January 2, 2011 Revelation 21:1-6a

Ecclesiastes 3:1-13
“Living
Here and Now”
Dr. Ted H. Sandberg

In Winnie-the-Pooh, Pooh and Piglet take an evening walk. For a long time they walk in
companionable silence. Finally, Piglet breaks the silence and asks, “When you wake up in the morning,
Pooh, what’s the first thing you say to yourself?” Pooh answers, “What’s for breakfast? And what do you
say, Piglet?” “I say, I wonder what exciting thing is going to happen today?” Small expectations yield
meager results.
How large are our expectations, both personal and as a church? That’s what Robert Dale asks in his book,
To Dream Again. “A church,” he says, “can choose a ‘breakfast dream’ or an ‘excitement dream.’” He
then asks, “Is it time for your church to examine its vision for either ‘breakfast’ or ‘excitement’?” How
would we describe our own church’s dream?
Dale says that “dreams have impact. You can dream people into becoming! That’s what Don Quixote did;
his dreams for people helped them develop into what he dreamed.” Dale says that after he’d seen “The
Man of La Mancha” on stage, the lyric “To dream the impossible dream” lifted through his mind again and
again. Whether or not we’ve seen the musical, we’ve probably heard the song, and perhaps wondered
ourselves, “was Don Quixote the maddest man to dream impossible dreams? Or was he the sanest of men
to sense the renewing power of a dream? As strange as it may seem, it’s just possible that Quixote was
more with it than lots of so-called experts because he knew that expectations often come to life. We can
become what we dream of becoming.
Another way of asking this same question is to look at the difference between the attitude shown in
Ecclesiastes and the attitude of Psalm 8. Ecclesiastes portrays an essentially negative view of life, basically
a “breakfast” view with little hope or imagination. “For everything there is a season, and a time for every
matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to
keep, and a time to cast away; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. What
gain has the worker from his toil?...It is God’s gift to man that every one should eat and drink and take
pleasure in all his toil. For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies
the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts; for all is vanity.” Life
continues, one year following the next, 2011 following 2010, and we humans seem nearly powerless to
make any difference at all. We’re little different from the beasts around us – we all die. All is vanity. We
can do little more than eat, drink, and be merry, because tomorrow we die, though tomorrow isn’t to be
taken literally. That’s the message in this passage of Ecclesiastes.

1. Dale, Robert D., To Dream Again, Broadman Press, Nashville, TN, 1981, p. 12.

2. Dale, p. 12.

3. Dale, p. 13.

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We find a completely different attitude in Psalm 8, much more an attitude of excitement and possibility.
Here we find not a feeling of pessimism and despair, but an outlook on life which is full of wonder and awe
at the power and love of God. “When I look at they heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the
stars which thou hast established; what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou
dost care for him? Yet thou hast made him little less than God, and doest crown him with glory and honor.”
Here we find no despair because we can’t know what’s going on, because God has hidden his future from
us. Instead we find a delightful sense of thanksgiving for what God’s done in having created us, and in
sustaining us each and every day. “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth!” is how the
psalmist sums up his feelings about God and about being a part of God’s wonderful creation.
What’s our attitude toward life, and how is that attitude reflected in the dreams we have for ourselves and
for our witness for God? How large are our expectations, both personal and as a church? Have we chosen
a “breakfast dream” or have we chosen an “excitement dream”? As we head into 2011 now is a good time
to reflect for a few minutes about our dreams. One way to do this evaluation is to look at the various
aspects of our lives, both at our individual lives and our life together as God’s people. How would we
evaluate our growth both emotionally and spiritually, both as individuals and as this church? Have we
matured? Did we chew stronger meat in 2010, to use the writer of Hebrews criteria?
Questions to ask ourselves. 1. How well have we spread the Good News to our family and friends? Did we
share God’s love with our neighbors or with our acquaintances, or with those closest to us? How well have
we reached out into our community to witness to the truth of Jesus Christ?
Sometimes, I think, we get so wrapped up in doing other important things that we forget to share God’s
love with people. Granted. This is getting harder and harder to do. More and more people seem not to
believe in God. They believe, rather, in themselves and what they can do by themselves or with the help of
their family. They don’t want to hear about God and what God asks of them.
Or, perhaps even more, they may believe there is a God, but they don’t believe they need to formally
worship God. They claim to be spiritual, but not religious – as if those two ideas can be separated. Oh, we
can go awhile without worshiping God, just like we can be separated from loved ones for even extended
periods of time. But eventually, that relationship will suffer if we don’t spend time together because it’s
hard to grow when we’re apart, when we aren’t with someone. If people don’t worship, don’t read the
Bible, don’t pray, don’t think about God, their relationship with God will suffer – not because God will pull
away from them, but because they’ll pull away from God. People need to worship God. That’s been true
since the beginning of time and it’s true today. We are called to invite people to experience God, and
worship God.
Question 2. Have we lived out the biblical mandate of bringing life and justice to all people? Have we
tried to do anything about such issues as peace, hunger, unity? Have we tried to inform ourselves about
drug and alcohol abuse? Have we worked to discover the needs in Chico?
In the last Focus, I shared with you the possibility that because the Torres Shelter is almost at capacity, we
may have the opportunity to open our Fellowship Hall to 20 or so guests who’ve been staying at the Shelter
so that there’ll be room for more to go to the Shelter. It’s easier for us to have 20 men stay with us
regularly, than it is to figure out how to open the Fellowship Hall for 1 or 2 on an emergency, nightly basis.
How do you feel about this? Is this an opportunity, or a big pain?

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Third question. Have we worked as individuals, and as the people of God, to become more mature
disciples of Jesus Christ? Have we as a church provided opportunities for individuals to grow in our
relationship with Christ, and have we as individuals worked to take advantages of the things that have been
provided?
I wonder if it wouldn’t be a good idea to have a weekday morning Bible study. Or how about a weekday
afternoon Bible study? We’ve offered many classes, but most of the classes have been in the evening or
Sunday afternoon, and they’ve been for a short duration – 4 to 6 weeks. There’s value in those classes, but
there’s also value in a continuing Bible study. Maybe that’s something that can be explored this year.
As Robert Dale said, “A church can choose a ‘breakfast dream’ or an ‘excitement dream.’” My idea of the
‘breakfast dream’ is to continue as usual. Just like Pooh, we’ll get up and ask “what’s for breakfast?”
We’ll get up and go about our business, going to church on Sunday and doing the things we’ve been doing,
and have always done.
This is a far cry from having an “excitement dream.’ This is a far cry from Piglets question, “I wonder what
exciting thing is going to happen today?” I wonder what exciting thing we can do as a church? I wonder
what wonderful thing we can do to so that we can grow as a church, both in numbers and in maturity? So
often we become negative like the writer of Ecclesiastes, pessimistic about what can be done. How much
better it is if we can look at the heavens and wonder at the greatness of God’s love for us and then become
excited about sharing that love. When we become excited by God's love, then we’ll grow in God’s love as
well.
As we gather at the Table of Jesus Christ, I invite us to answer the questions. Have we spread the Good
News of Jesus Christ? Are we living out the biblical mandate to love our neighbors? Are we working to
become more mature disciples of Christ’s? I’m not one to make resolutions. Instead, as we gather at the
Table, I invite you to recommit yourself to serving Jesus Christ for certainly, Jesus gave himself for us so
that all the world might know God’s love.