Simple Integrity

Text: Ecclesiastes 5:1-20

As we explore Ecclesiastes during Lent, the one thing that I am struck with is that as complex as the Teacher’s thinking is at times, it is often how simple his observations can be. Wisdom does not necessarily need to be complex, because while it may take a great deal of nuanced thinking, the end results are often surprisingly clear and simple… and yet at the same time have an incredible depth to them.

While it might not be the part of last week’s sermon that you might remember, I did mention that the Teacher’s reflections can be downright agnostic at times. Something that perhaps we might find very frustrating. Yet just a few chapters later, we get a real sense of the incredible depth of Ecclesiastes’ reverence for God in life, and reverence for God in worship. He’s very reluctant to presume to speak for God… he’s very reluctant to make pronouncements on things that really are the province of God. Such practices, are indeed, an exercise in vanity.

But here in Chapter five… he walks with us into worship… and asks us to observe… The house of God that he invites us into is very quiet, a place of profound personal reflection. He makes the observation that we should take care when coming before God.

The words he uses goes something like this:

“Guard your steps when you go to the house of God; to draw near to listen is better than the sacrifice offered by fools; for they do not know how to keep from doing evil. Never be rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be quick to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven, and you upon earth; therefore let your words be few.”

These are indeed pearls of wisdom… and they come out of an observation that is very similar to what Jesus made about those who would tend to make grand spectacles in the Temple, while at the same time seeming to forget why they were there in the first place.

Chapter 5 of Ecclesiastes probably has more to do with our “active” Spirituality more than almost every other chapter in the book. The wisdom in life is an undercurrent throughout the whole book, but in Chapter five, the Teacher reflects on our worship of God.

For the Teacher, Listening is a sacrament. Listening to and contemplating on God’s presence is far more important than trying to impress God with grand words. It may seem simple, but it goes like this… think before you speak… listen before you speak…

Being quick to judge… quick to speak can often get in the way of our listening for God. As North Americans, we are notoriously bad for this. If you’ll allow me the tangent, the first sermon I ever preached was simply entitled “Listen.” I had no idea what I was doing, I had no idea where I was going with it… well, that was more in retrospect. It was a short reflection on how much talking we do, and by contrast as to how little listening we really do.

I don’t remember all that much about the experience, as I was terrified. I learned very quickly that preachers grab the side of a pulpit not for emphasis, but out of fear. We hang on for dear life… but the one thing I do remember is telling this story about someone making an observation as to how bad we North Americans are at listening. Perhaps you’ve heard this…

In three minutes of listening to someone else speak, it has been said that the average North American will attentively listen to the first minute of someone else speaking, spend the next minute formulating a response to the first minute, and spend the last minute trying to interrupt the person to give their response. I’m not sure how true that really is, but it does make for good copy.

Again, nothing is new under the sun. Ecclesiastes made these observations 2,500 years ago. The teacher observes as human beings how much we don’t listen. He takes a dim view of those great shows in worship, where people put on a grand display to appear pious, and yet for the Teacher, the insincerity is obvious. We tend to fill the air with words, and presume that we know best…and that, of course, is Vanity.

For the teacher, listening for God is very much a sacrament… it is a holy responsibility… and essential in our relationship with God… and yet at the same time it is balanced with this caution about not being too showy in the way that we worship.

I have to laugh, because if anything we Presbyterians are very good at is not being too showy in our worship. If anything we take it as a point of pride as being reserved, and not to lavish in the way we worship God… but there’s the rub. If it becomes a point of pride, it’s vanity… and the Teacher leaves us hanging there for a moment.

Some of you might remember me preaching on the nature of worship on the first Sunday in November. I asked you the question “when it comes to worship, who is the audience?” I speculated that most of you would have answered that the congregation is the audience. I put forward the idea that most of us have forgotten that in fact, God is the audience. I know that many of you were, and probably are, prepared to argue with me around that idea… which is fine… but consider this… the Teacher in Ecclesiastes reminds us that in our time in worship, we are coming before God… and we shouldn’t be too rash with what we say.

Yet right before we start developing a well-structured doctrine that worship should be dour and serious and never have a room for fun, off goes the Teacher again:

“This is what I have seen to be good: it is fitting to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of the life God gives us; for this is our lot.”

This is right towards the end of his commentary on our approach to God when it comes to worship. This is what he is concluding with! We should not be rash in what we say to God, and yet we are to enjoy what God gives us. Most of us have come to believe that enjoying something means that we’re fooling around and not taking it seriously. We have come to believe that enjoying something and taking it seriously are mutually exclusive. The Teacher begs to differ… it also raises a rather important question for us Presbyterian types:

If our purpose in life is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, how many of us actually enjoy our experience of worship?? I would venture to say that for many of us, it has become a boring duty… that someday we will be rewarded for it… but that, in and of itself, as the Teacher reminds us, is vanity. Worship is neither entertainment because we are not the audience, nor should it be boring. It is something that God calls us to enjoy!

What the teacher points out has nothing to do with how flashy or how reserved we are in our relationship with God… it’s all about how genuine that relationship is. Maybe we need to be a bit better doing that together. Don’t be too serious… be genuine. After all, God knows exactly who we are, and can very easily see through whatever venires or appearances we throw up to pretend otherwise. As the Teacher reminds us, this is vanity.

Instead, really, the Teacher reminds us that in our relationship with God, in our worship of God what matters is simple integrity. It is about listening for God in our lives. It is about saying “thank you God for this life.” and being honest about who we are in our relationship. It is trusting that God loves us for who we are, as we are… From all that, we have a simple responsibility: to enjoy the life that God gives us.

Amen.

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