LIVING BY DYING (2019)

The book of Ecclesiastes is, as some have described, the feeling of utter darkness so as to better realize the power of the light. The idea here is that we grow accustomed to grace and the goodness of God. We like the idea that church is never sad or uncomfortable. We want a life and a community that says bad things never happen to good people, where the right thing is always said and done, where Jesus is just a kind hippie, and where the wrath and punishment of God isn’t a thing. Our eternal sight grows accustomed to the light, and we lose the gravity of who we are in Christ, how we have been changed and transformed, how truly earth-shattering an act of grace the death of Jesus is, when all we practice and hear is sunshine and rainbows. Because all we need to do is look up and see that there are many in the world who walk around in the dark, feeling their way through in the absence of light, doing everything they can just to survive, hoping, endless, for the spark of light to guide their way. We need to remember our story is their story, and so the story Ecclesiastes is a momentary quenching of the light, a walk through the dark forest, and as our eyes adjust to hopelessness, and despair, and frustration, we can not only appreciate, but desire, the light of the world that John says the darkness cannot even comprehend.

This is a journey in search of the ultimate goal of meaning for all of humanity, using the dark story of Ecclesiastes as the roadmap and legend. I encourage you to surrender to the experience, and to be honest with yourself and with your community—prayerfully, we will come to the same conclusion of what everything is all about.