A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. The text for today is Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14, & 2:24-26. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Vanitas, Vanitatum by Salvador Dali In the opening words of his book, Lutheran Theology , Steven D. Paulson makes this thought provoking statement: “Lutheran theology begins perversely by advocating the destruction of all that is good, right, and beautiful in human life.   It attacks the lowest and highest goals of life, especially morality, no matter how sincere are its practitioners.”   He goes on to say “Luther said the ‘sum and substance of,’ Paul’s letter to the Romans ‘is to pull down, to pluck up, and to destroy all wisdom and righteousness of the flesh’” (p.1).      As I prepared for today, the thought occurred to me that the Preacher of our text must have been Lutheran.   No, he didn’t hold potlucks in the church basement with egg coffee, casseroles, and lime jello. ...

The text for today is Ecclesiastes 3:1-8:   “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 cast 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 cast 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.”   Here ends the text. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Admit it!   Many of you (especially those of you from the baby boom generation), can’t hear this passage of Scripture without hearin...