we have just come through the great fifty days, the church's annual reliving of what michael carroccino calls "mind-boggling" events. now we come to the pentecost ember days, three days to consider, once again, who are we, where are we, what are we doing here? we consider these questions once again in a context that exists both in time and in eternity, both on earth, and in the kingdom of heaven.
once again the great circle of time as the church observes it has come around to a place from which we can, perhaps, know
"when the tongues of flame are in-folded
in the crowned knot of fire
and the fire and the rose are one."
we are invited, by the one who became flesh, died in flesh, rose in flesh, ascended in flesh that the holy spirit might come to dwell in our flesh, to eternal life. at its simplest, most literal meaning, eternal life simply means life outside of time. but to participate in that life outisde of time we must allow our life in time to be sanctified as well. that is how the circle in time becomes the ascending spiral into eternity. we must comprehend time before we can live in eternity. i always find t. s. eliot's four quartets helpful at the ember days. eliot ceaselessly sought to understand time, and knew, as he wrote in what must be the most oft-quoted english words of the past century,
"we shall not cease from exploration
and the end of all our exploring
will be to arrive where we started
and know the place for the first time."
nor will we be ready for the kingdom of heaven until we welcome god's will on earth. eliot said "history is now and england." until we understand life here on earth, we will continue to be the children in the apple tree, eating the pre-mature fruit.
how slow we human-kind, who cannot bear very much reality, are to admit that
"time present and time past
are both perhaps present in time future."
we eat now the forbidden fruit, and the thrush and all creation groan. we bore now holes in the floor of the sea and the fishes and all creation groan.
"we die with the dying:
see, they depart, and we go with them.
we are born with the dead:
see, they return and bring us with them.
. . . a people without history
is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern
of timeless moments. . . .
history is now and england."
history is now and the gulf of mexico. time present will remain far into time future, as we continue to be born with the dead.
the matins readings this week have been from john's gospel. on monday, "jesus said to nicodemus, 'god so loved the world . . . god sent not his son to condemn the world.'" on wednesday, "jesus said to the multitudes . . . : 'no man can come to me, unless the fther which hath sent me draw him.'"
what shall we seek? for what shall we explore?
"with the drawing of this love and the voice of this calling
we shall not cease from exploration
and the end of all our exploring
will be to arrive where we started
and to know the place for the first time."
(quotes from four quartets ("burnt norton" i, "little giddding, "v", copyright 1937, t. s. eliot.)
3 comments:
Dale,
This reminds me of a current dilemma I am finding myself in. In all our "exploring" i am torn amidst the intellectual explorations I find taking place all around and the physical explorations that all lead to death. That is to say there are those whose work is to think...and there are those whose work is to do. I am failing to find meaning in either, accept that by doing I might undo what has been done. Perhaps with new life on my horizon all else is seemingly meaningless, but is it not? Just a brain barf inspired by your words.
in our lectionary study (may 28), gail g made a comment i heard before but today i thought about it differently. she said that jesus’ example was enough to make her choose to be a christian and that she didn't understand why jesus needed to die. which got me thinking if jesus is god and man (an assumption), and we assume that god can do anything, and then one conclusion we can draw is that jesus made the choice to how he would die or not. this creates an interesting question, why jesus would choose such a death.
the prayer in the garden of gethsemane where he asks for “this cup” to be removed from him indicates that he could have rejected the will of the father if he wanted to do it. i believe that it was a choice for jesus as any “sin” is a choice on our part to go against god’s will.
this is a very significant choice. there may be several reasons why jesus made his choice. i can think of a couple of reasons he made this choice. first, he didn’t wish interfere in the natural course of history. second, jesus, in one tradition of the church, was a sacrifice for all sins. for some people this reason is difficult to understand, for example why would a loving god require his son (a part of/or himself) to be a sacrifice - a mystery of god's understanding versus man’s. in fact, the only reason i can give is that some believe that god says he requires it. i can think of few possibilities but i do not know why jesus needed to die or died with no control over events. like gail g said why could not god come up with a different way to accomplish his goals? but more interestingly would certain events have or needed to happened such as the resurrection a symbol of eternal life, the growth of christianity, pentacost and the indwelling of the holy spirit in every believer, who is our hope and guide. but i believe that god could accomplish anything in any creative way he desires. just because i do not understand or can explain does not make my hope that the holy spirit can get there.
i invite you to ponder this idea of the choice of jesus as how he would live or die.
john cummings
This is all far to much for me to understand, but still.. I wonder if somehow I haven't always known that this is the time of year to reflect on who we are, where we are going... It seems I am always far more introspective, restless and wondering at this time of year.
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