We ask you to consider our weakness. Help us to understand. Many words have been explained to me. There is only one word that gives meaning to all of them, and that is your son. Mahaprabhu. Well, this is the, unlike television, this is what we call prime time retreat, morning session. Things begin to go downhill, I think. But at 3.30 there's another good psychological moment where you're given the ultimate meaning of elevation. And the only nice thing about 3.30 is you come to develop the spirit of anticipation. It's 4 o'clock, so you follow me. And the evening, of course, is just a world that would fly on you.

[01:02]

So I'd like to get into some pretty heavy stuff this morning, not heavy in the sense of dull, but heavy in the sense of critical. I mentioned that faith, you know, faith which is hopefully the fruit of freedom. Freedom is for believing. looking for the good, which is another form of loving, finding the goodness in loving. Another dimension of this is looking for goodness, being ready for goodness in the future. If there is otherness in other people, it is nothing compared to the otherness in the future. The unknown quality. The future is the great unknown. And it's meant to remain that way, and it's a very important part of our religious experience.

[02:08]

Which is one reason why the church has always been very fearful by the fortune teller. Because it tries to take away the mystery of the future. No. All the ambiguity of the future good before one knows that it is good. One of the primary expressions of faith. So, this is so true. One could always say that, you know, how much we believe depends exactly and directly on what you think about the future. Is it true? Is your life dominated by expectation? Joyful expectation? Is your life dominated by threat? Danger? Anxiety? Things are bad and getting worse. Need to get up in the morning. The only thing that will be worse is tomorrow. Well, it's not too far-fetched. Some people... I have my village. Most of the ones I went to... She said, my good heart, wait till the evening comes with my sleeping pill.

[03:15]

What a way to live! hardly wait until the time of his leaving. So, the Bible is future-oriented. The messianic nature of the Bible is not by any means restricted to the Old Testament. It only begins there. To be a Christian is to expect the Lord to come. Jesus has only begun to come Coming in Jesus is by no means complete. I would suspect that maybe 20%, 25% perhaps, threatened heresy. I doubt if these half count. And it says, you know, we Christians, we make a big mistake in saying, well, Jesus has come just a matter of figuring out what that means. No, Jesus is coming. God is coming constantly in Jesus. We have much more to share with the Jews than we think.

[04:20]

Looking ahead, expecting, awaiting the Messiah. Remember the first prayer the Christians ever said, hallowed be the Lord Jesus. We say, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. These are all future realities. So, what do you think about the future? Now you recall when I mentioned the Exodus. It says, let my people go, They may worship me or hold a pilgrim feast for me, literally, in the desert. I don't know if there is any word in the Bible that is more symbolic than the word desert. It certainly is not restricted to the Sinai Peninsula, that's for sure. The desert, first of all, in Midbar, the Hebrew word, does not mean the Gobi Desert, the Sahara Desert, the Mojave Desert.

[05:24]

No, its primary emphasis is not upon some dry infernal land, as we understand desert, I think. No, it's a wide open space. The emphasis is upon the fact that it has not been surveyed. It has not been domesticated. He is wild country, he is wilderness, which means men have not yet controlled this territory. So in its symbolic meaning, it stands for God's country. God's country means country that men do not own, have not surveyed. Egypt is surveyed. Egypt is laid out in human plots. Egypt is dominated by human wisdom and understanding. Streets and everything. Egypt, you know, the pharaoh knows everything that's going on in Egypt. Men cannot control the desert.

[06:29]

And the whole prophetic tradition is involved here, because the prophets have a unique affinity on the desert. Just as it would be on the Paisa of Tishbe. When the king set out to find Elijah, he never found him. He was always moving around, moving around. Then a blow on the wrist. Obediah went to find him. He said, what are we going to do? As soon as I come back with him, you all move someplace else. This is symbolic. Like the desert, it is uncontrolled. He's God's man. He represents God's mystery, God's freedom, God's sovereignty. So when it says, I shall let my people go to hold a feast for me in the desert, it means, let them out of this carefully planned and humanly dominated situation, which is only posh, and they may

[07:37]

entered into my country and claimed it for me, in obedience, in worship, in gratitude, thanksgiving and prayer. When you put this in the temporal mode, even from the geographical and temporal, which is the dominant bone of survival, by and large it's one-sided. Well, it's obvious that it does exist in the future. What is more unknown, unsurveyed, vile, uncontrolled than the future? It is God's plan. God will have the future. What then is the challenge given to Israel? You shall move from every past into a future and claim it for me. Making the exodus happen tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. Not living in the past.

