The Thread We Follow
The sermon preached by Fr. Ernie on November 13, 2022
The Thread We Follow
by Ernest Boyer
We live in uncertain times. We all know this. We live that uncertainty every day. If we forget for a moment how uncertain things are we have only to turn to the news to be reminded of all that is happening — the global conflicts, the political turmoil, the questioning of democracy, the changes to the climate, the continuing pandemic. I could go on and on. The thing is, as bad as it can seem right now, in another sense nothing has changed. The world I grew up in was uncertain too. I’m sure that was true for all of us. Some of us lived through WW 2 when the whole world went to war in an attempt to stop global fascism. Others of us came of age during the Cold War and grew up in the shadow of the Nuclear bomb. I know I did. I don’t remember having to do the so-called “duck and cover” drills at school where children practiced crouching under their desks in what seems in retrospect an absolutely absurd attempt to protect themselves from a Nuclear explosion, but I do remember people talking of building bomb shelters in their homes.
In fact, I myself got caught up in this. I was seven at the time and very worried about the threat of nuclear war. I remember looking through my parent’s copies of Newsweek and finding a chart comparing the size of Russia’s missiles with those of the US. Russia’s were so much larger and that scared me. It was meant to. I had trouble sleeping at night and would suddenly freeze in whatever I was doing whenever I heard an airplane overhead, terrified that it was a Russian bomber. At the time my parents were buying a new house. It was the first house we ever owned, and what delighted me the most was that it had a basement. That’s because I grew up in Southern California where homes with basements were very rare. None of my friends had homes with basements but now suddenly we did. I immediately suggested to my dad that we use it for a bomb shelter. He dismissed the idea at once, but I didn’t give up. I built a rickety shelf intended for canned goods, then set about building a bed for myself out of plywood so I’d be able to sleep in the basement. The shelf managed to remain standing only as long as no put anything on it — or touched it — but the bed collapsed the first time I lay down on it, so I abandoned my idea of a bomb shelter and just tried to live with my anxiety. It turned out to be good practice, because the uncertainty of those times never really went away.
Jesus lived in uncertain times too. The Israelites were a fiercely independent people, after all. They were chafing under Roman domination. Everyone knew that a rebellion was coming. Even so, Jesus surprised his disciples when he predicted that the great temple of Jerusalem would soon be destroyed. It had just been rebuilt, and it was a marvel of the age. It was a thing of beauty, and it was made to last, with massive stone upon massive stone. It must have seemed unbelievable that it would just … disappear. And yet, by the time Luke sat down to write his gospel some 50 years later, it was already gone. All that remained was a single wall — the “wailing wall” that can be seen in Jerusalem to this day. The thing is, Jesus predicted that this catastrophe was only the beginning. The times were uncertain, he said, and they would get worse — much worse. It was the beginning of the end. And so it has remained until today. We live constantly in uncertain times. We never stop wondering if this is it. We never stop wondering if the end has finally come.
All this seems pretty grim, doesn’t it? I mean, where’s the “good news?” Isn’t that what Jesus brought us — good news? But where’s the good news in today’s reading?
It’s there, but it’s buried, which is too bad, because it truly is good news. It’s good news for we need it the most. That is, it’s the good news we need for uncertain times. Times like Jesus’ time. Times like the Cold War. Times like now. The good news is there in today’s Gospel but it’s easy to miss in all the dire predictions so let’s pull it out. Even as Jesus it telling us all the scary things that are going to occur he also says this: “Do not be terrified.… Not one hair of your head will perish, and by your endurance you will gain your souls.” … “Do not be terrified.…By your endurance you will gain your souls.” … “By your endurance you will gain your souls.”
So, what’s Jesus telling us here? … I think it’s this. I think he’s saying, Yes, we live in uncertain times, and most of us hate uncertainty. There’s so little we can count on, so few things we can be sure of. In fact, the only things that we can say for certain are, first, that things will always change and, second, that we will all die. If we’re Christian, though, we can also add one thing more: We also know that God is with us — with us for all time. And that’s critical. For, as long as we cling to that truth, we’ll get through. As long as we hold on to this knowledge of who God is for us, we’ll be able to let go of fear and endure, and by our endurance we will gain our souls. That’s because God is eternal and what we call our soul is a door to God. We need only open that door and walk through to see that God is part of us and we are part of God, so we are eternal too. We need to cling to that.
You know there’s a poem that talks about this very thing. It’s a poem I love. It’s title is “The Way It Is” and it’s by one of my favorite poets. His name is William Stafford. Stafford lived from 1914 to 1993, making a home in Lake Oswego, Oregon, where he taught and wrote every day. When he died he left over 22,000 poems. “The Way It Is” is probably his most famous. It goes like this:
There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.
That’s it. The thing is, this is exactly what Jesus is saying in today’s gospel. He’s saying that times can get hard. He’s saying that bad things will happen. He’s saying that we will suffer and grow old. He’s saying that things may grow very difficult at times, but as long as we hold onto one thing — one thread — we will be ok. We will endure. And what is that one thread? It is our link to God. And as long as we cling to that we gain our souls. In fact, that threat is our soul. And yes, this thread is hard for others to see. There are many who just don’t get it, but that shouldn’t stop us. We just have to hold tight and not let go and maybe in time those others will find their threat too. Let’s hope so, because we live in uncertain times, and we all need something to get us through. We all need God. That’s why it’s so very important: you don’t ever let go of the threat. AMEN
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