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RECLAIMING PUBLIC TRUTH:
Hope Is on the
Way! (iV)
“2009:
The Future Before Us!”
INTRODUCTION:
The wonderful novel, Balzac and
the Little Chinese Seamstress,
takes place during the Cultural Revolution of the late 70s and early
80s. It was a terrible period when the “Gang of Four” ruling China at
that time, imposed a harsh policy on its people, requiring any
intelligentsia, any writers or teachers, to be sent to work in the
countryside with their hands, and in so doing to be “re-educated.”
In this delightful book, which came out
in English in 2001, two young men are sent for their reeducation to a
small town without any clocks or watches. When the sun rises the headman
tells the town and everyone wakes up.
But one of the young men has brought with
him an alarm clock. The clock has the figure of a rooster on it. The
town becomes intrigued with the rooster clock. They impute to it an air
of authority.
The boys put this to good use. When they
want to sleep-in, they change the time and set the clock later. The
headman, like the villagers, has come to respect the clock and he abides
by what time it shows.
Eventually, though, the boys reset the
clock so many times that they forgot what time it actually was. It
wasn’t that time had changed, but the two boys restated the time so many
times that they lost any sense of what time it really was.
But time differences are not always a
matter of clock resetting. We all are aware of how differently each of
us reacts to time and time sensitive matters. Joan and Segundo Velasquez
humorously shared with me how their differing cultures have produced a
difference in their perception of time. Joan, from Minnesota, where she
was a university professor and social worker, had a perception of time
that meant she would be at a given appointment at the time specified or
even a little early. Segundo, from Bolivia in Latin America, said that
he had a cultural perception of time that meant when he said over the
phone that he was ready to leave the house, what that really meant was
that all he has to do was shave, shower and dress, and he would be on
his way.
Observing the clock and the larger clock
we call a calendar, has its gifts. It gives us all a common ground for
reference and planning, as well as reflection.
That same principle, from a
theological point, goes like this: According to theologian Schubert
Ogden, we are uniquely able as humans, to reflect upon time: time past,
the present time, and future time. And in so doing three options are
available to us that I want to present to you for your consideration on
this last Sunday of December 2008. (I was helped immensely by Joe Batal
in formulating these):
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We can continue the things that worked for us this past year
– “continue” is the key word;
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We can start new practices – “start” is the key word; and
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We can stop those practices from 2008 that didn’t work –
“stop” is the key word.
So as we look back at the
past and reflect upon it – as we consider where we are in our lives at
this moment in time…and as we look to the future – those comprise a part
of the unique capacity that we as human beings have: to continue, to
start, and to stop.
Now, if you would please,
take the pencil/pen on the table, and write on the paper covering your
table, these three words in three columns: continue, start, and stop.
Okay? But before proceeding further, here’s a bit of contemporary
scripture to enrich the process:
CONTEMPORARY SCRIPTURE.
Ten years ago, Judith Viorst wrote a
best-seller entitled, Necessary Losses. It has one of the
longest of subtitle, which reads, "The loves, illusions,
dependencies, and impossible expectations that all of us have to give up
in order to grow."
In one of the chapters entitled,
"Shifting Images,” she reflects upon what happens to us as we age, which
is our scripture for today. She writes:
We start to feel a time of letting go, of one thing and another – our
waistlines, our vigor, our 20/20 vision, our trust in justice…. We give
up hoping to read all the books we once vowed to read and to go all the
places we once vowed to visit. We even give up hoping that we will
succeed in being underweight – or immortal. Suddenly our friends, if not
us, are having divorces, heart attacks, cancer. Some – even our age! –
have died. As we acquire new aches and pains our health care is, of
necessity, supplied by internists, cardiologists, dermatologists,
podiatrists, urologists, gynecologists, and psychiatrists, from all of
whom we want a second opinion – a second opinion that says, "Don't
worry: you're going to live forever."
But because we know that we
are not going to live forever, it makes it even more important that we
take seriously the life and the time – this moment – that we have been
given.
I.
HOLDING ON TO THE GOOD
THINGS OF THE PAST.
So let’s look for a moment at
the first matter on the agenda for reflection as we transition into a
new year: How do we hold on to the good things of the past? Or more
specifically:
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The continue question:
What have we experienced in this
almost-past-year-of-2008 that we want to build on, and hold on to for
the future?
It can be an activity, a friendship or
relationship…things that happened to us which are really important…and
they have the capacity to enrich our lives and the lives of others.
Think about it for a moment: (pause). (By the way, St. Peter has
personally told me that this will be on the a final exam.) So again:
What have we experienced in the past that we want to continue, to
build on, and hold on to for the future?
Write one of the more important things from the past year on the paper
on the table, and after you’ve finished, share it with the person across
the table, and let them do the same with you. Again, that’s “holding on
to the good things of the past.” What do you want to continue doing?
