So, first of all, about the Cubs. It's mid-June and they have the most wins of any team in baseball. So remarked a colleague of mine. And another colleague responded, "That is a sign of a apocalypse, isn't it?" Just kidding...Craig Ferguson. But if it continues the Cards will get the wild-card slot. Ah, what a season!
Speaking of hopes....and I realize I'm speaking to Cubs fans in Cubland...and that hope is something you're familiar with. Could this really be next year?
Hope. Remember, perhaps, a time in your life when the hopes were broader, more expansive? It's possible for anyone to be President. And our national stories support that....from a log cabin in Illinois. Or the possibility of hitting a ball like Micky Mantle or catching like Willie Mays. I wonder if you remember?...remember those hope and dreams that inspired you?...remember those possibilities when the future was before you and the potential was as broad and open as the horizon on a flat, Illinois field?
And then life moved on. Day by day the horizon began to narrow. Maybe not in a confining way, really. Maybe not even in anyway that was actually disappointing because the reality of what is became more than enough to compensate for the mere idea of what never was. It's kind of like Robert Frost's poem about the road not taken. And in that process of choosing the one road, you let go of the other roads you left behind. As Yogi Berra said, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."
So life moves forward. It necessarily narrows. Even Michael Jordan found he couldn't go back and be Willie Mays. The thing is, however, that while we understand that rationally - that we wouldn't have been able to arrive at where we are without letting go of idea of becoming a baseball player, for instance - our emotions often move at a different level. And I believe we grieve those things all the time. I know it doesn't make rational sense. But I believe we grieve for things we never had, ideas that we never pursued, paths we never took, all the things that might have been. And again, it's that we're consumed with remorse and regret. In fact, we may be as happy as any human being can be. It's just that while we travel on we make choices. And, in fact, it's impossible to travel on without making those choices...without letting go.
Take my Grandmother's closet. My grandmother was in her mid-30's when the stock market crashed in 1929. My mother was born in 1926. She raised children in some difficult years. So by the time I knew her she had some strong habits deeply ingrained in her life. One of those was hanging on to every little bit of string or thumb tack or wire or a left-over handle from a broken hand spade, or you name it. Open her closet and it was full to the brim. And you opened the door slowly because if you didn't something would likely fall out on you, the slightest bit of air movement from the door disturbing the delicate equilibrium of the way things were stacked. But what was for my grandmother a closet, was for her brother (my great uncle) a whole house full of such a variety of things that you can't imagine it unless you saw it.
Life unfolds. It leads in certain directions, sends us down certain tracks. Hopes and dreams sometimes come down to closets full of items you keep "just in case..." And after awhile sometimes we learn to cut off the hope and dreams even before they have a chance to fade. If life means narrowing anyway, why not be ahead of the game? Avoid the pain. Lower the expectation. Cut it off at the pass.
Israel is always trying to find its way through the very same dilemma. Perhaps like a modern nation. Perhaps like our own nation. Hope, but don't hope for too much. Temper those hopes and avoid disappointment. Keep things on an even keel. Yes, they had come safely out of slavery. Yes, God had delivered them from Pharaoh's army. Imagine! Slaves fleeing from the most powerful army in the world. And they had survived. And now their leader, Moses, is affirming that they have a special place in God's plan.
One view would be that they had been lucky...very lucky. Like a horse that had run two magnificent races. Would a third be too much to expect? The lessons of life would suggest some sobriety about their expectations. Doesn't life always narrow?
But God suggests otherwise. God is calling them onward. God is calling them forward. God is urging them ahead. This last week a significant decision was made. A lot of planning has been going on for the capital funds campaign, and a theme was chosen: The Journey Forward. It connects us with an ongoing story. The Journey Forward. I like that theme, actually, for more than just a capital campaign. For in all kinds of ways, the faith journey is ahead.
Not that we aren't pulled back at times. Not that we don't begin to have our doubts at times. Not that we aren't discouraged by events or disappointed when trust is broken, when community is devalued, when we fail ourselves and each other.
What do we say to that? Should we have expected it? Is this just the way it goes? Some choices lead inevitably in certain directions?
In a closed world, could be. But faith changes everything. Faith asserts we don't live in a closed world. Faith suggests there is no fixed fate, that paths are opening up. Faith suggests there wrongs can be forgiven and new paths open up. Faith suggests the past isn't our trap, it's past. It's the journey forward that matters, and when God is leading us new paths open up. Faith suggests that Israel in the wilderness is in a better place than in comfortable Egypt and with God new paths are opening up. Faith suggests that Jesus in the tomb is just a new day waiting to happen, that paths are opening up. Faith suggests that this is the first day of the rest of your life, and paths are opening up. Faith suggests that newness is possible, that the light can't be held by the darkness, that new paths are opening up. Faith suggests that even when one door closes, several others open up.
Now it's still true that Michael Jordan isn't going to be a major league ball player. It's still true that you and I are living with certain limits. But with faith those limits don't need to define us. The saying goes that "9-11 changed everything." But what that suggests is that the past defines the future. Understand: it's not that we need to forget. But neither do we need to be trapped.
The journey is ahead....with faith.
Let us pray,
O God, sometimes we get stuck in thinking about our limits and we fail to see the possibilities. Open us. Sometimes we give in to griefs rather than recognizing your ever-new gift of life. Renew us. Sometimes we hold regrets rather than letting grace claim us with its freshness. Like the sun following the storm, fill our lives with new light, new hope, new grace. Amen.
Children: what do you do in a storm? Near someone is a good place.