[08:40]

Not turning your back on the future. Resisting the temptation to flinging to the familiar. Powerful religious implication here. As the men grow older, they tend to begin to live in the past. Leaping through the scrapbook. Man are very dangerous, not only psychologically but also spiritually. Where is your scrapbook? Put it in the shop. The scrapbook is living off the husks. The future, always, no matter how old one gets, the future is all that counts. Let my people go, for what purpose? They may freely choose to walk constantly into the future, growing in their sense of expectation, calling the future good regardless of how threatening it might be.

[09:47]

Of course, with death lurking at the end of it, humanly speaking, it can become very threatening. So that almost the whole of our Christian faith is whether one can be joyful about a future in which death is inevitable. One needs to honor equality, especially divinity, tomorrow. Now, what I've said in this regard is true for all Christians and Israelites, and I will proudly point out There is a day or tomorrow that this is especially the witness of monks. Monks make it their special job, I think, to bear witness to the future. Future-oriented, living in hope. Now, it's no wonder then that the Bible, as a religious book, is dominated by the concept of journey.

[10:53]

Everybody's goal Abraham, at 75 years old, boom! Dead in the West. Go West, old man! Now, I don't want to go to the state. Well, it's true that that's 75 years, I mean, but he was an old man, that's the point. An old man is tired. The funny part about it is, the Bible considers everything that happened to Abraham up to his 75th birthday as insignificant. Unnecessary to record. Which leaves all of us a little lonely. I mean, his significant life began at the age of 75. Which means that if we're not 75 yet, we don't have a chance. Actually, the climax of his life for the Bible came at the age of 99. Mind the records. The point is, that regardless of whether those numbers are trustworthy,

[11:56]

The point is that he was moving, changing constantly. And it says in Exodus itself, chapter 12, verse 11, And ye shall take staff in hand, and put sandals on your feet, and gird your loins, and eat your Passover in haste. All of those things are for wayfarers, for people on a journey. This is not just how the Israelites will prepare that night for their Passover. This is the man of faith. This is how he looks. Bathing hands, sandals on feet, loin skirt, ready for the journey. And all through the Bible there is great distress, if anything that suggests the static, the temple. The prophets are very uneasy about the temple. Jeremiah will already go near. Temple, follow me, temple, follow me, temple, follow me.

[12:58]

Who I trust is going to seek the Word. Mark chapter 8, Mark chapter 6. Alfred used to take this bat, I don't know what the theme of the sermon was, but he would pile up that bat, and the Lord says, you know, who do I trust to seek the Word? Temple of the Lord. Temple of the Lord. No! Temple passed away, and Jesus said, neither here nor on that other mountain will you worship me. Ah, temple, no. Why? Because the temple was a Spanish symbol. It's no accident that the great theophany of Israel, the great revelation of God to Israel, which occurred on Mount Sinai, was never venerated by Israel as a place for a shrine or a temple. They never thought of going back to Sinai. Why? Because that was the place from which to go into the future, constantly moving, journeying.

[13:59]

Well, you know, all through the violence. And then, of course, when you talk about journey, you're talking about going somewhere. As soon as you understand life in terms of a journey or movement, you must deal with the goal, with the destination. There's no pilgrimage unless there's a shrine. Destination is the ultimate or radical future, the end of time, the eschaton. And this is where God dwells. He's from this place, this ultimate moment that God called man. To believe is to be responding to that call. This is brought out as clearly as one could possibly desire. In chapter 12 of Eden, St. Paul will actually give the reason to that.

[15:00]

There's a kind of definition of faith which occurs in chapter 11. Verse 1, faith is the substance of things hoped for, and so forth and so on. Then it goes on to describe all the great men of faith. Give an illustration of what faith means. Then it says there's a cloud of witnesses. who supports us and encourages us. Then in chapter 12, verse 2, it says, in this matter of faith, we must constantly look to Jesus. Keep our eyes on Jesus, who is the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. Pioneer, that's an interesting word to use. It means that He is the one who is ahead of us on the journey. He has gone into the future before us. He also calls us toward the future. He has left apparently to urge us on.

[16:01]

Looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy that lay before Him, made light of the cross, despising its shame, and is now seated at the right hand of God." What a few texts I've made, the total of them are answerable. "...for the joy that lay before him." It says in effect that what Jesus did in summer was to endure, well, suffering, corruption, rejection, shame of the cross, not just the suffering of it, He endured this. He made light of it. He found it easy in a certain sense. Why? Because he was Spartan? Because he can take things? No. Because he had hope. Because there was joy that lay before him in Karam.

