“I returned and saw beneath the sun the race is not to the fastest, nor is the fight to the strongest. Neither are the wise never hungry, nor the smart people always rich, nor the most knowledgeable find favor. Time and the uncontrolled come to all of them” (Ecclesiastes 9.12).
There’s a line in W. H. Auden’s “For the Time Being” that describes this time after Christmas, after we have witnessed stars and shepherds as one “where Euclid’s geometry / And Newton’s mechanics would account for our experience.” Which isn’t very encouraging if math isn’t your best subject.
I joke with people now and again that as an English major, I don’t do math. To an extent that’s untrue. I run totals, calculate percentages, even use a bit of algebra in my day to day. But, the Euclidian and Newtonian math are not my forte. There were more times than I liked in College Algebra where I followed the formula and got my result only to find that not only was it not one of the multiple choice answers, it wasn’t close to any of them.
Mathematics is a discipline of logic. Results are predictable, reliable. Five times five is going to be twenty-five, no matter how many ways you calculate it. The sum of the squares of the sides of a right triangle equal the square of the hypotenuse (and, yes, I had to look at that up). If I eat all five pieces of leftover Christmas candy, there won’t be any left for Leanne.
Literature and art are unpredictable disciplines. It seems quite predictable that the Wizard will help Dorothy get home, but who expected that she’d had the means to go home in her slippers the whole time?
But, turns out, it’s not just literature. Newton’s laws of motion and thermodynamics appear to break down on the subatomic level or for objects moving at the speed of light. Their predictability no longer holds true in these situations.
Which is the world the Teacher of Ecclesiastes has observed. The tried and true math doesn’t always produce the expected answer. The winner of the race isn’t always the fastest runner. Really smart people make bad choices with their money. And there are plenty of times people aren’t happy with the expert. The story sometimes surprises us with its outcome.
And thank God for it. Yes, it’s no fun at all when we’re the ones who’ve trained for the race or who are making the bad choice or are the person in the room with the unpopular opinion. But it is a reminder that here, in the Time Being, nothing is set. There are no totally predictable outcomes. Anything is possible. The last can become first, the least likely people can help change the world. And, yes, love can overcome death.
Certainly, this world of possibilities means war, suffering, sorrow, and failure are present. But they aren’t the last word. Even when every calculation and formula seems to produce the worst of all worlds, the ending is not set. The product of the set not one of rote.
And, between Christmas and Easter, anything can happen.
Jesus, in your ministry amongst us you overturned tables and upset expectations. Upturn and surprise mine in the seemingly certain moments of these days to show me and so I may declare that the unexpected hope can still be the outcome.