A Return To Faith

It is not thy task to complete the work, neither art thou a free man that thou canst withdraw thyself; if thou hast learned much, great shall be thy reward, for He that doth hire thee will surely repay thee for thy toil; yet the requital of the pious is in the future.
-- Rabbi Tarfon

This morning's dreams were of me as Jack Lemmon having become something of a star in a live broadcast of a commercial in which my Felix Unger-like behavior running off script had the audience in stitches. The producer then embraced this spontaneous success and paired me with Dan Rowan, and somehow I became Dick Martin, except that I was still Jack Lemmon. The pair of us wandered around, found a bridge and began spontaneously composing songs, which is something I do quite well in my best dreams. As we danced on the cables high above the roadway, somehow a briefcase shared between us fell to the roadway and exploded destroying several automobiles and causing a pileup. We laughed it off as nobody was hurt. In the next scene I found myself singing another song in a neighborhood of Craftsmen homes with large front lawns, and on one of these lawns, surrounded by people of all ages, I began singing a new song about the struggle of blackfolks in America. It was finally a song of triumph. As the penultimate song of my dream I can still remember a few words of it, but not enough to write here and do them justice.

So at the close of my dream all were gathered around with joined hands and I began my final song whose words and melody were simple and powerful. I led the gathered in prayer.

Glory Glory Glory God Glory Glory Glory God Glory Glory Glory God Father, Spirit and Son

Halleluja Halleluja Halleluja God
Halleluja Halleluja Halleluja God
Halleluja Halleluja Halleluja God
Father, Spirit and Son

We Love You, Love You, Love You God
We Love You, Love You, Love You God
We Love You, Love You, Love You God
Father, Spirit and Son

And then as the chorus began to hum, in that old Negro tradition, I preached over the choir. I said something that went like this:

People of God, children of God, we are gathered together here today for simple reasons. We are simple creatures. Each and every heart in each and every one of us has the love of God, and so we may be vessels of his spirit. But our hearts are our own. I ask you to look into your hearts this morning, because sometimes we let them have too much pain, too much anger, too much sin. Sometimes we have a little fear, uncertainty or doubt in our hearts. Sometimes we have a little envy or jealousy or spite in our hearts. Sometimes it's arrogance, pride or vanity. Sometimes we have a little lying, a little cheating, or even stealing in our hearts. And we know it. And so we come here and allow the presence of God roll that away. It's that simple. I want you to raise your hands today like an antenna on a mountaintop and let God in. All you need to do is receive Him and you will be filled with God's spirit, and not only will you be filled, but you will radiate His love and purpose. It is that simple.

We Receive You, Receive You, Receive You God
We Receive You, Receive You, Receive You God
We Receive You, Receive You, Receive You God
Father, Spirit and Son

We Radiate You, Radiate You, Radiate You God
We Radiate You, Radiate You, Radiate You God
We Radiate You, Radiate You, Radiate You God
Father, Spirit and Son

By the time I got to the last verse, I was in tears, as I am now, and waking on this Sunday morning, touched in my sleep by the blessing of dreams. It was 6:16am.

The family movie for the Saturday night was of course, Jack Lemmon & Walter Matthau in Neil Simon's classic production. It's coming to be our new tradition. The last one was Arthur with Dudley Moore. This morning I checked my email and the last comments on the blog as well as a few stories and I discovered not only the change in tone but the synchronicity of all that turn, especially in Bardo's last comment. And now I remember that I should put in the word of Rabbi Tarfon from Dennis Prager's last happiness hour. Because I remember now how he, more than any other in Right Radio shares my temperament, although the other Dennis, Miller makes me laugh more often.

So it is after all the pursuit of happiness that binds us and it is the joy of morality that compels us. To have a clean conscience and a heart filled with the spirit of God and a mind brimming with the curiosity to appreciate the natural world, these are great forces and fulfilling passions which are capable of deflecting all fear of sin and destruction we are heir to on life's journey. Sing a new song unto the Lord.

The NYT article seems to be genuinely shocked that the burdens of the election have rolled away, and must report the recriminations against Joe Lieberman. American Thinker admonishes Obama's pro-choice stand and suggests it may be too late for him to heed Henry VII's advice to his son to keep the Church on his side. And we are back to matters of faith in the blog and, it seems, everywhere else. It is only natural that in defeat one must look back and fall back and get back. This is where I see people going, it is where I must go. I have been happy for the happiness of others but now I see an opportunity for deeper renewal. What indeed have I let into my heart for the sake of making noise on behalf of my contingent?

And so it comes to Tarfon and in the religious context we settle our accounts, we adjust our attitude, we receive and radiate, we rededicate. We rest. We march. We dream. We sing. I continue to write, and the sun is coming up this morning.