Rector’s Ramblings – December 5, 2024

This week marks the end of the 2024 Formula One season with the final race scheduled for Sunday in Abu Dhabi. Indy Car ended its season more than two months ago. I’ll have a little open-wheel racing withdrawal until March when both series start back up again. While both series had good years, Formula One was particularly fruitful, which is surprising. A year ago many fans were complaining that one team, Red Bull, had won all but one race the entire season, with most of those going to one driver, Max Verstappen. Some folks found it decidedly boring to watch drivers essentially fight over second place last season.

This season, however, to everyone’s delight, there have been seven winners across the season, and three teams fighting it out to see who would come out on top. The driver’s championship was concluded with two races to go, however, that’s very close considering that last year’s champion had more than twice the points of the second place driver and settled the title with six Grand Prix’s remaining. Uncertainty about who might prevail, it would seem, is what makes sporting so much fun! 

This is of course true in other sports. This year’s college football season has been painful for those whose teams could be out in front in a clearly dominant position, yet each weekend brings upsets and surprises. Even Georgia, with its ups and downs, looks likely to make it in the playoffs. This reality brings joy to many, as they envision what might happen. It’s the stuff of Hollywood – someone might get a movie deal out of this season!

Outside of sports, uncertainty isn’t always welcome. We much prefer a little bit of boredom in our life. Not that we don’t like a little excitement now and then, but the sense of not knowing what is coming is most often anxiety producing when it’s something a bit more important to us than a sporting event. When we know a move is coming, but we don’t know when we’re moving, is a perfect example. That was my experience when finishing up seminary. With only a few months to go in school I knew I would have to leave, but I didn’t have a place to go lined up yet. It was disconcerting, to say the least.

The same sense of unease arises when we first get a diagnosis, or maybe we hear that we’re pregnant for the first time, or perhaps when the news of the world simply causes us to worry about the future, and our future in particular. Fortunately, not everything in this life is uncertain. One of the greatest gifts of our faith is the assurance of God’s care and love. No matter what is happening in our little world or in the world in general, God reigns above it all. That reality does not mean we don’t have to wrestle with our anxiety or our fears, but it does remind us that there are some things that are lasting and unaltered by the “changes and chances of this life,” as our Prayer Book describes it in the service of Compline.

We also find assurance through the grace in God’s plan of salvation. Eternal life has been offered to every one of us in a moment we weren’t even there for two thousand years ago. Yes, we must accept the gift once we understand what is on offer, but to live each day in fear that if we have a bad day and get hit by a bus, we’re goners is less than helpful. I find it comfortable and motivating to realize, with certainty, that God loves me enough to invite me to live with God despite all the things that I think ought to bring uncertainty. I have blown some big races and fumbled during some important games, and yet I have never had the sense that I have lost the place prepared for me. I doubt I’ll finish first in most things on this side of heaven, but to have any place on the other side is more than enough for me.

Tom+

Be present, O merciful God, and protect us through the hours
of this night, so that we who are wearied by the changes and
chances of this life may rest in your eternal changelessness; 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.