ring of the lord

curtain going up: genesis 11:10-32

2009-06-01T08:10:00.000-07:00

these are the generations of shem: shem was an hundred years old, and begat arphaxad two years after the flood . . . and arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat salah: . . . and salah lived thirty years, and begat eber: . . . and eber lived four and thirty years, and begat peleg: . . . and peleg lived thirty years, and begat reu: . . . and reu lived two and thirty years, and begat serug:. . . and serug lived thirty years, and begat nahor: . . . and nahor lived nine and twenty years, and begat terah: . . . and terah lived seventy years, and begat abram, nahor, and haran. now these are the generations of terah: terah begat abram, nahor, and haran; and haran begat lot. and haran died before his father terah in the land of his nativity, in ur of the chaldees.
and abram and nahor took them wives: the name of abrams wife was sarai; and the name of nahors wife, milcah, the daughter of haran, the father of milcah, and the father of iscah.
but sarai was barren; she had no child.
and terah took abram his son, and lot the son of haran his sons son, and sarai his daughter in law, his son abrams wife; and they went forth with them from ur of the chaldees, to go into the land of canaan; and they came unto haran, and dwelt there.
and the days of terah were two hundred and five years: and terah died in haran.

with this list of begats, the generations of shem, the story moves from the overture, mostly made up of legend and myth, often of significant retelling of myths common to the near east, to what is more firmly history. with abraham and sarah, introduced to us as abram and sarai, what we often call salvation history begins.

few before the german historicists, with perhaps the exception of bishop ussher, considered the first eleven chapters of genesis as history. but these chapters do, i believe, tell us how the biblical writers look at history, and they have given us clues about how we might interpet what we read.

in many ways the overture is full of unresolved chords and inverted melodies. the story of the tower of babel is typical in that way. sent out to fill the world, people cluster around their latest invention. so, in what seems like punishment, god "goes to" to send them forth.

there is much more to be gleaned in these chapters than i can begin to explore. think, for instance, of adam's search for a help meet for him, and the image of the church as the bride of christ. the image of husband and wife will become one of the most important of all, as we will find the the book of revelation. look at sarai's barrenness and the stories of hannah and elizabeth and of course, most importantly of mary, where the barrenness of the crone is replaced by the fecundity of the maiden. think of . . . well, you get the idea.

but particulary notice that many of the images and stories of these first chapters drop into deep background until we reach the new testament. in the first chapter of genesis, after each part of creation, god says that "it was good." after the creation of man, that is not said. the rabbis known to us in the new testament as pharisees say this is because man was not finished. the orthodox christian readers of genesis make much of the "image and likeness" of this first story, saying that although god made man in his image, the likeness was never developed, because of the fall, until the new man, jesus, reveals it.

jesus after his resurrection will tell his friends on the road to emmaus that all scripture is about him. this is the story on which the curtain rises, a great operatic production whose overture ends as abraham comes on stage.

the tower of babel: the first global village

2009-05-27T07:04:00.000-07:00

it has taken me longer to work through these opening chapters of genesis than i had expected. finally, the day of the tower of babel has fully come. i am writing this chapter, appropriately, on one of the last days of the pentecost, which will fully come next sunday. the melody of the tower of babel, inverted, will be the melody of pentecost.

"and the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. and it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of shinar; and they dwelt there. and they said one to another, go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. and they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. and they said, go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. and the lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. and the lord said, behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one anothers speech. so the lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
therefore is the name of it called babel; because the lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth." (genesis 11:1-9)

the story of babel is that of the global village, built with brick for stone and slime for morter, making a name for ourselves. it will reappear again and again with our currently modern technology, our currently modern name. again and again the towers will fall, whether they be in angor wat or in new york city.

again, as before the flood, "every imagination of the thoughts of [man's] heart was only evil continually."

as much as we might wish otherwise, the bible will recognize no quick fix for our evil. but salvation will come, not by men pretending to towering godliness but by god's assuming lowly humanity. the curtain is about to go up on the story of how that happens.

noah

2009-05-26T12:00:00.000-07:00

can an overture have an anti-climax? if it can, then with the story of the begining chapters of genesis that i am suggesting form an overture to the whole christian bible reach the anticlimax.

the story is too long to repeat here. it begins with genesis 6:5 and continues through chapter 10. so much happens in the story that it itself could be its own opera, or the overture for all that follows. i will not try to pick out all the threads of the music so much as to suggest how one might listen to this story and how one might remember it as one reads later scripture. the noah story both recapitulates many of the themes of the earlier chapters, and introduces others which won't be developed until the new testament.

it is the story in which god is grieved by the evil that has come into his good creation, and it is the first time we hear of grace.

