WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.700 Well, good morning, church. Would you turn with me once again to the book of Ecclesiastes. 00:00:05.700 --> 00:00:16.800 We are looking at Ecclesiastes chapter 8 and 9 today, and that's page 522 in most of the Pew Bibles. 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:27.339 Now, we've seen that this middle section of Ecclesiastes, roughly chapters 6 through 10, 00:00:28.039 --> 00:00:35.179 kind of moves in a very elliptical way. In other words, Ecclesiastes will raise a topic 00:00:35.179 --> 00:00:39.439 and then sort of leave it and then return to it again and then raise a different topic and then 00:00:39.439 --> 00:00:44.619 leave that one and return to it later. The organization is a bit more like the book of 00:00:44.619 --> 00:00:49.299 Proverbs here, where the sayings aren't necessarily neatly structured or arranged, 00:00:49.380 --> 00:00:52.980 but they're kind of juxtaposed together to sort of make an overall effect. 00:00:54.739 --> 00:01:01.719 In Proverbs, you know, those different wisdom sayings are juxtaposed as if to say that a truly 00:01:01.719 --> 00:01:10.280 wise life weaves together all the strands of wisdom into a whole. A wise person is an integrated 00:01:10.280 --> 00:01:16.939 person. The wise life is a single life, a whole, one whole thing, and at the center is the fear of God. 00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:23.960 Now, Ecclesiastes also is sort of weaving observations together for an overall effect, 00:01:23.959 --> 00:01:32.739 and what's that overall sense that Ecclesiastes wants to give us? Well, seems to be that…to say that 00:01:32.739 --> 00:01:42.259 a life considered merely under the sun is a life characterized by contradictions. 00:01:43.599 --> 00:01:49.359 Life is fleeting. We can't grasp it. Just when we think we get a purchase on it, just when we think 00:01:49.359 --> 00:01:56.579 we'll make our mark, it slips through our hands. And wisdom for Ecclesiastes means coming to grips 00:01:56.579 --> 00:02:03.539 with that aspect of reality. Now, in the first part of chapter 8, turning to our text today, 00:02:03.579 --> 00:02:08.039 in the first part of chapter 8, Ecclesiastes returns to a theme that we've seen before, 00:02:08.120 --> 00:02:13.060 the theme of justice and injustice and of living in the midst of imperfect and even at times 00:02:13.060 --> 00:02:19.039 unjust authorities. So, rather than revisit that theme again this morning, I want to sort of leave 00:02:19.039 --> 00:02:27.099 that and go a little later in the chapter and pick up at verse 14. And from verse 14 of chapter 8, 00:02:27.199 --> 00:02:33.039 we're going to continue through the end of the section, chapter 9, verse 10. So, let me pray, 00:02:33.299 --> 00:02:39.259 and then we'll read, picking up at verse 14. Father, we do ask that You'd be with us now as we 00:02:39.259 --> 00:02:45.539 consider these words that were written so long ago and yet strike us with such poignancy and relevance 00:02:45.539 --> 00:02:51.239 and feel so contemporary to today. Lord, help us to understand these things, to ponder them, to wrestle 00:02:51.239 --> 00:02:57.280 with them, to grow in wisdom, and to see how ultimately they push us and lead us to the deeper 00:02:57.280 --> 00:03:04.819 truths of You and of Your Son, Jesus Christ. We pray this in His name. Amen. All right, Ecclesiastes 00:03:04.819 --> 00:03:07.899 chapter 8, picking up in verse 14. The writer says this, 00:03:07.900 --> 00:03:15.099 There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens 00:03:15.099 --> 00:03:21.040 according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according 00:03:21.040 --> 00:03:31.200 to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. And I commend joy, for man has nothing 00:03:31.200 --> 00:03:37.300 better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through 00:03:37.300 --> 00:03:44.180 the days of his life that God has given him under the sun. When I applied my heart to know wisdom and 00:03:44.180 --> 00:03:49.480 to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one's eyes see sleep, 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:56.760 then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. 