Live wisely
Ecclesiastes 7:1-14 & 29
“A good name is better than fine perfume.” v.1
It seems not a week goes by without someone’s name splashed across our screens/ news feeds: actors, TV personalities, news readers, politicians, even princes… When it all comes out, we’re shocked. We felt like we knew them, we trusted them. Then there’s the high-profile church leaders that end up on the front pages, like Mike Pilavachi (founder of Soul Survivor), Bill Hybels (founder of Willow Creek), Rory Alec (founder of God TV), and Ravi Zacharias (founder of, err, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries). All men, who have done great things, who believe their own publicity, who then become ‘untouchable’. And it’s not just the ‘great and the good’. Sometimes it’s people we know: colleagues, family members, those we live with.
We struggle to understand why. How could they do that? The answer is usually, bit by bit. Warren Buffet, the multi-billionaire investor, famously said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it.” But it’s rarely just one thing/ one ‘moment of madness’. There’s usually been lots of small steps: thoughts left unrestrained, unchallenged; a compliment, inappropriate in the workplace; a flirtatious text; a work social where one thing leads to another…
Left unchecked, and rumours start to circulate. Ecclesiastes says, “A good name is better than fine perfumer.” Proverbs 22:1 says, “A good name is more desirable than great riches.”
Your name is not only what you are known AS, your identification; it’s also what you are known FOR. What people associate with you. It’s your character, reputation, and the way you live. Following the ancient wisdom of Bananarama & Fun Boy Three: “It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it.”
When choosing their King, wise Samuel said, “People look at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.” Jesus said the religious hypercritics, the Pharisees, had the smell of death about them. They were rotten to the core, dead on the inside. 
What matters most is your name, how you are thought of. And there’s no masking it. Imagine I’ve done a long, arduous workout on a hot, sweaty day. I look rough, I smell a lot worse. What do I need to do?: spray myself with 96-hour deodorant, topped up with chemical-grade, over-powering aftershave to mask my body odour? Rubbish. What I need most is a shower; to be clean on the inside. If we allow our ego to run riot, our natural urges to be unchallenged we soon become grubby. No amount of Lynx can mask that. Wisdom says, don’t reach for the masking perfume, go for the soap. Get clean, stay clean. Ecclesiastes is asking, what are you becoming known for?
“The day of death is better than the day of birth. It is better to go to a house of mourning than to a house of feasting.” v.2
It’s only on death that our lives get to be definitively summed up. Until then, we’re all a work-in-progress. Have you ever listened to a eulogy and wondered what people will say about you? Funerals make us think. We think about the deceased. Who they were, but also what they were like, their character, how they lived. We think about  their loved ones. And how we can best support them in their grief. We think about ourselves, and how we are living. Listening to the eulogy and tributes, we wonder what people might say about us. We think about God. So, whilst funerals are not a laugh-a-minute, they are good for us. 
Yes, we experience sorrow, they are emotionally challenging, but: “Sorrow is better than laughter because a sad face is good for the heart.” v.3 Proverbs 14:13 puts it: “Even in laughter the heart may ache, and joy may end in grief.”
Qoheleth says you’re missing the point if, during the funeral, your heart and mind are in the pub.“The heart of the wise is in the house of morning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.” v.4 Don’t skip the funeral service and go straight to the wake.
Ecclesiastes is not saying birth, feasting, and laughter are bad.  After all, YOLO!, he’s said a number of times eat, drink and be merry. Instead, he’s saying, in a race, what counts most is, not how you start, but how you finish. Anyone can start a race; what matters more is crossing the line, finishing.
The birth of a baby is something to celebrate. A new baby is born with such potential. At this stage, it’s all about what we hope and pray the baby might grow into being/ becoming. Luke 2:40 “And Jesus grew in grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.”
“Do not say, ‘Why where the old days better than these?’ For it is not wise to ask such questions.” v.10 Live wisely. Wisdom is about maturity, not age. Do confuse it with nostalgia, with its highly selective curation of filtered memories that wind the clock back to the 'good old days' - trapping us in our past. Nostalgia does nothing to help us with either our present or future. Instead, the Wise consider what God has done in the past: “Consider what God has done.” (v.13) to see that God is present  with us right here, right now, and will continue to be for as long as there is
Today. We sometimes seek wisdom in others (family, friends, partner…). Whilst, as men and women, we were all made by God to be ‘upright’ (to live well), we have all strayed in our own different ways: “This only have I found: God created mankind upright, but they have gone in search of many schemes.” v.29 Apostle Paul put it, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23 We’ve all had that ‘moment of madness’ The Good News “And all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
We can all ‘lose our head’ with toxic friendships/ relationships (v.26-28) True wisdom isn’t knowledge, it’s a Person – “the one upright man”, Jesus. Wisdom is not a fact or a good decision. It’s not something, it’s someone. Wisdom has a name, and His name is… Jesus. YOLO, so live wisely!
07840 046020   DannyBrierley@ChesterRoadBaptist.org.uk