What Should I Do Now?
Ecclesiastes 3: 1-9
James Christopher McCurdy

1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
2 a time to be born, and a time to die;
    a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;
    a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
    a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
    a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to seek, and a time to lose;
    a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
7 a time to tear, and a time to sew;
    a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 a time to love, and a time to hate;
    a time for war, and a time for peace.

9 What gain have the workers from their toil? 10 I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. 11 He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; 13 moreover, it is God's gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil. 14 I know that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe before him. 15 That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already is; and God seeks out what has gone by.

I have one question that I would like to ask today… what are we doing here?

By here I mean this building… this place.

Here it is a nice Sunday morning and I don’t know about you but my bed was awfully comfortable last night.

I woke up this morning and pushed myself to get up, take a shower, get dressed and do the whole routine so that I could get here and be with all of you now.

Don’t get me wrong, you are wonderful people and I love seeing you… but why?

Why do any of us go through that whole routine so that we could be here on Sunday morning? What is it about Sunday that brings us to this place?

Well, maybe we should look at the building for a bit and maybe that would tell us.

Windows… weirdest windows I have ever seen

Table… beautiful table… candles

Chairs… everyone is facing this way

Baptismal Fount… big cylinder thing with a bowl

Cross… ah, yes now I remember

We all came here because we are Christians… so what do I do now?

Just asking people about church comes up with a multitude of answers and reactions.

Most often… Nervous… funnily enough even Christians get nervous when church comes up

Sometimes, inspirational, people talk about how a service touched then and spoke to them

Sometimes people answer with a sense of duty… I must come to church or else or when you are in my line of work the ever amazing “my parents made me come.”

Friends… we have been called into nothing less than what scripture calls the body of Christ

I think that we are suspicious of this designation because we can see the obvious drawbacks…

Scandal

Corporation

Envy

Greed

The church is far from immune to any of these things

But I ask you, was the body of Christ not also wounded? So what do I do now?

Yesterday I had the privilege of going to Taylor Ann Brooks’ funeral.

I say privilege because I witnessed many of her friends and loved ones gather together to remember her name… here was a 14 year old girl diagnosed with cancer just a few short months ago and she responded with amazing grace, charity and generosity.

Taylor Brooks was evidence of the Holy Spirit at work in the world around us… and because of that we count her amongst us in the work and life of the church.

An amazing young woman who responded to words of death by truly living.

So what do I do now?

With the realization that I, like her, am also called into the holy catholic church, my response should be to live and work in a like manner… because friends we truly have been called and empowered to change the world.

The scripture passage today is maybe the most honest assessment of where we are that I could ever imagine… (read scripture)

The scripture is not condoning all of these things, the scripture passage is understanding that all of these things are true and a part of life.

This is what we are given, a broken world, an institution full of broken people, with the call and touch of God in what we do.

So what do I do now?

I look at my worship of the Lord, the windows the chairs the table and the cross and I search for ways that they might be better.

I look at the community and I don’t look over those who mourn, those who have lost, those who need and those who seek after God, because I not only can change their world and mine, but I called to it.

I look at my own life and come to the Lord bearing all my infirmities, and in doing so I ask my brothers and sisters for help because I know God has called them to help me as God has also called me to help them.

And in all things we remember… (Psalm 23 with plural)

And when we have done these things, we are then called to stop and ask, so what do I do now? Amen.