00:03:57.840 --> 00:04:03.580 However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, 00:04:03.580 --> 00:04:10.740 he cannot find it out. But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise 00:04:10.740 --> 00:04:15.340 and their deeds are in the hand of God, whether it is love or hate, man does not know, both are before 00:04:15.340 --> 00:04:23.639 him. It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good 00:04:23.639 --> 00:04:27.800 and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. 00:04:27.800 --> 00:04:34.900 As the good one is, so is the sinner. And he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. 00:04:36.379 --> 00:04:42.960 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, 00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:46.759 the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, 00:04:46.800 --> 00:04:53.819 and after that they go to the dead. But he who is joined with all the living has hope, 00:04:53.819 --> 00:04:59.360 for a living dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they will die, but the dead 00:04:59.360 --> 00:05:05.000 know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Their love and their 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:10.439 hate and their envy have perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun. 00:05:12.539 --> 00:05:19.120 Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what 00:05:19.120 --> 00:05:25.660 you do. Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the 00:05:25.660 --> 00:05:30.259 wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that 00:05:30.259 --> 00:05:36.800 is your portion in life and your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, 00:05:36.879 --> 00:05:43.879 do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol to which 00:05:43.879 --> 00:05:49.839 you are going. Have a great Sunday, everybody. 00:05:52.800 --> 00:06:00.120 So Ecclesiastes seems to be making two interrelated observations about life under the sun in this 00:06:00.120 --> 00:06:08.540 passage. On the one hand, there is no guarantee how your life will go. And on the other hand, 00:06:08.540 --> 00:06:18.460 there is a guarantee how your life will end. On the one hand, life is very uncertain. But on the other 00:06:18.460 --> 00:06:27.140 hand, death is very certain indeed. So let's consider both of those things. Consider the uncertainty of 00:06:27.140 --> 00:06:33.120 life. In chapter 8, verse 14, he says, there's a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are 00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:37.060 righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to 00:06:37.060 --> 00:06:44.500 whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. Ask yourself, will living a righteous 00:06:44.500 --> 00:06:52.579 life guarantee that you experience no suffering? Will living a righteous life mean that you experience 00:06:52.579 --> 00:07:02.199 no harm, no trial, no heartache? No, says Ecclesiastes. There are righteous people to whom it happens 00:07:02.199 --> 00:07:08.939 according to the deeds of the wicked. There are righteous people who are slandered, persecuted, 00:07:09.500 --> 00:07:14.740 fired from their jobs, wrongly convicted, and sentenced. Living a righteous life is no guarantee 00:07:14.740 --> 00:07:21.680 of a trouble-free life. And at the same time, Ecclesiastes says, and don't expect that wicked people will 00:07:21.680 --> 00:07:26.560 always get what their evil deeds deserve in this life. There will be wicked people who are exalted, 00:07:26.560 --> 00:07:32.740 who are praised, who are put in positions of influence, who live long, trouble-free lives. 00:07:34.360 --> 00:07:37.579 In a fallen world under the sun, there are no guarantees. 