For years now our church has been running a tag sale to raise money for our youth program. Every year we receive calls to pick up furniture and other big items from people who are in what we would call today “life transitions”, whereas my mother would say, “they are moving”. On one of these adventures I got into a conversation with Jim Guinee who was reflecting on an experience he had with an old man bringing out boxes of personal items from his home to place on the curb for the sanitation department to pick them up. Jim noticed that the box was filled with some interesting things like trophies and fishing gear. When he asked the old man about the trophies, he replied: “They belong to my wife who was a champion swimmer.” The fishing gear was from the time when he used to take his son to Alaska every year to fish. The old man told Jim he was throwing these things out because he was moving into an assisted-living facility, but he invited Jim to help himself and take whatever he wanted out of the box. Jim said he felt like he was violating someone’s life as he reached down for some fishing items.
So, it all comes to a box on the curb after all those years of living and those great memories. Perhaps this is the end for all of us – a box on the curb. We usually end up in a box, with someone throwing dirt over us. However, the thought did come to me that many of us are living in a box right now; a box that could be labeled “Routine”, or “Depression”, or “Illness”, or just a box we call “Life” that somehow has lost its luster, its interest, its joy, and its wonder. Easter speaks of resurrection, an invitation to think outside the box, and outside the grave as well, only because life doesn’t have to be a box on the curb.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Is Anybody There? - Comments on post-resurrection
One of the interesting adventures you can embark on is going to a “Times Talk” at the Times Center in Manhattan. They have numerous personalities/celebraties/authors who are interviewed with regard to their body of work. Recently, Kathy and I attended a talk with Michael Caine, whose fan I have been for many years. The first movie of his I ever saw was “Alfie”, which I found to be brilliant. I also remember being on a Midnight Run when we were handing out food at Grand Central, and he was there, filming. I love his films such as “The Sleuth”, “Educating Rita”, “The Quiet American”, and too many others to mention.
We sat very close to him and were soon enveloped in his wonderful ability to share stories and insights on acting and on life. I found myself grinning as I listened to his warm, profound, and self-deprecating style. He is a person not caught up with himself, which has opened him up in his humility to even further greatness. He is always willing to take on parts that are not necessarily leading roles but, in fact, sometimes minor characters. His current film, “Is Anybody There?”, shows him as an old, physically frail, senile man at the end of his life, in a not very flattering light for a movie star.
“Is Anybody There?” is an interesting question on many levels. In the movie, which takes place in a nursing home, a young boy, whose parents run the home, wonders about the afterlife as the old people die. What happens to them after death? Is there an aura, a spirit, a ghost, something tangible, audible, or simply nothing? On another level, you watch old people with dementia, who begin to lose not only their memory (which is bad enough), but their mind. Eventually, I suppose, you wonder “Is anybody there?” as you look into their blank face. The subject is excruciatingly painful for those who live on a day-to-day basis as victims of this dreaded disease and those who are committed to caring for them.
As I struggle with my own mother’s death, I also ask the same question to myself: “Is anybody there to grasp her as she slips from this life to the next?” What is heartening in the film is that this old man finds community, support, and life from not only this young man, but from others in this home. Somehow he is also able to help a young boy climb up a hill to discover life and make contact with the living.
It has always been the Christian proposal that death is not the end, life is - life eternal. One of Jesus’ famous sayings is: “I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly.” For the Christian faith, life is what we are all about. A life girded up with love, grace, and mercy. When the rich young ruler comes to ask Jesus, “What must I do to possess eternal life?”, he is roundly criticized by Jesus because eternal life is not something you can possess, it comes to you as a gift. Eternity for Jesus always begins right now, with life being a gift that you must participate in as passionately as you can.
In a strange way, this young man helps Michael Caine live the end of his days with meaning, and Michael Caine helps this boy make contact with life.
Perhaps that is what our faith is telling us. We need to be about life and making contact with other lives and community, supporting others in times of need. As we move farther away from Easter we see Jesus’ disciples struggling with the meaning of their lives and rediscovering the message of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
This struggle is the same today. How do we deal with loss, with life that changes in so many strange and difficult directions? How do we understand the sadness we sometimes feel, or even the emptiness that inhabits our hearts in times of pain and difficulty? How do we cope with getting older, with our children moving on, with our parents becoming frail? The answer does not always present itself clearly. This film is an example of two people in community, helping each other find a light switch in the dark that will make sense of this thing we call life.
Part of the recipe in the whole mix can be one’s faith. It is not something that comes at you, like a note with an answer from heaven, but rather becomes evident in the faithful living of your days as we struggle to do what is right, given whatever challenge we are faced with.
As the Easter season continues, the first experience of the disciples after the resurrection could be summed up in the question: “Is anybody there?”. They meet in locked rooms, they share their sadness on the road to Emmaus, and generally are disillusioned. Somehow in death I envision us opening a door and asking: “Is anybody there?” At the end of our life, it is a question everyone will have to ask.
