Qoheleth and the Good Life: Secondary Pleasures

 Solomon wants us to make sure we understand our priorities.  God is our chief concern and we are responsible to remember our Creator in the days of our youth- before we've wasted the short life we have been given.  Other things may vie for our attention but it will be disastrous if we make money or possessions, or relationships, or honor our primary concern.  Let God alone be your goal.

However, once we have that priority straight, Solomon discusses secondary pleasures.  These are good gifts that come down to us from the Father of lights.  We are to see them as our portion, gifts from God designed for our blessing.  Watch for all the things in Ecclesiastes that fall to our account as secondary blessings.

The blessings are not intrinsic to themselves.  Solomon says wealth and possessions and honor are neutral concerns:  One verse says God gives us the power to enjoy them.  Another verse says God could withhold the power to enjoy them.  Solomon is saying the difference is not in the gift but the Giver.

One blessing from God is the reminder that the righteous, the wise,  and their deeds are in the hand of God.  He is our security and our rest.  Whatever secondary gifts we might receive are not worthy to be compared with the contentment available in our relationship with Him.

One assurance regarding our short life in this world is that God "has already approved what you do."  This is as close as Solomon gets to Paul, said one commentator.  Because we have a faithful relationship with God, we can dress in white garments, wear the oil of gladness, and rejoice in the blessings of this life.  God has already approved our work.

Finally, in the midst of our toil, as we carry out the dominion mandate, these secondary pleasures go with us.  As we sweat and toil over the thorns and thistles involved in our work, God keeps us occupied with joy and gladness of heart.  These secondary pleasures keep us occupied with joy.

What are the secondary pleasures to which Solomon refers?  A quick scan of the book of Ecclesiastes is enough to help us find a load of gifts that are curses when we pursue them instead of God, but blessings when they come back to us from His hand.  Spend some time making your own list of secondary pleasures from the book.  Here's my list:

    Eat

    Drink

    Wealth

    Possessions 

    Honor

    Marriage (wife)

    Ability to do good

Qoheleth and the Good Life: What is the Role of Death in the Book of Ecclesiastes?

 Death plays a prominent role in the Book of Ecclesiastes.  Yet, Solomon doesn't have a morbid preoccupation with the physical decay or the emotional pangs of grief and loss.  Instead, he refers to death like Stephen Covey (First Law of Highly Successful People):  Begin with the end in mind.  His, and Solomon's reasoning, goes something like this:  1.  What do you want people to say at your funeral?  2.  Back up and live with those words in mind so that people actually say those things at your funeral.

Here are Solomon's two concerns:

First, Death reminds us of our limitations.  "No man has power over the day of his death."  Death is sure and we have no power to delay or divert it.  Our memory will be forgotten- there will be no enduring remembrance.  In death, there is no more reward for the things we do and we have no more share in what is done under the sun.  Man is limited to these few days that are given to us.  In light of death, how should we live?

Second, Death makes us rearrange our priorities.  "Remember your Creator in the days of your youth."  Before our bodies remind us daily of our approaching decay (it's too late for me, save yourselves!), we are to make Christ the central focus of our lives.  He is our central concern, our chief priority.  Then, Solomon says, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, because your time is quickly passing."

Our task is to invest our remaining time wisely with eyes wide open for opportunities to do good.  "Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes, but know that God will bring you into judgment."  Open our eyes, Lord, to what our investment possibilities are for Your glory!

For Solomon, death is not a tragedy, it is the finish line for a life well-lived.  May we arrange the days of our short life under the sun, in order that we may hear "Well done, good and faithful servant!"

Should the Church Advocate for Social Issues in the Public Square?

                 Some cultural practices of the past would horrify us today.  The change agents that brought about their end should be held in high honor. For example, in the China of the nineteenth century, it was considered a beautiful thing to bind women’s feet.  As a young girl grew, the bones in her feet broke, and grew into a small misshapen foot.  One change agent, Gladys Aylward, traveled from village to village to unbind those feet, working with the government to end the cultural practice.

                William Carey, translator, leader of educational reform, and missionary to India, was horrified by the practice of “suttee”- burning the widow on the funeral pyre of her deceased husband.  He spoke about the practice to both leaders and the wider community.  His efforts persuaded leaders eventually to end the practice. 

                Amy Carmichael was troubled by the temple worship in her adopted culture that amounted to little more than forced prostitution for young girls.  She worked to rescue them, to provide housing and a measure of security for the women.  Her advocacy on behalf of the young women brought change.

                Mary Slessor moved to Nigeria to bring the gospel to its people.  One cultural practice there was to kill twin babies when they were born as it was considered a demonic omen.  Babies were often abandoned and left to die.  She took them in and cared for them, while speaking publicly against the practice.  Her example helped bring change in the wider community.

