Time and the Seasons of Life. Lectionary # 453. Sept. 24th.

Scripture: Time and the Seasons of Time. Sept. 24th. Lectionary # 453.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-11. Psalm 144:1-2,3-4. Luke 9:18-22.

Qohelet is the Hebrew name for this book of scripture. Today Qohelet (the
preacher, teacher, philospher) goes through fourteen of the common
experiences of each of us. Whether he intended this as a two times seven
approach to biblical thought or just happened to come up with fourteen is
an open question. Fourteen is the number that is symbolic of King David,
the father of Solomon who is often associated pseudomninously with the
books of Wisdom. The two words of "time" and "season" are set up in the
fourteen contrasts that we are familiar with from this poetic section of
Ecclesiastes or Qohelet.

Among these contrasts we do have some difficulties in accepting what the
text says. Really should there be a time for "hate" when from the biblical
point of view we are always encouraged to love and to love even our enemies
according to Wisdom personified, Jesus. St. Paul's hymn is more of a
positive challenge to face life with the demands of love: patience,
kindness, no jealousy, no greediness, no irritation, etc. (see I
Corinthians with various translations for the nuances, I Cor.13).

In one of the verses of Qohelet there is a breadown of what he is saying
from his head. The verse reads: "God has made everything appropriate to its
time, and has put timelessness into their hearts." (verse 11). The Hebrew
commentary from the Soncino series says, "God has endowed us with a sense
of the future. We know that we are more than a creature for a day, and this
consciousness is a cause of our dissatisfaction with the transitory
experiences which take place within the span of our lifetime." (p.126).

The poetic contrasts of this chapter in Qohelet are excellent for this time
of year when we start another season, the season of Autumn. The word for
"season" in Hebrew is 'et and it does fit this pattern of contrasting the
seasons of that we have in Qohelet. We can look at the positive and see how
it does contrast with the negative realities that we all face. Both ethical
victories as well as in sports are won by those who are optimistic and
supportive of their team mates.

As Christians we believe that the kingdom of God is within us and that we
are temples of the Holy Spirit. We are to delve deeply by faith, hope, and
love into our hearts in order to find the peace and rest that the positive
side of the equation offers us. Like the woman clothed with the sun with
the moon beneath her feet is a symbol of the ark of the covenant, we, too
are called to be the dwelling place of the Divine. We always come back to
Genesis that men and women are made in the likeness and image of God.
(Genesis 1:27).

Jesus, delves deeply into prayer before asking his disciples to answer the
question of who he really is to them. Peter gives the correct answer and
we then see that Jesus is the one who took that verse 11 of Qohelet and
lived it out for us. Even in death he was victorious. We are to unite
ourselves to him and bring his Good News to others.

We start with birth and end with death. "A rabbi homiletically eliminated
the fatalistic implication of the statement in verse 2 by explaining:
Happy the one whose hour of death is like the hour of birth; as a person is
pure at birth so should one be pure at death." Amen.