“The days in which we live lend themselves to the appearance of a Messiah.”

Rabbi Olan’s sermon “No Messiah, Please,” aired on WFAA and KRLD on January 19, 1969, just one day before the inauguration of Richard M. Nixon. The times were changing, but were they changing for the better? The old, seemingly intractable conflicts were still around, and new ones were brewing.

In the midst of prolonged, difficult situations, many people yearn for quick and easy fixes. They want someone (or something) to intervene and solve their problems for them. Rabbi Olan was not one of those persons. In this sermon he recalled the rise of Hitler and Stalin, and warned: “No Messiah will bring peace. It must be achieved by the will and courage of all the people. It will come as a result of patient, painfully slow effort toward the goal.”

If we want a better world, there is no instant fix. We must work every day to build the kind of world we want to inhabit. Where should we begin? Rabbi Olan listed four steps that can help us “move toward a better day, or, as the ancients would say, the messianic age.” They are… in the sermon, of course! I encourage you to find them, along with many other deep insights, through the links that follow.

*Written by Tim Binkley*