The Pessimist’s Gamble
I hope you are enjoying this lovely winter day. Well, technically it has been spring now for six days, but we know that winter is not over, don’t we? How many more snows will we get this season? Two? Three? Perhaps there will be a huge blizzard, like there was in April 2018. And if there is a big snowstorm, I’m sure you’ll know how to respond to it. Get out those shovels, shovels that you probably haven’t stored away yet. It may make you depressed and frustrated, but you’ll know how to handle it. And imagine the bragging rights: you’ll once again get to experience the fun of complaining about Minnesota winters to people who live far away.
And given the advancements in weather forecasting in my lifetime, if there will be more snowstorms, I think we’ll be adequately warned. I can’t remember the last time we were completely caught off guard by a snowstorm. Of course, weather forecasting still involves guesswork, and I hear the forecasters talk about different models. So I can imagine myself as a weatherman, looking at those models of what is going to happen next Thursday, and if one says “mostly overcast” and another model says “chance of significant snow,” which prediction will I place my bets on? Well, I would probably choose the more pessimistic one. If I were a weatherman, I’d be more worried about failing to predict a snowstorm than about predicting one that doesn’t actually happen. If you predict 8 inches of snow, and instead it’s just cloudy, people are so relieved that they don’t usually mind very much. In fact, you may remember that situation a few weeks ago here in Minnesota: they predicted a major snowstorm, and everyone braced for it, but instead it was just a few flurries. People might have made fun of the forecasters, but since we dodged a bullet, most of us didn’t mind. That’s certainly better than predicting a nice day and getting a blizzard instead: then everyone is angry at you.
So perhaps it’s a good philosophy of life to predict the worst, and if things aren’t that bad, then that’s okay. When I broke my knee and wrist, my surgeon was very good, but also quite pessimistic, and warned me all along the way of the terrible things that might happen. For example, he installed a plate in my wrist, and he knew from the start that it would threaten the tendons in my wrist. He said my wrist would bother me more and more, until, in his words, “You will curse the day I was born.” Well, that plate is out now and I never did curse the day he was born. Isn’t that nice?
So I completely understand people who take the approach of expecting bad things. In fact, speaking of weather predictions, I was born in England, which is a much rainier country that America. In England, it rains so often that I think of rain-free days as being the exception, not the rule. My father lived in England for 16 years, and he learned that the weather was the best opening topic for talking to the natives. On sunny days, he would say, “Isn’t it a lovely day today?” Some of them would respond with, “We’ll pay for it!” Things are good right now, but don’t worry, they’ll go back to being bad. The rain will come back: it always does.
During this time of year, when I run out of patience with the snow, I picture what things will look like in two or three months. People who haven’t been to Minnesota might think that it snows year round—they don’t know that in June, it’s green and lush and pleasant. Looking ahead to those days helps me in these days. But imagine the opposite. You’re at a picnic in August, and it’s 82 degrees, you’re eating fresh-picked corn, you go swimming in the lake and listen to the birds singing. And one person in your party is sitting over in the corner, frowning and saying “The snow will be here soon enough. In a few months all the green will disappear, the lake will freeze over, and we will suffer.” Is that the kind of person you want to invite to a picnic?
So maybe always looking on the dark side is not such a great philosophy of life after all. It might protect you from certain things, but it won’t make you easy to live with. Remember the character of Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh? He was always predicting the worst, always looking on the gloomy side of life. And he was not the easiest character to live with.
Inspiration #1: Paul Simon
I want to tell you what inspired me to choose this sermon topic. There were two things that got me started. The first one is a Paul Simon song called Something So Right from 1973. In the chorus, he sings:
When something goes wrong, I'm the first to admit it
I'm the first to admit it, but the last one to know
When something goes right, well it's likely to lose me
It's apt to confuse me, it's such an unusual sight
I can't get used to something so right
The song ends with him singing over and over the phrase “I can’t get used to something so right.”
