Monday 17th April
Read Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
“There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.” (NIVUK)
The Byrds made this one of the most memorable passages in scripture. So much so that it is difficult to read without their tune creeping in! For the most part they simply sing the lyrics but it finishes with a slight change in the words – it finishes ‘a time for peace, I swear it’s not too late’. Perhaps the change is intended to rhyme with ‘hate’? Or perhaps, in line with the ‘60’s, it declares that there is never ‘a time for war’? One wonders if they have captured the intention of the Teacher. Is this simply an easy-going, sometimes whimsical, declaration that life should be embraced in all its glory? The good and the bad? Or is something else intended?
One of the repeated phrases throughout Ecclesiastes is the declaration that everything is ‘meaningless’. Some translations have ‘vanity’. Some have ‘pointless’. The word though is more akin to ‘misty’ or ‘vapourous’ – it has the sense that everything is transient and ephemeral, unable to be grasped fully. As you reflect on this, ironically timeless, poem today how does it contribute to the Teacher’s picture of the transience and insubstantiality of life? Have the Byrds captured his intention well?
