THE CROOKED MADE STRAIGHT
Isaiah 40:1-5, Ecclesiastes 1:1-15, Revelation 21:1-5
There are some things in the Bible, which, upon first reading, look like they shouldn't be there. Almost the entire book of Ecclesiastes is full of rather pessimistic and depressing news. It begins with the assertion that "'life is useless and vain"' and goes down hill from there. Ecclesiastes was written by someone who called himself "'The Philosopher"' and who, apparently, spent a lot of time looking at the nature of human existence and decided that, on balance, it's barely worth the effort to get out of bed in the morning. Listen again to what he says: "Generations come and generations go, but the world stays just the same. The sun rises, and it goes down, going wearily back where it must start over again. Every river flows into the sea but the sea is never filled. The water returns to where the rivers began, and everything starts all over again. Everything we do leads to weariness too great for words. Our eyes can never see enough to be satisfied, our ears never hear enough. What has happened before will happen again. What has been done before will be done again. There is nothing new in the whole world. Some will say, 'look, here is something new!' but, no, it has all happened before....God has laid a miserable fate upon us. I have seen everything done in this world, and I tell you it is all useless, all vain chasing after the wind. You can't straighten out what is crooked...."
How's that for Good News? How would you like to start each day thinking that nothing changes and that life is a wearisome process of just putting in time until you die? My guess...my hope...is that perhaps The Philosopher was just having a bad day and, being in a decidedly bad mood, decided to dump his displeasure on those around him. Somewhat later in Ecclesiastes, he brightens up just a bit and suggests that the best we can do is "'be happy and do the best we can while we are still alive. We should eat, drink and enjoy what we have worked for...." Okay, Mr. Philosopher, I guess that's better than nothing but, personally, I'd have a hard time enjoying life if it's as boring and meaningless as you suggest.
This cynicism, this pervasive pessimism is not something found only in the pages of the Old Testament. It exists in various forms right up to our day and those who subscribe to it can be found everywhere. One of my favorite characters in Winnie the Pooh is Eyore. You may recall that Eyore is a creature who takes a dim view of almost everything and who is certain that if anything can go wrong, it will. In one episode, his house in the woods blows down and his friends rebuild it for him. Eyore thanks them, but then goes on to assure them that he is certain the wind will return and blow it down again. No matter what happens, Eyore looks for the worst and he usually gets what he looks for.
In a more erudite setting, Albert Camus, the French Existentialist, wrote an essay titled: The Myth of Sisyphus. Camus recalls the famous Greek legend of Sisyphus who, having offended the gods, is sentenced--chained to a bolder--to an eternity of pushing the rock up a steep hill, only to have it roll back down again once he gets to the top. For Camus, this is the human condition: life is a struggle against war, hatred, disease and a host of other nasty things and, in the end, you can't winÖyou can never break the chain, you just keep going up and down the hill. Both Eyore and Camus subscribed to this decidedly Greek, cyclical view of life perhaps best summed up by the phrase, there is nothing new under the sun. You may know folks who feel this way and perhaps you have even experienced this view yourself. I know that as I get older, I have to work harder and harder at not falling into the "what's the use" view of life. We've always had war, why try to end it? Someone whom I may find nasty and unpleasant has always been that way, why think that he or she might change? I've never been any good with technology, what makes me think I can actually figure out how to program my VCR now? Or, again, to put it simply and to quote The Philosopher once more, nothing changes; you can't straighten out what is crooked.
Fortunately, the Bible also presents another view of life. This view has its roots in the Old Testament and comes to full fruition in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Listen to the words of the prophet Isaiah, this time from the familiar King James translation: "A voice in the wilderness cries out: 'Prepare ye a road for the Lord. Every valley shall be exalted, every hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed...."' Isaiah, writing at time of great tribulation for the Jews, says, in effect, something new is coming, a change is on the way, the old rules and ways are being changed. However bad things may have been, they will be changed for the better once the Lord has come.
What sets the Hebrew view of life and history apart from the Greek view of The Philosopher is hope and a profound sense that, with God's present love, things can change and change for the better. The Jews wandered in the wilderness fueled by hope that, just over the next horizon, something new and wonderful is coming. Certainly they experienced the repetitive nature of life--the sun comes up, the sun goes down, the sun comes up again--but they had this sense that their God would break the bonds of the "usual" and bring them to a better place, both as a nation and as individuals. I won't try to sing it, but I am reminded of that wonderful song from Leonard Bernstein's Westside Story, "Something's coming, something big...maybe tonight...."
As I grow older, I find that my task in life is to keep alive that hope, that sense that "'something's coming..," that belief that the crooked can be made straight. Or, to put it another, less scholarly way, maybe you can teach an old dog new tricks.