00:07:40.740 --> 00:07:46.939 Now, maybe today you're feeling discouraged because you've been trying to live a good life, 00:07:47.000 --> 00:07:52.639 a righteous life. You've been trying to please God with what you think and say and do, 00:07:52.639 --> 00:08:02.800 but troubles and heartache seem to be unending. And you look around you and you see classmates or 00:08:02.800 --> 00:08:08.620 colleagues or co-workers who you know are kind of bending the rules or shading the truth or acting 00:08:08.620 --> 00:08:14.699 selfishly or even maliciously, and it seems like nothing ever goes wrong for them. They seem happy, 00:08:14.699 --> 00:08:26.599 healthy, healthy, prosperous, and your heart is heavy. Does God see you? Does God care? Why is all this 00:08:26.599 --> 00:08:36.919 bad stuff happening to you and not to them? Well, in verses 16 and 18 of chapter 8, Ecclesiastes admits 00:08:36.919 --> 00:08:43.879 that often we can't figure out why God allows it like this. Look again at 16 and 17, 00:08:43.879 --> 00:08:47.559 when I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that's done on earth, 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:55.279 how neither day nor night do ones I sleep. Then I saw all the work of God that man cannot find out 00:08:55.279 --> 00:09:01.919 the work that's done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. 00:09:02.460 --> 00:09:11.740 And even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out. Sometimes the circumstances 00:09:11.740 --> 00:09:16.759 and ways of God in this life are inscrutable. It would be very easy to be like Job's friends, 00:09:16.860 --> 00:09:20.919 right, and say, well, bad things are happening to you because God is actually upset at you, 00:09:20.919 --> 00:09:26.360 and wicked people always get what they deserve in this life. It'd be very easy to trot out those 00:09:26.360 --> 00:09:35.480 easy truths, right? But the truth is, that's not how it goes always, is it? Ecclesiastes says, 00:09:35.480 --> 00:09:43.080 I saw all the work of God, and we can't figure it out. But then in response to all that, 00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:52.940 Ecclesiastes' advice in response to that is pretty surprising. Look at verse 15. 00:09:52.940 --> 00:09:55.200 He says, 00:09:55.520 --> 00:10:04.720 And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat, drink, and be joyful, 00:10:04.880 --> 00:10:08.780 for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the 00:10:08.780 --> 00:10:16.260 sun. There are no guarantees in this life. The righteous will sometimes get what the wicked 00:10:16.260 --> 00:10:19.480 deserve. The wicked will sometimes get what the righteous deserve. And what does Ecclesiastes 00:10:19.480 --> 00:10:32.060 commend in response? He says, eat, drink, be joyful. In other words, in the midst of life's 00:10:32.060 --> 00:10:42.139 uncertainties, make it a practice not to fret but to feast. 00:10:42.139 --> 00:10:53.720 Can you feast? Can you feast when life doesn't give you what you think you deserve? 00:10:55.939 --> 00:11:03.919 When your toil doesn't amount to what you think it should? When your life doesn't work in a straight 00:11:03.919 --> 00:11:17.139 line but takes a crooked turn, can you feast? It's easy to fret, isn't it? To get angry, to get bitter, 00:11:17.259 --> 00:11:23.219 to despair, and then to keep grinding over those same disappointments, the way in which life didn't 00:11:23.219 --> 00:11:28.459 give you what you think it should have given you. It's easy to see the wicked, the proud, the self-centered, 00:11:28.460 --> 00:11:32.600 the thankless, getting all the things they deserve, and it's easy to see then complain. 00:11:36.440 --> 00:11:43.180 But Ecclesiastes comes alongside of us and says, I see it too, the uncertainty of life, 00:11:44.200 --> 00:11:49.720 the crooked line where it should be straight. But in the midst of that uncertainty, 00:11:49.720 --> 00:11:58.840 I recommend that you make a practice of feasting. Eat, drink, yes, be joyful. 