A Positively Poetic Priest

  Week 6 Word Ecclesiastes 11:1 – 12:26 (NRSV) 11 Send out your bread upon the waters,    for after many days you will get it back. 2  Divide your means seven ways, or even eight,    for you do not know what disaster may happen on earth. 3  When clouds are full,    they empty rain on the earth; whether a tree falls to the south or to the north,    in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie. 4  Whoever observes the wind will not sow;    and whoever regards the clouds will not reap. 5  Just as you do not know how the breath comes to the bones in the mother’s womb, so you do not know the work of God, who makes everything. 6  In the morning sow your seed, and at evening do not let your hands be idle; for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good. 7  Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to se...

Week 5 Word Ecclesiastes 9:1 – 10:20 (NRSV) All this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hate one does not know. Everything that confronts them  2 is vanity, since the same fate comes to all, to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to those who sacrifice and those who do not sacrifice. As are the good, so are the sinners; those who swear are like those who shun an oath.  3 This is an evil in all that happens under the sun, that the same fate comes to everyone. Moreover, the hearts of all are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.  4 But whoever is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.  5 The living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no more reward, and even the memory of them is lost....

Week 4 Word Ecclesiastes 7:1 – 8:17 (NRSV) 7 A good name is better than precious ointment,    and the day of death, than the day of birth. 2  It is better to go to the house of mourning    than to go to the house of feasting; for this is the end of everyone,    and the living will lay it to heart. 3  Sorrow is better than laughter,    for by sadness of countenance the heart is made glad. 4  The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning;    but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. 5  It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise    than to hear the song of fools. 6  For like the crackling of thorns under a pot,    so is the laughter of fools;    this also is vanity. 7  Surely oppression makes the wise foolish,    and a bribe corrupts the heart. 8  Better is the end of a thing than it...

Week 3   Word Ecclesiastes 5:1 – 6:12 (NRSV) 5 Guard your steps when you go to the house of God; to draw near to listen is better than the sacrifice offered by fools; for they do not know how to keep from doing evil.  2 Never be rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be quick to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven, and you upon earth; therefore let your words be few. 3  For dreams come with many cares, and a fool’s voice with many words. 4  When you make a vow to God, do not delay fulfilling it; for he has no pleasure in fools. Fulfil what you vow.  5 It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not fulfil it.  6 Do not let your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake; why should God be angry at your words, and destroy the work of your hands? 7  With many dreams come vanities and a multitude of words; but fear God. 8  If you see in a province the oppre...