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Ancient Voices in Contemporary Tones |
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Brueggemann: Pained people let their bodies become speech.... They cried out - their cries came up to God.... God is a magnet for people in pain.... The narrative is revelatory - the narrative is revolutionary.... If you do not heed the scroll of Deuteronomy, you'll get the harsh prophecy of Jeremiah of judgment.... The people passed through the waters where Pharaoh couldn't go and they danced in joy.... Imagine the church dancing....
Donahue: The people of God are the pilgrim people of God.... Pilgrimages tend to be messy - all kinds of people in it, like Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.... Luke more than anyone else (evangelists) stresses people on a journey.... Luke is called the gospel of compassion (deeply affected in your inner feelings).... Compassionate mercy is that quality that bridges the gap between the observer and the helper.... Jesus practiced communion that led to conversion.... Luke is the gospel of the Holy Spirit, the tour guide of the pilgrimage....
Rolheiser: "Jesus doesn't want admirers; he wants followers(Kierkegaard)."... Spiritual language is the ultimate language.... Some ancient voices within religious language function as Monther-tongue.... Scriptural language is the deepest language of the soul - powerful archetypes as underlying history and literal interpretation.... Depression occurs when the word doesn't honor the soul.... Peter cuts the ear off. Jesus spent his whole life fixing ears.... Preaching is where the word is made flesh.... --by Jan |
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The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice;
let the many coastlands be glad. - Ps 97:1 (RSV)
The coastlands in our part of the world are not rejoicing these days. True, oil from the Deepwater Horizon fiasco has not yet reached Aransas Bay or Copano Bay, the part of the Texas Gulf Coast where we have a beach cottage. But tar balls have reached east-Texas beaches, meaning that every gulf state has now been scarred by this abominable failure of technology and forethought.
The coastlands - the marshes and the shrimp, the pelicans and the fishing families - are crying out in anger, wailing in lamentation. Days pass. The leak continues. Weeks pass, and more and more of God's creatures suffer and die. Months pass, and still the oil gushes from the wounded earth!
Near our beach cottage, not far from the bay waters, stands the Big Tree, a giant live oak, judged to be at least 1000 years old. I wonder, if that tree could talk, what its ancient voice might say. Would the voice be calm and reassuring, reminding me that it has withstood Spanish invaders, shelling by Union gunboats, fierce hurricanes and blistering drought? Would it remind me of all the years past, and assure me that this, too, will pass?
Or would that ancient voice be raised in indignation about the depths of human folly? Would that voice crack with fear, while the huge branches tremble?
Older than the Big Tree, the ancient voices of the Psalms remind us that all God's creation has a voice, not just human beings. Let us join our voices to the psalmist's ancient prayer (Psalm 96:11-13, ICEL):
Let heaven and earth be glad,
the sea and sea creatures roar,
the field and its beasts exult.
Then let the trees of the forest sing
before the coming of the Lord,
who comes to judge the nations,
to set the earth aright,
restoring the world to order.
--by Bill |
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Copyright (c) 2010 Soul Windows Ministries
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