Daily Lectionary – June 3, 2020

Morning Psalms 65; 147:1-11

First Reading Ecclesiastes 3:1-15

Second Reading Galatians 2:11-21

Gospel Reading Matthew 14:1-12

Evening Psalms 125; 91

 

Ecclesiastes 3:1-15

¹For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

²a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

³a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

⁴a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

⁵a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

⁶a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away;

⁷a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

⁸a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

⁹What gain have the workers from their toil? ¹⁰I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. ¹¹He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. ¹²I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; ¹³moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil. ¹⁴I know that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe before him. ¹⁵That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already is; and God seeks out what has gone by.

Ecclesiastes makes the rare appearance in church since the book so often reads as world-weariness. “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity,” is the refrain. But you have probably heard today’s words before, at least in the popular song by The Byrds in 1965. The verses recognize the truth about how temporary our lives are; and the things we think of comprising them—the relationships, the busyness, the work, the progress—meet their partner in solitude, rest, and stillness. We do better with the first list; and when we’re confronted with the second—as in this season—the anxiety mounts almost as much as it does for the pandemic raging around us. God created our whole lives good. Why not this time?

 

God, be with us in whatever season we find ourselves, assuring us of the love of Jesus Christ which finds us every day of our lives. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.