Divine Optimism for a Troubled Pessimist
Palm Sunday is upon us – our Liberating King, courageously and with steep conviction, marching into the heart of an empire fixed on power and pride. Jesus, graced upon the back of a donkey, an animal symbolic of humility, glides into Jerusalem as the people celebrate, weep and shout, “Hosanna – Save us now!” Jesus is fully embracing his mission and fully facing his pending opposition. For what lies ahead is dreadful – but it is right, set apart, and sincere because it bridges the crooked trail between us and the Father. Perhaps there are a myriad of choices on how this gap could be closed, but God, in their Triune goodness, chose to alleviate the problem by relationship, that is Divine friendship.
I’ve been moved by the writings of Richard Rohr, in particular, a recent read Jesus’ Plan for a New World Order: the Sermon on the Mount. He writes, “This new world order is based on the experience of a God who is experienced personally. Jesus seems to be saying that God is not a philosophical system, a theory to be proven or an energy to be discussed or controlled, although we have often reduced God to such. Jesus believes that God is a Person to be imitated, enjoyed and loved. We only seem to know God by relating to God, almost as if God refuses to be known apart from love. It is all about relationship.”
And so, with the mission to honor the Father’s will and reunite the relationship between the Godhead and their special creation, Jesus willfully journeyed into the fray. And so it’s about relationship: an honorable Son honoring his Father. And so it’s about relationship: an honorable Savior acknowledging that his followers are now to call him Friend. Relationships.
If then, Rohr is on to something, we ought to be imitators of this behavior. We, the followers of the this faith originally called The Way, ought to be on our Way as well then – right? Our movements ought to be steeped humility, driven by what is right and just, carried along by the conviction that we too are set apart, and rooted in a sincerity that seeks to give into life more than it exacts. Rohr would go on to say, “The gospel is much more a process than a product, a style more than a structure, a person more than a production. It is a way of being in the world that will always feel like compassion, mercy and spaciousness – at least to honest and healthy people.”
So, as we enter the imperial city, are we doing so humbly? Are we honest with our identity – as daughters and sons of a Liberating King? Are we mimickers of this Way, showering our world with grace and peace in a dry an arid landscape? This is my prayer this Lenten season…
Recently I was engaged in a conversation about optimism. I admitted my pessimistic nature towards people in general – they let us down, they walk away, that speak with cruelty when we are not around, they forget, they embarrass, they neglect, they leave us stranded, they forget we exist. However, that’s not the entire story – there is another component that resides deep within those traveling on the Way – the Divine roommate. I’ve spoken as God as Triune; I noted God as Father, God as Son but there is the third party – God the Spirit. It is this that cosmically and beautifully invades my space and points me to the Father and the Son, that challenges me to morph more and more each day to resemble my King and Friend, that sheds light in the darkness and places me on the path of hope as a dispenser of Grace. Peterson did well when he translated Romans 8 in The Message, “God’s Spirit beckons – there are things to do and places to go! This resurrection life you received from God is not a grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike, ‘What’s next Papa?'”
What’s next? Perhaps its as simple as affirming and embracing Divine Optimism – that is, though life seems dreadful, something better is about to happen. Though we find ourselves and others wallowing in a perpetual state of Friday, fear not, for Sunday is coming and though Friday is dark and difficult, Sunday is alive and anew. The resurrection recreates space that is both tenderly compassionate and full of mercy – thus, this is our “next” – that is, to travel adventurously, create wide open spaces, endlessly pouring out compassion and mercy, all the while asking our Father and Friend, “What’s next?” This seems like good news. Period. May our Lenten Season be rooted in this Gospel.
Grace and Peace,
Mike Lawrie, Lead Pastor RVCC
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