                Cultures are usually blind to their own sins.  It often takes people from outside the culture, or with a different set of values, to point to them and advocate for their end.  The Christian is helpful here.  While he is a faithful citizen in the country where he resides, he is also a Christ-follower.  He has an objective set of values and ethics grounded in nature and in scripture.  He also has the capacity to bring compassionate healing to bear on the situation as the culture wrestles with the transition. 

                Foot-binding, suttee, and twin-killing:  We honor those who spoke out against these practices and put serious effort behind their eradication.  Abortion is the horror of our own day.  Future generations will wonder how our culture could be so blind.  They will lionize those who stood faithfully against the practice until it was eradicated.  It brings honor to Christ and to His followers when they are salt and light, bringing transforming power to the culture for its health and perseverance.  The challenge for today is both advocating for a moral conscience in the culture and compassionate healing for its victims. 

Boundary Lines of our Lives are Sovereignly Dispensed

 Boundary lines in our lives are those uncomfortable places where we stand longingly looking at the green grass on the other side of the fence.  God has given us great and gracious room to live and work and enjoy our lives.  Boundary lines give us security so that we do not step out of our place.   David said that the boundary lines of his life have fallen for him in pleasant places.  But, like our first parents, we want to be gods, to go rogue against the plans and purposes of God.  The boundary lines are designed to teach us:

1. We are not sufficient. If we had no boundaries, we would believe we are self-sufficient and in need of nothing, not God or other people.  Limitations cause us to trust God.  As well, the ways in which we are limited are often the ways in which others are gifted.  We are made to be in relationship with God and each other.

2. Our design defines us. God sets the boundaries of our lives from the very beginning. Intelligence, physical strength, vulnerability to disease, gender and disability.   He arranges the boundaries, just like our times and circumstances, in order that we may feel our way toward Him and find Him.

 

3. Our boundaries are sovereignly dispensed. Like Paul's thorn, they teach us grace. God does as he pleases in the affairs of men.  Because He loves us, we learn to trust Him.

 

4. The motive for God's design is His glory and our good. As Matthew Henry has reminded us, God has twisted interests with us so that these two goals are really one.

 

A man's got to know his limitations.  We look to God to increase our borders (like Jabez) but we learn to rest in our limitations (like Paul) when God does not arrange things as we would desire.  A well-adjusted believer holds both ideas in his head:  He can ask God for great things, wider borders.  He will also be grateful for what God has done in his often inscrutable wisdom.   No boundary line is without purpose.  All boundary lines will one day be explained.

Abortion is a Touchstone

A recent internet dust-up between two pastors on the issue of Christian voting bothers me.  The media always has a field day enjoying the division and the conflict in the Body of Christ.  I love both these men:  One is a trusted exegete- the kind of pastor who displays a savage loyalty to scripture that I admire and wish to emulate.  The other pastor is known for his theological depth and social application, also traits that I admire and wish to emulate.  May the tribe of both these men increase!

Pastor A says no Christian should vote for a candidate who supports abortion.  Pastor B says voting is a matter of personal conscience.  Both are right, so we must explain ourselves in order to be clear.  Here’s my take:

1.        Voting is a matter of freedom and conscience.  Issues such as social policy, foreign and domestic policy, issues of security and redressing grievances, are matters about which serious Christians can disagree.  Churches ought to lay the biblical groundwork for decision-making (like the creation ordinances) but never exercise discipline or infringe on the right of members to vote their consciences.

2.       While we may disagree, it does not mean the church should be indifferent.  We may disagree, but that does not mean, ultimately and finally, that it doesn’t matter.  Never stop the task of reading and applying scripture to the issues of our day.  The arena of adiophora, the things indifferent, is never as wide or as deep as we think.

3.       In the battles over politics and social policy, Christ must have a voice.  The church must not accept the sacred/secular dichotomy worshipped in our generation.  It has been used to marginalize moral influence.  Abraham Kuyper is right:  “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”

Now to the issue of abortion:  It is not an area of things indifferent.  The original setting in which man was created set apart the life of man as sacred.  Man is made in the image of God, the only being in the created world described in this way.  The image of God is the justification for our dominion.   It is the justification for the protection of life (Genesis 9:6).  Abortion denies the laws of creation which predate Moses.

If a politician supports abortion, will he respect the other creation ordinances?  Will he respect law grounded in the character of God?  Will he respect marriage and sexuality as God has created it as well as the boundaries God has set?  Will he respect work and rest as God has ordained?  The issue of abortion is the touchstone for evaluating a moral worldview.

Life, Law, Marriage, Work and Rest are designed in the moral fabric of man by a gracious God and they stand or fall together.  The contrasts are clear: 

             Absolute protection of life vs. a relative value of lives worthy to be lived

·                     Absolute view of law vs. relative law, enforced only by consensus or coercion.

·                     Absolute view of Marriage vs. blank slate sexual and gender freedom

·                     View of work as a necessary role of man, conferring dignity and respect, as he provides for himself and his family vs. the various views of socialism and communism which attempt to remove that responsibility from man

·                     View of rest as an essential feature of man’s week.  Sabbath rest is necessary for our physical and spiritual health vs. an ever-present material bottom line.

