In an age where proving toughness and strength sometimes seems more important than proving almost anything else, I am weary of the posing, sick to death of the posturing.
The stockpiling of arms has overshadowed the work of helping hands. The threat behind clenched fists has outpaced the goodwill symbolized by linking arms.
It is overwhelming.
But there has always been a voice, crying in the wilderness. It has called us to a higher way. It has called us to drop our defenses, and throw down our weapons, and stop using our power to oppress the powerless.
It has called us to the might that is revealed in gentleness, to the shepherd's way.
He will nurture his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in arm, close to his heart, and gently lead those with young.-Isaiah 40:11/para.laca.
Showing posts with label Isaiah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Isaiah. Show all posts
Friday, December 15, 2017
Sunday, December 13, 2015
...that kind of dawn
Light dawns on a weary world when eyes
begin to see all people's dignity.
Light dawns on a weary world:
the promised day of justice comes.
The trees shall clap their hands; the dry lands, gush with springs;
the hills and mountains shall break forth with singing!
We shall go out in joy, and be led forth in peace,
as all the world in wonder echoes 'shalom'.
---Mary Louise Bringle, 2001
What would true justice look like? Would it be absolute fairness? A chance for everyone, then everyone for himself? Mel Bringle envisions justice as a condition by which we truly see each other, and thus see the intrinsic value in the other; we view each other with dignity.
Our world's response to the dawning of the day of justice in our world, weary for it, thirsty for it? Isaiah suggests we might witness the natural world break the bounds of possible and become animated with joy---forests and mountains clapping and singing out of their own accord, lending voice to God's own joy over humankind gone mad with value and esteem.
And we ourselves? The prophet says joy will overcome us, too---that our steps will lead us out in joy and peace. I don't know about you, but I imagine I'd walk a little differently on this earth each day if my steps were ordered by joy and peace. Can you feel the rhythm of that gait in your body, in your soul, right now?
Are you smiling? I know I am; I just can't help it. It is no surprise to me that the world shares the wonder at the 'shalom' (literally, the wholeness found in community) that we find together.
That's the kind of dawn I'd get up early for...
begin to see all people's dignity.
Light dawns on a weary world:
the promised day of justice comes.
The trees shall clap their hands; the dry lands, gush with springs;
the hills and mountains shall break forth with singing!
We shall go out in joy, and be led forth in peace,
as all the world in wonder echoes 'shalom'.
---Mary Louise Bringle, 2001
What would true justice look like? Would it be absolute fairness? A chance for everyone, then everyone for himself? Mel Bringle envisions justice as a condition by which we truly see each other, and thus see the intrinsic value in the other; we view each other with dignity.
Our world's response to the dawning of the day of justice in our world, weary for it, thirsty for it? Isaiah suggests we might witness the natural world break the bounds of possible and become animated with joy---forests and mountains clapping and singing out of their own accord, lending voice to God's own joy over humankind gone mad with value and esteem.
And we ourselves? The prophet says joy will overcome us, too---that our steps will lead us out in joy and peace. I don't know about you, but I imagine I'd walk a little differently on this earth each day if my steps were ordered by joy and peace. Can you feel the rhythm of that gait in your body, in your soul, right now?
Are you smiling? I know I am; I just can't help it. It is no surprise to me that the world shares the wonder at the 'shalom' (literally, the wholeness found in community) that we find together.
That's the kind of dawn I'd get up early for...
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Did Jesus look like his pictures?
He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
---Isaiah 53:2
Maybe it's been a slow news week, or maybe it's just that most wonderful time of the year when non-Christmas experts suddenly want to chime in on all things Christmas; but today a talking head on a national news network took to the air to state that it is 'just historical fact that Jesus was a white man.' And I just sat there, smh (for those of you who, like me are afraid of online slang, this one is safe --- 'shaking my head'). Because this TV lady (I'm not ready to call her a newscaster right now) had walked into the Children's Bible, Illustrated Edition trap. You have that Bible, don't you? It's the one with the full color front, with the picture of flower-child Jesus --- long, flowing, light-brown hair, shaggy beard (also light brown), righteous surfer tan set off by his white robe, rope sandals --- surrounded by a group of adorable (also white) pudgy children. What sets the picture off, though, are the piercing blue eyes.