00:12:02.360 --> 00:12:08.320 And this counterintuitive advice shows up in the second point of our passage too. 00:12:09.460 --> 00:12:15.600 Let's look at that briefly as well in chapter 9, verses 1 through 10. We move from the uncertainty of 00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:22.519 life to the very real certainty of death. It's the same for all, verse 2 says in chapter 9. 00:12:23.519 --> 00:12:30.000 Since the same event happens, and listen, to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, 00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:33.940 to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. 00:12:35.279 --> 00:12:41.840 And as the good one is, so is the sinner. And he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. That is, 00:12:41.840 --> 00:12:45.320 those who keep their promises end up in the same place as those who break their promises. 00:12:45.320 --> 00:12:52.600 Death is the universal equalizer, good or bad, religious or irreligious, your earthly life will 00:12:52.600 --> 00:13:01.320 end and there's no escaping it. And that is a bit troubling to Ecclesiastes. Look again at verse 3. 00:13:03.080 --> 00:13:07.940 He says, this is an evil in all that's done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. 00:13:07.940 --> 00:13:15.940 The hearts of the children of man are full of evil. Now, what he means by that word evil there probably 00:13:15.940 --> 00:13:22.660 means troubles, strife. He's not saying, your heart's desperately wicked, you're morally depraved. No, 00:13:22.660 --> 00:13:29.340 I think he's saying, our hearts are full of trouble and turmoil. And then he says, madness, foolishness 00:13:29.340 --> 00:13:35.899 is in our hearts while we live. We carry all these burdens and after that, we go to the dead. 00:13:35.899 --> 00:13:52.259 And from where Ecclesiastes stands, death is a shadow beyond which he cannot see much hope 00:13:52.259 --> 00:14:05.700 from his perspective. Verse 10 ends with, there's no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, 00:14:05.759 --> 00:14:13.340 that is the grave, to which you are going. Verses 5 and 6 say, the dead know nothing. 00:14:13.340 --> 00:14:21.480 They have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Their love, their hate, their envy have 00:14:21.480 --> 00:14:26.800 already perished. And forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun. 00:14:29.920 --> 00:14:31.780 So from where Ecclesiastes sits, 00:14:33.180 --> 00:14:43.259 there's a shadow. And then in light of the certainty of death, Ecclesiastes again, 00:14:43.259 --> 00:14:50.899 somewhat surprisingly says, go, eat your bread with joy, drink your wine with a merry heart, 00:14:51.620 --> 00:14:56.340 for God's already approved what you do. Let your garments be white, let not oil be lacking on your 00:14:56.340 --> 00:15:02.200 head. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life, your fleeting life that 00:15:02.200 --> 00:15:07.720 He's given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under 00:15:07.720 --> 00:15:20.660 the sun. Sounds a bit like resignation, doesn't it? Death's inevitable, so you might as well live as 00:15:20.660 --> 00:15:28.019 joyful a life as you can. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. Carpe diem. 00:15:28.019 --> 00:15:39.299 You can sort of hear Robin Williams, can't you? Come in, boys. Carpe. If you've never seen Dead 00:15:39.299 --> 00:15:44.000 Poets Society, shame on you. Go get it out of the library, get it on Netflix, one of the greatest 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:55.659 movies of all time. There's a sense in which Ecclesiastes is a bit resigned here. Remember, 00:15:55.659 --> 00:16:02.379 this book does not give us all the answers. It wants us to think about deep questions. 00:16:05.539 --> 00:16:10.819 And note that key phrase at the end of verse 6. What does it say at the end of verse 6? 