May 7, 2010

Dear Friends,

What a perfect day!  At least thatıs the way it appears to me on our street.
The laconic pace of pedestrians, the insouciance of the bicyclist, the
rustling young leaves of spring responding to the fresh morning breeze.  One
could easily imagine, ³All is right with the world.² And isnıt it uplifting
to have this thought.

Indeed, it is healthy to imagine that perfection, for from the imagination
comes the impetus and resolve for action.  As I dream it, so may it be.  If
you build it they will come.  Where there is a will, there is a way. One
pure thought cleanses the world.  On earth as it is in heaven.  For behold I
saw a new heaven and a new earth.

Our faith is born from the idea of a perfect day, a perfect age, a perfect
world, a realized humanity, not only living in harmony, but in active
reciprocal love.  The idea may seem distant and even naïve, but scratch a
little and you will find it lying dormant but unscathed.  It is as ancient
as the first human consciousness and as foundational as the first breath of
each life.

Yes, we know it isnıt here, yet.  We know we have not even realized a small
percentage of that perfection.  St. Paul said he had not yet achieved it,
but pressed forward for the prize. Soren Kierkegaard, said, ³I do not call
myself a Christian, but one who is trying to be a Christian.²  Perhaps few
of us will get as close as the great saints of ages past, but that should
not keep us from starting the process by honoring the hope.

Karl Barth wrote that the Christian should have the bible in one hand and
the newspaper in the other.  When I have only the newspaper, I am filled
with despair.  From oil spilling into our coastal waters, to bombs in Times
Square, disasters both natural and human threaten on every side.  But in my
soul and in my church and in my bible and sometimes even on my street, I see
intimations of immortality, promises of redemption, causes for hope,
strength to press on to the upward calling: A call to leave my narcissistic
cage and as Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, follow Christ out into the world.

We begin from a simple hope, a remembrance that the world was meant to be a
paradise and that we were meant to be royal children in perfect communion
and fulfillment.  It is no doubt a fantastic vision.  But this hope becomes
the basis for our ethics and our actions.  It is why we sing praises in
Church, it is why we feed the poor and visit the sick.  In the very act of
hoping I experience the thing itself.

Can we afford to have these positive thoughts? Can we step this far away
from the news of the day to embrace the news of eternity?  To ignore these
childlike dreams is to do violence to our soul and to abandon our world to
powers of greed and corruption.

Next Thursday we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension.  As Christ ascends to
heaven, we prepare to do the work of heaven on earth.  These are fantastic
times and ours is a fantastic hope, but salvation is at hand for those who
choose to embrace the ancient hope, found in all the forgotten places of our
lives.

Faithfully yours,
The Rev. Steven J. Yagerman