Last week, I had to take a detour from a road that seemed to never get any attention since we moved here several years ago. Nevertheless, the bold “Road Closed” sign forced me to alter from this version of “we’ve always done it this way.” We weren’t exactly running behind schedule, but it was still a nuisance, nonetheless. And then this car in front of us, on this particular “road less traveled,” had a bumper sticker that seemed to be as outlandish as the detour: “I hope something good happens to you today.” The alteration ended up being worth it, in the end.
It almost seemed like a mistake that that was there on the back of someone’s car: the place where people sometimes attempt to belittle others who are in any way different from them with images with not as uplifting of tones, creating even more inner dismay amidst a world that seems to be overrun with not overly uplifting of tones. So, a bumper sticker that seems to go in the complete opposite direction of the standard human operating procedure, might just bring about the initial question, “Does that person really care if something good happens to me today?”
“Are there really those kind of people out there anymore?” “Are there people who do wish not just for their own goodness or their families’ or their own neighbors’ or their own country, but for the goodness of any random person who might come up behind their vehicle?” “Does such a mindset of seemingly pure kindness and love and compassion really exist?”
Granted, fear and hatred and evil are rather contagious, and just enough of them can convince us that seemingly all hope and love and serenity have faded out, or that they’ve lost their own contagious power amongst all travelers on this road of life. Of course, the church will always insist that they have not lost their power, and that there is just as much of an abundant lifetime supply of that holy collective for us to tap into for ourselves, and for those near and far away. No matter how much we are overloaded with the messages of absolute turmoil, and convincing us that we must cower into inflicting any form of fear and hatred and evil on others, the Resurrected Christ will insist on rising time and time again to proclaim the ultimate power of grace and new life to guide us on the roads we always have taken and the detours as well.
In reality, church buildings could have that same window sticker placed on our doors as people leave from worship or committee meetings or Bible studies or AA groups or whatever else: “I hope something good happens to you today,” but the truth is we believe something good has already happened to them (and you!). Something good (the best) has happened to you in Jesus Christ, even if the traveler isn’t so sure that Son of God could possibly be on their road filled with all the potholes of their own inner turmoil and dismay. But, evidently, no place and no one is beyond the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Yes, we hope something good happens to you today, but something (some One) already has. And that some One will happen again tomorrow and the day after and for all eternity. Christ is Risen, indeed, for you, too! Thanks be to God!
In Christ,
Pastor Brad