Luke 1:46-55
“The Canticle of the Turning”
Rev. Tom Harris
November 29, 2009
There is a troop of baboons in Africa that has been surprising scientists for years. I heard this story on a show called Radio Lab on national public radio. This troop of baboons started out like any other troop. Baboons are intelligent, social animals. They are also known for their highly aggressive behavior. Baboon males in particular are aggressive toward one another within the troop including hitting, scratching and biting and then when troops clash over food or territory there can extreme violent mêlée. This violence within their species is a characteristic well known in baboons. Biologists consider this tendency to violence part of their DNA. That’s just how baboons are. They will never change. As long as there are baboons there will be baboon violence.
But, about thirty years ago the troop in question encountered something new to baboons. They came across a garbage dump that had been created by a local tourist lodge. The lodge had recently grown in size and luxury and the garbage dump included all kinds of left over food, some of which was very decadent. It provided all the food the baboons needed and much more. Basically, from the moment they found this dump this troop camped out nearby and never had to worry about food again. Of course baboons are baboons so the males still fought each other over dominance in the troop and when another troop approached to take part in the feast, even though there was plenty for both troops, there was a massive battle and the intruders were repelled with extreme violence. The scientists observing all this were not surprised at the continued fighting. Baboons are baboons. They are violent. That is what they do.
Then something else changed. The troop at the garbage dump and the invading troop both contracted Tuberculosis from the food at the dump and most of the dominant, alpha males in both troops died. And from that time onward the violence ceased. The surviving males from the invading troop eventually approached the dump and were welcomed by the females and groomed and nurtured. As new males entered the troop, expecting to have to fight for a place in the order, instead the female baboons took the initiative and reached out to gently bring them in to a new culture, a new way of being baboons, without fighting, without violence. That happened about 30 years ago. Over those thirty years biologist have observed the troop and expected it to return at any moment to a culture of violence and to this day it has not. It remains a non-violent baboon troop. So, you just never know.
We think we know what the future will be like by looking back at how things have always been. At the most basic level we know that each morning of our lives we have awoken and gotten out of bed. Therefore we think we know that tomorrow we will awake and get out of bed in the same way. Each day for quite some time we have done some very basic things like brushing our teeth, dressing, preparing food, walking out the front door and driving around. So we think we know that tomorrow we will brush our teeth, dress, prepare food, walk out the front door and drive around. Each day the world has seemed to behave in a particular, predictable way. So we think we know that it will continue to behave in that same particular, predictable way tomorrow. Baboons are just baboons.
The message of the Advent season of the Christian year is “We don’t know as much as we think.” We don’t know whether we will wake up tomorrow and get out bed the same way. We don’t know whether we will do the same mundane things tomorrow that we have done for so long. We don’t know how the world will behave tomorrow. In fact, we don’t know how it will behave this afternoon, or in the next hour, or in the next 60 seconds.
The message of Advent is “We don’t know the future, so we should be prepared for anything.” What will God do in your life tomorrow? What will happen in your life this afternoon? All we know is that assuming we are alive in the next 60 seconds or the next 24 hours, all we know is that the future is coming. All we know is what our hymn this morning tell us “Be prepared. The world is about to turn.”
I heard this hymn, “The Canticle of the Turning,” for the first at the More Light Presbyterians Conference in Nashville, Tennessee and no song or even idea has changed my outlook on life so radically in a long time. The song is based on the Song of Mary from the Gospel of Luke. However, the title phrase is only inspired by the Song of Mary not quoted from it directly. The idea is that everything is subject to change from the smallest things to the greatest because the world is about to turn.
“From the halls of power to the fortress tower, not a stone will be left on stone. Let the king beware for your justice tears every tyrant from his throne. The hungry poor shall weep no more, for the food they can never earn; there are tables spread, every mouth be fed, for the world is about to turn. My heart shall sing of the day you bring. Let the fires of your justice burn. Wipe away all tears, for the dawn draws near, and the world is about to turn.”
I admit I was a person, and still am despite this new insight, who like the author of Ecclesiastes did not think there was anything new under the sun. Life repeats itself day in and day out. The sun rises and sets on each day as it has for millions of years. Human nature is human nature. Baboons are baboons. Some people thrive while others struggle. Children repeat the mistakes of their parents for generations. The rich become richer and the poor become poorer until the poor rise up and throw off their oppressor and those who were poor become the new oppressors. In this world people selfishly look out for themselves even at the expense of the lives of others even at the expense of environmental destruction. Greed and selflessness, trust and fear exist in precarious balance. I know that’s pretty dreary but that’s where I was coming from based on what I thought was an objective rational evaluation of the past. And then that phrase hit me in Nashville. “No, you don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow despite what has happened in the past, because the world is about to turn.”
I think what made this idea accessible to me is that it is grounded in science. Not just that the world is physically turning; that’s pretty obvious to us these days, and not just that baboons can stop their fighting. But, in fact, there will not be a moment in the future that will be exactly the same as a moment from the past. Every second is new and unique. Every breath we take is a different combination of gaseous molecules. Our bodies are constantly changing, shedding old matter and replacing it with new matter so that every step we take is taken with a slightly different body. As the old saying goes, “you never step into the same river twice,” because the river is always being made new. Every moment we are in this world the human race is being changed and transformed by new couples combining DNA in new ways and that DNA occasionally just mutates in ways never before seen or predicted. So then the human race will not be the same in ten years as it is today. And not only does the world turn on its axis every millisecond, but it also flies through space, crossing paths with things like meteors and comets. Our sun is constantly in a state of change, and the solar system itself spins into new space in the Milky Way and the Milky Way itself flies to new places in the universe every second. There is nothing ordinary or simple or dreary about our next moment of existence. It may unfold in a way that by our perception is very similar to the way it unfolded yesterday. Or it may be astonishingly new.
The cliché is true, we could cross the street later today and get hit by bus. Or we could have a heart attack or stroke before lunch. Or we could suddenly be overcome by a peace that passes our understanding and changes the way we live forever. We could fall in love by the end of the week. We could lose our job by the end of the month. We could lose a loved one or become pregnant, though for some of us that would be truly astonishing. We do not know what tomorrow holds. So the message of Advent is be prepared for anything.
OK. The question then is how? How can we be prepared for any future that may come our way? The answer is, by grounding our present in a relationship with God, by centering ourselves with the one who is turning the world around. Through prayer and meditation consciousness of the source of the turning prepares us for whatever the turning may bring.
The Tao Te Ching, the central book of Taoism, by Lao Tzu says that spokes make a wheel but it is the center that makes the wheel turn. Christians call the center of all things God. We are prepared for any future when we know that God is the center of the wheel, the source of all things, good or bad, beautiful or ugly, painful or pleasurable. God is doing the turning. And because we know the center and the source we don’t have to have faith in powerful men. We don’t have to have faith in great wealth. We don’t have to have faith in governments or even science. These things are just pieces of gum rising and falling on wheel of time. But, it is the center that makes the world turn and at the center is God.
There is a method of prayer called centering prayer because those who practice it try to let go of all the ways we as human beings try to define, differentiate and judge the thoughts and events of life as good or bad, right or wrong, past or future. Instead those practicing centering prayer try to stay in the moment, go to the center and be in communion with God.
Advent is a season of knowing that we don’t know what the future holds, but trusting that the future is held by God. Advent is a season of hope and expectation that whatever comes tomorrow is part of a larger picture we cannot see. Advent is a season of waiting for God. It is a season of preparation.
Because baboons and not just baboons. People are not just people. We do not know what tomorrow will bring. So stay in the center with God, because every day, in every breath, in every moment, the world is about to turn.