Now, everything we know about Jesus' origin (yes, historically) tells us that he looked nothing like a gentle surfer dude. He undoubtedly looked like a typical middle-Easterner, dark-haired and -skinned. That is the history. And perhaps Isaiah's writing (quoted above) hints at Jesus', well...plain-ness. The piercing blue eyes? Probably not. Heads that turned when he walked by? Nope.
See? That was part of the idea of incarnation. Not that God took on human skin to walk the earth as America's (or The Galilee's) Next Top Model. Not that God came down in an Elvis sequined jumpsuit that shouted 'Look at me!' But that God came as a regular Joe, passed as the son of a regular Joe, and lived right here with us, like us.
What made Jesus holy, set apart, was the message bound up in his humanity --- the message that God is for us. It wasn't his historical dark skin and hair. And it wouldn't have been his whiteness.
...so here we stand, whoever we are,
bathed in the light of a star...
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
---Isaiah 53:2
Maybe it's been a slow news week, or maybe it's just that most wonderful time of the year when non-Christmas experts suddenly want to chime in on all things Christmas; but today a talking head on a national news network took to the air to state that it is 'just historical fact that Jesus was a white man.' And I just sat there, smh (for those of you who, like me are afraid of online slang, this one is safe --- 'shaking my head'). Because this TV lady (I'm not ready to call her a newscaster right now) had walked into the Children's Bible, Illustrated Edition trap. You have that Bible, don't you? It's the one with the full color front, with the picture of flower-child Jesus --- long, flowing, light-brown hair, shaggy beard (also light brown), righteous surfer tan set off by his white robe, rope sandals --- surrounded by a group of adorable (also white) pudgy children. What sets the picture off, though, are the piercing blue eyes.
Now, everything we know about Jesus' origin (yes, historically) tells us that he looked nothing like a gentle surfer dude. He undoubtedly looked like a typical middle-Easterner, dark-haired and -skinned. That is the history. And perhaps Isaiah's writing (quoted above) hints at Jesus', well...plain-ness. The piercing blue eyes? Probably not. Heads that turned when he walked by? Nope.
See? That was part of the idea of incarnation. Not that God took on human skin to walk the earth as America's (or The Galilee's) Next Top Model. Not that God came down in an Elvis sequined jumpsuit that shouted 'Look at me!' But that God came as a regular Joe, passed as the son of a regular Joe, and lived right here with us, like us.
What made Jesus holy, set apart, was the message bound up in his humanity --- the message that God is for us. It wasn't his historical dark skin and hair. And it wouldn't have been his whiteness.
...so here we stand, whoever we are,
bathed in the light of a star...
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
AND...
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.
---Isaiah 2:4
There is a long and proud tradition in this world. If you are against something, and need to destroy it, burn it up! Off the top of my head I can think of burnings of subversive books (in real life, in Nazi history, and in Farenheit 451), rock and roll records (young readers, I'll explain records later), ugly Christmas sweaters (I kid you not), confiscated marijuana crops, Korans, piles of old tires (if you live out in the country in the past), bought-back illegal handguns, dead bodies during plague years, even 'witches' (alive, during dark days of our country's own history).
And when I read the prophetic message contained in Isaiah 2, I could picture the efficiency with which swords and spears, implements of war one and all, could have been gathered up into the world's largest and most justified bonfire. What better way to bring peace than to destroy forever the instruments of violence and hatred? And yet God's ways are so much higher than my ways, God's creativity drawing lovely circles around my crude connect-the-dots. Because destruction, even of pure evil, is never God's final word. God's final word is redemption, even of evil.
