ALL IN THE EYES OF THE BEHOLDER

The other day Arlena and I were on our way to the grocery store. We were in the left-hand lane on Route 19. A car just ahead of us on the right was trying to get into our lane, but the car to his left would not slow down enough to allow him to do so. My wife said out loud to the driver in front of us (who obviously could not hear her, but she said in anyway) “Let that old man and his wife in.” He didn’t but I did.

When the car to our right moved in front of us, I glanced at the white hair on the head of that “old man” who was driving the car. I said, “I wonder what the people think about the old man driving this car with all that white hair on his head?” It’s all in the eye of the beholder. The people in front of us were old because the driver had white hair. The truth is, we may be older than they are, white hair not always signifying advanced age.

Besides, how old is “old”? In the past I used to do a Communion Service for the people who live in the retirement community in our area. My wife and I are planning on joining one of these communities when the time comes, meaning when we are too old and no longer have the desire to take care of our home and property. That time has not come. However, one of the members of that community reminds me when I see her that we are old enough to move it. We may be that old, but we are not that old.

There are, in other words, members of that community who are indeed younger than we are who are that old. In their eyes and minds they no longer want or are able to take care of a home and all that goes with it. They are happy with their decisions. We will make ours when that time comes, which I hope will be many years down the line. But, of course, only time will tell.

We are thankful, very thankful, for our health, that we can live where we so desire and are not forced because of circumstances beyond our control to do that which we would rather not. There are those younger than we are we still can and do what we can and do but would rather not. In their eyes and minds it’s time to move on. They see life differently than we do.

It is always easy to make decisions for others. It is also often very difficult to make those same decisions for ourselves. We think we can see clearly what another should or should not do but are often blinded to what we should or should not do. It may be human nature but it is also a fact of life. And age makes no difference here either. Young and old alike are blinded to the truth because the truth is often very difficult to accept. So we fool ourselves and often make fools of ourselves in the process.

Seeing clearly, being honest with ourselves, making wise decisions is something each and every one of us must strive for in our daily lives, again, young and old alike. One of the saving graces in growing older is that we do become older and wiser and make better decisions. But not always. For whatever reason, there are times in the lives of each one of us, no matter our age, when we blind ourselves to reality and fail to see what everyone else can see. The eyes of the beholder can be deceived. We should never forget that.

THE PAST IS PASSED

The wise among us seem to constantly remind us that those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. I suspect that even the foolish among us would have to nod heads in agreement. However, even a cursory review of history seems to indicate that there are more fools in this world than there are the wise. In fact, each and every one of us is a fool at times because at times we all ignore history and make fools of ourselves.

Given that truth, one that certainly cannot be denied if we are each and all are honest with ourselves, the cynic in me wonders why we even study history in the first place. We either believe that history is wrong or that we are going to be the exceptions to the rule, neither of which is correct we sadly and often painfully discover after we have gone against the truth that was out there waiting for us to accept it on face value.

None of this is to say that history does not have so very much to teach us or that we always and everywhere ignore those historical lessons. The blessing in all of this is that we really do learn from history, from our past mistakes, and become less prone to being foolish the next time around. The bane is that there seems to be something in us that wants to see for ourselves if history is truly right. So we touch the hot pan that we were told not to touch because we would get burned, got burned, and wondered why we were so foolish to not listen to the wise voice that told us what would happen.

The corollary in our failure to learn from the past is that we so often want to live in the past. The past is passed and it will never come back. The good old days were never as good as we remember. But even if they were the best of times, those times have passed. We cannot resurrect them no matter how much we desire or how hard we try. They are passed and all we can do is keep them in fond memory.

On the other hand, if the past has little or no fond memories to hold on to but only misery and pain, we should not allow ourselves to believe that the present and the future will simply be more of the same. It will be if we do not let go of the past and grab on to the present, knowing and believing that the past does not have to be repeated and that the future can be bright and good and wonderful. But first we have to let the past pass.

That can be easier said than done, of course, especially if the past has so many bad memories, was filled with far too much pain and suffering of whatever kind that took: physical, mental, spiritual, whatever. If that was the case, it becomes difficult to move on because one tends to blame the self for the past’s bad times. We begin to believe that we must have done something to deserve all that pain and suffering. But even if we did, that is no reason to believe the present will be more of the same.

History has proven that no matter how bad the past was, resurrection and new life is always possible. It may take time and it will be not without some difficult times and trying days. But unless we allow the past to be passed, unless we leave it behind and move on with our lives, we will never be able to find resurrection and new life. But if we do, the future will be better than anything we experienced in the past.

