I was on the phone with a friend recently, asking him how his extended lockdown was going.
He said, " It feels like that movie Groundhog Day, like every single day is the same, like I keep waking up expecting things to be different, but they're not."
For those of us who have seen this 1993 Bill Murray film we remember that it's about an arrogant weatherman who gets assigned to cover the annual Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. And he discovers that every day he wakes up is a repeat of the day before: the date is the same, the people he runs into are the same - he gets caught in and endless time loop.
At first this weatherman decides to use this time loop to do some diabolical things, he plays pranks on people, steals, and with the knowledge that there are no consequences for his behavior, he chooses to act selfishly. And the time loop continues.
However, the movie ends when the weatherman decides that instead of doing nefarious things, he's going to do good things. He starts to help people, care for people, he starts to use the knowledge of his time loop to improve the lives of others - to look beyond himself.
And magically, this is what gets him out of the time loop.
I wonder if that can work for us too.
Is our time-loop our extended-play Lockdown?
Or is it our seemingly immovable societal attitudes regarding racial equality?
On Sunday we will hear Jesus’ iconic invitation “Come to me all you who are weary and over-burdened and I will give you rest.’
This lies at the heart of our ability to bring lasting change to our lives and to our common life, because when we follow Jesus we follow the way of unselfishness - we follow the way of hope - we follow the way of care and concern for others - because he loved us first.
This never-ending lockdown - and our seemingly intractable attitudes toward race - our Groundhog Days - do not have to go on forever.
The way of Love breaks the time loop - let’s get out of ourselves - let’s get into helping others - isn’t it funny that by helping people with their problems, ours often get fixed too.
