January 1, 2012

New Year's Day


Ecclesiastes 3:1-15
Mark 1:14-15

Message series: After Christmas
Sunday’s message: New beginnings? or not?

We begin a new year, and we begin in earnest our tour through the Good News according to Mark. But also this week we'll take a look at a traditional New Years passage from Ecclesiastes.

Is there really a time for everything?

In one sense, there is a fitting time for everything. There is in the Bible a sense of kairos, a sense of the right time or God's time for things. "But when the fulfillment of the time came, God sent his Son". (Galatians 4:4 CEB) This is different from kronos. which is simply time as kept by a clock.

But is there a time for everything in the sense that God has set a timetable for each and every event, each and every action of ours, each and every outcome? Most of us would answer No, but there is a current in the popular form of American Christianity that claims that God controls everything and knows everything in advance. The writer of Ecclesiastes lived in that thought world. For this writer, good and bad all comes from a God whose thoughts and motives can never be known by us humans. The best we can do is enjoy the good and tolerate the bad.

That's in the Bible, but I don't agree. And I think most folks don't agree when it comes down to it. We like to think about ourselves as autonomous agents responsible for our own destinies.

Into that ongoing discussion comes the word from Mark. Jesus makes his first public appearance with the declaration: "Now is the time! Here comes God's kingdom! Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!" (Mark 1:15 CEB) As if something new is about to take place. And as if we could ourselves actually change how things come out by changing our hearts and lives, trusting the God has something good in mind.

We'll walk the space between Ecclesiastes and Jesus on Sunday morning. I'll see you there. And Happy New Year.