Opening Day Homily 2016: Repairer of the Breach

 

And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shall be called, The Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of Paths to dwell in. Isaiah 58:12 (KJV)

 

Gentlemen, Faculty, Parents, Governing Board: welcome to the 2016-17 school year, the 108th in the history of St. Albans.

 

Let us begin with hope for your future, Gentlemen, this particular year and the years to come. But to do so this morning, I begin strangely. I recall a memorial service this summer here in this Cathedral. Molly Woodroofe, our dear colleague who taught at St. Albans for a decade and died too young, age 40, often said this: “When you meet someone, assume he or she is a good person. You’ll have plenty of time to figure out otherwise.” Let me repeat. “When you meet someone, assume he or she is a good person. You’ll have plenty of time to figure out otherwise.”

 

For the last two weeks of athletic camps in the Upper School, and this opening day in both divisions, and tomorrow and for a number of days, you are meeting new people and re-meeting people you know or know of. In each case, what assumptions about them are you going to make?

 

The summer has challenged our courage to make positive assumptions. Flags have too often been at half-mast. The political campaign is ugly. Blame is leveled daily, blame that points fingers and judgment without any relation to evidence. People shout, shoot, complain, connive, taunt, and betray. To assume someone is good feels like asking for trouble.

 

I am not debating human nature. If you do not yet know the human capacity for evil, you will soon enough. I am talking about the wisdom to learn about evil but the courage to choose good. What is your disposition, your outlook, your temperament, your willed way of interacting with other people?

 

Let me make some suggestions. Go out of your way to welcome new students. Invite them out, face to face. As for people you have known before, but not very well—in other words, you know of them—have the courage to toss gossip about them into the trash bin. Don’t believe the social media hoo-rah. Assume the person is worth meeting again and is good, and withhold judgment otherwise. And as for being reunited with your best friends, let them know how much their friendship means to you. You know how to do that, even if it doesn’t involve words.

 

But this. Imagine I said the exact opposite of how I began: “When you meet someone, assume he or she is evil. You’ll have plenty of time to figure out otherwise.” Think about that for a moment. If you live life not giving anyone the benefit of the doubt, but just assuming that he or she is evil and out to get you, it’s nearly impossible to turn that outlook around. You feel falsely safe. You’re stuck in the mud. It’s too heavy a burden. It stunts the possibility of unanticipated joy.

 

One philosopher said, “You must trust uncertain things beyond your control that could lead you to be shattered.” That, to me, is the necessary courage to live a full life.

 

In this morning’s Scripture, the prophet Isaiah asks us to rise up and be Repairers of the Breach. All summer long we have suffered severe breaches: I don’t need to catalog them. But, Gentlemen, millions work for the good and most are happily anonymous in their efforts. As people of faith, and people who believe in this school, we are called to repair any and all breaches among us, here and now, and with our fellow human beings, now and in the future.

 

I finish with five pertinent lines from an American poet laureate, Miller Williams:

 

 

God be with you, Gentlemen, this 2016-17 school year. I wish you love and compassion and courage where your spirit meets your bones. Amen.