Ecclesiastes 12:8-14: Groundhog Day

What day is February 2? What happens on February 2? I have some friends from Wiarton, Ontario; I usually send them a note on February 2. February 2 is Groundhog Day. What happens if a groundhog sees his shadow? What happens if he doesn’t? What happens if one sees his shadow and another doesn’t? What happens if they disagree? What happens if the groundhog is blind? Is that cheating? If we live in Manitoba where groundhogs are everywhere; how do we decide which one did or did not see his or her shadow and which one’s view matters more than the next? Last year 2/3 of the famous groundhogs did not see their shadow; so do we just say 2 out of 3 ain’t bad and assume that Spring will be early this year? What does it really mean if a groundhog sees its shadow? Nothing.

I once heard Canadian elections cynically described in terms of wooden spoons. You have the wooden spoons in front of you: a Liberal Red one, a Conservative Blue one, an Orange NDP one, and a Green one. On Election Day you choose which of these you will be spanked with for the next four years.

I saw a comic on one inauguration day in the US. It was a picture of a creature sitting on a throne with the American Flag behind him. He was in the process of taking off a mask of the outgoing president and putting on the mask of the incoming president. The idea was that whoever filled the office of President (the most powerful person in the world?) was in reality incidental to world affairs.

Some people have pointed out that citizens of western democracies know more about the players on the sports teams they support that they do about the members of the political parties they support.

All this is meaningless, chasing after the wind, looking for a groundhog's shadow,

I am not saying that we don’t need to stand up to horrible things in our country and this world on election day as at other times: we do! As Christians we are told that we do need to stand up to injustice. That is part of what shows the world that we are Christians.

What we need to remember is this: don’t to look to politicians or parties or philosophies or groundhogs to solve all of our world’s problems. They won’t do it. They can't do it. As interesting as they are, they really are meaningless, a chasing after the wind. What we need is to stand up for the poor, the marginalized and the Gospel but let us not do so in the name of some political party or philosophy but in the Name of Jesus Christ because that is where our help comes from. There is no other name by which mankind can be saved.

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