Another way top say this might just be AND. Like the Coke Zero ad campaign, it is not enough for violence to cease for God to call it a day. No, the impulses that give birth to violence must be transformed to yearn for the birth pangs of peace. The dreams of revenge must morph into dreams that include sufficient supply for all of God's children.
Those spears? Those swords? Don't destroy them. Transform them. Then use them to transform the world.
Peace the world. With AND.
so here we stand, whoever we are,
bathed in the light of a star...
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.
---Isaiah 2:4
There is a long and proud tradition in this world. If you are against something, and need to destroy it, burn it up! Off the top of my head I can think of burnings of subversive books (in real life, in Nazi history, and in Farenheit 451), rock and roll records (young readers, I'll explain records later), ugly Christmas sweaters (I kid you not), confiscated marijuana crops, Korans, piles of old tires (if you live out in the country in the past), bought-back illegal handguns, dead bodies during plague years, even 'witches' (alive, during dark days of our country's own history).
And when I read the prophetic message contained in Isaiah 2, I could picture the efficiency with which swords and spears, implements of war one and all, could have been gathered up into the world's largest and most justified bonfire. What better way to bring peace than to destroy forever the instruments of violence and hatred? And yet God's ways are so much higher than my ways, God's creativity drawing lovely circles around my crude connect-the-dots. Because destruction, even of pure evil, is never God's final word. God's final word is redemption, even of evil.
Another way top say this might just be AND. Like the Coke Zero ad campaign, it is not enough for violence to cease for God to call it a day. No, the impulses that give birth to violence must be transformed to yearn for the birth pangs of peace. The dreams of revenge must morph into dreams that include sufficient supply for all of God's children.
Those spears? Those swords? Don't destroy them. Transform them. Then use them to transform the world.
Peace the world. With AND.
so here we stand, whoever we are,
bathed in the light of a star...
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Creation Will Be at Peace
In the holy mountain of the Lord, all war and strife will cease;
In the holy mountain of the Lord, creation will be at peace.
The wolf will lie down with the lamb, the cow and the bear will feed,
Their young will lay together; a little child will lead.
The leopard and goat will graze, the lion will feed on straw.
They will war no more. A child will lead them all.
---J. Paul Williams
In this beautiful setting from the prophet Isaiah, Williams envisions a world at peace. what catches me off-guard is that a little child is the only human mentioned. In my mind, I picture creation at peace, until humans come in and screw things up. This setting reminds me that human and animal nature both tend toward violence, domination, and power-grabbing. When we speak of 'the way of the world', it is this world of which we speak. This 'mine, mine, mine', every man for himself, dog-eat-dog world, where there is a 'king of beasts', and a 'king of the mountain', and a 'top dog'. But Jesus, the little child foreshadowed in Isaiah's prophecy, was a topsy-turvy kind of savior; he of the littlest, least, lost, and lonely. In Jesus' vision of the world, even natural animal adversaries can take on a peace nature. Creation itself. and all that is in it, can live at peace.
In the holy mountain of the Lord, creation will be at peace.
The wolf will lie down with the lamb, the cow and the bear will feed,
Their young will lay together; a little child will lead.
The leopard and goat will graze, the lion will feed on straw.
They will war no more. A child will lead them all.
---J. Paul Williams
In this beautiful setting from the prophet Isaiah, Williams envisions a world at peace. what catches me off-guard is that a little child is the only human mentioned. In my mind, I picture creation at peace, until humans come in and screw things up. This setting reminds me that human and animal nature both tend toward violence, domination, and power-grabbing. When we speak of 'the way of the world', it is this world of which we speak. This 'mine, mine, mine', every man for himself, dog-eat-dog world, where there is a 'king of beasts', and a 'king of the mountain', and a 'top dog'. But Jesus, the little child foreshadowed in Isaiah's prophecy, was a topsy-turvy kind of savior; he of the littlest, least, lost, and lonely. In Jesus' vision of the world, even natural animal adversaries can take on a peace nature. Creation itself. and all that is in it, can live at peace.
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