The gods on Olympus live perfect lives. It is all fun, all the time. Nothing ever goes wrong. There are "no crucial
turning points." So, Oliver Taplin avers, their lives are DILUTED by immortality. It is just one endless summer day after
another, perfect temps, no rain, no challenges, no trouble, no death. Just boredom. In Greek mythology, the gods end up creating
no end of trouble for the human race out of sheer boredom.
We humans, on the other hand, stuck in the endless toil of finitude, creatureliness, envy the gods.
It is one of our many miscalculations. We are creatures, we are made to be finite. Immortality would kill us. Perfect lives
would be useless lives. We need-spiritually need-the challenge thrown in our path by what Luther calls "sin, death, and the
devil."
This is a big difference between Eastern and Western religion, I think. Eastern religion urges us
to accept the negatives and strive for egoless existence (nirvana.) Western religion is very egoistic. The whole point of
life is in the struggle against sin, death, and the devil. When Eastern religion is dominant, human beings become too passive;
when Western religion dominates (and one of our besetting sins is our love of dominating) humans become too aggressive and
imperialistic. We need to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em. We need—this requires great spiritual maturity—both
to accept finitude and to fight it.
I think this is why St. Francis is so popular. He lived a life of service, he tried to offer healing
and comfort to the sick, the hungry, and the poor. But he called death his. "gentle sister" and he knew that sickness and
death, hunger and poverty were permanent adversaries. He was a cheerful warrior. He could do this because he believed that
beyond finitude there was a God not at all like the Greek gods. This God was eternal, not immortal. This God is a love that
heals our fears and fulfills all our yearnings. This God invites us to abide in what he is—healing, fulfilling love.
And then when we die, when all our summer days are over, we fall into his arms. But we will have left behind, planted in the
soil of countless summers, new seeds of love that will sprout and grow.
Like summer days, the generations rise and fall, we come briefly into the light and then we pass away.
But the Love-God, from whom we arise, is the One to whom we return. We rise and fall, but he is forever. By faith, in love,
we abide in this God.
Have a great summer!
— Pastor Bastien
