January 3, 2010 – Epiphany Sunday and Memorial Sunday
Matthew 2:1-12 and Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
Rev. Jeffrey L. Phillips, pastor
“To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.”
3 interpretations
Fatalism. Fate. “There’s a reason for everything.” “Everything happens for a reason.” God determines everything that happens according to God’s timetable. “When your time’s up, it’s up.”
Moralistic. There’s a right (and wrong) time to do everything. Do what you’re supposed to do when you’re supposed to do it. “A time for war and a time for peace” means that it is sometimes right to wage war.
Acceptance. Recognize that there are different times and seasons in life, accept this fact, and make the most if it. The Birds: “To everything turn, turn, turn, there is a season, turn, turn…”
New Year – a new season. What will it bring?
Dad’s ability to accept his physical problems and incorporate them into his life.
Life does have many seasons – some we choose and others we don’t.
We can fight them and be bitter about them, always longing for the way things used to be or should be, or we can accept the changes, making room for them in our lives.
Grace.
Que sera, sera!
Mai pen rai
Buddhism: the impermanence of all things, not holding on, striving, clinging to things, going with the flow.
Ecclesiastes: Vanity! All is vanity! It is foolishness to try to hold on to the illusion of happiness.
Life does have a rhythm. It has cycles and stages. We can choose to move with them, or refuse the invitation to dance.
Remembering the dead (Memorial Sunday).
They had many seasons and times in their lives, many changes (both good and bad).
Now they have finished the final stage, leaving us to enter a new stage in our lives.
Child who endured loss: “Life is never the same, but it does go on.”
Wise Men.
Their time to explore and discover. They left a lot behind, and were changed when they went home. Their lives were divided into BB and AB (“Before Bethlehem” and “After Bethlehem.”) They embraced the transition.
Where is God in all of this?
God is the one constant in all the changing seasons (sign out front).
God helps us make the transitions (not make sense of them, just make them.)
Early Church Fathers on Ecc. 3:1-8: There may be a time for everything under heaven, but now is always the time for God. Now is always the time for growing spiritually as we endure the changes.
Niebuhr Serenity Prayer
“God grant me the serenity to accept that which I cannot change,….”
God is the giver of that acceptance, that courage, that wisdom.
God doesn’t cause the seasons, the changing times (at least not directly, at least not for me), but God is our constant companion on the journey of life’s ups and downs.
God is the one upon whom we can fall back when the times and seasons threaten to undo us.
Communion – a season of grace, a particular time when grace is promised and delivered.
It is futility trying to force life to be what we want it to be. It will drive you crazy, and leave you bitter.
Instead, open your hands and learn acceptance and grace, such as we are about to receive in the Sacrament.
Life doesn’t always make sense. Life isn’t always what we want it to be.
As Jesus himself observed, bad things happen to good people, and good things happen to bad people.
The old fashioned reward/punishment (karma) system doesn’t always work.
We suffer from unrealistic expectations, and put ourselves through needless suffering.
Maybe life isn’t supposed to make sense. Maybe life is just supposed to be life – as it is, warts and all. Maybe the existentialists of the 1950s (Camus, Sartre) were right: maybe life is just one absurdity after another.
Maybe it’s meant to be observed and lived as best as we can – with God as our joyful, reliable partner, helper and friend.
And if that’s all life is, it sounds like we all have a lot to live for.
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