Sermon for 26 May 2013, 1st Unitarian Church of Alton, Illinois

 

Luck and How Important It Is

Ronald J. Glossop

 

  I.  Have you ever thought much about luck and how important it is in our lives and thinking?

     A.  There are some situations where the role of luck is obvious as with the recent tornadoes in Oklahoma.  Many of the people in Moore, Oklahoma had their homes destroyed.  A few even lost their children.  Nevertheless there were some others not far away whose property and families were not harmed.  Some of them, realizing how lucky they had been, were very ready to do what they could to help their less fortunate neighbors.  

     B.  Once we start considering the role of luck in our own lives, it is easy to think of cases where we were very lucky (I remember when I missed a flight that I was trying so hard to make and then it crashed killing all aboard.  Was I ever lucky that time!) or very unlucky (Why did I get malaria when none of the others did even though I was more careful than they were?).

     C.  We can all think of  situations where we know that we were at the right place at the right time or at the wrong place at the wrong time?  I was lucky that I met that person at that time, or I was unlucky because I hadn’t heard about that one fact and thus made a horrible decision.)  

 

II.  If we focus on the very beginning of our lives, the importance of luck becomes very clear.

     A.  Think about when and where you were born.      

          1.  Think about how different your life would be if you had been born 1,000 years ago.

          2.  Think about how different your life would be if you had been born in Bengladesh or

Syria or any other place than where you were born.  What language would you speak?  What kind of childhood would you have had?  What would your parents and family be like?  What kinds of education and occupations and opportunities would be available to you?

     B.  Think about even more personal features of your life which are due to luck, to factors over which you have no control.  For example, consider what gender you are and what race you are.  Consider what you look like and what special problems and diseases you might have.

          1.  We now know that very minor differences in your DNA could make you disposed to developing one kind of cancer or another or Alzheimer’s or some other debilitating disease.

          2.  Very minor differences in your DNA could cause you to be a genius or very talented in some way, or they could cause you to be blind or deaf or mentally retarded.

     C.  There can be no doubt that luck is very important in determining who we are and what our lives are like.  Things happen to us, things which neither we nor others determine.

 

III.  An interesting phenomenon which links luck with religion is the belief found in most ancient religions throughout the world is that lucky people (that is, rich and happy people) must be blessed by God or the gods while unlucky people (that is, poor and unhappy people) must have done something to offend the gods, either in this life if you are a Jew or Christian or Muslim or in some prior life if you are a Hindu or someone who happens to believe in reincarnation.

     A.  The story of Job in the Old Testament is based on this notion.  At the beginning of the story Job is prospering and others say that it’s no wonder that he is so faithful because God is rewarding him.  Then in response to a challenge from the Devil about the motivation for Job’s devotion, God allows Job’s life to be filled with misfortune, but Job continues to be faithful in spite of all the horrible things that happen to him.  Consequently, in the end God restores Job’s good fortune to reward him for his faithfulness.  Faithfulness to God still results in good luck.

     B.  Have you noticed that even in the New Testament, when Jesus heals a sick person, he always says, “Blessed is your faith. Your sins are forgiven”?  Why is the person sick?  Because he or she has sinned.  Why does that person get well again?  Because God has forgiven him or her.  Bad luck is due to offending God in some way, and good luck is due to pleasing God.

     C.  In the Bible this same kind of thinking also applies to whole groups of people.  Why are the Jews then suffering from a drought?  Why are the Jews conquered by the Baylonians and taken into a very long captivity?  Because the Jewish people have not been faithful to God.

     D.  It seems to me that this idea that good luck comes from pleasing God and that bad fortune comes from in some way offending God is not totally confined to the distant past.

 

IV.  How is luck related to politics and government?

     A.  As previously noted, one indication of being lucky is the accumulation of wealth and property.  People who are lucky generally are rich and socially influential, and people who are unlucky generally are poor and socially powerless.

     B.  The lucky rich & socially influential people believe that an important job of government is to protect them from criminals and from the poor generally who would steal from them or harm them.  They want “peace & quiet” and “law & order,” & they are opposed to any changes in the law or in customs.  Thus usually lucky people tend to be conservatives and rightists.

     C.  On the other hand, the unlucky poor and socially powerless believe that an important job of government is to “level the playing field” and equalize the distribution of wealth which is so much a matter of luck.  Their desire is for “justice” and more equality.  They generally are liberals and leftists.  Since so much of life seems to be the result of luck, for them the job of government is to help those who have suffered misfortune.  Even the rich want the government to help if a tornado or fire or flood destroys their house.  Why don’t the wealthy also realize how important luck is in other matters such as how wealthy one’s parents are, or where one is born, or whether one is handicapped, or whether one suffers from some inherited disease?

     D.  Certainly other factors are also relevant, but it seems evident to me that those who have a greater sensitivity to the role of luck in life (often because in some important way they have been unlucky or close to others who are unlucky) are more likely to be liberals and leftists while those who put more focus on the importance of one’s own efforts (often because they have been lucky and successful in some way) are more likely to be conservatives and rightists.      

 

 V. When we think about it, all of us are aware of many ways in which luck is important.

     A.  We don’t get to choose when and where to be born, what gender or race we will be, what our parents and families will be like, whether we will be talented or handicapped, good-looking or ugly, and what happy or unhappy events, major or minor, will occur in our lives.

     B.  There are many ways of being lucky or unlucky, & such matters can be very important.

     C.  What I find particularly despicable is the haughty attitude of some lucky people who deny the importance of luck and attribute their high status and prosperity, whether individually or as a group, to their own innate superiority.  They tend to underestimate the role of luck. 

 

VI.  What are the implications for us of the big role luck plays in who we are and what we are?

     A. There are obviously degrees of luckiness and unluckiness, but I think that most of us here can say that we are among the luckiest people who have ever lived in the whole history of humanity.  What would our lives be like if we had been born a thousand years ago or even 500 years ago?  What would our lives be like if we had been born in a less developed or tyrannical or violent society?  We shouldn’t have to see our neighbors’ house destroyed by a tornado in order to realize how lucky we are.

     B.  One obvious response to being lucky is to be grateful, to God or to Fate or whatever.

     C.  Still another way of reacting to good luck (as we see happening in Oklahoma) is to be devoted to helping others who are not so fortunate. Albert Schweitzer, that great humanitarian theologian, musician, philosopher, and medical missionary to Africa and renowned champion of the principle “reverence for life,” put it succinctly in the second ethical principle which guided his life and which should also always be in our minds:  “Good fortune obligates.”