one easily remarkable feature of the noah story is its repetitons: like the creation story, noah's saga is told both from what i have suggested is the more theoretical viewpoint, using "el"--usually translated "god"--for the name of the holy one, and from the personal viewpoint, using "YHWH," the unpronouncable name--for which most translators substitute "lord." (it is the "lord" who has noah bring into the ark seven of each clean anima.)

the ark should cause one to look forward to other boxes the holy one will use in working out our salvation: the ark in which moses is sent onto the nile, and also the ark of the covenant; its wood suggests the wood moses will cast into the bitter waters of marah, and also to the cross. and the instructions for its building may remind us of the instructions for the construction of tabernacle and temple.

the flood is not just destruction. it is decreation. the waters that had been divided into those above the firmament and those below are rejoined. they prevail. then once again the ruach, the spirit, appears: "and god made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged."

the dove which will appear at jesus' baptism in the jordan makes her first entrance here.

there are differences, important ones, from the short but packed genesis legends that have come before and the salvation history that is to follow. the lord "will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake." the command to "be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth" is part of god's new blessing, part of what is sometimes called the noahic covenant, sealed with the rainbow.

but there is something most unusual in the role of the several sons in the noah story. chapter ten will be the usual explanation, "the generation of the sons," in this case of noah, linking them to future places, peoples, and events. but first will come one of the strangest episodes in genesis, which we often reduce to "the curse of ham." it is worth reading:

"and the sons of noah, that went forth of the ark, were shem, and ham, and japheth: and ham is the father of canaan. these are the three sons of noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.
and noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: and he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. and ham, the father of canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. and shem and japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their fathers nakedness.
and noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. and he said, cursed be canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. and he said, blessed be the lord god of shem; and canaan shall be his servant. god shall enlarge japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of shem; and canaan shall be his servant." (9:18-27)

this is one of the most ironically powerful passages in all of scripture. it seems to support leon kass's claim in the beginning of wisdom that genesis is centrally about teaching men to be good fathers. here hung-over noah, in his anger, curses his son canaan (a.k.a. ham). the irony is that of course it is shem, whose descendants will soon occupy the rest of the oldestament, who will become slave to the egyptian hammites.

indeed i would suggest that the wine that makes noah drunk looks for ward to the cup of psalm 75:9-10(:
"in the hand of the lord there is a cup, and the wine is red:
it is full mixt, and he poureth out the same.
as for the dregs thereof,
all the ungodly of the earth shall drink them . . . ."),
the cup about which jesus prays in gethsemany.

but between us and the great work of salvation described in the rest of the bible is stil the towering climax of the overture: babe.

genesis 6: 1-8; a counter melody, and the source of science fiction and horror movies

2009-04-20T08:53:00.000-07:00

after the long genealogy of chapter 5, one might expect the next character to be noah. instead, there is a desription of the circumstance in which noah appears, a situation very different from the first themes of genesis in which "god saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good."

"and it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of god saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. and the lord said, my spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

"there were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of god came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. and god saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. and it repented the lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart." (6:1-6)

one question that comes to mind is who are these sons of god? it has been suggested that they are angels, fallen, but originally part of those who, we are told in job, "when the morning stars sang together, all . . . sang for joy." as the church began to understand that what we usually call "angels" are creatures without bodies, then it was often speculated that the "sons of god" were seth's descendants, and the "daughters of men" those of cain, on a supposition of good guy seth and bad guy cain. however, if we look at the descriptions of the births of cain and seth, god seems equaly involved in each, at least according to eve. if there is a difference, the title "son of god" seems perhaps more applicable to cain.

this deceptively simple little piece of dark music carries a lot of meanings. it is an instance once again, if the sons and daughters are those of cain and seth, of the use of the second son in the working out of our redemption. there is perhaps a warning even against taking wives "of all which they chose." the wives who will be pivotal in the story of salvation, srah, rebekah, rachel and leah, are all chosen.

then there is the matter of the spirit of god. the jerusalem bible,perhaps more helpfully than the authorized version's "strive with man," translates verse three as "my spirit must not forever be disgraced in man, for he is but flesh." we will not hear again the echo of these words until the annunciation to the virgin, a daughter of man upon whom the holy spirit will come in redemption of the world. and of course we will hear much of man's fleshliness in the writings of paul.

mary's son will be little regarded by the powers of the world, who agree that "here were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of god came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown." (v.4) this idea has been the source of all numbers of science fiction and horror films, from "spawn" and "rosemary's baby" to the italian peplums "the sons of hercules."

god sees things differently: "and god saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." (v. 5)

the solution, although grievous to the lord, is plain: "and it repented the lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. and the lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them." (vv. 6-7)

but god chooses something later theologians in writing of the holy one's ultimate act of redemption will call "the scandal of particularity:"