[17:07]

Because he had discovered that he was going home. radical future is home. And then, everything is transformed on the way. Everything becomes tolerable. When I've got some place to go, I may see it on the horizon. Joy that may be born. I think Saint Benedict, with his deep understanding of He's saying the same thing in the prologue, we call it that. If in the beginning things seem somewhat difficult, do not be fearful and so forth. Repel and persevere. And gradually, uneterable intellectualis dulceine, unspeakable sweetness of love, you will begin to run the way of God's commandments.

[18:18]

This is what he's talking about. Hang in there, keep looking, keep searching that transcendent, that future, that unknown, that mystery. Keep searching and it will be suddenly open up to you and you will begin running toward it. And your dying will be coming home, arriving, patron of a happy death. There's an image that I think is useful in this regard. As faith becomes more influential in our lives, and of course we're always trying to grow in faith, trying to make it a real guide in our lives, a real basis of our decisions, as faith becomes more dominant and prominent in our lives, this will be, I think, manifestation of that.

[19:21]

It would be like a child who walks for the first time. Kind of simplistic. You know the situation, the scenario is well done, we all have nephews and nieces. And, you know, Mummy and Daddy decided it was time to join in the walk. Younger, he'd walk all day. On the laundromat the other day, he asked the folks, why didn't you get out here? We're going to go for a walk today. But Johnny's father, he'd been crawling when there was a storm, you know, recently. So, they came to each side of the road, and one of the parents propelled this poor kid toward the other one. And you know how it happened, let me demonstrate this. He had a certain corn, and he starts off, you know, and looking back, and looking back at the parent who is closest. At a certain critical moment, a little before half way probably, the child suddenly reaches out and runs toward the other parent.

[20:27]

And then, oh, Mao Zedong, Shawty has fought, forced by the fall of the space ship. I'm convinced that this really determines whether we are believers. We begin by looking back. We gather our confidence from the past. So, some day I'm coming along and somebody says, you know, look, you never were any good. Put me down. Put me down hard by somebody. Well, you know, if I have any sensitivity at all, I kind of... Well, only a little bit, a little defensive, and in the fact that I'm broke, not literally, but in the fact that you're listening, the fact that, you know, I get a letter out of a citizen, from a friend, who I was a pilot in Vietnam. Where's this fly? There, there, I got that. More bitches than I'm so glad you know. Sounds about to be great. We're going to Vietnam! Where we can do well. I'm usually drawing upon past accomplishments.

[21:42]

And even unconsciously we recall, is that true? Am I no good? No. Go back to your office, look around, see your Well, I think that's a critical thing. We all have to have a path on which to rely. We all have to begin with some sense of accomplishment and approval and acclamation. But I'm convinced that we haven't really been converted until the future. comes forward before we do that. We can say, oh no, I'm closer home than ever. Can't put me down anymore. Almost there. We're everyday getting closer. Ride, everything will fit together.

[22:45]

Running, first of all walking and then beginning to that finally broadening toward that ultimate goal. I don't think this is something that ought to be reserved for saints. I think this ought to be that, on an experience of 50 additional days, and I think you can see immediately the implication of this for one of our great problems today, which is old age. I'm forgetting what it was, but 45,000 people in the West Coast died in the over-65s. And it was a tremendous number of old people, and sitting there, trying to make some sense out of it, of all those young fellows who were running by, just different, peculiar, different, middle-class. Now, Christianity has very much to say about old age. It's almost like saying, well now all that unnecessary stuff, working and earning a wage and funding all over, now we can do what we always were made for.

[23:57]

Time for people and time for hope and time for prayer and time for rejoicing and expecting. And if this is true of Christian charity, then it better be true of Monastery. So much so, I think, I think if I don't get that idea, just to check the old people in monasteries, and confess to them, religiously confess. If they aren't happy, and they're joyful, and expecting, not necessarily, you know, they've got arthritis and what not, they'd probably be completely old at once, but that's basically hopeful. Then I really think somebody ought to go to the foreign kingdom. Won't walk here, you know, nothing happens. Our witness is faith. We can't turn out old people who are cheerful and joyful. I think we'd fail.

[24:58]

I don't care how much we've done in those productive years. This is what faith means to our lives. I have a personal experience to illustrate this. I think it felt to me when I was here in high school. First couple years, it was pretty tough, especially the first year. I recall, you know, I felt the same as I was going home as a voice-reader student. And I get on the train here in Latone and go up to the Crescent. That's all going now, the future freight train, I don't question it. Well, there are a fair number of passenger trains, and if you ever made that trip, you'll know it's not the end of the Indian Valley from Switzerland. It's not one of the great scenic wonders of the world. Dairy, you know, corn. Well, that's not too bad yet. Eight miles. No, the next 12 miles, Bethlehem Steel. You'd be a scientist. The next 12 miles, Bethlehem Steel.

