"Looking at Life's Many Horizons"

Religion in Daily Life (c) By the Rev. Edward Chinn, D.Min. Rector, All Saints' Church 9601 Frankford Ave. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19114 (215) 637-5225 Written 6 October 2001 http://www.allsaintstorresdale.org

"Beyond the blue horizon Waits a beautiful day. Goodbye to things that bore me. Joy is waiting for me. I see a new horizon. My life has only begun. Beyond the blue horizon Lies a rising sun."

Jeanette MacDonald sang those words in the 1930 Paramount picture "Monte Carlo" and again in the 1944 film, "Follow the Boys." What is the horizon? The horizon is the line that forms the boundary between earth and sky. The English word "horizon" came from the Greek word "horos," which means "limit." The horizon is the limit of one's vision. Look at life's many horizons.

Look at the horizon Christopher Columbus faced. For centuries people in Europe looked out at the Atlantic Ocean and its western horizon. Some said there was nothing beyond that blue horizon. Spain showed that idea by its coat of arms. It pictured "the Pillars of Hercules" (the landmasses of Europe and Africa that came close at the Strait of Gibraltar. Across the coat of arms were the words: "No More Beyond." Then, in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. He ventured past that western horizon. When Columbus returned to Spain, the king changed the words on the coat of arms. From then on the words were: "More Beyond."

Look at the horizon Jesus of Nazareth faced. He faced a horizon made up of fences. The "Holiness Code" of his tradition was summed up in these words: "Be holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy" (Leviticus 19:2). To be holy meant to be separated from everything that would defile holiness. Fences were erected separating clean and unclean, purity and defilement, sacred and profane, Jew and Gentile, righteous and sinner. Facing these fences, Jesus introduced an alternative way-the way of compassion. Jesus said, "Be compassionate, as God is compassionate" (Like 6:36). While others drew circles to exclude people, Jesus drew a wider circle to include those who had been shut out.

Look at the horizons we face. Robert Louis Stevenson faced the horizon of illness all his short life. One day his wife entered the bedroom where Stevenson was coughing badly. She said to him, "I suppose you will tell me that it's a glorious day." Stevenson replied, "Yes, I was just going to say that." Looking at the sunlight streaming through the window, he continued, "I refuse to let a row of medicine bottles be the circumference of my horizon." Since the September 11 terrorists' attacks, I have thought often of these words from an old prayer: "Death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight."