Building Paradise | SL 5.3 (March 2024)
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Sometimes I go to London for a seminar day. Came out of the tube and didn't quite realize where I was about to be. Good fun.
For Your Enjoyment
Since New Years we have been steadily working on one project then another (see Work & Ministry Update below). It's been nice and the winter months have flown by. During these months, I've taught and reflected quite a lot on the book of Ecclesiastes. One thing that Ecclesiastes is clear about is that enjoying creation—eating and drinking, good work, a relationship, all things that make life meaningful—these things are inherently gifts from God (see Eccl 2:24–26). This idea echoes throughout Scripture.
Jas 1:17
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
In that Spirit, here's some links and recommendations of things I've been enjoying over the last few weeks. In the second part of the newsletter, I'll offer an interpretation of Eccl 2:1–10.
Thanks for reading. We love you guys.
Crosslands staff and students at our MA residential in Newcastle in January.
By leaps and bounds, The Bible Project is producing the most innovative, inspiring, and informative material on Scripture. Their podcast has been phenomenal for some time, but in 2024 they have launched a year-long study on the Sermon on the Mount that is radio-show quality, with special guests, beautiful sound engineering, and fascinating content. Here you will find a fresh encounter with Scripture and with the Lord Jesus. Seriously, this is so good.
Future Islands have a new album out, and it's more great jams from a band I have come to love late in the game. Some spiritual themes and many a heartfelt lyric here. Future Islands make sincerity cool. I'm all in.
The other band I have been listening to almost non-stop is Birmingham, Alabama's phenomenal neo-soul outfit, St. Paul and the Broken Bones. They have been steadily progressing their sound ever since 2014's debut, Half the City. Their singer, Paul Janeway, is the best in the business. It's as if Otis Redding or Wilson Pickett came back as a dweeby white millennial. I do not get tired of watching live videos. They are such a tight and talented outfit. Their new single, however, has led me to the alarming question, "Do I like disco?". If it's St. Paul, apparently the answer is yes!
But I'll also share some older cuts. Occasionally, when I am at loose ends with a bit of time to kill, I like to browse through old live performances from late night TV (e.g., SNL, The Late Show). Watching bands make their TV debut on Letterman is particularly fun because, if Dave likes something, he lets you know. When St. Paul and the Broken Bones made their late night debut they absolutely cooked and Dave came out raving. He made 'em play another minute and a half of the song over.
He had them out for a roaring encore and, again, his commentary at the end is brilliant: "Oh man! He's got the blues—we'll get you someone to talk to buddy." I love it. Contagious, authentic feeling all around.
Finally, I have a book recommendation. Well, really its an audio book recommendation. A few weeks ago I discovered that the audio book of Charles Portis's classic western, True Grit, is read by none other than novelist Donna Tartt. Now I am a BIG fan of both Tartt and True Grit, so although I don't normally do audio books, I decided to make an exception. Man. What a gem. Donna Tartt is from Greenwood, MS and her genuine Southern accent and salty, deadpan delivery perfectly suit True Grit's narrator and heroine, Mattie Ross. This book is both a romping good Western and brilliant dark comedy. Five out of five stars.
Here's a brief passage to give you a flavor for the narrator:
The Indian woman spoke good English, and I learned to my surprise that she too was a Presbyterian. She had been schooled by a missionary. What preachers we had in those days. Truly, they took the word into the highways and hedges. Mrs. Bagby was not a Cumberland Presbyterian but a member of the U.S. or Southern Presbyterian Church. I too am now a member of the Southern Church. I say nothing against the Cumberlands. They broke with the Presbyterian Church because they did not believe a preacher needs a lot of formal education. That is all right but they are not sound on election. They do not fully accept it. I confess it is a hard doctrine, running contrary to our earthly ideas of fair play, but I can see no way around it. Read 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 13, and 2 Timothy chapter 1 verses 9 and 10. Also 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 2, 19, and 20, and Romans chapter 11 verse 7. There you have it. It was good for Paul and Silas and it is good enough for me. It is good enough for you too.
Amen. Take and listen.
At Christchurch Mayfair in central London with one of my tutor groups. These guys just wrapped up their Pastoral Ministry course and we spent the day sharing and critiquing their final papers.
Work & Ministry Update
- Work with Crosslands has been full on since getting back to England on Jan 3. The week of Jan 15th, I taught the book of Ecclesiastes for our fourth year MA students as part of a course called Advanced Biblical Studies. This module is meant to help them go deeper with different kinds of genres and more challenging biblical books. Not only is Ecclesiastes one of my favorite books, it is surely one of the more puzzling and perhaps least obviously Christian. It made a great test case for the students.
- Less than two weeks later, Crosslands hosted our annual Winter conference in Newcastle. We had most all the seminary students up as well as dozens of guests for a program that featured classes, workshops, and special sessions. I reprised my Ecclesiastes material on Feb 1 and 2 for our Lifelong course, which is designed to help pastors and ministry leaders in continuing education.