When looking up the lyrics to that song, I ran across some commentary about the song by someone named Paul Zollo. Mr. Zollo wrote: “The title of this love song reflects a realm of human love which isn’t expressed often in song: the inability to accept the good things in life. It’s an idea indicative of the human condition, and has been an enduring element of human existence through several centuries.” They also cited an author named Thomas Lupton who wrote a book all the way back in 1580 with the title “Too Good to Be True.” I don’t know if Mr. Lupton invented the phrase “too good to be true,” but it’s a reminder that for over 400 years people have been thinking that if something good happens, it’s probably not true. “We’ll pay for it!”
And yes, that is sometimes true, and I do feel sorry for people who fall for scams that are too good to be true. It is good to be a little wary. Sometimes it takes education to learn to protect yourself against that sort of thing. I’m an educator, and sometimes educators and intellectuals learn to look down on those who are naïve. That might even extend to being suspicious of people who are optimistic or happy. Author Ursula Le Guin wrote, “The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil [is] interesting. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else.” [from The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas].
I am reminded of a movie from 1983 called “Tender Mercies.” In it, Robert Duvall plays a washed up alcoholic country singer named Mac Sledge, who ends up settling down with a woman named Rosa Lee. His whole life calms down, he stops drinking and he starts to repair his past relationships. But he says a heartbreaking thing late in the movie:
“I don’t know why I wandered out to this part of Texas drunk, and you took me in and pitied me and helped me straighten out, and married me. Why? Why did that happen? Is there a reason that happened? See, I don’t trust happiness. I never did, I never will.”
It is the kind of movie where I understand why he fell in love with her, and can even see why she fell in love with him. But I think: it’s going to be hard for her, to be married to someone who doesn’t trust happiness. Someone who always expects the worst; someone who “can’t get used to something so right.”
I can imagine her pouring her heart into the relationship, but him saying “You don’t really love me.” Or: “This won’t last.” It’s the relationship version of saying, “Yes, it’s a beautiful summer’s day right now, but soon this will all be frozen over. Everything good will die – it always does.” It would be like being married to Eeyore.
Inspiration #2: Things That Are Hard To Believe
The second inspiration for this sermon is a conversation I’ve been having with a minister friend Mark. He was working on a sermon he called ‘Things That Are Hard To Believe.’ I loved that title, so we had several conversations about it. He emailed me his list of things that are hard to believe. And it was a totally different list than I thought it would be.
In the Swedenborgian faith, there are a number of things that might be hard to believe. For one, that Emanuel Swedenborg was permitted to visit heaven and hell, for years and years, and tells us what the other world is like. Or it might be hard to believe that every single word in the Bible has deeper spiritual meaning, even all those tedious laws in Leviticus about purification rituals and how to prepare burnt offerings. Or, as Eric was talking about last week, it might be hard to believe that everything in the physical world corresponds to something in the spiritual world, and if it weren’t for that connection with the spiritual world, nothing physical could exist. Or it might be hard to believe that the Infinite Creator of the Universe chose to be born in human form on our particular planet. Speaking of planets, one of Swedenborg’s books is called “Other Planets” (formerly translated as “Earths in the Universe”) and in it he described in detail what non-earthling beings are like from other planets, including planets in our solar system. It’s a little difficult to know how to read that book.
But Mark’s list didn’t mention anything like that. According to Mark, the things that are hard to believe are:
No matter what happens to us at any time in life, the Lord brings good out of it.
Everything is an opportunity for growth.
Evil and falsity are from hell, not from ourselves
All goodness and truth are from the Lord, not from ourselves
And I’m going to add one more to his list, that I’m sure he wouldn’t object to:
5. God is love, and his love for you is infinite
What can we say about those five statements? First, I would say that they are not unique to the Swedenborgian church. All Christians have been taught that God is love, as have been believers in many non-Christian faiths. And even people with no religious background can recognize that everything is an opportunity for growth, and good can come out of the worst situations. If you are a regular reader of Swedenborg’s books, you could check off every one of the things on that list: “Yes, I read that.” “Yes, I know.” “Right.” “Check.” “Sure.”
In other words, it is easy for someone like me to say “Actually, I believe all of those things… they aren’t hard to believe.”
The question is: yes, I can say on a surface level that I accept those beliefs. But how deeply have those lessons absorbed into my heart and soul? Do I not just know them intellectually, but know them? Truly get them?