 

A politician who objects to the sanctity of life is likely to object to all of the creation ordinances.  A supporter of life is more likely at least to support the other parts of our moral design.  As leaders in the church, we must not let the media pit us against each other when we are really talking past each other.  May we find joy, satisfaction, and guidance as we faithfully search scripture and stand firmly with what we find.

The Lancet and the Psychological Effects of Quarantine

The Lancet (Lancet.com) posted a literature review of research on the psychological effects of Quarantine on February 28, 2020.  It is a great article that can help us as religious and community leaders to know what is happening among the people we serve.  It will be important for us to recognize the signs of post-trauma psychological issues so that we can help to mitigate them.  If we can understand the stressors inherent in a quarantine, we can provide healthy ministry when the quarantine ends.

The Lancet listed a collection of stressors people wrestle with during a quarantine.  Here are some a minister will likely see:  Infection fears, inadequate information, frustration, boredom, and financial loss.  Quarantine-related trauma among children is 4x higher that it is among children who were not quarantined.  Trauma-related mental health issues impacted 28 % of parents who were quarantined and 6% of those who were not.

Trauma-related mental health issues included:  Confusion, irritability and anger, detachment, anxiety and anxiety-induced insomnia, poor concentration, indecisiveness, and deteriorating work performance.  Low Mood and Irritability were the highest scores.  Most of the adverse effects came from the restriction of liberty according to the review.  Altruistic or voluntary quarantine was associated with less stress and fewer long-term consequences.

What does this mean for ministries?  As I'm thinking through our re-opening, I have a few ideas (and I would be glad to hear yours).

1.  I want to restore the sense of self-confidence in making decisions.  I want my parishioners to know, even if we open as soon as it is legal to do so, it will be their choice.  Come when you feel safe, wear a mask or don't wear a mask, and sit where you want to sit.  No judgement.

2.  At the end of a quarantine, only 5% reported feelings of happiness, 4% feelings of relief.  Issues of anger and depression continued in some people for 4-6 months.  We will need a listening ear as we return, being careful not to sing songs to a heavy heart.

3.  Ministers should speak clearly and compassionately about the results of quarantine and a Christian response.  They should speak with respect about the political leaders who made decisions with which they might disagree.  Perhaps this time everyone should get a pass.  There will be time afterwards to discuss the merits of quarantine and the restriction of liberty.

4.  Financial stress may linger long after the quarantine has ended.  Lack of employment can eat into savings, and cause conflict in marriages, at the workplace, and anxiety within.  Some financial bondage is self-inflicted but the quarantine was beyond their control.  Benevolence at this time could be money well-spent.  Be careful about making the recipient jump through hoops.  Now is not the time for regulation.

5.  On the first Sunday back, we'll take it easy.  Coffee and fellowship in the vestibule at 9:00am.  Private prayer in the sanctuary.  One service at 11:00am.  No hoopla.  Big party later, but for now, we minister peace, rest, and contentment to be together worshiping again.

I would love to hear ideas from others as they contemplate life after the quarantine.  We have not been this way before and in the multitude of counselors, there is safety.

Natural Rights, Civil Rights, and the Pandemic

          Now, in the midst of the pandemic, is a good time to review what we should already have known.  There is a difference between human or natural rights and civil rights.  Civil rights are rights that are conferred upon us by the government.  They are given or taken away by the government as it desires. 
          Human rights, however, are different.  They exist as part of who we are and what it means to be human.  They exist whether government chooses to recognize them or not.  Human rights are conveyed to us by God as part of what it means to be made in the image of God. A government that chooses not to recognize them, as our Declaration of Independence says, is the definition of tyrannical.
          How does this apply in the current crisis?  Behind every statement about the quarantine is an assumption:  The executive either recognizes that the people under his authority have natural rights or they don't.  If a government chooses to curtail human rights, it better have a quick, ready, convincing reason for doing so. 
          In my mind, an executive who believes in natural rights will explain the crisis with as much evidence as possible, all that he has available..  He will then invite his people to join in the voluntary curtailing of rights until the crisis has passed.  The weakness here is that convincing explanations take time.  The strength is that people will understand the crisis and the responsibility will remain with the people for the consequences.    Consensus may be hard to build, especially in this polarized climate, but you will have the heart of the people as together you work through the aftermath. 
          It will be easy to spot the executive who does not believe in anything but conditional rights.  He will say things like "I have looked at the evidence and I have made the choice to..."  In a paternal manner, he will look at the evidence and make the decision on behalf of the people.  The people will be left to trust without evidence, and obey without a voice.  When the executive moves unilaterally, then he is responsible for the political, economic, social, and legal consequences.
          What will happen during the next quarantine?  Have we lost human rights in perpetuity?  We are paupers if all we have left at the end of the day are arbitrary rights from a short-sighted government.