Towards a new perspective

Ecclesiastes 1: 2, 12-14; 2: 18-23. This is an honest antidote to all those who say that the world naturally points to God. The author is a pessimist who is sensitive to the injustice of the world (4:1-3) and uncertain about organised religion (5: 1-6). Trying to find any meaning to life by human effort is folly, and human achievements are temporary, and life is unhappy. The “Teacher” ends up acknowledging the awesomeness of God and deciding that God doesn’t have to justify himself. That this tract is in the Bible at all is a testimony to the breadth and search for truth that the Bible encompasses.

Colossians 3: 1-11. All the morality that follows is dependent on verse 1 which says “If you have been raised with Christ”. The morality that follows is pretty conventional and one of the main messages is contained in verse 11 which says that in this renewal all differences between race and culture are transcended for those “raised with Christ”.

Luke 12:13-21. Luke is adamant that property and wealth are spiritually dangerous and this parable echoes Ecclesiastes in saying that effectively this is vanity because all lives come to an end. But there is no mention here of the good that money can do or how terrible poverty can be, and common ownership and a collective pot were ideals that were never taken up by the church. But how we use money can be seen as a prime indicator of where our heart’s loyalty lies.  

I have a confession to make. When I had a crisis of faith after encountering the wild claims of certain people on the charismatic fringe of the church, it was reading Ecclesiastes that brought me back into the church.

Its decidedly pessimistic understanding of our lot, human ambition, and apparent futility of life was a powerful corrective to the wild claims of magical healing, speaking in tongues, and people falling over that had such a negative impact on me at the time.

The very fact that such a book could be included in the canon of the Bible spoke volumes to me of a much more realistic, truth seeking version of the Judeo-Christian tradition that took opinion and testimony from all sides. That took contrary sceptical views and insights seriously. It took the search for truth itself very seriously. Apparently, this is the only piece of Ecclesiastes that is included in the whole three-year Sunday lectionary cycle, which is a shame.

The pursuit of truth is very important. Scientific truth, or spiritual truth makes no difference. One cannot be in competition with the other.

Getting to the bottom of the essential nuggets of truth contained within scripture is a part of my job description which I do to the very best of my ability.

Applying that wisdom and insight to our two other readings today what can we discern with any certainty?

Both of them assert that when we accept the truth claims of Christianity our values and way of looking at the world changes. We re-orient our outlook and ways of being and doing to reflect new information – new truths. This dramatic sea change the Bible calls Metanoia – which we translate as repentance. It involves changing our standpoint from a self-centred way of looking at things to a more God-centred way of looking at things.

Paul writes in Colossians that “if we have been raised with Christ” (ie, changed our view of the world) the following should happen, and then he lists a whole litany of things we should no longer do, a list which prioritises self-gratification over the good of all, mentioning everything from fornication to abusive language. The list is pretty uncontroversial in itself but are marks of the process of the re-orientation of the self.

One mark of that re-orientation is seeing all people whatever their race or culture as equal in the sight of God because God made all human beings in the image and likeness of God and Jesus died for the sins of a Somali drug dealer as much as he died for a English stockbroker. We need to be reminded of this radical insight into the truths of Christianity on a regular basis because it runs so counter to conventional human wisdom which wants to put everyone on a scale of goodness from 1 to 10. Shifting from human wisdom to God’s wisdom seriously taxes our ability to accept these kinds of insights.

Likewise, Luke’s gospel if taken too literally could be said to say, “Don’t ever plan or prepare for the future”, but that is not I believe what it is saying. As part of the re-orientation of our life should come the realisation that the proper use of the money we have is an indicator of where our heart’s loyalties really lies.  It is also a reminder that we are mortal and what God desires from us in our dealings on earth is respect for others, a concern for fairness and justice, using our money to further the kingdom of God no less, instead of our own kingdoms.

Discipleship is a word which we have heard of but perhaps haven’t realised that it is the task of every baptised Christian. Think of discipleship as you and God working together in your very being to gradually turn us around, to look at life, other people, politics, everything really from God’s perspective who wills the best for everyone and make that more and more, our perspective.

It is a narrow path to walk, and requires a certain discipline to make it happen but as Jesus said in Luke 17, the kingdom of God is within you and any change we want to see in the world has to start with us.