The other thing about everything on that list is that they are all good news. No matter what terrible thing happens, something good will come out of it. Isn’t that the best possible news? In fact, it essentially means that there is no such thing as bad news. And if I think an evil thought, how comforting is it to recognize that that thought did not originate with me, is not me, and is not something I need to feel bad about as long as I do not welcome it and foster its growth? That is a tremendous relief.
I would add to that the passage from Heaven and Hell 528 where Swedenborg said, in essence, that getting into heaven is easy. And the idea that God instantly forgives everything. Everything! I don’t need to spend one minute worrying that God will not forgive me. Along with that is the principle of spiritual equilibrium, which says that as long as I am alive, I am kept in balance between good and evil, and can always choose good, no matter what.
This is incredible good news!
And when I used the word “incredible” in that sentence, I deliberately chose that word. It chose it because it has two common meanings. Obviously the word “incredible” means “very, very” or “extremely” - but it also means “difficult to believe.” Merriam-Webster defines the word “incredible” as “too extraordinary and improbable to be believed.” Or, as that 16th century writer Thomas Lupton would call it, “too good to be true.”
Instead, for thousands of years, religious people have focused on the bad news: there is a hell, and you will probably go there, especially if you’ve ever committed a sin in your life. And if you have ever actually enjoyed anything in your life, “you’ll pay for it!” If you detect a trace of evil within yourself, you must fight it until it is completely eradicated and no trace remains. What the Lord actually said was that when you encounter evil, what you need to do is shun it—and “shun” just means avoid, run away, steer clear of, not fight. But that doesn’t seem like enough, it seems too easy, so people often interpret it to mean “fight,” “defeat,” “conquer,” “vanquish.”
For centuries, even when giving lip service to the idea that God is love, religious people have indulged in thinking that God is not loving: God is angry and vengeful and demanding and stern. In some interpretations of the Trinity, they might think that Jesus may be loving and forgiving, but his Father is a separate person, the Father is so harsh that he sacrificed his own son.
In other words, in order to truly believe that good news – that God is infinitely loving, that everything is turned toward the good, that you are not the source of evil thoughts and intentions, and that there is a place waiting for you in heaven – you must overcome centuries and centuries of human pessimism.
That can be a big habit to overcome. If so, you should work at it.
Like Paul Simon, you may be surprised to find that something right and good has happened to you, but you must at least be open to it. If you shut it out; if you say, no, sorry, that just sounds too good to be true; if you do not believe in the possibility, then you will not choose it. How can you choose what you do not believe in? When you die, you don’t take your worldly possessions with you, but you do take your attitudes and beliefs with you. If you have lived a life of pessimism and skepticism and wallowing in the mud, you will be the same person when you awaken in the next life. What will that cynic think of being surrounded by people who are trusting and loving and happy? If you do not trust happiness, then heaven will not feel like home.
There are no Eeyores in heaven. What there is in heaven is an infinite variety of kinds of people, so you don’t have to try to turn yourself into Winnie the Pooh or Piglet or someone you are not. But you do need to learn to open yourself up to heavenly joy, and the possibility that life is beautiful. At first, it may lose you, it may confuse you, it may be an unusual sight, and it may take a while to accept it. But you need to get used to “something so right.” Learn to accept the good things in life.
And even in heaven, you will face challenges and you will go through a process of continual improvement. It will not be a tedious and bland existence with nothing going on. But you can believe the Lord when he tells you “there is no bad news.”
READINGS
Psalm 98:1-3
Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The Lord has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations. He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Matthew 11:28-30
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Heaven and Hell #528
It Is Not So Hard to Lead a Heaven-Bound Life as People Think It Is. Some people believe it is hard to lead the heaven-bound life that is called “spiritual” because they have heard that we need to renounce the world and give up the desires attributed to the body and the flesh and “live spiritually.” All they understand by this is spurning worldly interests, especially concerns for money and prestige, going around in constant devout meditation about God, salvation, and eternal life, devoting their lives to prayer, and reading the Word. However, the actual case is quite different, as I have learned from an abundance of experience and conversation with angels. In fact, people who renounce the world and live for the spirit in this fashion take on a mournful life for themselves, a life that is not open to heavenly joy.