In the second half of Ecclesiastes 7, Solomon adopts the style of the book of Proverbs, with multiple aphorisms on the topic of wisdom. He compares the wisdom of God (“I turned my heart … to seek wisdom,” vs. 25) with the foolish schemes of mankind (“wickedness of folly,” also vs. 25; “they have sought out many schemes,” vs. 29).…
There is an internet meme well known to folks of my generation that goes something like, “We are the middle children of history—born too late to explore the earth, born too early to explore the galaxy.” This is usually followed by a third phrase: “born at just the right time to ___,” where the blank is often a piece of…
In this morning’s sermon text, the Preacher of Ecclesiastes exposes the utter futility of materialism: “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 5:10). By contrast, the hymns we sing will point us away from the fruitless search for worldly wealth and success, looking to…
We open and close the service this morning with two classic hymns which joyfully proclaim the transcendence of God. God, My King, Thy Might Confessing asks the question “who can reach His majesty,” and calls us to proclaim to a watching world His “dread acts,” “deeds of wonder,” and His “sovereign power.” O Worship The King presents us as the…
In the long list of “evil deeds that are done under the sun” in Ecclesiastes 4, Solomon makes special mention of loneliness: “woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up” (vs. 10), and “how can one keep warm alone” (vs. 11). By contrast, many of the hymns we sing this morning…
In this week’s sermon passage, Solomon wrestles with the unjust state of the world. Everywhere he looked, he found wickedness and oppression. We too have reason to lament when we see “evil […] prosper in the land” (Fret Not Yourself—Psalm 37), when we encounter “change and decay” (Abide With Me), when we must confront the sin we find in…
Much like today’s sermon text from Ecclesiastes 3, many of the hymns we sing this morning mention aspects of God’s sovereignty over time. His truth has “at all times firmly stood, and shall from age to age endure” (All People That On Earth Do Dwell—Psalm 100). We are not to “fear the trying hour” (Incarnate God!—Psalm 91), but instead wait…
Today, we observe Ascension Sunday, perhaps the most neglected of the “five evangelical feasts” which are celebrated in most Christian traditions (along with Christmas, Easter, Good Friday, and Pentecost). This day marks the commemoration of the events of Acts 1:6-11 when Jesus completed His earthly ministry by ascending into Heaven and sitting down at the right hand of the Father.…
When writing Hear Me, All You People Hear—Psalm 49 back in the summer of last year, I made an off-hand comment to Mirandi and Elizabeth that, because the music was so dark, we could probably only ever use it in Lent— unless we had a sermon series on something really unusual, something like … Ecclesiastes. Well, providentially, that series is…
This week, Pastor Grant begins a new sermon series working through the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, with its troubling refrain of “all is vanity and a striving after wind” (Ecclesiastes 1:14, 1:17, 2:11, 2:17, 2:26, 4:4, 4:6, 4:16, 6:9). Paired with this meditation on the folly of human striving apart from the grace of God, we’ll read scriptures from…