Seasons (October 2022)

Dear Friends

A very long time ago, the writer of Ecclesiastes gave voice to simple and significant truth; that time passing requires us to navigate what may and may not be the most appropriate and possible ways of behaving:

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.” (3: 1-8).

It is a strange and remarkable list. We tend to only hear these words as a familiar funeral text. Certainly, with the death of the Queen, it will be a text often turned to. That is certainly part of what this passage from the Hebrew scriptures takes us to. By the time you read this letter, the initial moments of Elizabeth’s death and funeral will have passed and the reign of Charles III will be begun. Each of us will have navigated those stages of our nations’ histories in our own way.

But look again at what Ecclesiastes is highlighting. The suggestion is that death and mourning are not the only inevitable aspects of life to be negotiated. I notice again that starting point; that everything has its time, its ‘season,’ and its place. Theologically, we might well want to question the writer if the suggestion is that literally every second of every event and moment of life is sent and dictated by God. Such a theology can take us into harder places. Is illness sent by God? Is it punishment for wrong? When war comes, is it God’s way of working out the divine purposes? If flooding wipes out whole cities, is this God’s judgement upon them? Do we inherit the sins of those who went before us such that anything we endure today might be a hangover of God’s condemnation from yesterday, or from generations long gone? Are we only ever pawns in a cosmic chess game?

But there can be other ways of reading Ecclesiastes at this point. Perhaps it is more that we live always with the provisional and the possible. Our lives are neither indestructible nor isolated. We are not islands.

We are a world, nations, communities, friendships, neighbours, families, lovers. In living with others, we have no choice but to navigate change and choosing together. Notice how much of the list of contrasts presumes that we are doing this with other people. Our lives unfold page by page with changes happening to us, around us and within us. What if Ecclesiastes is inviting us to see this as a God-given part of our humanity to be embraced and handled well?

So, we enter a new stage in the life of the UK in a host of ways: new monarch; new Prime Minister and Cabinet; new political directions and debates; new efforts to tackle the cost-of-living crises. Simultaneously, we enter a new stage in the life of the world in a host of ways: war between Russia and Ukraine ebbing and flowing across the front lines; China’s approach to Taiwan bringing new alarm; climate emergency felt in record heat, drought, flood and storm; refugees and migrants on the move; international trade disrupted; economies stumbling. Simultaneously, we enter a new stage in the life we live: always growing a little bit older; health and wholeness always fragile; friendships and love not to be taken for granted; faith deepening or becoming flimsy; questions to face and choices to make; uncertainties about our own futures to navigate; wisdom and advice to find.

Ecclesiastes takes an honest look at the simple realities of life’s unfolding and holds to a sense that God is involved in it all. But, perhaps, not as the divine dictator but more as the holy helper who longs for us to make our way well in the world. Long after Ecclesiastes, God came into the world to fully embrace the eccentricities and excitement of human living and believing. Jesus had to navigate time, just like us. He had to embrace living with others, just like us. Even the ultimate reality of death was a reality for him.

These are unsettling times in many ways. We might be all too aware of the pressures those we know and love are under. We will know the things that run deep within us. We will want to help and choose well and be wise and kind and much, much more. This is the time God gives us. And God promises to be in this time with us, to guide and help and heal and encourage and strengthen and bless. Perhaps there will be agonies in these times for us, questions defying easy answers and challenges that feel impossible. Maybe then we need to be in this time with and for one another too.

Yours in Christ,

Neil