- Last week I was "down South" in London and Southampton for seminar days with the three tutor groups I lead. We had a rich time as the students shared and received feedback on the papers they wrote for their recently completed class on Pastoral Ministry. They studied a wide variety of complex and pressing pastoral issues from same sex attraction to pastoring someone whose spouse has had an affair to rethinking small groups and evangelism within a local church.
- Six months in, I've settled into my role with Crosslands and made it through the busiest season of teaching and traveling for the year. Over the next few months, I'm going to be working on revising Crosslands' biblical studies sequence and looking toward my teaching for the Autumn. I'm planning to do some work on EXODUS, so look out for that material in this newsletter.
- In Durham, Meghan and I are continuing to mentor university student leaders, work with the student ministry more broadly, and invest in students studying theology. The students just wrapped their major evangelistic push for the year, "Events Week," led by Durham's Christian Union. It is really an incredible undertaking that is entirely student-led. Here's a short promo video. It's fun to watch cause we know these kids. Many, many people heard the gospel and I know that at least one student made a decision to follow Christ.
Teaching on Ecclesiastes in Newcastle for our MA students' residential in January.
Building Paradise: Ecclesiastes 2
Every human being has to decide what is worth doing with their life. They don’t necessarily even have to ask the question, but everyone will offer an answer in how they live. In many traditional cultures, perhaps, it doesn’t feel like much of a question. The received wisdom and cultural norms are so strong you wouldn’t dream of doing anything other than taking over your parents’ business, getting married, having children, caring for your elderly relatives. These are the things humans are meant to do. But in a culture like ours, which is highly individualistic and deeply conflicted about its past and traditional values, many people actively wrestle with this question, whether consciously or unconsciously.
The book of Ecclesiastes presents one biblical wise man’s personal quest to answer this ultimate human question: What is worth doing with your life? The narrator of the book goes by the moniker, Qohelet, which is usually translated into English as the Preacher or something similar. He lays out his personal memoir at the beginning of chapter 2:
Eccl 2:1–10 (ESV with my tweaks underlined)
1 I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; discern what is good.” But behold, this also was vanity. 2 I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” 3 I searched with my heart how to draw out my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. 4 I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. 5 I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. 6 I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. 7 I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. 8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and a fine wine table and settings [1], the delight of the sons of man. 9 So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. 10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil.
Now, if you’re familiar with this text, you probably associate it with hedonism. The idea that Qohelet goes on a pleasure quest to experience all that he can experience. But if you slow down and look more closely, there’s little in this account that can accurately be labeled wanton debauchery [2]. Instead, his memoir is characterized by building projects and agriculture. He constructs houses, vineyards, gardens, and orchards. The pools are not for swimming, they are for irrigation. He gets slaves to work his plantation for him. Only after this agricultural estate becomes highly successful and Qohelet is wealthy does he begin to enjoy the fruits of his labor. But even at this point, although he denies himself nothing, his chief source of pleasure is the work itself and this pleasure he counts as his reward.
This should make us sit up. Qohelet is at least as much a workaholic as he is a hedonist. His approach to life may make him somewhat eccentric in the ancient world, but for modern Westerners an individual quest for fulfillment through our work is not just relatable, it is downright encouraged. But ought we to commend Qohelet’s quest?
For a different perspective on these verses, we might turn to the homilies written by the Church father, Gregory of Nyssa, late in the fourth century AD [3]. For Gregory, Qohelet’s memoir should be understood as his confession. Qohelet speaks of his experience for the benefit of the church that his own shame from a wounded conscience might deter others. For Gregory the pursuit of earthly goods is in contrast to pursuing the things to which they point or for which they stand. So Qohelet confesses to building houses and planting vineyards, but thereby neglects the “dwelling which is really his own,” that is, his own self, where he might take “God into residence.” By planting vines he is seeking a vast supply of wine, which leads to heinous sin (Gregory points to Gen 9:20–23 and 19:30–38). Cultivating the vine of one’s own heart, by contrast, might produce “the sweet and mellow grapes of virtue.” But Gregory’s most damning words by far come in his condemnation of slavery in v. 7. The arrogance and pride that would presume to buy, sell, and own human beings who are themselves made in the image of God is horrific. While we might be acculturated to accept—even approve—Qohelet’s building projects, Gregory’s attention to Qohelet as slave master reveals the inexcusable exploitation of his quest.