The Christian proposal is that God is there to grasp us with a love that will never let us go.
We sat very close to him and were soon enveloped in his wonderful ability to share stories and insights on acting and on life. I found myself grinning as I listened to his warm, profound, and self-deprecating style. He is a person not caught up with himself, which has opened him up in his humility to even further greatness. He is always willing to take on parts that are not necessarily leading roles but, in fact, sometimes minor characters. His current film, “Is Anybody There?”, shows him as an old, physically frail, senile man at the end of his life, in a not very flattering light for a movie star.
“Is Anybody There?” is an interesting question on many levels. In the movie, which takes place in a nursing home, a young boy, whose parents run the home, wonders about the afterlife as the old people die. What happens to them after death? Is there an aura, a spirit, a ghost, something tangible, audible, or simply nothing? On another level, you watch old people with dementia, who begin to lose not only their memory (which is bad enough), but their mind. Eventually, I suppose, you wonder “Is anybody there?” as you look into their blank face. The subject is excruciatingly painful for those who live on a day-to-day basis as victims of this dreaded disease and those who are committed to caring for them.
As I struggle with my own mother’s death, I also ask the same question to myself: “Is anybody there to grasp her as she slips from this life to the next?” What is heartening in the film is that this old man finds community, support, and life from not only this young man, but from others in this home. Somehow he is also able to help a young boy climb up a hill to discover life and make contact with the living.
It has always been the Christian proposal that death is not the end, life is - life eternal. One of Jesus’ famous sayings is: “I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly.” For the Christian faith, life is what we are all about. A life girded up with love, grace, and mercy. When the rich young ruler comes to ask Jesus, “What must I do to possess eternal life?”, he is roundly criticized by Jesus because eternal life is not something you can possess, it comes to you as a gift. Eternity for Jesus always begins right now, with life being a gift that you must participate in as passionately as you can.
In a strange way, this young man helps Michael Caine live the end of his days with meaning, and Michael Caine helps this boy make contact with life.
Perhaps that is what our faith is telling us. We need to be about life and making contact with other lives and community, supporting others in times of need. As we move farther away from Easter we see Jesus’ disciples struggling with the meaning of their lives and rediscovering the message of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
This struggle is the same today. How do we deal with loss, with life that changes in so many strange and difficult directions? How do we understand the sadness we sometimes feel, or even the emptiness that inhabits our hearts in times of pain and difficulty? How do we cope with getting older, with our children moving on, with our parents becoming frail? The answer does not always present itself clearly. This film is an example of two people in community, helping each other find a light switch in the dark that will make sense of this thing we call life.
Part of the recipe in the whole mix can be one’s faith. It is not something that comes at you, like a note with an answer from heaven, but rather becomes evident in the faithful living of your days as we struggle to do what is right, given whatever challenge we are faced with.
As the Easter season continues, the first experience of the disciples after the resurrection could be summed up in the question: “Is anybody there?”. They meet in locked rooms, they share their sadness on the road to Emmaus, and generally are disillusioned. Somehow in death I envision us opening a door and asking: “Is anybody there?” At the end of our life, it is a question everyone will have to ask.
The Christian proposal is that God is there to grasp us with a love that will never let us go.
Friday, April 3, 2009
In Search of Higher Ground - Van Morrison and Easter
In the back of my mind every once in a while I think about visiting the poorest country in the world, Haiti. Then I think again. I was reminded of Haiti again in a recent article I read entitled, “Living in a Sea of Mud and Drowning in Dread”. The article chronicles what life is like as you live in central Haiti with no time to recover from the Hurricane season. Residents in shacks on mud streets. These streets have holes dug for drainage systems where many people have drowned. They constantly live in fear of the next storm. When danger seems to approach, everyone wants to run for higher ground.
Higher ground is an interesting concept. The Old City of Jerusalem is surrounded by mountains that allow enemies who encroached upon the residents to look down and observe and attack. Cities on higher ground are much safer.
Revelation is often thought of as climbing a mountain. The higher you get, the better your perspective or view. You get a larger picture. When you are at the bottom, you have no idea of the experience you are about to have as you begin the ascent.
I have had the privilege of seeing the rock singer Van Morrison in concert many times. I will always remember my first experience when this little gnome of a guy walks on the stage with a big hat. I am not sure what he looks like, but he certainly doesn’t resemble any rock singer I’ve seen. However, when he walks up to the microphone and begins to sing, a booming voice comes out of that little man that rocks the auditorium. I guess you could say, I am a fan. His younger pictures betray how very Irish he is. Irish music, to me, is always moody, sad, and sort of bluesy, with a bit of sarcasm thrown in. You feel sad when you listen and, at the same time, as you are touched by the melancholy, you feel a paradoxical sense of humor, too. Van Morrison wretches it up a notch with a big-beat, stream-of-consciousness, poetic verse that touches your soul or, at the very least, makes you reflect on life.
