Life Stinks and Then You Die

The book of Ecclesiastes is one that I have always had trouble understanding. As a minister I say that with great humility and embarrassment. I have actually avoided teaching that book and studying it because of my lack of understanding. I recently had the pleasure of reading the book, Life Stinks and Then You Die by Bob Hostetler. Hostetler takes on the book of Ecclesiastes in a way that everyone from the learned scholar to the average member in the pew can understand. I can say that this book has given me a new appreciate for the genius of the book of Ecclesiastes. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed this book, and I believe it has allowed me to reclaim a book of the Bible that has laid dormant in my devotion and teaching. I will have to say that that the title of Hostetler’s book may seem odd, but once you pick up the book it makes perfect sense. He points out that Solomon, by the time he writes Ecclesiastes, has lived a long and full life. Anyone that lives a long life will experience heartache and dispair. The book of Ecclesiastes does not sugar coat the issue of pain in this life with mere moral platitudes, but hits it head on with sobering teaching. Hostetler has organized his book in a masterful way that begins to unpack the main theme of the book of Ecclesiastes which is found in chapter 1 verse 2 that says, “Meaningless!, Meaningless! says the Teacher, Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!” Hostetler points out that the word ‘meaningless’ or ‘vanity’ appears 38 times in the book of Ecclesiastes. From that statement one would think that Hostetler’s book is depressing but it sincerely deals the problems that we face today with boldness and provides hope throughout its pages. Hostetler sheds light on the why so many things seem to be meaningless in this life. Hostetler takes the ancient wisdom of Ecclesiastes and makes it relevant for postmoderns. For example, Hostetler pulls into the light the vanity of the fast paced life that pursues money and the fleeting things that will not last. As a matter of fact, after reading “Life Stinks”, it seems like Ecclesiastes speaks perfectly to this current age. The pointless pursuit of just ‘being busy’ to the point that we look back and realize that none of this ‘stuff’ lasts leads one to throw their hands up and cry ‘Vanity!’. I believe the real strength of this book is found in the wisdom that he unpacks from Solomon in that if you live your life for those things that last you are impervious to the things that tend to rock people to their core. The greatest highlights of the book are the following: just because we age and grow older does not mean we mature, we should expect the unexpected, and we should live each moment as it is the last of our life. The title of Hostetler’s, which at first seemed to be odd to me, truly nails the outlook of this amazing book of Ecclesiastes as “Life Stinks and then you Die.” I would highly recommend this book to anyone struggling with life and its many problems as well as anyone that wants to unlock the meaning of the book of Ecclesiastes.

Do Matthew, Mark, and Luke Present Jesus as Divine?

Many blogs and conservative websites have recently posted on old interview of Bart Ehrman by Stephen Colbert. Colbert gets into character during the interview and it is very entertaining. Colbert actually does decently well in his rebuttal of Ehrman, even though it is a bit 'tongue in cheek'. Erhman actually admitted that Colbert was correct in presenting the Gospel of John as holding forth Jesus as God incarnate in flesh. Where Colbert could have taken Ehrman to task was in the assumption that the Synoptic Gospels (Matt, Mark, and Luke) did not present Jesus as God. Ehrman, in his book Jesus Interrupted, proposes that the Synoptics paint a picture of Jesus as the purely human Jewish Messiah. He believes that the Divinity of Jesus is a later 'add on' of the Church. I would like to propose that Ehrman has not considered the Synopics as the original audience would have heard them. For example, if we could go back in a time machine and ask a Second Temple practicing Jew a few questions it may shed light on this issue. If one were to ask a practicing Jews the following questions: Who can forgive sins?, Who is the Lord of the Sabbath?, Who could be worshiped?, and Who could restructure or reconstitute what it means to be and Israelite? The resounding answer would be, "Only the one true God of Israel!" Now take that into consideration when you think about how Jesus claimed all of these roles in the Synoptics. In Mark 2 we read of Jesus' healing of the paralytic man let down through the roof of a home. Mark 2:5-7 reads, "And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” 6Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7“Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (ESV) One can quickly see that Jesus claims to have the authority to forgive sins and the reaction of the scribes says it all, "God ALONE can forgive sins" Here is just one implicit claim to divinity by Jesus of Nazareth. Matthew bookends his gospel with folks worshiping Jesus. We see that he is worshiped as a baby in Matthew 2:11 and worshiped after His resurrection in Matthew 28:9. We know that only to God alone is worship allowed but Matthew is rubbing our nose in the fact that the story of Jesus is bracketed with worship. The question Matthew is asking the reader is, "Will you worship Him too?" Jesus does other provocative things such as claim to be the Lord of the Sabbath and reconstitute what it means to be an Israelite by literally 'making 12' (his disciples) and determining the boundaries of being God's people as those that are with Him. One could just look at the only accusation that stuck to Jesus in his trail before His crucifixion and see that His claim to Divinity was what put Him on the cross. Mark's Gospel records the sham trial of Jesus and how the Council tried to get false witnesses to testify against Jesus. The problem was that the false witnesses had contradictions in their testimony. What finally stuck was that Jesus claimed equality with God. We read in Mark 14:61-63 "Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” 62And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” 63And the high priest tore his garments and said, “What further witnesses do we need? 64You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision?” And they all condemned him as deserving death." (ESV) Jesus claimed the right to sit at the right hand of God which clearly means to share in His glory. One can witness the violent reaction of the high priest to see the effect of this claim. The very reason that Jesus was put on the cross was because of His claim to Divinity. To the Romans it was presented as a claim to Kingship but the Sanhedrin wanted Him on the cross because of their perception of blasphemy. In this post I just explored a few of the examples of Jesus' claim to Divinity in the Synoptics. It is a shame that Ehrman and other scholars try to discount the Christian faith using less than honest tactics. In a sound-bite society I am afraid that many people stop short of truly investigating some of the wild claims by a man like Ehrman.

The Intolerance of the Tolerant

Many of you have heard of the controversy surrounding Brendan Eich the former CEO of Mozilla that came to its climax last week. Eich was actually the founder of Mozilla and the board of directors of the company recently decided to name him CEO of the company. This announcement touched off a firestorm in the liberal community. In protest some businesses blocked the Mozilla Firefox search engine from visiting their sites. Their reasoning was to put so much financial pressure on Mozilla that they would have no other recourse but to fire Eich. Eventually, Eich stepped down and is no longer employed by the very company that he helped found. You may ask what had Eich done that was so terrible? Had he committed a heinous crime? Had he stolen some poor person’s last meal? His only fault was that he had given $1,000 to support a California amendment to ban same-sex marriage. It was found that Eich actually endorsed traditional marriage. Can you believe that! The audacity! With all joking beside it is a sobering reminder that we live in interesting times. The irony of this entire pitiful situation is that one of Mozilla’s commitments as a company is to tolerance and equality. I guess that commitment is only extended to people that agree with the country’s current slide into moral oblivion and relativism. What should we do as Christians? 1) Pray for our country. 2) Wake up and decide that we are willing to give up personal comfort so that we can take stand. 3) Realize that we belong to God’s kingdom first and we are just aliens in a world that has turned its back on God.