There are few questions I get more than “Where did that ending to your show come from”- the ending, or benediction (a fancy Latin word meaning “good word”), is:

“The rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true; everything is going to be ok.” (and we would love to have you record yourself saying this and uploading it at 1517.org/chacelebrate)

One aspect of the question is, “When and why did you start saying that?” The other question, either implicit or explicit, is, “Do you really believe that?”

Let me take one at a time. Something very close this phrasing- at least the “everything is going to be ok” came from a podcast over a decade ago. The co-host and I were discussing hope, and neither of us felt particularly hopeful. I said, somewhat exasperated and somewhat facetiously, “Everything is going to be ok” as a sign-off for the show.

This phrasing struck me as exceedingly cliche on one hand but on the other hand, if it were true… isn’t that kind of what we are waiting to hear? That after all.. after all of the trouble and hurts and shame and sin and efforts redoubled and dashed… that after the long stormy night we would wake up to the smell of breakfast and the house still here.

In Peter Berger’s “A Rumor of Angels,” he explains that we can be like a frightened child awakening at night during a storm- the “good news” for this child is that the mother will come in,  “She will speak or sing to the child, and the content of this communication will invariably be the same—“Don’t be afraid—everything is in order, everything is all right.” If all goes well, the child will be reassured, his trust in reality will be recovered, and in this trust, he will return to sleep.”

This “Rumor of Angels”  is that we know there to be something transcendent, something better and beyond us. And that’swhy I start by saying, “The Rumors… are true.” There is a “rumor,” a “sense,” a “knowledge” even, in Christ that all of what we think to be a bad dream will one day be set right.

We know that in Jesus’ ministry, life, death, and resurrection, the kingdom has come to us already, and it is in someways”not yet.” In this interim, nothing is more assuring than being reminded that it has come and that it is still all to come.

The “everything” language comes from Colossians 1:19-20 where we read about Christ, “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

The stories I tell on the show are not always “good news” all the time. Until the second coming, no Christian will live a life without pain and suffering, doubt and depression, or any number of things. But as we travel as pilgrims together- even if just 6-8 minutes every weekday- I am honored I get to remind you everyday in my benediction of the “deeper magic,” the “rumors”, that in Jesus Christ, everything is going to be ok.