Saint Jonny

I’ve been asked to organise a series on Ecclesiastes to run over the summer. The best known bit of Ecclesiastes, made famous by The Byrds and their ‘to everything turn, turn, turn’ and by funerals, is the bit where it talks about a time to be born and a time to die, a time to cast away stones and to gather them together (Eccl. 3:1-8).

I’ve already done a bit of work on the problems of Ecclesiastes here. But trying to analyse and realise a structure was a lot more difficult than I first thought. There’s clearly a prologue (1:1-11) and an epilogue (12:9-14) but beyond that…well…! Obviously there are clearly defined sections but to get that down to six sermons proved difficult to say the least! In one sense, because it’s much of a flowing conversation or monologue you could almost stop at whatever point you fancy! Here’s what I came up with after much pondering:

26th July: Life in Confusion (Eccl. 1:1-11)
2nd August: Life in Multicolour (Eccl. 1:12-3:15)
9th August: Life in Perspective (Eccl. 3:16-5:7)
16th August: Life in Contrast (Eccl. 5:8-9:12)
23rd August: Life in Hindsight (Eccl. 9:13-12:8)
30th August: Life in Fullness (Eccl. 12:9-14)

I’ll be preaching 9th, 16th and 23rd August. To help me in my preaching I’ve been listening to Matt Chandler of The Village Church preaching his way through the book, which has been absolutely excellent!