[25:59]

That was the back end of Bethlehem Steel. All that stuff was running into the river. And then up through the mountain quarries and summer hills. Well, it's not that country, but especially in the fall and winter, there's a lot of coal heaps, swag heaps, and stuff. But I didn't want to make trouble for us, so we were going home. I mean, we had spittle and jewels along the way. It would not have been more beautiful. I mean, it was absolutely just outstanding scenery. Then I could never understand why, coming back the other way, things looked so drab. Terrible. Worse than reality. Well, I think, you know, we know what this means. The point is, if one has no expectation, one has no desire for this goal, one has not been able to build up and develop the yearning for this ultimate home, then the whole journey of life is probably sluggish.

[27:07]

And so, how I feel about the present, is determined largely by how I feel about the future. The present is governed in many ways by the future. Do I live in expectation? Or am I dominated by anxiety? I'll get the most out of today because I'm sure tomorrow will be worse. So, goodness in the future. And then there is goodness in God. Well, I've been talking about this all the time, but I'll name it. God is more unknown, more mysterious than any other person, of course, even the most mysterious person. And certainly more unknown and mysterious than the future. He is the great unknown one. The great free and sovereign one.

[28:14]

The one who in no way can be controlled by us. And if we are dealing with this true God, as opposed to some idol, it's possible of course to have a kind of heavy cap God, with a ribbon around his neck. Life for us, you know, I sometimes get my own statues. which we have developed over the years, reduced God to this very familiar figure, which is not God. God must begin as a terrible, sovereign, unknown being, potentially the most threatening of all beings. That is the true God. We must deal with the sovereignty of God, too. Well, we can call Him good, and discover Him as good, and even discover Him as Father, and the center of home, a home which is far better than any of these meager earthly experiences which we call home.

[29:19]

And then we can begin to understand how faith constantly opens up our lives, constantly makes the future brighter because God inhabits this ultimate future. God becomes the essence of surprise in life. I wonder if you've noticed how notoriously bad our images of heaven are. Heaven is a very important element. And yet, the images of heaven are the best childhood pictures, I think, in some cases. I think it's about one million nights. Heaven is all the luxury. bombs for onions, or scallops, or whatever you like. You know, that's heaven. Somebody said, I like bulldozers, and I'm trying to be something else. I think there's a very common opinion around it, you know, all your hobbies will be there waiting for you, bouncing around the clock.

[30:30]

This is a little hedonist. And then the other gimmick, which is even worse, is the monastic choir. Holy, holy, [...] It's so childish because heaven is by definition surprise. Because it is the very nature of heaven not to be subject to imagery, not to be subject to control of our concepts. It is surprise.

[31:31]

It is the ultimate gift. And the essence of gift, of course, is surprise. The interesting thing about this, we're going to try to distract from the surprises, and I just said it's impossible. But there is an interesting consequence of this. I think one can logically conclude, therefore, that only those people will go to heaven, re-saved, only those people will go to heaven and be saved, who have learned to be surprised. reduce this opportunity blind to develop their ability to be surprised. Why? I suspect we're all going to go to the same place. Some will see the surprise and like it, and others won't. And they'll call that the underage.

[32:32]

Some will like it and some won't. I don't think that's necessarily going to be a good advice. I'm going to be a kind of, you know, wall of things. But, um, I just think what that means. That means that I, above all, will avoid trying to peg people, trying to say, I got that guy figured out. I got my wife figured out. She couldn't do anything like that. She'd never surprise me as long as you're here. My husband couldn't surprise me. I mean, you hear those, oh, I know exactly what you're doing. You have to admit it. That's what I told you. Well, you know, we can control each other by an expectation. And we can gradually convince people that they can't do anymore than we expect them to do. And then we have them controlled. But it's a terrible, pharaonic, sinful thing to do. Now, just back to that whole thing about the mystery of the other person. Well, there's surprise everywhere.

[33:36]

I have no idea. In people especially, but in things too. Things are good and getting better every day. Well, Marsha, the radical theologians seem to agree that... God is good and getting better every day. Everything is good. And so, one is open to surprise. In people, always expecting them to do better than even they think they can do. Always expecting things to be better than they seem to be. More promising than evidence would indicate. And when one has become filled with this sense of surprise, one becomes like a child, full of wonder. And the kingdom of heaven is only for children.

[34:32]

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