Sermon Quotes: "Life Is a Gift from God" (Eccl. 1:12-2:26)
The following quotes were cited in the June 17, 2018 sermon, "Life Is a Gift from God" (Eccl. 1:12-2:26), by Greg Dirnberger.
“Learning how to handle this book is an exercise itself, training us to wait and travel on amid unanswered and everyday unpleasantness found in our real worlds . . . the book intends to train us in our capacity for waiting upon God amid the uncomfortably unfixed.”
“The gift of God does not make this meaninglessness go away. The gift of God makes this vanity enjoyable.”
“All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they use, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both – to be happy. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.”
“A woman stranded on an island may possess three board games, Yahtzee, Scrabble, and Sorry. Every night, there are always options for fun! But the options never change on an island she cannot leave . . . Even the covenant goodness of sexual intimacy as described in the Song of Solomon isn’t the provider of our ultimate gain . . . Deep into middle age and fully one with wide smile of their satisfying bodily love, they reach for their robes and the bones pop, the joints ache . . . I know what it is to look to music to make my heart whole. As a young man, I would turn up the radio, close my eyes, and lose myself in voice, melody, and rhythm. When the song ends, we have to open our eyes again. The sunless morning still waits for us to enter it. The dishes dirty in the sink still wait for soap . . . A man works all of his life with a company. He retires, receives a pen and a pat on the back. That moment of seeing the work is the best the work can offer . . . Affirmation and fame feel wonderful, but each is a gypsy – a wanderer who fidgets to leave as soon as it arrives.”
“Once it was good enough for a man and a woman to have God and the good gifts God gave, even if it meant that there was a tree and a fruit that existed but not for them. Now, even though we are surrounded by opportunities to laugh, or drink, or work, or make money, none of it is enough, we are not satisfied, and death stomps on all of it.”
“God has placed a fracture in the fabric of the universe, and things are now not what they should be.”