<Give time for.>
II.
STARTING ANEW.
Nineteenth-century
Unitarian minister Joseph Priestley, for whom the National Science Award
is named, wrote:
I have always been
delighted at the prospect of a new year, a fresh start, one more try,
with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere ahead.
How do we get a fresh start with a little
bit of magic mixed in? I went with a special friend to see the movie,
Australia,
on Christmas evening. The star of the
movie is a little brown-skinned boy who looks to be about ten years of
age. The movie is from the late 1930s in Australia, when it was the
policy of the government to take young boys from their aboriginal
parents and place them in Christian orphanages. There they would have
their aboriginal ethnicity expunged, much like our American government
did with its Indian boarding schools, which sought to take the “Indian”
out of our native peoples.
In the movie, the little boy
becomes enamored by the story he is told of The Wizard of Oz…that
there is a place where dreams come true…Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
He deeply believes as his grandfather has taught him that there is a
spirit world…a world of magic…and in that world everyone has to have a
story or their life is meaningless.
The question you and I face as the
magical year of 2009 faces us is, what is our story at this time in our
lives? Have we forgotten or given up on it?
But think for just a moment: Remember
that we were born in the stars. That means our lives at every point
along the way have a heavenly dimension to them. The most natural thing
in the world, no matter our age or situation is to know that our story
starts in the stars. It’s a story in progress, and it’s always waiting
to be updated and retold.
Jean Seldon shared a quote from Barbara
Kingsolver with me which goes like this:
The very least we can do in our lives
is to figure out what we hope for. And the most we can do is live inside
that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it under its
roof.
So to build that story, let’s do this
with your pen and paper:
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The START question:
What do you want to do in life that
you haven’t done…that you would like to start doing…that would enrich
your lives and potentially the lives of others?
Somewhere out there, the year 2009 is
waiting to unfold, streaming in from the stars which birthed us, from
fiery eons past. When 2009 does arrive, is there some equation, some
formula, or some sacred ritual, which could open and unpack the mystery
and expose the certainty which we sometimes seek. What is our story that
explains it all? So again:
What do you want to do that you
haven’t done…that you would like to start doing…that would enrich your
life and potentially the lives of others?
Let’s take a moment for
reflection: (pause). Okay. Write what you want to do in 2009 that you’ve
never done, and then share and exchange with the person across the
table.
III.
LETTING GO OF THE BAD.
The idea of being able to control our lives and life in general, so as
never to feel pain or sadness is not an option. The only way possible
would be to eliminate all the risk factors in life, which would mean
never investing in ourselves or in the lives of others; to never care,
for fear we might be hurt. It would mean, in effect, ceasing to be
human. "A rock feels no pain, and an island never cries," Paul Simon has
said.
But there are some past practices we do need to cease, to
overcome. How do we do that?
I mentioned earlier the movie
Australia.
I’m sure you’re all
familiar with the boomerang which is associated in our minds most
closely with Australia. It’s an instrument that when tossed, goes out as
far as we’ve thrown it, but then, instead of falling to the ground, it
comes back to where it was thrown from. It boomerangs!
So keep that image in mind as I ask you:
Have you heard about the Australian aborigine who acquired a new
boomerang, and then spent the rest of his life trying to throw away his
old one? That’s like some of our bad habits: They keep coming back.
I’m sure many of us have practices from
this past year, which we want to keep from returning and intruding on
our lives. Maybe we want to be able to terminate a bad relationship, or
destructive habits, or practices that hurt us or ones we love. What
boomerangs have we been unable to throw away?
Take a moment, please and think about the
practices we want to stop: <pause>. Write it down, and if you feel
comfortable doing so, share and exchange it with your neighbor at the
table. Or you can keep it to yourself if you prefer.
CONCLUSION.
Okay? So now we have the things we want to continue in 2009;
the things we want to start; and the things we want to stop.
But whence comes the magic…the miracle?
The late Dr. Scott Peck in his book,
The Road Less Traveled, said, "In thinking about miracles, our frame
of reference has been too dramatic. We have been looking for the burning
bush, the parting of the sea, the bellowing voice from heaven. Instead,
we should be looking at the ordinary day-to-day events in our lives for
evidence of the miraculous....
"Perception of the miraculous requires no
faith or assumptions. It simply is a matter of paying full and close
attention to the givens of life, i.e., to what is so ever-present that
it usually is taken for granted" (pp. 230f).
That means that 2009 is a year of
miracles...if we are looking for them. That means 2009 can be a
miraculous year for us...if we are open and sensitive to its
possibility.
Shalom. Salaam Aleikum.
Happy New Year. Merry Christmas. Amen. And Blessed Be.
We will pause for 7½ minutes of brief questions as a part of our
Conversation Café. The Service and Support Council will provide
microphones for you to speak into.
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