Put differently, as we move towards Easter but continue in Lent, I find that the season is here to help us look at the wrong directions we too often take that are harmful not only to others but to ourselves. In Lent we try to shine a light on the dark, dank, and unconverted areas of our life that make us less than what we are meant to be and can even lead to self-destruction. Lent simply points us to the constant battle of trying to do what is right, shoulder our responsibilities with positive energy, and maintain an attitude filled with grace and compassion. Too often, we find ourselves pulled down, as if by gravity, and acting in ways that diminish us, whether we are losing our temper or our patience with others, avoiding the hard things that need to be done, or trudging through life without a sense of humor or purpose. The living of our days gets “nickel and dimed away” to where we are just getting by without living nobly. Before you know it, all of your good intentions for leading a noble life have dissipated and you find yourself sinking and have lost sight of higher ground.
Van Morrison’s song and its reference to light shining in the darkness reminds me of Easter. The good news of the gospel is that light has come into the world and darkness will not win. The good news of Easter is that we are about life, and even life eternal. The hope that we all have is that somehow the One who created us will pick us up, turn us around, and help us see life in a different way, on higher ground.
In the end, Easter is that higher ground. It announces the resurrection of our Lord, it calls us to hope in the midst of despair, and through faith it lifts us up to live life nobly and with thanksgiving. Easter is about redemption, the power to reverse the cycle of evil, announcing that love is stronger than hate. Therefore, we are given a new perspective, or even a different vantage point from which we can look at life and understand it in a more profound way, from higher ground.
Higher ground is an interesting concept. The Old City of Jerusalem is surrounded by mountains that allow enemies who encroached upon the residents to look down and observe and attack. Cities on higher ground are much safer.
Revelation is often thought of as climbing a mountain. The higher you get, the better your perspective or view. You get a larger picture. When you are at the bottom, you have no idea of the experience you are about to have as you begin the ascent.
I have had the privilege of seeing the rock singer Van Morrison in concert many times. I will always remember my first experience when this little gnome of a guy walks on the stage with a big hat. I am not sure what he looks like, but he certainly doesn’t resemble any rock singer I’ve seen. However, when he walks up to the microphone and begins to sing, a booming voice comes out of that little man that rocks the auditorium. I guess you could say, I am a fan. His younger pictures betray how very Irish he is. Irish music, to me, is always moody, sad, and sort of bluesy, with a bit of sarcasm thrown in. You feel sad when you listen and, at the same time, as you are touched by the melancholy, you feel a paradoxical sense of humor, too. Van Morrison wretches it up a notch with a big-beat, stream-of-consciousness, poetic verse that touches your soul or, at the very least, makes you reflect on life.
Whenever God shines his light on meThis song, which is not well-known and which I have never heard him sing in concert, proclaims the gospel as I see it. After all, aren’t we all looking for higher ground?
Open up my eyes, so I can see
When I look up in the darkest night
Then I know everything is gonna be alright
In deep confusion,in great despair
When I reach out for Him,He is there
When I am lonely as I can be
Then I know that God shines His light on me
Reach out for Him, He'll be there
With Him your troubles,you can share
If you live the life you love
You get the blessing from above
Heals the sick and heals the lame
Says you can, too, in Jesus' name
And He lifts you up,and He turns you around
And He puts your feet back on higher ground...
Put differently, as we move towards Easter but continue in Lent, I find that the season is here to help us look at the wrong directions we too often take that are harmful not only to others but to ourselves. In Lent we try to shine a light on the dark, dank, and unconverted areas of our life that make us less than what we are meant to be and can even lead to self-destruction. Lent simply points us to the constant battle of trying to do what is right, shoulder our responsibilities with positive energy, and maintain an attitude filled with grace and compassion. Too often, we find ourselves pulled down, as if by gravity, and acting in ways that diminish us, whether we are losing our temper or our patience with others, avoiding the hard things that need to be done, or trudging through life without a sense of humor or purpose. The living of our days gets “nickel and dimed away” to where we are just getting by without living nobly. Before you know it, all of your good intentions for leading a noble life have dissipated and you find yourself sinking and have lost sight of higher ground.
Van Morrison’s song and its reference to light shining in the darkness reminds me of Easter. The good news of the gospel is that light has come into the world and darkness will not win. The good news of Easter is that we are about life, and even life eternal. The hope that we all have is that somehow the One who created us will pick us up, turn us around, and help us see life in a different way, on higher ground.
In the end, Easter is that higher ground. It announces the resurrection of our Lord, it calls us to hope in the midst of despair, and through faith it lifts us up to live life nobly and with thanksgiving. Easter is about redemption, the power to reverse the cycle of evil, announcing that love is stronger than hate. Therefore, we are given a new perspective, or even a different vantage point from which we can look at life and understand it in a more profound way, from higher ground.
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