St George's Cathedral, Cape Town

Sermons by Sergio Milandri, St George's Cathedral, February 2004

We are our past
We are our future
We are our present

WE ARE OUR FUTURE

Father, we commit our hearts into your hands, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Good morning again, it’s good to be back. I’m feeling a bit battered this morning. Last night we got a call in the middle of the night to say that Mandela Park and the school my children attend were on fire. So we roused the family and rushed out to try and see what we could do and spent half the night fighting flames and saving things and got to bed very early this morning. A big piece of Mandela Park has burnt down. We managed to save the school, but perhaps we could pray for those who have lost their homes and property. That explanation is in case my sermon bumps a bit.

Last week, we were talking about our past, about our history and the richness that it gives us. We saw that we are our past, we carry all of our past within us and it either enriches, fills us with it’s goodness, or it burdens us with its unresolution and it’s pain. Today we’re looking at our future and equally, we are our future in the same ways that our present moment is filled with that which we carry from our past, our present moment is also filled with that which we look forward to, that which lies ahead of us. Again, as with our past, we can become selective about what we choose to see in our future, what we choose to hold onto and what we not want to look at. This not looking at the bigger picture can severely compromise our choices and our way of life, the way we are able to move into our future.

Our Sense of the future, with its dreams and possibilities, but also its fear and pitfalls, all of this we received from our families, our communities, and from much that we have been through. From an early age we heard people talk about their future, about their longings, their dreams for a day when things would be different. “One day”, “One day perhaps, when things are better...”, “One day when we have enough money, then we’ll be able to do something or other”, “One day when Apartheid is gone we will be free”. Really?

With the dreams comes other baggage, inflated expectations, the things that were unresolved, the dreams that were to be a bind. Family agendas like; “These people we don’t talk to, these people we aspire to get close to, those things we don’t do, these things we do do” and we picked up many of these things and they shaped us in the way we would see our future and the way we would have many of our choices narrowed. Many of us carry these family feuds, family issues, family shame which affects the way we are able to be open or the people we are able to interact with. As an example of family expectations, in our family, people who worked hard were praised and people who didn’t work hard were criticised. You were lazy and good for nothing if you didn’t work hard, so we were all pretty much workaholics, because the options weren’t very wide. You worked hard and delayed pleasure, indefinitely if need be.

I remember when I was about ten we were driving in Johannesburg on Queen Elizabeth bridge, my Father saying, “One day, Sergio, we will have enough money, we will buy a boat and we will have a good time together,” and the sadness is that my father worked all his life, he still works. He’s not well now, but he still works seven days a week and we’ve never had time to have fun together. So that whole projection of the future and how it’s going to turn out, can became it’s own bad prophecy, one that we can become tied to. The tragedy is that the life that we do have and are living can slip through our fingers while we are waiting in anticipation, chained to our hopes. Some people might have expectations that society owes them a living or that something is due to them and are easily angered or frustrated that life isn’t as it should be. Others may carry the expectation that one gets nothing for nothing, and so have very low expectations, but also find it difficult to receive anything for nothing.

Another thing we inherit and learn from those who went before us, are our concerns and anxieties for the future. They colour much of what we see. A common fear that we’re constantly reminded of is, “Will we have enough? Will we have money to retire on, will we have enough wherewithal, will we have enough security?" One of the strange things about fear is that it feeds on itself, it grows and once we starts asking that chronic question there is no end to it. There is never enough security, there is never enough to hold the fear at bay once we release it into our future. “Will I still be attractive in ten years, will I keep my job or lose it, will I ever be able to find another one, what about age and all that that brings?" Many of these things that we project into our future or take out of our future actually predispose us to a future that they predict. So we expect to get old and expect to become infirm and then our body responds and becomes infirm. This is largely because we expect it, not because it is actually becoming infirm. But when we tell ourselves that we can’t do something, our whole body responds and we find ourselves unable to do that. There was an interesting study done in Harvard some years ago where they created a village, this was in the 70s, they created a village and did it up as if it had been in the 50’s and then got, I think about a thousand people from old age homes to live in this village for some time. So, they were in a sense going back twenty years in their experience, back to Elvis Presley and all that, and in the measurements they took, they found people actually got younger, in the measured parameters they were investigating, aspects of their physical selves actually lost age because they were living in a younger stage. Their body responded to that understanding of where they were. They could do more, they could walk better and feel better about themselves. Our anticipation of becoming old and infirm is very much what our body sets out to respond to.

So, generally, our expectations and anticipations of the future affect us all very much. We each have different expectations. While some of us are optimistic, not wanting to see the negative side, just the positive and ideal, others of us are more pessimistic and see the difficulties and maybe can’t or won’t see the ideal. Both these positions may be unreal, both may be a distortion and just as we select our stories with our past, so we may select how we want our future to turn out, and thereby how we predispose our future to unfold.

Last week, we saw in the reading how Jesus retold a historical story in a broader context, and those who heard him were furious because he was removing from them their interpretation of how history had been and in the same way we can have our stories broadened, our stories of the future enlarged. We saw in the gospel this morning how Peter was despondent from having caught nothing all night and Jesus told him to try another way, “Go out again and throw your net on the other side”. This was a different future from what Peter anticipated. He had said, “We’ve tried that, but because you say so, we’ll do it” and he was amazed to see the bigger picture. We often say yes ... but, and don’t look as Jesus looks. The rich young ruler who came to Jesus and said, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?", he had all the rules well established and obeyed and he expected Jesus to give him a few more rules. but Jesus changed the picture of the future, he said, “Sell all you have and come, follow me," and he couldn’t do it, he wasn’t able to let go of his picture of how the future had to unfold. He walked away and Jesus was sad.

When we meet with Jesus what do we ask for? How do our prayers predispose us to our future? How does our insistence shape our sense that this is what we need and what we would like, what we are open to and what we expect. How does all this shape us? What picture of the future do we actually carry? “Father, please free me from these people I don’t like, who trouble me, please take away my pain, please give me more money, more security." These may be fine prayers, but Jesus might have a different picture for us. “Don’t worry about the future," he says in Matthew. “Don’t worry about what you will eat or drink or wear." “Seek me and seek my lordship in your life, seek right relationships and all you need in the future will be taken care of." He asks us to allow for a bigger picture for our future and we will be amazed at what he surprises us with. So we are indeed our future, we are all that we anticipate becoming. We are our fears, we are our hopes, we are our expectations, and we are the openness to our surprises. Our future is the gift that is given to us that gives the present it’s meaning and it’s direction. It may also be our worst fears waiting to happen. We need to broaden our stories and allow a larger part for the God of surprises who wants to help us to recast our future stories. Thank you.

To next sermon: We are our present

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