Living in Synch with God’s Timing
- davidwperk
- Jun 5, 2024
- 7 min read
Devotional Reflection, Wednesday, June 5, 2024
Proper 4, the week of the second Sunday after Pentecost
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrases for reflection from today’s Old Testament reading:
3For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
2a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
7a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
11He has made everything suitable for its time;
You will find the full text of today’s Old Testament reading at the end of this reflection.
Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 968)
AM Psalm 119:49-72; PM Psalm 49, [53]
Eccles. 3:1-15; Gal. 2:11-21; Matt. 14:1-12
Today we celebrate the Feast of Boniface. (See below.)
David’s Reflections
The Byrds based one of their hit songs, “Turn, Turn,” on verses 1-8 of today’s Old Testament lesson. However, the key to understanding those lovely poetic sentiments lies in the prose verses 9-15. (See the full reading below.) Note verse 11, “God has made everything suitable for it’s time.” Ecclesiastes falls in the category of speculative wisdom. God has created the world with a basic order underlying the creation. To discover that order and live in harmony with it is the challenge of wisdom. Speculative wisdom, like Job and Ecclesiastes, deals with the chaos that frustrates our efforts to discern and to align our lives with that primal order. Both books have a subversive and nontraditional tone. We can be thankful the rabbis finalized their place in the Hebrew canon.
Please note that there are 14 pairs of activities. The first two are beyond human control--giving birth and dying. There is a clue here that the writer regards all of these actions, although human actions, to be actions that we ourselves do not time. Was it John Lennon who said, "Life is what happens while we are making other plans."?
Again, consider verse 11. "God has made everything suitable for its time." So, whose presence and activity determines when we engage ourselves in these activities? The Teacher of Ecclesiastes has come to understand that preceding his actions, undergirding his actions, and following his actions, the presence of God has been active. Somehow, he has been dancing with an invisible partner and following the partner's lead without realizing that he was on a dance floor.
If we are devoted to intellectual pursuit as the meaning of life, we have some sense of control. So with the pursuit of wealth and pleasure. So with some forms of Christian obedience that seek to control God's ways of treating us with obedience that indebts God. The author has rejected all these ways of exerting control over God.
The author remains skeptical; he feels powerless; he feels like so much of life is an empty breeze with no certainty, no ultimate purpose. The word the King James renders the word hevel as “vanity.” It denotes the air we exhale. Robert Alter, in his classic translation of the Hebrew Bible renders it “mere breath.” This is the opposite of the Hebrew word ruach, “spirit, breath, or wind.” Ruach is live-giving, but not hevel. The phrase ru’et ruach gets translated “vexation of spirit” in the King James. Alter prefers the creative rendering “herding the wind.”*
These two words “mere breath” and “herding the wind” recur repeatedly in this book, underlining the author’s sense of frustration and skepticism about the futility he experiences in life. Yet, in spite of his skepticism, Qohelet will not let go of God. Perhaps, in reaction to those who seek to control God or time, he overreacts. Perhaps he puts too much focus on the futility of life and on God's sovereign control. But, this corrective may not be harmful.
May we be as bravely realistic as he, able to see life's anomalies and mysteries, able to question traditional answers, even those of the church. Able to evaluate our past efforts to order and find meaning in life for what they are, “mere breath”. This is not a bad place to sit. Let us sit there At least the Teacher, Qohelet, lets us know that there is a place in the community for persons with his despair, with his pessimism, with his questions. Let us sit with the Teacher and learn to look and to listen deeply to life, always ready to discern that inner, hidden divine order beneath everything and to bring our lives more fully into harmony with it.
Remember Rilke’s counsel to the young poet.
"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves . . .Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day, into the answers.”+
*Robert Alter, The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. (New York: W. W. Norton, 2010), p. 340.
+Rainier Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet Trans. M. D. Herter Norton (New York: Norton, 1962), p. 35.
Collect of the Day: Proper 4
O God, your never-failing providence sets in order all things both in heaven and earth: Put away from us, we entreat you, all hurtful things, and give us those things which are profitable for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 229)
Today we celebrate the Feast of Boniface, missionary and martyr (died 5 June 754 CE).
Collect of the Feast of Boniface
Pour out your Holy Spirit, O God, upon your church in every land, that like your servant Boniface we might proclaim the Gospel to all nations, that your kingdom might be enlarged and that your holy Name might be glorified in all the world; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the same Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
A Collect for Grace
Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought us in safety to this new day: Preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 100)
For the Church
Give to your Church, O God, a bold vision and a daring charity, a refreshed wisdom and a courteous understanding, that the eternal message of your Son may be acclaimed as the good news of the age; through him who makes all things new, even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
A Prayer for Light
Grant us, Lord, the lamp of charity which never fails, that it may burn in us and shed its light on those around us, and that by its brightness we may have a vision of that holy City, where dwells the true and never-failing Light, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 110)
A Collect for Mission
Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen. (BCP, 101)
Daily Office Old Testament Reading, Ecclesiastes 3:1-15
3For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
2a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
7a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
9 What gain have the workers from their toil? 10I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. 11He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover, he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 12I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; 13moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil. 14I know that whatever God does endures for ever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe before him. 15That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already is; and God seeks out what has gone by.*
Daily Offices in the Book of Common Prayer
Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, The Book of Common Prayer
Noonday Prayer, page 103, Book of Common Prayer
Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p 109, Book of Common Prayer
Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer
Compline (Night Prayer), page 127, Book of Common Prayer
Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer
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