Here’s the fifth and final sermon in my series, "For Christ's Sake, Keep Going." Fifth and final in our fall series: "What Matters Most Now: Life, Love, and Liberty in these Uncertain Times."
I’m not ignoring the crises crashing in upon us. They certainly threaten our wellbeing, personally and communally. At the same time, we’re being summoned by God to engage this urgent moral reckoning as a nation.
It often feels like an uphill battle, a long, long journey toward where we want to go. It's easy to lose hope, run out of steam, bury your head. Today's service will not only inspire you to keep going, but guide you toward inner resources to keep the fire burning.
The series focuses on the universal feelings and experiences that unite all human beings. Charlie MacKesy’s book, "The Boy, The Mole, the Fox, and the Horse," does this beautifully, especially the way he brings together the four characters (boy=curiosity, mole=enthusiasm, fox=suffering, horse=wisdom). We will pair five of Charlie’s best sayings and joins them to biblical wisdom says to help ground us in these uncertain times.
This sermon was based on Proverbs 13.12 and a saying from Charlie MacKesy’s book: “We have a long way to go,” sighed the boy. “Yes, but look how far we’ve come,” said the horse.
1.
Christianity is never escapist. Christ’s way in the world is a deep plunge into the fullness of life here and now. It’s a way of life that doesn’t deny or side-step the great challenges human beings have faced in the past or those we’re facing in these uncertain days. We walk this way for Christ’s sake—that is, we walk this way in order to bring about the kind of world God desires, where beauty and goodness and justice thrive and so does every thing on this vast and wonderful, yet troubled world.
The road to the kind of world God desires—the world we need—is long, and the struggle is hard. “We have a long way to go,” says the boy to the horse in Charlie MacKesy’s marvelous little book of contemporary wisdom. “We have a long way to go.”
In those words I hear a deep sigh. The boy’s not convinced he’s got what it takes to travel the long and hard road before him.
Sometimes I feel like that. “We have a long way to go.” Sigh. I know a lot of you can feel that way too.
Sure, there’s a long journey before us, but if we allow ourselves only to see the long and winding road ahead as it disappears into the dark, we can fall into despair.
And so the horse says, “Yes, [we have a long way to go,] but look how far we’ve come.”
Wisdom’s not saying to us, “Ignore the challenges before you.” Wisdom’s saying, “Turn around. You’re farther than you think. Remember what brought you this far. And for Christ’s sake, keep going.”
2.
I’ve told you before that Rebecca Solnit, the East Bay writer, historian, and activist, is one of the few persons who can help me avoid despair and despondency; she helps me keep going when the going feels tough, the top of the mountain’s still too far way. In her book, Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories Wild Possibilities, she writes:
“On January 18, 1915, six months into the first world war, the first terrible war in the modern sense—slaughter by the hundreds of thousands, poison gas, men living and dying in the open graves of trench warfare, tanks, barbed wire, machine guns, airplanes—Virginia Woolf wrote in her journal, ‘The future is dark, which is on the whole, the best thing the future can be.’”
What Virginia Woolf and Rebecca Solnit mean is not that dark is a problem. No, they mean that dark is the reality: you can’t see into the future, which is, of course, true. Dark is a statement of fact—like the boy sighing, “We have such a long way to go.” Who actually knows how far we have to go? Who actually knows whether or not we’re still a long way off or just near to top of this climb?
Solnit goes on to say: “People imagine the end of the world is nigh because the future is unimaginable. Who [several decades] ago would have pictured a world without the USSR [, a world] with the Internet, or where Nelson Mandela would become the president of South Africa?” You never know what’s coming, even when it feels darkest. History shows that it’s always too soon to give up.
I know it’s troubling to see the grave injustices black, indigenous, and people of color still suffer in this country . . . the ways rights of LGBTQ persons seem so fragile today . . . the ways the hard fought environmental safeguards are being rolled back alarmingly . . . the ways our democracy is under threat today.
“The future is dark.” We see what we see now and what we see troubles us. But we cannot see into the future. So let’s not fill it with grim predictions. No matter how hard it gets, it’s always too soon to give up.
For Christ’s sake, wisdom says, keep going.
3.
Here’s why—
Our history is a story of opposites: our best moments in the history of our nation came about because of our worst and most challenging moments.
Rebecca Solnit reminds us that “The abolitionists and the underground railroad, the feminist movement and the civil rights movement, the environmental and human rights movements were all called into being by threats and atrocities.”
So too right now.
Look at the courage and resolve that have stirred this nation in the aftermath of the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and so many others. Look at the passion of the younger generation stirred by the teenage activist Greta Thunberg and so many others: they are helping us all awaken to the climate threats we face. Look at the new political activism by Republicans and Democrats and those who affiliate with neither party—people who refuse to allow our democracy to be derailed by those ignorant of or opposed to its enormous value to the whole of our society.
We have a long way to go, but look how far we’ve come.
For Christ sake, keep going.
Our history is a story of opposites: our best moments were birthed by the worst. That historical truth gives me hope—a hope that helps me keep going, especially when it seems we have such a long way to go or when the opposition to all that’s good seems too strong.
We have a long way to go, but look how far we’ve come and remember what brought us to this point.
For Christ’s sake, keep going.
4.
For years, David Whyte, the English poet, and David Steindl-Rast, the influential Catholic monk, have gathered together to read poetry. Reading together has inspired them in their work and nurtured their friendship. One evening, David Whyte plopped himself down in his chair, let out a big sigh and said, “Brother, I’m exhausted. I’ve got nothing left. Maybe I need a long vacation by the sea.”
Steindl-Rast thought for awhile then said, “My friend, the antidote for exhaustion isn’t rest.”
“If the antidote for exhaustion isn’t rest,” asked David Whyte, “then what is?”
“Wholeheartedness,” came the reply.
When our hope wanes, so does our energy. And when our energy wanes, so can our hope. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life,” says Proverbs 13.12.
When hope is deferred, you can’t just make yourself hope again and then pick yourself up and continue the journey. The boy sighed to the horse, “We have a long way to go.” “Yes,” said the wise horse, “but look how far we’ve come.” “The antidote to exhaustion isn’t rest,” said the monk, “it’s wholeheartedness.”
The Proverb, the horse, and the monk are all saying the same thing: “Look backward. Return to your heart. What brought you to this point? What dreams and visions, desires and passions have nourished you on this journey? Rekindle that fire and you’ll find what you need to carry you the rest of the way: “Your desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”
What are you struggling with today? Does a mountain stand before you? Are you feeling overwhelmed, can’t see the future, don’t like what you see? Is your hope waning?
Know this:
The antidote to exhaustion isn’t rest, it’s wholeheartedness—wholeheartedness happens when we are true to the desires that are one with our soul, the passions that stir our God-given gifts, the longings that are signs of God’s own longings living in us.
When the way is hard and the future is dark, return to your heart. What matters most to you? What’s stirred in you when you’ve felt most alive? What commitments can you simply not live without if you are being true to yourself?
To find your muscle again, return to your heart, your desires, your longings, your passions and you’ll find the muscle to keep going for Christ’s sake and you’ll help us all build a better world.