00:16:11.639 --> 00:16:21.919 Under the sun. Under the sun. If your life is lived, if my life is lived, merely from a perspective 00:16:21.919 --> 00:16:35.539 under the sun. Then death is the end. If time and chance and matter and those material, imminent 00:16:35.539 --> 00:16:43.860 things is all that there is, if we're just living life under the sun, then maybe the best you can do 00:16:43.860 --> 00:16:54.080 is raise a glass in resignation. Light a bonfire on the beach, party with your friends until the tidal 00:16:54.080 --> 00:17:03.180 wave of oblivion comes and washes us all away. But is that all there is? 00:17:03.179 --> 00:17:12.799 On the one hand, life is uncertain. On the other hand, death is incredibly certain. 00:17:14.559 --> 00:17:19.659 So, we might as well make the best of it and push those harsh realities out of our minds as best we 00:17:19.659 --> 00:17:26.259 can. Is that all there is to say? Feasting as an act of just resignation? Is that it? 00:17:26.259 --> 00:17:42.440 You know, it's very interesting that during His earthly ministry, Jesus was regularly feasting. 00:17:44.900 --> 00:17:49.819 In fact, He got quite a bit of criticism for this. People would come to Him and say, 00:17:49.819 --> 00:17:56.619 you know, the Pharisees fast and the disciples of John the Baptist fast. Why don't you and your 00:17:56.619 --> 00:18:03.099 disciples fast? Why are you always eating and drinking? It's not what religious people are 00:18:03.099 --> 00:18:07.700 supposed to do. And at another point, Jesus is talking to the crowds and He says, 00:18:08.879 --> 00:18:13.359 John the Baptist came eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, he has a demon. 00:18:14.279 --> 00:18:17.759 The Son of Man, referring to Himself, the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, 00:18:17.759 --> 00:18:23.519 and you say, look at Him, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. 00:18:26.400 --> 00:18:32.779 Jesus is saying, this is the criticism you're giving me. Jesus was criticized because He ate, 00:18:33.819 --> 00:18:42.400 and He drank, and He rejoiced. He didn't fast and look gloomy like the Pharisees. 00:18:42.400 --> 00:18:53.320 He gathered His friends, a ragtag crew to be sure, and He even gathered some folks who were commonly 00:18:53.320 --> 00:18:59.420 viewed as sinners and outsiders, definitely not good religious folk. And He sat down with them, 00:18:59.960 --> 00:19:08.600 and they feasted. And you remember, don't you? You remember what Jesus' first miracle was? 00:19:08.599 --> 00:19:17.500 You know, when He sort of says, okay, here it is. I'm ready to make a public statement. 00:19:20.480 --> 00:19:27.679 It's at a wedding. It's at a feast. It's to keep the party going at the feast. 00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:39.880 What's going on? What's going on in the life of Jesus? Was Jesus simply teaching us to eat, 00:19:40.060 --> 00:19:49.580 drink, and be merry because tomorrow we die? Was He saying, gather round, boys. Carpe diem. 00:19:49.579 --> 00:19:58.740 Was His ministry one great act of resignation in the face of life's uncertainties and death's 00:19:58.740 --> 00:20:04.319 all-too-certainty? Or was it something else? 00:20:08.879 --> 00:20:10.679 Well, how does Jesus answer His critics? 00:20:13.319 --> 00:20:17.779 Jesus the Pharisees fast, and the disciples of John the Baptist fast. Why don't your disciples 00:20:17.779 --> 00:20:26.460 fast, Jesus, and how does He respond? Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with 00:20:26.460 --> 00:20:35.759 them? Do you take new fabric and sew it onto old clothes? Do you take new wine and pour it into old 00:20:35.759 --> 00:20:46.960 wineskins? What is Jesus saying? New wine, new clothes, a wedding feast. 00:20:47.779 --> 00:20:58.740 A groom. This isn't the language of resignation. This is the language of reclamation. 00:21:03.460 --> 00:21:08.960 God had come to reclaim His lost creation. 