Meaning Making - Ecclesiastes Chapter 4

This is the sermon that was preached at Grace Baptist of Chicago by Sara Ross, June 8, 2008.

Meaning Making by Sara Ross
Ecclesiastes Chapter 4

On this rather warm day I'd like to tell you a story that took place in the dead of winter. My friend shared this story with me one day about holiday depression. I'm going to call my friend Benny in order to keep his story his own. Benny shared with me something he did one very cold December day when he was in the depths of a holiday depression.

Benny found he couldn't face the many expectations that others put on him and that he put on himself relating to Christmas and New Year's. The holidays had become simultaneously overwhelming and yet meaningless to him the last couple of years. What he thought the point was had become lost and had been replaced with coercive good will and commercialism, which didn't lead to his good will at all.

Benny had learned in other years what he needed to do in these moments ... pretend his lack of energy to cope with the expectations of the holidays didn't exist at all, until his enthusiasm somehow did kick in.

On this particular day though his fake it until you make it method also seemed pointless. He stopped caring whether or not he did anything on his overwhelming list or if his lack of participation in family events upset anyone. He was desperate to connect to the spirit of Christmas again, so desperate that he put on several layers of clothes and his heavy coat and boots, left his house and got on the bus and headed downtown.

Now Benny really didn't know exactly what he was setting out to do, but he knew he needed to do something. No he was not going to put money in the Salvation Army can or wrap a toy and put it in the Toys for Tots collection. He'd done these sorts of things in years past. They were good, and necessary, but he instinctively knew he needed something different to happen today. He was desperate! He stopped and purchased a Dominicks grocery store gift card. He had no idea what exactly would happen, where he'd go, who he'd find to offer this card to. He just knew he needed to participate in something real, something life giving.

He got off the bus in the Loop and started combing the streets praying that he'd come upon the right situation, trusting that he wasn't out there for nothing. Well, this went on for about 2 hours, Benny was getting cold so he occasionally spent some time in stores and public buildings. On any other day in the Loop he would have been sure to come across someone in need of money or food, someone spending the day in the cold trying to get what he was hoping and needing to offer--where were they?? All he saw were people moving very quickly to stay out of the cold and to accomplish the missions they were on.

It may sound too perfect, like a scene in a Hollywood movie, but Benny told me it was true that he was on his way home feeling particularly foolish and hoping no one would ask him where he'd been that afternoon when something did finally happen. He came out of the side entrance to a building and turned toward the bus stop when he passed a woman on the sidewalk on crutches with a cast on her leg. After Benny passed her he heard a faint, "Sir can you help me get a sandwich, some change, anything?" To my surprise Benny told me he almost didn't stop! Two hours of looking for this moment, only now he's suddenly awkward and shy realizing his own vulnerability in the moment. After an eternal second or two, Benny took a deep breath, and turned around. He nervously pulled the gift card out of his front pocket wishing now he could just give her the card and keep moving, but what he was holding required conversation.

The words fell out of his mouth, "I don't have any change, but you can take this if you want, it's got $20 on it, if you can get to a Dominicks from here."
The woman laughed, "You're joking, for real? This has got money on it?
"Yes."
"And I don't need to show them ID or anything?"
"Nope just give it to them at the check out." Benny told her.
"For real?" she asked again.
"You know where you can find a Dominicks?"
"Well yes, I do, I can get to one thanks."

Benny smiled a smile of relief at the woman, glad she finally believed him and he turned and walked toward the bus stop. He watched her get on a different bus with the change others' had given her. He knew he probably would never see her again. He wasn't forging an ongoing relationship with this individual, but his relationship with the universe had changed somehow. And the holidays seemed less pointless. Benny told me he now does some version of this ritual every December.

In Chapter 4 of Ecclesiastes, the living still have to face the disturbing reality of all the evil that is done under the sun. AnnMarie has spoken the last week or two about the importance of learning how to sit in the tension of feeling our pain and our joy, of integrating the two at the same time. Of embracing joy even in the midst of pain and the seeming pointlessness of all we do under the sun, not ignoring the pain, but seeking to find a balance. Seeking to find a faithful, even hopeful response to what we see. The author of Ecclesiastes offers as one of his responses: seeing our toil in the context of community.

Are you familiar with the bumper sticker, "Practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty"? This quote was originally coined by peace activist Anne Herbert. She wrote it on a placemat in a restaurant back in the early 80's and the ripples began of a movement that has had far reaching effects.

A random act of kindness is a selfless act performed by a person or persons wishing to either assist or cheer up an individual. They can be either spontaneous or planned in advance.
Some examples of very simple random acts might be:
• giving another driver your parking space when you got there first
• snow shoveling out your parking spot and the car behind yours
• bringing your co-worker a cup of coffee in the morning just the way they like it
• placing a coin in an expired parking meter
• saying hello to people you pass on the street
• complimenting a stranger about something they're wearing, maybe even during that awkward moment in an elevator.

Some of these are related to money when we have it to offer, but some require no financial abundance. This is really about how we move about in the world, as people and especially as people of faith. Consciously and faithfully choosing movement that helps to foster an environment of meaning in what can often appear a meaningless world.

Random acts of kindness are not random because they lack intention, but because they are not based on the obligations of a previously established relationship. Because of this, they encourage more belief in the possibility of future relationship and a communal sense of being in the world. They have the simple yet awesome power to break through a sense of aloneness and isolation.

If you Google Random Acts of Kindness on the internet you will find that there is a network of people from many different walks of life reclaiming communal meaning in their daily lives by sharing their own experiences of this concept. You can find example after example of acts people have thought of that have had an impact. People share acts they have done as well as when they have experienced someone offering them a random act of kindness.

When I find myself discouraged and believe we are losing the good fight, that all there is is bad news out there, futile chasing after of wind in the face of overwhelming oppression, suffering and pointlessness in the world, I find hope in the sharing found among people in these networks. These people are seeking to find creative simple ways to embrace community and set a greater sense of community in motion.

Something significant about Benny's story is that it was about more than a charitable act performed by someone who remained isolated from the person he was helping. Benny went out that day because he knew he needed something too. His choice required him to be active in finding this connection, it required him to then talk to someone, to be vulnerable in some way, and to trust the Spirit to lead him to this encounter.

He was reclaiming something he'd lost. His response to meaninglessness was to seek a sense of community.

Community happens not when we wring our hands and lament its absence, but when individuals dare to talk to each other, dare to care about each others' days. And yes, dare to risk being considered foolish.

The world is transformed when we seek to do kindness. We are transformed when we seek to do kindness, when we risk being kind in what is often an unkind world. The author of Ecclesiastes has found some respite from the demoralizing effects of the oppression and seeming pointlessness he observes around him in the idea of the two and the strength of a three fold chord. Connecting and joining in community and intimate relationship.

Jesus states, "Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them."(Matthew 18:20) Experiencing the presence of Christ in our lives is integrally related to gathering in community and moving about in the world with a sense of community. Christ's spirit is found in the 2 and the 3.

Have you experienced a random act of kindness this week? Have you performed one? In John 10:10 Jesus states, "I came that you might have life and have it abundantly." Let's consider how such acts of kindness can truly have an impact on our communal sense of the abundant life we share together and how we can be visible evidence and offerers of this abundance.

If greater community is not the result of the toil we do under the sun each day then yes, it is ultimately vanity. Only in community do work and reward find an integral connection. Only in community do pain and joy find the same. And only community gives us true rest and support from our toil.

As we collect our offering I invite you to consider what act of kindness you might offer this week to the greater community we inhabit. I invite you in your spirit to place that act in the basket as we dedicate our offerings to God.