Sermon: This too will pass.
Karen Blixen, this wonderful great Danish writer who lived from 1885 to 1962, was a complex person who lived an intense life of greatness and pain. With blessings and curses. She was a fantastic writer and God-given storyteller, with a natural starting point in her privileged upbringing at Rungstedlund in the finer circles and in her precious and profound time in Kenya. Her life was exciting, and her perspective was wide. Her personal life was also marked by great happiness and deep sorrow. Karen Blixen made active choices throughout her life – both in Kenya and in Denmark- and she chose different mottoes to inspire and support her. Throughout all her choices and phases of life, she chose different mottos that inspired her courage and gave her strength.
In "The Mottos of My Life", Karen Blixen reviews the mottos she has chosen in different periods of her life and what they meant to her. As a young woman, she chose "Essayez!" (Try!), and "Often in trouble, never afraid." In Africa, Karen Blixen adopted a motto from Denys Finch Hatton "Je responderay" – (I will answer). She emphasizes the ethical content of the motto: "I will answer for what I say or do; I will respond. I want to be responsible."
The story goes that Karen Blixen was given a box by her beloved servant Kamante in Kenya.
Kamante gave this tiny tin box to Karen Blixen, when she was leaving her beloved Africa and her African farm at the foot of the Ngong Mountains. Karmante put a note in the box at the farewell and told Karen Blixen that she should open the box when she was either the happiest or the most unhappy. A few years later, when she had received a big tribute in the United States and had become a famous and acclaimed celebrity, she thought that it could not get any better. So, she opened the box. Karen Blixen found the folded note on which it read; "This too will pass.”
When you read it on the high peaks of happiness and with deep, deep joy and satisfaction, it may seem like a bucket of cold water in your head or like a pessimistic denigration of happiness. But remember that the note had to be read both at the peak of the highest happiness and the bottom of the deepest misfortune.
When life is painful, unbearable, unhappy, and difficult, the phrase " This too will pass..." will be an uplifting hopeful reminder and comfort that it does not last; that life is a valley of changing seasons and happiness. When life is good, happy, and beautiful, it can remind us to enjoy it, and enjoy every minute with great gratitude, since we do not know when it is over. The big perspective is redemptive. The only sure thing in our lives is that nothing lasts forever. There is change, redemption, and either improvement or deterioration. But time passes and with time comes changes. Karen Blixen's motto tells us to adjust to the temporary and changeable in life, so that we clearly understand the conditions of life.
"Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way, and that so many things you worry about are not important at all...." Karen Blixen wrote to her brother Thomas in 1937. It is a simple truth that we all know; that we can spend so much time worrying, only to admit afterwards that the worry was bigger than the problem itself. We are good at taking the sorrows in advance. This too will pass.
Jesus had gathered His disciples around Him along with a large crowd of people who followed Jesus to hear His words and be healed. This crowd came as we came. This crowd was like us. People with joy and sorrows, with happiness and misfortune, with blessings and curses.
Into this life, Jesus spoke with great strength and love, - but also with blunt honesty. Remember, it will not last. This too will pass. This echoes in the beatitudes and the woes.
Luke's story of the sermon on the plain speaks directly to this tension in our lives – between happiness and misfortune, between beatitudes and woes. Life is both a blessing and a challenge.
Luke holds up four beatitudes to 4 woes, and the listeners then, like us today, can be caught in the middle of it all.
Those who are blessed because they are comforted, seen, and heard amid their suffering, sorrow, and poverty, and those who are judged by their actions, full stomachs, satisfied laughter, and good reputation have hurt others and forgotten their calling.
It is like a crossroad.
Life is like a crossroads. We are in the middle between receiving God's grace when life is difficult and confessing that our actions take us away from our neighbor and our responsibility. That we forget to answer as Karen Blixen said.
We are both sinners and saints. We are both blessed but also exposed and judged. We are human beings in a life where nothing lasts.
The Beatitudes do not bless suffering, hunger, crying or persecution, but that it will not last. That you will be fed, seen, laugh again, and live safely. For God sees the suffering and the tears and promises that it will not last.
The woes are for all of us who often forget to answer and act on our responsibility in the world. When wealth makes us close the gates to our own, when we fill our stomachs and close our eyes to the world's distress when we live carefreely and without compassion. When we believe that happiness is eternal, that we are the smith of happiness, and that life is our playground. When we fail to answer, when we overlook that life is a crossroads, a valley, a great sea of blessings and curses, joy and sorrow, ups and downs, happiness and misfortune – and life calls for generosity and care.
After the Beatitudes and woes, Jesus speaks in the sermon about loving your neighbor and God, of enemy love, of turning the other cheek, of giving, of forgiving, of accepting the beam in our eye.
That is where life and calling lead us. To love God and neighbor, even the one we do not like, to receive blessings with joy, to confess and acknowledge our inadequacies with humility, and to be obliged to live a life of love. To respond with love.
But if we see with the eyes of love and if we believe that we are seen by the eyes of love, then we know that when life hurts, we must believe that it does not last and that God is with us even in the darkness – and when life is good, we must also recognize that it does not last, but rejoice as long as it lasts, and share this joy with others. Then God is with us in the light and joy. Jesus' beatitudes and woes are recognizable. May they make us think about how we have arranged the world and how we treat each other, - and how we can respond with care and love.
Today, it may seem a bit old-fashioned to have a motto. But this was not the case for the great Danish author Karen Blixen, who had several mottos that guided and helped her through life. However, it can be helpful in reminding us of what is most important and bearable, and where we can find hope.
Prophet Micah: Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. Amen.