June 21, 2024 - Ecclesiastes 1-3

The Preacher utters one of his most famous sayings:  “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun” (1:9).  I was thinking about this.  Every generation seems to think that it is more special than others, smarter than others, and just better all around.  No doubt, humans have advanced from generation to generation in knowledge of our world:  our own biology, medicine, technology, physics, astronomy, etc.  And every generation has its own peculiarities, weaknesses, and strengths.  But to suggest that any one generation has “arrived,” well . . .  The millennials thought they had discovered something new and special with their skinny jeans though my own generation, even in the midst of the hippy generation, wore white skinny jeans and polo shirts, sort of the “country club” look.  All this is to say that the human race is what it is.  And what we are, in every generation, are sinners alienated from our Creator and in need of forgiveness from and reconciliation with our God, and that by Jesus and the gospel.  Always it has been so, always it will be so.  Nothing new under the sun.

Today I awake and God is before me,

at night, as I dreamt, he summoned the day

for God never sleeps, but patterns the morning

with slithers of gold or glory in grey.

Today I arise and Christ is beside me.

He walked through the dark to scatter new light.

Yes, Christ is alive, and beckons his people

to hope and to heal, resist and invite.   -- Chris Moorsom (1989)