Addiction to alcohol and other drugs is as old as recorded history. Addiction is an insidious, cunning, baffling and powerful force that, untreated, inevitably leads to misery and death. It is understandable that those who love the alcoholic may be tempted to give up, to say, "He's been this way for years; we've tried everything, what makes us think he will ever change and get sober." Yet, seemingly against all odds, and certainly at odds with The Philosopher's worldview, alcoholics can and do get and stay sober, most often through the grace of God as provided in Alcoholics Anonymous. Here, as in so many other places, the crooked is made straight.
We have always had war. The Philosopher would say that that means we always will. Why bother trying to beat swords into plowshares? Based on our experience, it simply can't be done. The gun and the bomb will always win out...or maybe not. Certainly those in the Princeton Coalition for Peace Action think otherwise and in many small yet significant ways, they give of themselves to straighten out the crooked road which leads to peace.
I am always fascinated by sports gurus on the radio who predict who will win and who will lose. They gather up information, look at the statistics and say with great certainty that, in the past, team A has almost never beaten team B, that judging by past performance team B is sure to win. I sometimes wonder why teams A and B even bother to play the game since the outcome seems certain. Yet, every once in awhile, the gurus are wrong, the underdog wins. Having played on many underdog teams, I like that idea.
Many of you may have seen the movie with Bill Murray titled Groundhog Day. It goes back several years but has become something of a cult classic. In short, the story is about a weather man who is profoundly bored with being a weatherman and with his life in general. Many people feel that their days are repetitive--a la the Philosopher--but Murray's character actually slips into a realm where every day is exactly the same as the day before. The same people show up day after day and they say the same things day after day and the weather never changes, it rains every day, andÖwell, you get the idea: every day is a carbon copy of the last one and hope gradually withers away. What happens, though, is that Murray, who is the ultimate cynic, gradually falls in love with a woman whom he meets in town. It's a long story and there are some great lines but the basic message seems to be that love and genuine concern for what happens to others is the way out. One morning he wakes up, expecting the same old thing, and discovers that things are beginning to change. He sees new people on the streets. People start saying new things and, perhaps of greatest symbolic significance, the weather changes for the better. It stops raining and hope for new and better things again emerges. I wouldn't want to suggest that Groundhog Day has some great theological significance, but, again, I can't help seeing some parallels with the Gospel's message of transforming love and hope.
The New Testament book Revelation talks of things to come. Much of it remains very difficult to understand and decipher, much of its imagery is opaque and has a meaning which is unclear. What is clear--in this morning's reading--is that God has promised to make things better, to move from being distant to being right with us, walking beside us through each day. "There will be no more grief or crying or pain...the old things will pass away...behold, I make all things new...."
When I was a young boy, maybe six or seven years old, I very much wanted a pony for Christmas. Starting sometime in July, I began to lobby. I was willing to concede that a full sized horse might have a tough time in our rather small backyard, but surely a pony would fit and I would be more than willing to feed and care for it. My parents explained why this was not going to happen but I continued to hope that it might. On Christmas morning, I patiently waited while I and the rest of the family opened various gifts and then I announced that I was going to wander out to the garage where, I was certain, I would find my pony. I opened the door to the garage and...no pony. Realizing that maybe a stuffy garage wouldn't be a nice place for a pony, I ran to the backyard and...still no pony. I'm not sure how long it took, but eventually I figured out that there was not going to be a pony and that I'd have to be content playing with my less exciting Christmas gifts. As time went on, I realized that this was a silly, impossible thing to hope for, but as a Christian, I've come to realize that while the object of my hope back then was impossible, hope itself was a marvelous thing. Hope is what keeps each day open and new. Hope is what allows us to break away from the cynical and cyclical views of The Philosopher and experience the power of God's love in our daily lives. Hope is what makes the crooked straight.
Marriages and relationships that have become routine, predictable, perhaps even boring will probably always be that way...he same old thing, day after day. Or, maybe not, maybe God's love will show up on the horizon and transform things in a new and marvelous way. With Christ, we now can hope for that. Old...or young, codgers who have been fixed in their dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes will never change, they just go on stubbornly holding on to negative attitudes. Or, maybe not. Maybe God's love will break into the routine of their lives and give them a new way to see things.
So, Mr. Philosopher, I understand your point of view. I can see how you might think that nothing ever changes and that life might be "too wearisome for words." But, it's too bad you didn't know what God had in store when he set Jesus on the horizon of our lives, beckoning us to love each other and follow him. Too bad--with all your wisdom--that you couldn't see that the crooked can indeed be made straight.
August 9, 2009
Tom Baker
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