You Can't Be Serious

When I look at People Magazine, I can hardly recognize celebrities of the younger generation. I do know a few names who are probably passe as well -- Brittany Spears, Justin Timberlake and Snoop Dog. Lately, I can’t seem to avoid hearing about the misfortune of Lindsay Lohan. I don’t want to wish her ill, but she seems to have an obnoxious sense of entitlement. Having gone to rehab many times and failed, violating her probation for a drunk driving charge, and her general distain for authority, she seems to be in need of something that could correct her behavior.

She is equating her plight with women who are victims of cruelty and unusual punishment, and even sights article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which prohibits torture and inhuman degrading treatment. She recently showed her now famous middle finger painted with a word that I can’t print here as a message to the judge and those in authority.

She is now bound to jail for ninety days which I doubt she will end up serving. What brought a smile to my face was the reaction of she and her attorney after hearing the sentence of ninety days in jail for violating her probation. She said “you can’t be serious."

The more I thought about it, the more I felt that this could be an interesting characteristic of our times. No one wants to suffer the consequences of their behavior and no one wants to sacrifice for anything. You can’t be serious.
Those may have been the words of Bernie Madoff. They could be the words of Michael Vick, they could be the words of Lehman Brothers, BP or even Goldman Sachs. Life has its consequences and its challenges, but with a little bit of luck everyone is trying to avoid them.

It was similar in Jesus’ time when the rich, young ruler didn’t want to give away all that he had.. I could hear him saying to Jesus, “you can’t be serious.” When Jesus tells his disciples they need to forgive, not just seven times but seventy times seven -- you can’t be serious. When he tells them to turn the other cheek after they have been struck already, I can hear the disciples saying “you can’t be serious.”

So, was Jesus serious when he said you’ll have to walk the extra mile and you may have to suffer for my sake and discipleship will require something of you? Yes, he was serious. And perhaps it’s time for us to look at our lives and think about taking the opportunities we have seriously. Perhaps, we need to be more hospitable to others in our lives, give more of ourselves when it comes to service here at St. John’s and be more generous in our giving, not only of our time but of our financial resources.
Perhaps the problem in our society is that we are not serious enough when it comes to being honest, sacrificing our time to help others or letting go of our financial resources and just being generous. There is a lot of talk about this but in the end a lot of people say “you can’t be serious.”

Bob Sheppard and the Voice of God

Anyone who hangs around Yankees Stadium or watches the Yankees over the past 50 years (he started in 1951) will know the voice of Bob Sheppard who recently died at the age of 99. Sheppard was the announcer who would introduce the players as tey came up to bat. His voice was so distinctive that it became a New York fixture .Even after he was unable to come to the ballpark, Derek Jeter insisted that he be introduced with a tape of his voice. When he spoke you always knew it was him and the voice made you settle in feeling right at home in Yankee Stadium.

Voices are interesting. The voice of God in the Bible is always a way in which God communicates to us. It could be a voice coming out of a burning bush as with Moses (Exodus 3). There are also the words of the priest Eli to Samuel telling Samuel when he hears the voice, he should say “speak Lord for thy servant hears.” (1 Samuel 3: 10). And yet another instance in which we are told that God is known in the “still small voice.” (1 Kings 19: 11 – 12). In all these ways something is being communicated to us.

William Sloane Coffin was once asked in an interview “if God is saying anything to us today, what is he saying?” Coffin replied “God is not just speaking to us, he is screaming to us through the voices of the poor and sick and helpless.”

As I think about the famous voice of Bob Sheppard, who incidentally was a speech teacher by profession and loved to be a lector in his own church also see a person who loved to use his talent in a unassuming way.. As a devout Catholic he was really disappointed when he couldn’t be a lector on Sunday morning. Too often I see people read the lessons without energy, enthusiasm or panache. Lifeless words said by tired people makes you wonder.

Bob Sheppard took speaking seriously. Pronunciation, annunciation, and just plain conversation are things we take for granted today. In fact, many are just plain sloppy about communicating thoughts, ideas or feelings. Maybe we need to take a second a look at ourselves and the ways we speak. Our voices were not made for profanity or for the brutalization of the English language. Have you ever thought of the fact that God may be speaking through you, and that we are the mouthpieces of God that comes often times as a “still small voice.,” heard just the same.

In the end, announcing peoples names who come up to bat in a baseball game seems trivial and unimportant, but Bob Sheppard made something that is ordinary special. Perhaps on a Sunday morning when one is reading the lessons, on most days a rather simple task, we have the opportunity to do something extraordinary. Bob Sheppard made little things matter. Maybe there’s a lesson there for us as well.

Lesson from Nelson Mandela Part 1

I am currently reading the book, Mandela’s Way, fifteen lessons on life, love and courage. I find the book to be a fascinating study on elements that can help one build character and find the strength to live life with integrity. Mandela lived 27 years in prison. And during that time had a lot to reflect on. It’s clear that most people would have ended up broken and perhaps would have surrendered their values to find ways to survive in that very life breaking place. On the contrary, Richard Stengel argues that Mandela was taught to play the “long game”. In Stengel’s words the impatient Mandela changed.

He writes:

“As a young man, Mandela was impatient: He wanted change yesterday. Prison taught him to slow down, and it reinforced his sense that haste often leads to error and misjudgment. Above all, he learned how to postpone gratification – his whole life embodies that.”

When I read those words, it struck a chord being an impatient person myself. We all want things instantly. Speed is part of our cultural makeup. It’s hard to wait even for your computer to boot up. However, when you are involved in trying to change things in your life, it may take time for change to marinate. After all, it took years of racism and repression to be created in South Africa. It would take a long time to overcome the damage of all of this. Mandel kept a total picture in mind and like a long distance runner; Stengel wrote he became “a long distance thinker and prison was his marathon.”

The more I think about it the more important it becomes to look at your life in longer terms and to prepare yourself for the long distance you will have to travel. Faith can be the important element that allows you not to grow cynical and not to become paralyzed by the various turns in the road. I have a famous saying that came to mind when I was reading this book: “The bend in the road is not the end of the road unless you cannot make the turn.”

I am into this thing called life for the long term. There will be obstacles along the way as well as some losses. But my faith will give me hope to continue despite all of that.