“cast your bread on the waters”
|
A sermon preached at the Readings:
Eccles
11:1-6, Mt 6:25-34 |
1 Cast your bread upon the waters,
for after many days you will find it again.
2 Give portions to seven, yes to eight,
for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.
3 If clouds are full of water,
they pour rain upon the earth.
Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north,
in the place where it falls, there will it lie.
4 Whoever watches the wind will not plant;
whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.
(Eccles 11:1-4)
4
verses from the OT lesson set for the second service of the day.
We
don’t know much about the author of Ecclesiastes –
we
can assume he wrote after the exile,
and
the earliest bit of MSS dates from Qmran caves in the
mid 2nd C BC.
Ecclesiases probably pre-dates 180BC –
so
that puts the writer somewhere between about 200 and 400 BC.
More than that we can’t really say.
And
he has a great line in slightly cryptic wisdom, as in these verses –
at
first glance familiar, but at second glance a bit obscure –
What
do they actually mean?
What
is the image actually saying when he says
“Cast
your bread on the waters”
Hardly
about feeding ducks!!
1. Maybe he had in mind a shipping,
commercial image.
To cast
goods on the waters could refer to putting cargo on a ship.
Then
the passage becomes one about taking risks –
calculated risks, but none the less risks.
You
have goods and you are a merchant – you send ships out to sea –
you
cast your bread on the waters –
knowing that some may founder or fail to reach port,
but
also knowing that by so doing, you will gain a reward.
This
could refer to almsgiving, lifestyle, outreach and evangelism…
And
then the bit about seven and eight portions,
Would
mean “send out your merchandise on different ships” –
ie don’t put all your eggs in
one basket –
and
by so doing, you cannot control the elements,
but
you will have success in the end whichever way the wind blows.
The
NT parable which springs to mind here is the parable of the sower
–
sow
your seed across the ground –
some may wither and die, but if you sow in enough places,
you
will get a crop.
Or
look at Eccles 11:6 - with its similar message,
that you don’t know when to sow.
Some of the earliest commentators, like St Jerome,
related the passage particularly to
alms giving.
“Cast your bread on the waters” –
give generously, don’t stop to worry about what good or otherwise it will do –
if you give enough, good will be done.
“Give portions to seven, eight” then means –
give indiscriminately to lots of
different people –
that way you will be sure that
good will come of your generosity.
That is something we could do well to bear in
mind.
Many Victorians were notorious for only being prepared
to give to the “deserving”
poor –
leaving the undeserving to suffer
and perish.
And before we are too harsh on them,
I wonder how many times we have been rebuffed at the
door
whilst collecting for Christian
Aid with the retort –
“Their governments waste the money – we won’t
give.”
The parable of the labourers in the vineyard makes
it clear
that we should cast our bread on
the waters –
we should give and not count
the cost,
give because of need not
deserving.
We may sometimes tend to give only to the so called
deserving poor,
but this is not a Biblical
approach.
2. But there is another way of understanding
the image –
that has nothing to do with ships,
but
assumes the writer means just throw your bread into the water.
The message
becomes more radical –
It is “Don’t even calculate” –
just give of yourself, and don’t stop to think how or why –
even if you do things that seem quite stupid,
like throwing bread in the sea when you know it will just go soggy and sink –
Remember you never know how things will work out when God is involved.
And
the relevant NT passage here is surely Paul in those marvellous words,
“All things work together for good in them that love God
and are called according to his purpose”
On this
interpretation the second verse becomes a contrast –
“Give portions to seven, yes to eight,
[but you are wasting your time trying to control things like this
- ]
you do not know what disaster may come upon the land”
We
don’t know exactly what the writer of Eccles had in mind,
but his drift is clear –
and we can put together a message
which draws on all the strands we have mentioned
1. Don’t think you can control God and
organize/predict all the outcomes.
You can’t say your prayers to guarantee that everything comes out the way you
want it to.
You can’t put God in your pocket and control him - He is God.
The Spirit blows where he wills,
and if you want the wind of the Spirit you have to go with the flow,
not act like a control freak trying to control where and when he will blow.
2. So go for it!
Don’t
try to calculate everything first –
you’ll wait for ever for the perfect day, the perfect Church, the guaranteed
result,
and you’ll never do a thing (Eccles 11:4).
No,
cast your bread – even if some sinks –
Sow your seed, even if some falls on stony ground.
Give your alms, even if some is gobbled up by corrupt officials.
Offer your love, even if some is thrown back in your face.
Do stupid things that can’t possibly reap results –
except that God works miracles in the most unlikely places.
For
we are the people of a God who died on a cross
What
did that mean?
It
mean a God who gave his love and his life
without waiting for guarantees that it would be well received –
indeed gave his love and life even when common sense said
he was just putting his head in a noose and being stupid,
a fool for the Gospel.
But
he did it,
because he trusted God that if he followed the way of love and peace and justice,
the way of God’s self giving,
even though he could know how it would work out,
even though he couldn’t prove if it would work out at all,
yet still somehow God would work good in all things,
because at the end of the day even the most futile gesture of love is the stuff
of miracles,
and more than a match for the most careful and calculating evil.
So lets take our love, our life, our alms –
and cast our bread on the waters.
You
may not know how, but know this –
God will surprise you.
Be
a fool for Christ and learn wisdom
Lose
your life and gain it
Cast
your bread on the waters
and find it come back to you.