The last time I was in this space I wrote about “encore careers” – I am sure you recall! What about this, that “There are no second acts in American lives”? St. Paul’s own F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote it in the prep for what turned out to be his final work, The Last Tycoon. Sooo – yeah? Still? Does this hold? My sense is that ours is a time of comebacks and reboots and re-inventing one’s self. Ambition and the monetization of scandal and grievance crowd into spaces once held by discretion and contrition, and are signs of an encore gone badly. What was once a clever saying, “It is easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission,” has become a cynical trope. Or was it never clever? Because forgiveness is rarely the easier path.

The First Reading today comes from Deuteronomy, which we don’t hear proclaimed much on Sundays, rich as it is. Deuteronomy literally means “copy of the law,” or second law. The purpose of its revelation was to gather the people of the covenant back to God at a time when crises had seen them stray. It is not a repetition of the Old Testament books that preceded it but their re-inspiration and revivifying. It is a second chance that is 34 chapters long. I always look for phrases that cross over from the Bible into the culture, ideas that we carry in common thanks to the beauty and power of the Word. Deuteronomy doesn’t yield these kinds of gems, and much of it is tough going. There is no “spin” put on the conduct of our ancestors that hurt their relationship with God. But hope is always the rising action, as we hear it proclaimed today from Chapter 30. 

The Great Gatsby entered the public domain this year, 100 years after its publication. It was still in print when Fitzgerald died in 1940, though barely, and his other major works were not. Now it is a cornerstone for high school readings lists from coast to coast.[1] Is it great because it’s short – or is it short because it’s great? Fitzgerald’s editor had a brilliant career and helped him polish the novel to the point of radiance. Copyright protections were extended repeatedly in the last century, but now at last we have the opportunity to make of this work what we will. I am available for an audiobook version.

A film released in 2016 didn’t make much of a ripple, but wow does it speak to our times in a lime manner to Gatsby. It is “The Founder,” the story of Ray Kroc of McDonald’s, whom we meet on the very cusp of the second act of his professional life. Spoiler, if you will allow it: imagine sitting across a desk from someone whom you thought was not just your neighbor but your partner – and from them receiving neither mercy nor kindness. Jesus uses parables to stir thoughts, but He leaves it to us and inspires us to apply compassion and wisdom to the challenges we face. Thank you, Lord, for always showing us the Way.