An Eighth of a Ton of Hope

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      I presently weigh what Anne and I weighed together when we got married. I have assumed the mass of both parts of the nuptial speakers at our wedding. I took the statement, “the two shall become as one” a bit too seriously and physically. Actually, it appears I misinterpreted the saying thinking the words were, “the one shall be as big as two.” At this rate I am headed to a mass the size of my Uncle Grover, who was the largest man in our family. I long to return to those good old days when my lone weight was less than an eighth of a ton and somewhere around a mere tenth of a ton.
      I am normally a forward-thinking person. Constant thinking of times gone by and the “way things used to be” is the sure way to misery in the present. I grew up with lots of family who referred to the “good old days” so often that, until I turned 18, I believed this was an authentic time and place being unanimously designated by all as the best time in the world to live. I found it very easy to believe that the world from 1900 through the year of my birth was life as good as it gets.
      Only as I did some study did I discover that this same 50-year period was scarred with two world wars, a major depression, a dust bowl of the whole mid-west, racism in every part of the country, the elimination of thousands of types of native wildlife and plant species for lack of care, possibly 4 influenza epidemics that killed almost 3 million people in our country (5 out of every 100), a period of time when THE country of freedom had geographic regions where only white men could vote, and when an average lifespan was only between 50 and 57 years of age for both sexes.
      Now that I have reached the golden age of sure death, according to the “good old days” standards, I also find it easy to look back to my past as the “good old days.” But as I remember those days, I have to acknowledge major wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Iraq/Afghanistan, along with minor events in Granada and Panama and a huge silent Cold War. We have witnessed the assassination, or near assassination, of three presidents, an attack on our country by an outside power, environmental and natural disasters like the world has never before witnessed, periods of inflation, mortgage bubbles, crashes, black Fridays, and interest rates above 12%. Yet, I look back and find this to be a time of “good old days.”
      I actually find it easy to watch shows on Woodstock, or shows on the ‘50s, ‘60’s, ‘70s and even the ‘80s and long to return to those wonderful years. (Unfortunately, I have thrown away my platform shoes, my disco shirts and leisure suits, and I have not had a permanent in my hair for a few decades.)
      Backward-viewing is so easily optimistic as we selectively remember the good and forget the horrible. Looking backward is the easy way we respond to the unknown of what is ahead and run to the safe security of the past of which we have survived. Few of us have great vision of survival in the future.
      This is the place where the members of the Church of Jesus Christ differ from all other earth residents. We differ in that we are a forward-looking people. Nowhere in our New Testament does the early church point to the events of the past as being the time when “God lived.” Even a casual reader of the Old Testament will witness that, again and again, the old days were the time God drew near and gave powerful leadership to the faithful. But in the New Testament, we are a visionary and forward-looking people. Even at the death of Jesus, every teaching and event pointed to the resurrection that was to come. Today, we live in the hope of the return of Jesus and the joyful promise of Salvation through the grace of Jesus Christ. For the Christian, the future is a Kingdom of God, a house not made by hands, a crossing of the Jordan where we will not look back.
      The Christian believes that every day is a day with God. The Christian believes that every new day is a time of grace, healing, reconciliation, hope and promise. Every new day is an Easter-day with the resurrection the source of our hope. We believe that the Holy Spirit of God will be even more evident to us than we have experienced in the past.
      Christians who look back and believe that what was is better than what is, and what is is better than what is to come, have surrendered to the accepted temptation of our culture to be hopelessly wandering organisms of the earth, believing we alone must make our way and find our shallow pleasantries. Churches who have a larger “History Room” than their “New Converts Room” have given in to the safe temptation of becoming earth-dwellers satisfied with a good old history sufficient only for bragging rights. Churches that look to the future with dread, without a vision of God’s direction, have taken an earthly path and have stopped expecting the courageous vision of God for all that will be.
      Our citizenship is in God’s Kingdom. The Holy Spirit is always with us. Our hope is in the Lord. I will never be a tenth of a ton again, but I look to the future with great hope and joy, for the Lord is my source.

Rev. Dan Martin is pastor of First UMC, Hendersonville. He can be reached at moose1953@hotmail.com