Have you ever fantasized about what you might say, if given the opportunity, on the last day of your working career to your friends and colleagues who had gathered to hear you? The room is full, a hush has fallen over the group, and your moment has come. What might you say to your fellow teachers, or factory workers, or business associates? I”m not thinking so much of the retirement party, because they tend to be lighter affairs. Rather, I am thinking about your last full and authentic day on the job. In my own case I have sometimes asked myself, What will I preach about the last time I am in the pulpit? What will be the content of my homiletical swansong?
Even as I paint this picture I am aware of some who will say in response, “I sure hope they give me the opportunity to take a few parting shots; I”ll be glad to give them an earful!” I know ministers who would so speak and you know people in your field of endeavor who would be similarly inclined.
Authentic Swansong
But authentic swansongs are not of that ilk. David”s last words make that clear.
His words are affirmative without being arrogantly dogmatic: “The spirit of the Lord speaks through me; his message is on my lips.” (2 Samuel 23:2 TEV) My translation: Our lives, if they don”t stand for something, are less than they are intended to be. Often, tragically less.
When I was growing up, I played the trumpet. In fact I owned two of them. I had a sentimental attachment to them, but some years ago I sold one to an antique dealer. It really didn”t make any sense to keep it; I had not seriously played it since 1965. Since that time, no air had been blown into its mouthpiece, and no music had come forth from its bell.
Human lives can often be thought of in those terms. Nothing is being blown into them and nothing is emerging from them. They are just there. Day follows day with breakfast, lunch, dinner and bed, but nothing is happening. No winds from God are being granted entrance into them and resultantly, no fruit is being produced. Money, maybe even big money, is being made, but it is quickly understood that minus some sense of linkage to what ultimately matters, nothing matters. That sense of futility and emptiness, so known to people like Camus and Kafka, begins to do its insidiously undermining work.
The psalmist”s words are also hopeful without being delusive:
The God of Israel has spoken; the protector of Israel said to me: “The king who rules with justice, who rules in reverence for God, is like the sun shining on a cloudless dawn, the sun that makes the grass sparkle after rain.” And that is how God will bless my descendants, because he has made an eternal covenant with me, an agreement that will not be broken, a promise that will not be changed. (2 Samuel 23:3-5 TEV)
My translation: Behave in accordance with God”s wishes and hope will be as ÔÔsun shining on a cloudless dawn ...”
The biblical drama from beginning to end is about God”s covenant with his people, a covenant of steadfast love, and for that reason we continue to announce, as Jeremiah announced to the people of his day, “There is hope for your future.” (Jeremiah 31:17 TEV)
Remember those dark days in your life those days you would just as soon forget? We like to forget them because the darkness was so dark. But remembering them, we remember too just how precious a commodity hope then was. Maybe the vessel of hope was a friend, or a passage of Scripture, or a religious experience, or a line from a book. The point is, it kept us going; it dissuaded us from giving up; it made suicide a less attractive option.
Victor Frankl, in his celebrated book Man”s Search For Meaning, tells of a fellow concentration camp prisoner who related one of his dreams. In the dream this man was told that he could have answered any question he wished. He reported to Frankl: “I wanted to know when we, when our camp, would be liberated and our sufferings come to an end.” (p. 119) The prisoner had the dream in February, 1945. Frankl asked him when the dream told him his sufferings would come to an end, and he furtively and in a whisper answered that it was to be March 30th.
When he reported this dream to Frankl he was full of hope and convinced that his dream would be fulfilled. As that date approached, it became unlikely that the camp would be liberated by then. On March 29th, the man suddenly became ill and ran a high temperature. On March 30th, the day of liberation according to his dream, this man became delirious and lost consciousness. And on March 31st of that year, he was dead. Frankl writes that to all outward appearances, typhus was the cause of the man”s death. But it was the absence of hope that had caused this man”s demise.
Faith”s swansongs instill hope in people”s hearts. Gene Bartlett, in his swansong titled Postscript to Preaching, writes of his generation”s attitude as they enter the postlude time of their ministries:
Many of the things we thought would happen did not happen, and many we thought couldn”t happen, have happened. Yet today I want to bear witness that many in my generation are not in despair. To the contrary, we have come into a kind of heady hope which no longer rests upon the evidences that a secular day can bring forth. What is that hope? It rests where the biblical hope must rest, namely, in the nature and word of God as it has been disclosed to us. (p. 78)
Then David”s words are realistic without being disparaging: “But godless men are like thorns that are thrown away; no one can touch them barehanded.” (2 Samuel 23:6 TEV) My translation: Behavior has consequences. Ever think that people in our day believe just the opposite that they believe you can behave as you want to and it won”t make any difference? Eat anything you want to, give yourself away indiscriminately, say anything you want to, violate body, mind and soul, raise the children any way you desire it”s all immaterial.
Yet again and again, evidence appears to the contrary. It all does make a difference. Let small children wander from pillar to post and fend for themselves as best they can, and they will be damaged. Eat too much, and your body will rise up in protest. Exercise no control over what you say and when you say it, and you will not experience fulfilling relationships. Exercise no limits over how and on whom you spend yourself, and there will be an inner-erosion of integrity that does cause pain.
Swansongs set alternatives before us. They tell us of our options, as Moses in his swansong related them to the people of his day: “... this day ... I have set before you life and death ... therefore choose life ...” (Deuteronomy 30:19)
A Gathering Point
In a day of what can easily become a confusing pluralism, it is well for us to have access to moments when we can hear again what is central for Christian people, and swansongs of faith can do that for us. They can become gathering points where we can once more get our bearings of faith. These gathering points of affirmation, hopefulness and decision inspire and direct us.
Years back, I learned of a young minister named Glen Brown who had died very early in his ministry. He saw his death coming and kept a journal during those months of decline. At one point he made this entry:
Where do you get the courage to respond to those basic conditions of human existence which are your teachers? Is it self derived? Surely when we are in the midst of it, overcome by frustration and disappointment or doubt or fear we don”t believe that any courage that we have is self derived.... Is courage derived from others? But then, if it is, who helps those who are helpers when they are in need? Or is courage from beyond you? ... You have to answer that question.... For me courage is from beyond. Beyond my own strength, yet working within my own strength and this is the paradox of it. From God who is the source and sustainer of my very existence as a human being. (From a sermon preached by Gene Bartlett at Colgate Rochester Divinity School, “More Than Conquerors,” November 18, 1965.)
The bottom line of it all? Swansongs make good themesongs. It is well for us to soak our minds and souls and hearts in the wisdom of those who have approached the top of the mountain of truth. They give us the supplies we need for our journeys, the staples we need to continue. They give us themesongs that can be sung in our hearts. Then one day, when we rise to give our swansong, we can do for someone else what others long ago did for us. In that way, our faith is transmitted and the good news of God”s salvation is made available to those who will follow us.