The Bucket List
Ecclesiastes 9:7-10a Victory Fellowship
March 17, 2024 - Rev. Roderick Grabski
5th Sunday in Lent – St. Patrick’s Day
I. Introduction: The Bucket List (2007) is an American buddy comedy-drama film directed and produced by Rob Reiner, written by Justin Zackham, and starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.
Zackham coined the expression "bucket list" after he wrote his own "List of Things to do Before I Kick the Bucket" and shortened it to "Justin's Bucket List". The first item on his list was to "get a film made at a major studio". This list gave him the idea for the screenplay, and The Bucket List became his first studio film. The film was chosen by National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2007 and was a box office success, opening at #1 in the United States, and grossing $175.4 million worldwide.
a. The main plot follows two terminally ill men on their road trip with a wish list of things to do before they "kick the bucket."
b. Corporate billionaire Edward Cole and working class mechanic Carter Chambers have nothing in common except for their terminal illnesses. While sharing a hospital room together, they decide to leave it and do all the things they have ever wanted to do before they die according to their bucket list. Carter and Edward manage to find common ground. For fun, Carter started writing a list of activities to do before he "kicks the bucket." After hearing he has less than a year to live, he dejectedly discards his list.
c. Edward finds the list the next morning and urges him to do everything on it, adds his own items and offers to finance all expenses. Carter agrees and though his wife Virginia objects, the two patients begin their globetrotting last vacation along with Edward’s assistant, Matthew. They go skydiving, drive a vintage Shelby Mustang and Dodge Challenger around California Speedway, fly over the North Pole, eat dinner at Chèvre d'or, visit the Taj Mahal, ride motorcycles on the Great Wall of China, attend a lion safari in Tanzania, visit Mount Everest, and the Great Pyramid of Giza.
d. In the process, both of them heal each other, become unlikely friends, and ultimately find joy in life.
e. Solomon’s message in today’s passage is that we should all ultimately find joy in life. Why? Because our lives are a gift from God and they are better enjoyed when we focus on our relationship with God.
II. Things to include on our bucket list:
a. Go, eat your bread with pleasure, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already accepted your works.
b. Let your clothes be white all the time, and never let oil be lacking on your head.
c. Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your fleeting life, which has been given to you under the sun, all your fleeting days. For that is your portion in life and in your struggle under the sun.
d. Whatever your hands find to do, do with all your strength
III. Life on Earth is Short – Eternity is Long
a. Solomon reminds the reader that life is all too short. We don’t need to have a bucket list, but we should none-the-less enjoy life to the fullest. We can’t do that without a proper relationship with Jesus.
b. Jesus came to give us life, and life more abundant. Our abundant life with Jesus is not just for this world, but for all of eternity.
PRAYER
SONG: In the Beauty of Holiness
Ecclesiastes 9:7-10a (HCSB)
Go, eat your bread with pleasure, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already accepted your works. Let your clothes be white all the time, and never let oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your fleeting life, which has been given to you under the sun, all your fleeting days. For that is your portion in life and in your struggle under the sun. Whatever your hands find to do, do with all your strength…