Gregory’s observations can be deepened by modern scholars who have noticed connections between Qohelet’s memoir and the description of the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2 [4]. If you compare Gen 2:4–17 with Eccl 2:4–6 you’ll easily see that there are a number of words and ideas in common. This observation opens on to a rich set of conceptual parallels between the two texts:
- Qohelet builds a house with a garden paradise/God builds the Garden of Eden on the pattern of a divine house, i.e., a temple
- Qohelet plants an orchard with every kind of fruit tree/God puts trees of every kind that are good for food in the garden
- Qohelet makes water works for irrigation/God provides mist and rivers to water Eden
- Qohelet reaps silver, gold, and the treasures of kings from his garden estate/the lands around Eden are filled with riches
- Qohelet’s estate is filled with animals denoting abundance/the abundance of Eden is evoked by its fauna
- Qohelet puts men and women as slaves in his garden/God places the man and the woman in Eden to work it and take care of it
But what might we make of these similarities? Again, Gregory can help us. He wrote, “The text begins straight away with an indictment: he [Qohelet] does not say ‘God’s doing, which is what I am myself,’ but ‘I enlarged my doing’.” Indeed, one of the most striking things about Ecclesiastes 2 is the number of times Qohelet uses “I” language. In Genesis, God creates; but in Ecclesiastes, Qohelet’s “I” replaces God. Qohelet has made himself god over his own little creation. Indeed, Gregory makes the point that by owning human beings, made in the image of God, as slaves, Qohelet elevates himself above his fellow creatures and presumes to be a god. Rather than accepting a purpose and vocation from God (Gen 1:28; 2:15), Qohelet has gone on a manmade quest to set himself up in God’s place. Perhaps the most significant difference between Qohelet’s creation and God’s is that God’s creation is declared very good and he rests from all his labor, while Qohelet proclaims his own project is “vanity and a striving after wind” with “nothing to be gained” (v. 11). Ultimately, this leads him to hate all his toil (Eccl 2:18) so that he despairs of life (2:20) and his heart finds no rest (2:23).
We might stop again to reflect on our own hearts and motivations. Our culture tells us that it is up to us to create meaning in life—to be ourselves, to realize our full potential, to build the life we want. But when we make this our driving goal, even if we are very successful, we end up poisoning everything we touch. Our disordered motivations begin to deceive our hearts so that we excuse abject sin.
Perhaps it shouldn’t surprise us, then, that God is nowhere to be found in Qohelet’s memoir. Ecclesiastes 2:11–23 is something of a low point in the book. But after this, Qohelet begins to put his life back into perspective in light of God (he’ll continue this project the rest of the book):
Eccl 2:24–26
24 There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25 for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 26 For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
Throughout the book, Qohelet views God as somewhat inscrutable, but he never doubts God’s sovereignty. And so he affirms that whatever we do enjoy in this life, it is from God’s hand. You can build a vast business empire and enjoy none of it, or you can make yourself a cup of coffee and sit down to a humble breakfast with deep satisfaction. Recognizing the gifts of God is a first step in reorienting our love toward God. There is a crack of light for Qohelet in v. 26 that he will pry open throughout the book. In a passing reference, Qohelet appears, subtly, to be casting his lot in with the sinners. (Remember that Gregory wants to read all of chapter 2 as a confession.) Qohelet has clearly described himself in the previous passage as one who is gathering and collecting in order to give it away, moreover, at a reflective turning point Qohelet says, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins” (7:20, cf. 25–28). We might conclude at this point by simply suggesting that coming face-to-face with our humanity, our limitations, our inability to wrest meaning from life by wisdom or toil, is the essential starting place for repentance and receiving God’s gift of grace.
Notes
[1] The word used here, which is often translated as "concubines," is unique in the Hebrew Bible and is not the usual word for concubine. Ancient Greek translations of Ecclesiastes have a reference to wine tables and settings and this seems like a better approach to understanding the Hebrew.
[2] I owe the observations in this paragraph to Stuart Weeks, Ecclesiastes and Scepticism, (London: Bloomsbury/T&T Clark, 2012).
[3] Stuart G Hall, ed. Gregory of Nyssa, Homilies on Ecclesiastes: An English Version with Supporting Studies. Proceedings of the Seventh International Colloquium on Gregory of Nyssa (St Andrews, 5-10 September 1990). Berlin: De Gruyter, 1993.
[4] See, e.g., Arian Verheij, “Paradise Retried: On Qohelet 2.4–6,” JSOT 50 (1991): 113–115.
The Old Hall at Washington, NE England (about 15 min from us). This is the ancestral estate of George Washington. He never lived here—he was born in Virginia, but this is where his family got their name and where his immediate ancestors immigrated from. The sign when you pull into the village says, "Welcome to Washington, the original."
Pray with Us
- Meghan and I cannot shake the sense that the LORD is taking care of our family and preparing a place for us to live and serve, even when we don't know where that is and what it looks like. So we give thanks for our good God.
- Pray for me as I settle into new rhythms at work over the next few months. Pray that I would effectively plan out my goals and challenge myself (in a good way) to be productive and fruitful.
- Pray for wisdom as I begin to think through revisions to Crosslands' biblical studies classes and how to handle those well.
- Please continue to pray for us regarding God's guidance and where we might settle down to serve long term.
Thank you. Your prayers and support empower everything we do.
