“A Time for Everything”
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, 11 (3:1, 11) – November 2, 2025
Time has a funny way of getting away from us, doesn’t it? Time can be rushing by while you and I are sitting, watching, on a treadmill or a big hamster wheel. Time is elastic, sometimes stretching out, tedious while we are waiting, other times jam-packed with events and decisions and happenings all on top of each other!
Our reading from Ecclesiastes 3 tells us a lot about time. This reading tells us about different facets of life, too. There is a time for everything. Everything under the sun.
This book of Ecclesiastes is traditionally thought to be written by the older King Solomon. We are pretty clear about Solomon’s birth and death dates. Scholars place this book about 935 or so, BCE. Again, this was late in Solomon’s life. As you and I consider this chapter 3, I invite you to consider the older Solomon. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, for sure. One of the favored sons of King David, he had it all! Money, property, women, power. The country of Israel was at peace, too! So, as he wrote this book, he was writing from a reflective, almost contemplative point of view.
I want us to zero in on Ecclesiastes chapter 3. One of my favorite commentators is Carolyn Brown, now retired Director of Children’s Ministry at a PC/USA church. She wrote a comprehensive collection of readings for each of the weeks of the 3-year Revised Common Lectionary cycle. I have often quoted her insights, as I will today.
In this reading, our preacher lists 14 pairs of opposites. These opposites come from all areas of life, and some of these opposites are stark, and some are especially illuminating. In verse 2, as we see in a large part of the world, there are the changes of the seasons. All you and I need to do is to look outside and view the glory of the changing seasons in the colorful display of the leaves on the trees! We cannot plant seeds outside right now. It is not the time of year for that. We can’t plant seeds in the winter, or harvest them in the spring.
Verse 6 reminds us there are times we need to save things carefully – like putting aside clothes to wear again, or wear at a different season. There are other times when we need to let things go – like giving away old clothes or toys or other stuff we have outgrown. And, in verse 7, we see there is a time to be silent, and conversely, definitely a time to speak out! Sometimes, it is hard to know which time it is. [1] Hard, even soul-searching, indeed!
As I considered this reading in depth, and in particular for my sermon preparation, my thoughts return again and again to verses 1 and 2. “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die.” Both birth and death are part of God’s plan for our lives. Both birth and death are part of the cycle or circle of life.
My online friend Michelle van Loon had this penetrating reflection. “King David’s last recorded message to his people includes words that foreshadow the message of the book of Ecclesiastes, which was written long after David’s death: David said, “We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a passing shadow, gone so soon without a trace.” (1 Chron 29:15 NLT)” [2]
These times today are uncertain times. As workplaces are restructured, businesses merge or close, or other structures in our lives are disrupted, many people lose their livelihoods. People across the country, even across the world, are in a place of not knowing, not understanding what is going on. Moreover, during the past week here in Chicago there is the uncertainty, even the trauma for our children, young people and seniors of watching masked, armed men pull people out of cars and off of sidewalks. Disappearing them, as unnamed troops habitually do in other countries with strong-arm governments. What kinds of long-term, traumatic reactions and effects are being sown in countless lives, hearts and brains here and now?
I have now been studying trauma and its effects on people observing traumatic events for almost two years, for my doctoral studies. This devastating activity in my own hometown and suburbs is completely beyond my understanding, given what I know about the founding of this country, and its welcome to immigrants from Germany, Poland, and an orthodox Jewish family – who I count as my ancestors. Which brings us full circle to All Saints Sunday, and lifting up the saints from this church, and from other churches and places and spaces throughout the world.
Verse 4 from Ecclesiastes chapter 3 tells us, “a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.” There are times when life is sad and we cry, for good reason. There are other times when life is so happy that we laugh a lot. We may prefer the happy, laughing times. But, God is with us in both happy and sad times. [3]
What is dawning on my mind and heart from this Scripture reading is that God has indeed set times and places in all of our lives. Yes, there are appointed times, and seasons for things and events to happen. Yes, there even is a time for churches to be planted, just as there is for churches to close. God indeed has the last word. God can make a way through. God opens a window in the skies, in the everlasting, sometimes sunny, sometimes cloudy day Solomon paints for us. God does indeed make everything beautiful in its time! Everything is in God’s time.
I remind myself that I can be reassured, and comforted by these thoughts. We need to remember that God holds everything and all of us through it all, in all of our times. We can have certainty of God’s unending love. After all, it is because of my surety in God’s amazing and unending love that I have allowance and ability to explore, to even wonder about these important questions about time and the different facets of life, as highlighted by Ecclesiastes 3. As we pass from one season of time into another, I invite us all to ask: what comes to mind as we reflect on what has been, and as we begin to think about and articulate our hopes for what will be? [4]
We can reflect upon the saints who were in this place, and in other places we remember. “It is a ‘yes’ to God’s life moving through all things, calling us forward to changed lives and changed communities.” [5] And, we can look forward to the time that God has for all of us that lies ahead of each one of us.
As the litany we will share later in this service tells us, “Now, as we journey from this house into the future, we give you thanks O God. Be with us in thanksgiving as we move into other communities that will allow us to share the story, break the bread and live abundantly with God. Alleluia, amen.
(Suggestion: visit me at my other blogs: matterofprayer: A Year of Everyday Prayers. #PursuePEACE – and A Year of Being Kind . Thanks!
[1] https://worshipingwithchildren.blogspot.com/2013/11/new-years-day-years-b-c.html
[2] A reflection post from Facebook, from Michelle Van Loon on October 23, 2025.
[3] https://worshipingwithchildren.blogspot.com/2013/11/new-years-day-years-b-c.html
[4] http://words.dancingwiththeword.com/2013/12/a-new-years-reflection.html
[5] https://www.patheos.com/resources/additional-resources/2010/12/happy-sacred-new-year-bruce-epperly
Pastor, Preacher, Pray-er 