Musings on a Summer Sunday Morning
by First Church
On a rainy Sunday morning this summer while on vacation, I found myself relaxing late into the morning sipping my coffee, eating a leisurely breakfast and watching the lineup of Sunday morning television. Have you ever spent any time on a Sunday morning watching what is on the television screen? There are, of course, reruns of Law and Order, the Golf Channel, and ESPN interviews, but essentially the Sunday morning fare boils down to this: television evangelists and political talk shows. The Fox channel that I watched condemned the current administration in Washington and found fault on any number of counts leading to the conclusion that the “outs” were more likely to become “ins” in the upcoming midterm elections as a result of the slow economy and public dissatisfaction. The next program consisted of five talking heads reveling in the complaints of the Tea Party movement and focusing on whom President Obama will face as an opponent in the 2012 election. Halfway through the second year of the current presidential term and we are already pointing to who will oppose the incumbent! It’s as if we are in a perpetual presidential election cycle. Finally, the third program centered on an hour-long interview with General David Petraeus, an interesting interview with our chief military commander in Afghanistan. Halfway through the program I was so discouraged by the plight of the world over which I had no control that I decided to do something over which I did have some control: weeding in the garden, a task on which I suddenly realized I had been procrastinating for too long. On this one Sunday morning I was reminded of what demands the world’s attention and what is of lesser concern.
Many years ago, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen preached a sermon in which he pointed to the two symbols that are in contention in this world and that vie for our fealty. Referring to the intersection of 50th Street and Fifth Avenue, he pointed to where the art deco statue of Atlas is located opposite St. Patrick’s Cathedral. In that statue Atlas bears the weight of the world on his shoulders, laboring to hold up the weight of all the problems of the world. Opposite Atlas, straining to lift up the heavy world, stands the high altar of St. Patrick’s Cathedral where the body of Christ is broken for the sake of the weary world, symbolizing the power of God to overcome the world. There, above the altar, Christ’s body and blood are easily raised above the table and the question is, “Which do you believe holds the greater hope for the world, the straining Atlas or the triumphant Christ?”
I am not sure how we solve all the problems that weigh so heavily on the shoulders of humanity, the captive concerns of the Sunday morning news shows, but I do know that we are straining under the weight of it, whether it be the loss of life due to flooding in Pakistan, the longest war in American history in Afghanistan, the challenge of fair immigration policies justly administered, or the groaning of so many people in an economic squeeze that is burdening all of us. Can we solve all these problems? We can address them, certainly, and in many cases make improvements, relieve suffering, and move toward a better outcome. But where will we find hope and encouragement in doing so? As Christians, we are drawn to the One who was not overcome by the world but who overcame the world through the strength and power of God’s love. We are people who have seen in the resurrection that God’s love for the world is greater than the worst the world can do. Because of that, we place our trust in the God who not only made the world but gave us the limitless expression of self-giving love in Christ Jesus. That is our hope and our faith in the face of the world’s most troubling challenges, that in life and in death we belong to God.
The Rev. Dr. Jon M. Walton