THE SHADOW KNOWS

Would that we were able to see clearly every time all the time. Would that when we make a decision, we can clearly see all the obstacles in our way and even see the outcome of that decision. Would that we never have blinders on because we would never need them because we could see clearly all that we would need to see. Would, would, would: it is only a dream, is it not?

The late Martin Luther King, Jr., in a sermon he once delivered at his home church, made this observation about what we see and, truly, the decisions we make by what we see and what we do not see. He said, “Everything we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.” Even when we think we are seeing clearly, we truly are not. There are things which we cannot see, for whatever reason we cannot see them, that color what we are seeing, that cast a shadow upon it.

We know that truth from experience. We have often said, after being surprised by something that we did not expect to happen because we thought we had all our bases covered, “I just didn’t see that coming.” And we did not because what we thought we saw was cast by a shadow we did not see. Some of the truth was hidden from us because we had no control over that which was hidden.

The further truth is that that fact at least allows us to forgive ourselves for being the victim of something that was out of our control when we first thought we had everything under control. We never have everything totally under control. There are just too many unseen and unforeseen shadows that come into play. And these are not random happenings, random shadows, either. It happens all the time, every day.

And sometimes, certainly more often than we are aware, we are the ones who cast those shadows upon the lives of those around us. Our shadowy presence, if you will, influences the decisions and actions of others even though they may be totally unaware of that fact. They may not see us, but we are there, somehow in some way. In the same way, others are present in our lives even though we are not aware of that presence.

The same is true on an even more personal level. Our past casts a shadow on our present. It is a part of our present because our past is a part of us. We make conscious decisions that are affected by that unconscious past and are not aware of what is happening. Would, again, that we were so aware of all this, but we are not, nor are we expected to be so aware. We are not God.

Even though these unconscious, unseen, unaware shadows do get us off the hook at times, we still need to do our very best to make sure the decisions we make and the actions we take are done with the best foresight we can give knowing all the while that there is information that is covered by a shadow. The shadow knows more than we know. Our goal is to try to know as much as the shadow knows. That will never happen being the limitations we have as human beings. But it does not mean that we do not give it our very best effort.

THE JESUS MYTH

One of my favorite authors over the years was the late Andrew Greeley. I first started reading him while in seminary over fifty years ago. He was a young priest who wrote theological books that I could understand in contrast to some of the tomes I had to read written by German (read: dense) theologians. Greeley made theology interesting and fun even as he was excoriated by his peers because he was not a theologian but a sociologist, which he was indeed. Yet sociology is about the study of people and Greeley took dense tomes and dense theological concepts and made it understandable to ordinary people and ordinary seminarians.

One of his classics, to me at least, written over forty years ago, is The Jesus Myth. That title alone, for a young priest as I was back then, was startling. Jesus was no myth! Jesus was real. How could Greeley ever defend such a proposition that Jesus was a myth? Of course I had it all wrong. When I first saw an advertisement for the book, I misunderstood Greely’s understanding of “myth”, as most people would do in his context.

Most of us, if I may be so bold to do such categorizing, when we hear or see the word “myth”, we think about the second definition of that word: “ a widely held but false notion” or the third definition: “fictitious person, thing, or idea”. The first definition is this: “a traditional story embodying popular ideas on natural or supernatural and social phenomena, etc.” As such, the story of Jesus is a myth. But it is more and Greeley intended it to be more when he used the word in writing about Jesus.

If I am correct, the notion Greeley had in mind is what theologian Karen Armstrong, writing years later says about myth: “A myth was never intended as an accurate account of a historical event; it was something that in some sense happened once but that also happens all the time.” The story of Jesus, even as we have it in the Gospels, was never intended to be an accurate account of his life and words. But Jesus did live and what he said and did as recounted in scripture, even though not historically accurate, is still historically true.

But there is more and is the essence of myth. It lives on and even happens, as Armstrong asserts, all the time. That was Greeley’s point about Jesus. Jesus lived once. He said and did much, some of which is recounted in scripture, much of which is not. But what he said and what he did still lives on today. Jesus lives on in the lives of those who believe in Jesus and who try to live the life he would have us live, say the words that he would say, do what he would do given who we are with all our failing and shortcomings but also with the gifts we do possess.

Jesus is alive as much today as he was when he lived. The Jesus Event, in Armstrong’s words, the Jesus Myth, in Greeley’s, happens all the time. Jesus died but he still lives. He lives in us, you and me. He spoke his words once but he still speaks them today, in and through us and in and through all those who believe in him. Sometimes, thankfully, our words and actions are adequate; and sometimes, sadly, they are inadequate and even contrary to what Jesus would say and do. That happens when it is sinners who are to make Jesus alive in their own lives.

The Jesus Myth: to those who believe, it all makes sense. To those who do not believe it makes no sense at all.