00:21:08.960 --> 00:21:22.440 The groom had come to reclaim His lost bride. She had wandered into the far country. She had forgotten 00:21:22.440 --> 00:21:27.880 the name of her beloved. Life for her was now just existence under the sun. 00:21:27.880 --> 00:21:37.960 With the false freedom of an imminent frame pressing down. And under the curse of sin, creation was subject 00:21:37.960 --> 00:21:53.320 to death and decay and loss. But in Christ, God has come. In the midst of sadness and death and uncertainty, 00:21:53.319 --> 00:21:59.559 in a world where the righteous sometimes get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked deserve, 00:21:59.559 --> 00:22:13.879 that sorrow and injustice are not what is ultimate in reality, that reality is more than just life under 00:22:13.880 --> 00:22:22.620 the sun. And at the end of the sun. And at the end of His earthly ministry, when Jesus gathered His disciples 00:22:22.620 --> 00:22:34.140 for the last time, what did He do? He actually taught them how to have a feast. He said, take bread and take 00:22:34.140 --> 00:22:47.040 wine and break it and eat it and pour it out and drink it. Why? Because that feast would always remind us 00:22:47.040 --> 00:22:56.300 and always make present to us, always make present to us through creaturely elements just how the groom 00:22:56.299 --> 00:23:02.759 reclaimed His bride. Just how the Creator reclaimed His fallen creation. 00:23:05.039 --> 00:23:13.940 This bread is My body broken for you, Jesus said. This cup is My blood shed for you. 00:23:15.839 --> 00:23:24.460 You see, when Jesus went to the cross, God was taking the crooked line and making it straight. 00:23:24.460 --> 00:23:34.079 At the cross, you know, the only truly righteous one to have ever lived got what the wicked deserve, 00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:43.319 God's wrath against sin. Jesus died in the place of sinners so that sinners who trust in Him 00:23:43.319 --> 00:23:50.500 could receive what the righteous deserve, acceptance with God and eternal life. 00:23:50.500 --> 00:23:59.359 And on the third day, Jesus rose from the grave. His body that had gone down into death came through 00:23:59.359 --> 00:24:08.720 death into indestructible life. Do you see how significant the resurrection is? Jesus, God incarnate, 00:24:08.799 --> 00:24:20.319 took our human nature through death into life everlasting. Jesus defeated death in our very humanity so that 00:24:20.319 --> 00:24:30.299 humans united to Him might also walk through death's door and not be scathed and so that one day death will be no more. 00:24:33.700 --> 00:24:35.399 What happened on Easter morning 00:24:35.399 --> 00:24:41.359 was the great proclamation 00:24:41.359 --> 00:24:43.359 creation. 00:24:43.359 --> 00:24:48.639 That death will die and the grave will be empty and creation will be healed. 00:24:52.779 --> 00:24:54.059 Not just sort of 00:24:54.059 --> 00:24:57.139 whisking us away from the material creation, 00:24:57.919 --> 00:25:00.259 but healing it from the inside out. 00:25:01.859 --> 00:25:05.619 Healing the very material of it in His bodily resurrection. 00:25:05.619 --> 00:25:05.719 creation. 00:25:07.719 --> 00:25:14.019 Because Jesus, the King of creation, is risen indeed. Creation has been reclaimed. 00:25:18.039 --> 00:25:24.979 And so, as Christians, we take material things and we feast. 00:25:24.980 --> 00:25:30.500 Do you remember the scene near the end of the line, the witch in the wardrobe? 00:25:31.559 --> 00:25:36.900 When Aslan is on the move and the snow is beginning to melt and the witch is kind of driving her sleigh with 00:25:36.900 --> 00:25:41.180 difficulty through the slush and the mud. And then she comes upon this little group of creatures, 00:25:41.299 --> 00:25:48.660 these little woodland creatures, and she stops. She says, what are you doing? And she demands that they 00:25:48.660 --> 00:25:51.400 stop what they're doing. And do you remember what they're doing? 00:25:51.400 --> 00:25:54.200 They're feasting. 