LET'S GO PICK A FIGHT
Whoever he was he was bored spitless if not completely cynical so he wrote a little book. His opening words were, “Futility, futility, everything is futility.” He’d sit on the porch in the morning and watch the same sun come up again in the same way and in the evening he’d be out there again and watch it going down, “Pointless,” he’d mutter to himself, “Same old thing over and over again.” Then he’d wearily watch some television re-runs, shake his head and watch the “news” [what a word—what’s “new” about the “news”?]. He’d go to work, come back home and then go to work again the next day only to come back home again. He’d drive slowly past the graveyards and they’d gloomily agree with him, “This is as good as it gets.” He’d seen it all before, no matter what it was, and he’d infect anyone who could bear to listen to him with this sort of talk, “That which has been will be. That which is done is what will be done. And there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, ‘See, this is new’?”
My Ethel and I knew a young man, he lived next door to us, he committed suicide, hung himself and dangled there for two days in that gloomy hall next door to us before he was discovered. We thought he had moved away. He had. When I met him for the first time and he learned I was a preacher of sorts he quickly told me he read his Bible and took notes. He eagerly showed me his small, blue Gideon Bible and his grubby notebook. “And what are you reading?” I asked him. “The book of Ecclesiastes,” he said. I’ll spare you the details of his awful and pain-filled life.
[Oh God, Holy Father, he was just a boy.]
I wish to say that the vision presented in Ecclesiastes is just that—a vision, a way of seeing life. It’s not hard to understand why many people see life that way, particularly those who’ve been plundered and humiliated and abused from the day they were born. How could they disagree with Aldonza who claimed in Wasserman’s adaptation of Don Quixote that the real crime was being born and one gets punished for it for the rest of their life?
I get that! It makes sense to me!
But there’s more than one way to see life, if indeed you get the chance. The gloomy character of Ecclesiastes saw the sun rising and he mutters “What a bore; what an empty, pointless unchanging existence.” Jesus Christ saw the sun rising and said, “Isn’t my Father wonderful. He makes his sun to shine on the evil and the good, on the bored and gloomy ones as well as those who are cheered by hope.” It’s all about vision and vision is all about God! Not just any “God”; but the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of that God we can think noble things! We won’t demand answers from him for every good question we can ask—no doubt we’d like more than we get because Christians hurt too. Taking our cue from Shylock in the Merchant of Venice, we say if we’re hurt we cry, if we’re cut we bleed, if we’re lonely we’re sad. We don’t demand exemption from the trouble and pain that comes with the present human condition but we heard from Jesus Christ as he moved to the cross and then hung on it—we heard from him, “You can trust my Father!” Luke 23:46.
Knowing that a day is coming when all wrongs will be righted [Acts 17:31]. Those who are part of the chosen ones, those who have been privileged to be called and have committed to the Christ who will right all wrongs will purpose to seek that kind of life, here and now. They recognize that only Jesus does it right, they recognize and regret their flawed lives but they will not permit that remorse to keep them from joining their Master in the war against the evil that oppresses, the gloom and injustice that generates despair. They‘ll get up every day purposing to work with Him to liberate who they can and to work to convince the tormented nations that whatever it takes the God and Father of Jesus Christ will right all wrongs!.
My nephew Billy reminded me a while ago of a scene from the movie Braveheart that had stuck with me. The movie, as you know, centered around the Scottish fight for freedom against the English and in this scene the tyrant Longshanks had gathered his huge force to war against the Scots to definitively crush their rebellious spirit. A number of the Scottish leaders who wished to feather their own nests and retain their positions of power were prepared to accept Longshanks terms for "peace" and Wallace was having none of it. These leaders rode to meet the enemy commanders to pacify them and as they spoke Wallace spurred his horse in their direction. One of his close friends wanted to know, “Where are you going?” Smiling but with full and earnest purpose Wallace shot back, “I’m going to pick a fight!” and that’s just what he did and freedom and an honorable peace was finally gained.
The angels saw the young Prince preparing to make a move from his home in heaven and they asked him, “Where are you going?” He said, “I’m going to pick a fight!”
Sigh.
Let’s go pick a fight!
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