohelet truly describes the world as it is under covenant curse, but is this the ultimate perspective from which life should be viewed? Not from a normative OT [Old Testament] perspective, it isn’t” (278).

Tomorrow, the conclusion of the matter.

Anna’s testimony

Right after Simeon’s blessing at the event of the circumcision of the baby Jesus, Anna, a prophet, came up to them and thanked God. Then she spoke to everyone about this child and the fulfillment of God’s promises in him for the redemption of Jerusalem. This indicates, along with Mary’s song, that the notion that the gospel is not political is foreign to the biblical text. God’s promises and his kingdom embraced all of life, not only one’s individual life, but all of life on earth.

Anna herself lived a remarkable life. She had been married for a short time, seven years, and then had lived as a widow eighty-four years. “She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.” She was indeed a worshiper of God.

I am reminded of Psalm 27 and 84, both psalms speaking of dwelling in the house of the LORD, in the Temple, to seek the LORD, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and inquire of him. In Richard Foster’s interesting, helpful book, Streams of Living Water, we read in the contemplative tradition of the life of St. Anthony, who lived in the desert twenty years, then came out in the power of the Spirit with a ministry that had both the finger and voice of God through Jesus, on it. Anna herself was a forerunner of this kind of life. And each of us in our quite different lives need to emulate something of the same.

I can imagine people seeing an elderly woman approaching them, and her words, though striking having an impact far beyond mere words, but penetrating hearts and minds with power. There was something about her, something about what she was saying, really something on and beyond her, though which she herself not only bore testimony to, but had aligned her life with. God and his glorious will and kingdom come in Jesus.

On the contemplative life, quite frankly I’m rather lost. One of my favorite experiences was on a Saturday when a number of people gatherered from area churches of our denomination to a dominican center. We had a silent retreat. I need to do that again, and from time to time. It was powerful. Good for me, a person often of many words to be quiet. We want to run and do this or that, but we have not spent that time with God, which Jesus himself did while on earth, rising early many mornings to meet with his Father.

This seeking of God needs to be a way of life for us. Through liturgy, and in the spontaneous ”charismatic” (meaning led by the Spirit, inclusive of all of God’s children in Jesus) rooted in God’s word/Scripture, in seeking to listen, in seeking God, and in prayers. Done both in private and with others.

May our lives reflect God’s light in Jesus for each other and the world.

Simeon’s blessing

Jesus was a Jew. He was circumcised as a baby boy on the eighth day according to the Law given through Moses. Lo and behold who arrives but an old man, full of years as Scripture would say, and awaiting God’s promise to him that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.

    “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
       you may now dismiss your servant in peace.

    For my eyes have seen your salvation,

    which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:

    a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
       and the glory of your people Israel.”

Simeon then blessed them and turned to Mary with these words that would mark the Jesus way:

“This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

God’s blessing comes in Jesus and it comes with the Jesus way. Jesus is the way not only to heaven, but he is the way, period. This is at the heart of what Christianity is all about and how it’s to be lived out in this world. It blesses the world, but only on God’s terms. The blessing is one that touches God’s creation, but brings it into new creation, in Jesus. It brings new life out of death by means of Christ’s death and resurrection.

This begins from God in Jesus than to us in Jesus for the world. We already are the salt of the earth, the light of the world through Jesus and God’s kingdom having come in him. We each need to do our part, humble though it is, both individually and together with others in Jesus. What we have in Jesus is done out in the open and for all. Lives lived out the same way everywhere, at every time and in every situation in the same way, the way of Jesus.

This would become personal for Mary, a sword would pierce right to the depths, her very soul (NLT). And the same goes for us who like her become followers of Jesus. Mary’s road was unique, yet it was the same kind of road that all followers of Jesus must tread. And this becomes daily for us, a way of life. But within the way that is destined to change the world, as we begin to experience that change for ourselves, and look to God to help others enter in.

(both passages from Luke 2; TNIV)

Eugene Peterson on the Elijah way within the Jesus way

Elijah was “a figure of absolutely primeval force,” but at the same time his was a way along the margins: he took the marginal way. He held no position, lived a solitary life in obscurity, appeared from time to time without fanfare and disappeared from public view without notice. His formative impact on how we as a people of God understand responsibility and witness in society is inescapable and irreversible. It never goes out of style and by God’s sovereign grace is replicated in every generation. The essence of the Elijah way is that it counters the world’s way, the culture’s way. We need continuous help in staying alert and knowledgeable regarding the conditions in which we cultivate faithful and obedient lives before God, for the ways of the prevailing culture, whether American, Chinese, Polish, or Indonesian – its assumptions, its values, its methods of going about its work – are never on the side of God. Never.

