THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING FIRST [F, 1-3-25[

 \BEYOND WINTER: The Irrelevant Musings of An Old Man--THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING FIRST [F, 1-3-25[

 [Not really a repeat, but very similar to a previous column.]

I have seen a lot of PSAs on TV recently about women, especially Black women, who were firsts—the first woman to command a navy ship, the first woman in space, the first woman who never considered murdering her husband, etc. The tag line is something like, “They were the first to make it possible for those who came after.”

The importance of the first one, the one who broke the barrier…not a bad idea to explore at the first of the year…

I used that idea in sermons from early on because it helped me to understand the place and point of Jesus. [Sermons almost always come from some theological life problem the preacher is trying to figure out for himherself.] When I started, I used Roger Bannister as my first. He was the first man to run a mile in under four minutes, a barrier that had been considered unbreakable until Roger came along.

The triumph of life over death, of love over hate… those were unbreakable barriers, until Jesus came along. Forgiveness for everybody? Not until Jesus came along. Companionship with God instead of just fear of God? Not until Jesus came along.

Like any metaphor or symbol to try to explain Christ and God, this one is not sufficient. There were others who preached and practiced self-sacrificial love before and after Jesus. The “firstness” of Jesus is, however, a window to understanding, a window to seeing into a mystery, however dimly, “…like in a mirror, darkly.”

The helpful point, to me, was that there has to be a first, before anyone else can do it. Hardly anyone, even runners, know now who Roger Bannister was, but he was first. A lot of people now who talk psycho jargon about forgiveness and love-conquering-all don’t know who Jesus of Nazareth was, either, but he was first. Like Jackie Robinson in major league baseball, and those women firsts in the TV notices, Jesus was first to make a life of wholeness possible for those who come after.

Yes, the resurrection, the first to show the total inability of death to conquer love…

John Robert McFarland

Irrelevant tidbit: One of my favs: Long before internet days, a reporter needed to know Cary Grant’s age for an article. He wired Grant’s publicist, “How old Cary Grant?” Grant himself wired back. “Old Cary Grant fine. How you?”