As I read the lectionary this week, I think of all the people Jesus is indeed talking about. The Poor, The Hungry, those crushed into meek and meager existences by a world that is not for them. I think about the men, women and children who fall under the description of poor, hungry, meek, and in a week where our President foretells of a future that must be won in order to be had, I lament another future not available to those Jesus describes.
“The future is ours to win”, said my President. A coming future where victory will be measured by the advances of learned men and women. When those who grasp the promise of the coming day are, once again, not those who sleep under bridges, in shelters, or in the camps of refugees, but those with worldly power: powers of wealth, of privilege, and the respect that comes with America’s greatest dream: the ability to grow into whatever you want to be. The future, that future is not for the poor, the hungry, the meek and the meager. Their moment will not conclude with victory.
If the future is to be won, if the journey for the promise of a new day is to be a race then many will not finish. Left behind will be those who need the promise the most. Left behind will be those whose life demands the meager energy their hungry stomachs afford and do not have the strength to run the races of this world. Their race is ultimate. It winds along the centers of power, along the steps of government, the seats of influence, and the high walls of wealth but unlike privileged sons and daughters they do not make these places their stop. Their race continues and is a marathon of ultimate things. Their race ends not in the promise of a future but in the hope of a different day, a final day when the promise of an inheritance and a great, filling banquet is set for the children of God who now gaze upon the Almighty. Their hope lies only in the promise of a great reversal, a great comfort born not of confidence in able body or ample wealth but in God Almighty whose Angels long ago promised a day when the hungry will be filled with good things.
Can a future where millions are left out truly be a future worth running for? A future worth winning? If we truly are on the verge of this generations Sputnik moment, where they look to the lofty heights & upper reaches of possibility and make that our national goal, then should we not set our sights on the nature of the very future itself? The great challenges facing our society are the ones, that by ignoring, rob the very future from our whole nation, and the world. They are not conquered in labs or libraries but in fair housing, justice for all, living wages, peace in communities, equality in marriage and life, and in an earth sustainable enough for generations that inherit what we have begun. This is the only future worth winning. Its foundation was laid centuries ago in the words of a prophet who told us what the Lord requires: to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Old words for a bright future.
True victory comes only when the future is available to all. That is the only future worth winning. Let us turn head on into the challenges of this generation, and lean into the promise that races run to bring together a more just world will be the only races worth wining.
Let us all look forward to a future worth winning: one where the hope of a new generation is available to all God’s children.
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