Today’s Scripture Reading (July 13,
2013): Psalm 92 & 93
In 1933,
James Hilton wrote his classic novel “Lost Horizon.” The novel has had a
massive impact on our culture, even if you have never even heard of the book –
let alone have read it. It is in James Hilton’s 1933 book that we first find a
place called Shangri-La – a fictional utopian monastery high up in the
mountains of Tibet. In Hilton’s book, the main character (Hugh Conway) is
kidnapped along with three other people and taken to this mountain hide out.
And there they begin to realize what a paradise really looks like. In one of
the many turns of the book, Hugh comes to the realization that the head of the
monastery is really a Catholic monk who got lost in the mountains of Tibet over
200 years earlier. Shangri-La is not just a place of peace and refuge (James
Hilton in “Lost Horizon” actually predicts that World War I will not be the
last world conflict, but that there is another world wide war coming soon to
Europe) but it is also a place of incredible health and longevity. In fact, it
would seem that in Shangri-La was a place where people truly lived until the
moment of their death.
The Psalmist
in this Sabbath Day hymn, says that the righteous are like the inhabitants of
Shangri-La in that they live until they die. The Psalmist reminds us of the
incredible promise and potential that is in the lives that we are living - that
there will be no moment when it is simply impossible for us to bear fruit. If
we can draw breath, then there is still something that needs to be done.
And for most
of us this is true. But we also have to admit that as we watch our population
age that there are many people that are ending this life in illness, and
sometimes in debilitating mental stress. It is so widespread that in the area
where I live there are public service announcements imploring people to live
healthier lives because most people will spend the final decade of their lives
in sickness – and whether or not they lived good moral lives would seem to have
little effect on that reality.
But then,
maybe the way that we care for our earthly bodies is a moral discipline. It is
our responsibility to care for that which God has given to us – so that we can
be productive for him late in life. But we also have to admit that there is
something that is at work in the world that seems to be totally beyond our
ability to protect against. We know that Shangri-La is still a long way away
from us – it is a place that we can only long for.
With the
Psalmist we also have to admit that there is something permanent about our
soul. There is something that goes beyond. For the righteous, it is a something
that can never be touched by the pains of this world. Hugh in “Lost Horizon”
leaves Shangri-La in order to help a friend, but the reader is left with the
impression at the end of the book that Hugh returns to this place of incredible
peace and health. What might be here only a dream, there could become a
reality. And for the Psalmist that is something that he believes in and wants
to point towards – this place of health and longevity where the righteous can
make every moment count.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm
94
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