Eugene Peterson, The Jesus Way, 125, 126.

prayer for the first Sunday after Christmas

Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Book of Common Prayer

Advent – following the Star

The Magi were likely Astronomer/Astrologers, and we don’t understand from the text that there were three of them, or that they were kings (despite the wonderful carol, “We Three Kings”). What the star which led them to Bethlehem actually was, we can’t be sure. This may have been a combination of some special occurences in the sky that conjoined with each other, perhaps a rare combination in the night sky. But somehow these magi became convinced that someone special was to be born, a king of the Jews, but more than just that. As to how much they knew we can’t tell. But we do know that when they came they not only gave Jesus gifts fit for a king, but they paid homage to him. Yet they weren’t Jews. So they had to at least sense that there was more to this child, surely more than they could understand at the time.

Herod who is a kind of king in Judea becomes part of the story, feigning the desire to pay homage when he hears the news from the Magi of the one born king of the Jews, so that he might murder the child. The Magi are warned in a dream about him later, as Joseph will be as well, so that the Magi go back home avoiding Herod, and Joseph takes Mary and Jesus to escape to Egypt.

The gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh, are fit for a king, but don’t line up with the Christian tradition concerning their meaning. Their value may have been useful for the holy family in their journey and return from Egypt, and to get settled in again in Nazareth. I would surmise that Mary surely would have kept a token of each of the gifts as a rememberance of the Magi’s visit, but we’re not told.

This is a sign in a number of ways. Pointing first of all to the greatness of Jesus, that this was no ordinary child, and no ordinary king. That he would someday be King of kings and Lord of lords, and the son of God more than just in the Davidic, Messianic sense was surely more than the Magi or anyone at that time could grasp. But it is evident that God’s revelation was at work for and to the Magi, and through them to us.

This suggests that God can reveal truth about himself and about Jesus through other than the normal means. In Israel there was the heritage of the covenant and all that went with it from God. The Magi from what we can tell were not a part of the covenant, yet God was speaking to them. A sign of where God’s salvation in Jesus was to reach: to the ends of the earth.

God’s work and revelation can come in unexpected ways and in spite of human darkness and error. And Jesus is meant for all the world, for people of every religion, creed, or lack of creed. Whatever is true is fulfilled in the light of Jesus and all else is destined for the darkness.

Those Magi went back to their own land. I wonder how this event impacted their lives, and the lives of their people. Maybe it prepared their people for the coming of the gospel message of Christ. We can be sure that God was at work in the world, and that he is at work to reveal in the light of Jesus himself and his own will.

We need to be alert to the ways God is making himself known, and above all we need to hold on tightly to what God has given and is giving to us in Jesus. We need to continue to follow the Star so to speak, to the light of Jesus and continue to live in that Light and help others to find it.

What a wonderful season Advent is. So good to reflect on Advent with these simple meditations.

What would you like to add to these thoughts today?

Luke 2:1-20

Luke 2

The Birth of Jesus

 ¹ In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ² (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³ And everyone went to their own town to register.

    ⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

The Shepherds and the Angels

 ⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

    ¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

    ¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
       and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

    ¹⁵ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

    ¹⁶ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Today’s New International Version (TNIV)

© Copyright 2001, 2005 by Biblica

Luke 2

prayer for Christmas

O God, you have caused this holy night to shine with the brightness of the true Light: Grant that we, who have known the mystery of that Light on earth, may also enjoy him perfectly in heaven; where with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Book of Common Prayer

Advent: God’s final word

God has spoken. This is a firm conviction among Christians, rooted in our Judeo-Christian faith. Scripture bears witness to this. And according to Scripture God speaks through creation, and also within human culture to prepare people for the message of Christ.

What if God would tell us that he has one final word to say to us? And that this final word will be the culmination and climax of all he has said before. And that while it may not answer all our questions it will most certainly give us what we need, what is needed, what God deems that we need.

With bated breath we wait, Israel waits, all humankind waits. And then finally God answers in a little baby who is said to be Savior and Lord.

God’s final word is personal and in a person, Jesus. If we want to know God we have to come to Jesus. We look at Jesus within the gospels and the entire New Testament, and then in light of the entire Bible. And by faith through the Spirit this becomes personal to us. And through us for others.

This final word in Jesus sets us on a journey, helping us along on it, a journey together with others in Jesus and for all in the way of Jesus. It is a living word at work in us for the world.

As we anticipate Christmas, the celebration of Jesus’ birth, let’s remember that Jesus is indeed God’s final word to us. And may we live out all of life from God’s final word.