The Minority Report

The Minority Report--July 21, 2016

"At the end of forty days [the twelve spies] returned from spying out the land. And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.  And they told him, 'We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Yet the people who live in the land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large; and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there'.... But Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, 'Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.' Then the men who had gone up against this people, for they are stronger than we.' So they brought to the Israelites an unfavorable report of the land that they had spied out, saying, 'The land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are of great size. There we saw the Nephilim [the Anakites come from the Nephilim]; and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them'." [Numbers 13:25-28, 30-33]

It's not about forcing yourself to see the glass as half-full.  It's about knowing that even half a glass of water is enough for God to claim a new child in grace... or turn into wine. 

This is the remarkable (but often neglected) gift that the people of God have been given--and which we also therefore owe to the world around us--the gift of truthfulness about how things really are... and with that, the ability to trust in God's ability to work with and through how things "really are."

Sometimes we make the deadly mistake of confusing Christian hope with optimism.  And while I have nothing against optimists per se, it seems to me that the biblical writers never see optimism as a necessary character trait for Christians, nor do they call for us to be pessimists.  We are not any holier if we see the glass as half-full, and we are not any more saintly if we are all dour-faced Eeyores with cross necklaces.  Both of those viewpoints are distortions--filters--that edit out the gloom or the sunshine, rather than seeing the whole spectrum.

Because Christians are (supposed to be) grounded in the confidence that God reigns, and that God is good, we can be utter realists about how things really are.  We can be realists--who don't force the evidence to be "better-sounding" or "worse-sounding" than it really is--because we trust that God promises that ultimately, as dear Julian of Norwich put it, all will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be made well.  We have confidence that, before all is said and done, the universe will be set right, the broken will be mended, and the proud and puffed-up will have their hot air taken out of them, and so, of all people, we should be able to the be the ones who can be honest about things in the world, and in ourselves.  We should be the ones who can give an honest report of the conditions around us, without polishing our fake halos or making everything seem worse.  We should be the ones who can tell and hear all the evidence, even when it doesn't fit a convenient narrative or sound-byte like the news networks or pundits would like it to.  We should be, of all people, the ones most able to hear the findings of scientists without fear that it will unmask our religion as a fraud like the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain.  No, of all people we should be the ones who don't need to put a spin on how much water is in the glass. 

That's what I love about this story from the wilderness days of the people of Israel.  It's not really a story of optimists versus pessimists, although I must confess I have heard plenty of sermons basically saying that.  It's not that Joshua and Caleb's minority report from the Promised Land was the "optimistic one" and that the other ten spies were all just playing Droopy Dog while they sadly shuffled their feet and gave their pessimistic report about taking the land.  They have all seen the same land, and they will all attest to both the bounty there, and the challenges in dealing with the people who already lived there.  But Joshua and Caleb can be both realistic about what they saw and at the same time have confidence that for the God who brought them out of Egypt, nothing is impossible. There are real threats there in the Promised Land; of that there is no doubt or denial.  But the difference of the minority report is that from within that realism, there is also trust in the power and presence of God.

That's the kind of voice you and I are called to have--and which is given to us for free, if we dare to speak--one that can see reality without needing to always add rose-colored or storm-gray-colored lenses, and that can remain hopeful in the power and presence of God. We can be the voices who answer Jesus, "We've only got five loaves and two fish, and we know that on our own that wouldn't feed a family of five, much less a crowd of five thousand--but we know that you can do wondrous things with whatever we thought was not enough."  We can be the people who don't automatically dismiss news or science reports that are not what we wanted to hear.  We can be the people who give everybody an honest listening.  We can be the people who can sit with people in their times of deepest sorrow without reaching for unhelpful clichés and instead just live in the heartache with them... and still pray for God to bring divine power and presence to those moments.  We can be the people who see and name the truth without being afraid of it, without sticking our heads in the sand, and without angry uninformed yelling that dresses itself up as "telling it like it is". 

Because we know that, at the last, God reigns, the Love named Jesus wins, and all really will be made well, we can be honest about all the ways and places in the world that are crying out for redemption, and we can be honest about the signs of God's redemption that has already begun.

Be that voice today.  Be the eyes that can see the glass and the water and say, "That is enough for God to claim someone in baptism... and that is enough for God to turn into wine, too."

Lord Jesus, give us the honest vision to see the world in all of its mix of beauty and brokenness, and give us the courage to voice it along with our hope in you.