Theological reflections on Yogi Berra's "the Future Ain't What It Used to Be"

Patrick Henry, “Theological Reflections on Yogi Berra’s ‘The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be,” is a dynamic and inspiring sermon-like lecture calling for unbridled Christian generosity toward GLBT persons. Henry, an executive director of the Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research in Collegeville, Minnesota, bases his remarks on the unlikely biblical stories of King Saul’s mysterious encounter with the woman of Endor (I Samuel 28:20-25) and of Jesus’ encounter with the Syrophonecian woman (Mark 7:24-30).

"I wish that I had been one of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus.” These, alas, are not my words. They are the opening sentence of The Making of Late Antiquity by the great historian Peter Brown, and they begin a paragraph that, of all the paragraphs I have not written, is the one I most wish I had. Brown continues: “These Christian brothers had been walled up in a cave in the middle of the third century, during the pagan persecution of the Emperor Decius (249-51). They were awakened in the early fifth century, in the reign of Decius’ direct successor, the Emperor Theodosius II (408-50), in order to enlighten that most Christian monarch on a point concerning the resurrection of the dead. Imagine their surprise when, on entering the city, they saw the Cross placed above the main gate, heard men freely swearing by the name of Christ, saw a great church and the Christian clergy busy with repairing the walls of the city, and found that the solid silver coins of a pagan emperor caused amazement in the market place. This book is an attempt to enter into their surprise.” ...