00:25:55.480 --> 00:25:55.940 Why? 00:25:57.360 --> 00:25:59.040 Because Aslan is on the move. 00:26:00.220 --> 00:26:01.320 Winter is broken 00:26:01.320 --> 00:26:03.160 and spring has come. 00:26:04.280 --> 00:26:05.340 They're feasting 00:26:05.340 --> 00:26:07.380 because something more true 00:26:07.380 --> 00:26:09.540 has arrived than the witch's 00:26:09.540 --> 00:26:11.360 tyranny in the winter of her reign. 00:26:12.700 --> 00:26:13.180 They're 00:26:13.180 --> 00:26:15.320 feasting, not as 00:26:15.320 --> 00:26:16.360 an act of resignation, 00:26:17.300 --> 00:26:18.900 but as an act of rebellion. 00:26:21.400 --> 00:26:23.080 I think it was Kathy Keller who said, 00:26:23.680 --> 00:26:26.100 their feasting was an act of war. 00:26:27.680 --> 00:26:30.580 An act of war in the name of the true king. 00:26:31.360 --> 00:26:33.120 An act of war against death 00:26:33.120 --> 00:26:34.740 and all of his friends. 00:26:34.740 --> 00:26:47.120 Brothers and sisters, life 00:26:47.120 --> 00:26:49.099 is uncertain. 00:26:55.579 --> 00:26:56.859 There will be trials, 00:26:57.720 --> 00:26:58.400 disappointments, 00:26:58.559 --> 00:26:59.380 and troubles. 00:26:59.380 --> 00:27:01.860 And until the king returns, 00:27:02.940 --> 00:27:03.880 physical death 00:27:03.880 --> 00:27:05.500 will still be 00:27:05.500 --> 00:27:08.280 how our earthly sojourn ends. 00:27:09.980 --> 00:27:11.880 But death is not the end. 00:27:13.200 --> 00:27:15.660 In the face of these uncertainties 00:27:15.660 --> 00:27:17.200 and certainties, 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:20.540 let us be a feasting people. 00:27:21.740 --> 00:27:24.580 Let resilient joy be our theme 00:27:24.579 --> 00:27:26.740 because Christ is risen 00:27:26.740 --> 00:27:28.599 and God has won 00:27:28.599 --> 00:27:31.179 and he will make all manner 00:27:31.179 --> 00:27:32.059 of things well. 00:27:33.980 --> 00:27:35.419 And let our feasting 00:27:35.419 --> 00:27:36.720 tell the world 00:27:36.720 --> 00:27:38.379 what is true. 00:27:40.379 --> 00:27:41.579 That we are not 00:27:41.579 --> 00:27:43.299 building bonfires 00:27:43.299 --> 00:27:45.039 on the shore of oblivion, 00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:47.919 but sin has been defeated 00:27:47.919 --> 00:27:50.319 and death has been conquered 00:27:50.319 --> 00:27:52.759 and the king is on the throne 00:27:52.759 --> 00:27:55.200 and God has reclaimed 00:27:55.200 --> 00:27:57.279 his creation for good. 00:27:58.799 --> 00:27:59.539 Let's pray. 00:27:59.539 --> 00:27:59.579 Let's pray. 00:28:08.619 --> 00:28:10.059 Father, we thank you 00:28:10.059 --> 00:28:12.200 for the sobering reflections 00:28:12.200 --> 00:28:13.859 of the book of Ecclesiastes. 00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:17.599 Lord, that helps us 00:28:17.599 --> 00:28:20.259 not to just glide 00:28:20.259 --> 00:28:21.679 through life glibly, 00:28:22.799 --> 00:28:24.219 taking things for granted. 00:28:26.919 --> 00:28:27.879 God, thank you 00:28:27.879 --> 00:28:29.659 for how it lifts our eyes 00:28:29.659 --> 00:28:30.919 to deeper questions, 00:28:32.159 --> 00:28:33.000 pushes us towards 00:28:33.000 --> 00:28:33.959 the deeper answers 00:28:33.959 --> 00:28:35.359 that your gospel provides. 00:28:36.699 --> 00:28:37.819 Jesus, thank you 00:28:37.819 --> 00:28:38.740 for showing us 00:28:38.740 --> 00:28:39.719 what it really means 00:28:39.719 --> 00:28:40.839 to feast and why. 00:28:41.839 --> 00:28:43.279 Help us to be a people, 00:28:43.619 --> 00:28:44.359 your people, 00:28:44.980 --> 00:28:46.339 who know what it means 00:28:46.339 --> 00:28:48.599 to drink this new wine, 00:28:48.699 --> 00:28:50.119 to wear these new clothes, 00:28:50.240 --> 00:28:51.659 to know that we are loved 00:28:51.659 --> 00:28:53.539 by the bridegroom 00:28:53.539 --> 00:28:56.480 and that your kingdom 00:28:56.480 --> 00:28:57.319 will know no end. 00:28:58.959 --> 00:28:59.779 We pray this 00:28:59.779 --> 00:29:00.779 in your mighty name, Jesus. 00:29:01.139 --> 00:29:01.379 Amen.