A time to weep, and a time to laugh

0:05

Have You Found the Lord?

Today is Friday the 25th of September, in the 25th week of Ordinary Time.

Leslie Jordan with The Porter’s Gate sings, ‘Have You Found the Lord?’ In whatever season you find yourself at the moment, can you see Christ working, even in the most unexpected of places?

Have you found the Lord?

Is he in the wind?

Yes, yes, yes, he’s in the wind

Have you found the Lord?

Is he in the storm?

Yes, yes, yes, he’s in the storm

Christ is in ten thousand places

Ever-present, high and low

Where could I, where could I

Where could I go?

Have you found the Lord?

Is he in your tears?

Yes, yes, yes, he’s in my tears

Have you found the Lord

As a patient friend?

Yes, yes, yes, he is my friend

Christ is in ten thousand places

Ever-present, high and low

Where could I, where could I

Where could I go?

Have you found the Lord?

Is he always good?

Yes, yes, yes, the Lord is good

3:16

Today’s reading is from the Book of Ecclesiastes.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-11

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.

What gain have the workers from their toil? I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover, he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

5:33

Is today, for you, a time to weep or a time to laugh? A time to keep silence or a time to speak? If Ecclesiastes is right, these things all have their appropriate season. So where do you find yourself just now?

Some of these “times” are perhaps more surprising. Is there really a time to kill, as well as a time to heal? To hate, as well as to love? Where do you find yourself most challenged here?

Towards the end of the passage, the writer seems perhaps a little frustrated. Despite our human ingenuity, we can never know God fully, “from the beginning to the end”. Is there anything in you that shares that sense of frustration?

As you hear the passage again, simply let yourself be caught up in the poetry of these contrasting times characteristic of any human life.

8:52

Ecclesiastes 3:1-11

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.

What gain have the workers from their toil? I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover, he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

10:54

End this prayer by thanking God for the good times you experience and asking his help for the bad ones.

13:06

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be

World without end

Amen