"noah found grace in the eyes of the lord."

genesis 5: the dance of the generations

2009-04-07T09:09:00.000-07:00

this is the book of the generations of adam.
in the day that god created man, in the likeness of god made he him; male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name adam, in the day when they were created.
and adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image; and called his name seth:
and the days of adam after he had begotten seth were eight hundred years
and he begat sons and daughters:
and all the days that adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died. and seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat enos:
and seth lived after he begat enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters:
and all the days of seth were nine hundred and twelve years:
and he died.
and enos lived ninety years, and begat cainan:
and enos lived after he begat cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters:
and all the days of enos were nine hundred and five years: and he died.
and cainan lived seventy years and begat mahalaleel:
and cainan lived after he begat mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and daughters:
and all the days of cainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died.
and mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat jared:
and mahalaleel lived after he begat jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters:
and all the days of mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died.
and jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat enoch:
and jared lived after he begat enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
and all the days of jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died.
and enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat methuselah:
and enoch walked with god after he begat methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
and all the days of enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:
and enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
and methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech.
and methuselah lived after he begat lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters:
and all the days of methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.
and Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son:
and he called his name noah, saying, this same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the lord hath cursed.
and lamech lived after he begat noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters:
and all the days of lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died.
and noah was five hundred years old: and noah begat shem, ham, and japheth.

now come we to the "begats." often in an opera there is a ballet. if we look at the bible as the libretto to the opera dei, the works of god, then i suggest the begats function most often as the dance between acts.

the works of god is not a small story. for most people, the bible is as big a book as we will ever read: it is big enough. but between all the stories that we treasure and remember, or that we remember and find horrorible, many generations live and die. they show up as the dance of the generations, the ballet of the begats.

often we skip over them. there are even editions of the bible which exclude them, or put them in smaller type to make them harder to read. this is a mistake. a careful reading of the genealogy above, for instance, reveals something rather amazing: noah was born before adam died, but as soon as noah was born, all of these people began to die all around him. it is probably worth putting a book mark at the longer lists of genealogies so when the names in them are mentioned later, we can put them into the story.

not everyone in every list may seem important to us. i have a maternal cousin who several years ago began to explore our genealogy. he was much impressed that we were related to thomas jefferson and john calhoun. of course we were also related to many thousands of less famous folk. we are much more selective than the holy one:

"god is working his purpose out
as year succeeds to year:
god is working his purpose out,
and the time is drawing near;
nearer and nearer draws the time,
the time that shall surely be,
when the earth shall be filled
with the glory of god
as the waters cover the sea." (arthur campbell ainger)

so when matthew begins his gospel, he begins it with a ballet, the dance of the generations which ties the acts of god together in one wonderful work.

the beginning of repentance: "then men began to call upon the name of the LORD"

2009-02-17T09:37:00.000-08:00

genesis 4:25-26:
"and adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name seth: for god, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of abel, whom cain slew. and to seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD."

the story of salvation begins anew with seth, in a line which luke's gospel will continue to "jesus himself." (3:23-38) the linage in its fullness begins with chapter five, but it has this little introduction, ending "then began men to call upon the name of the LORD."

this verse introduces a theme which will be of tamtamount importance through the rest of scripture. in exodus, when the name of the lord, forgotten in captivity, is revealed to moses, it is because, "the LORD said, . . . the cry of the children of israel is come unto me." (3:7-9) even in the dark days of the judges, when "every man did that which was right in his own eyes," (judges 21:25) ". . . when the children of israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer to the children of israel, who delivered them . . . " (3:9)

even so, seth, the son of adam, began to call upon the name of the LORD, and the great song of salvation began to rise in a mighty chorus for all those who have ears to hear.

the first geneology: the line of cain

2009-02-17T08:50:00.000-08:00

genesis 4:16-24:

"and cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of nod, on the east of eden. and cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, enoch. and unto enoch was born irad: and irad begat mehujael: and mehujael begat methusael: and methusael begat lamech. and lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was adah, and the name of the other aillah. and adah bare jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle. and his brothers name was jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. and zillah, she also bare tubalcain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of tubalcain was naamah. and lamech said unto his wives, adah and zillah, hear my voice; ye wives of lamech, hearken unto my speech: for i have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. if cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly lamech seventy and sevenfold."

genesis. "in the beginning." we read these titles of the first book of moses and in our simple, reductive way want to make this the book of the beginning of some one thing. now, ultimately and most importantly, it is the story of the beginning of two things: the beginning of creation, and the beginning of the holy one's redemption of creation in christ jesus, an event so important that matthew in his gospel will call it the regenesis (19:28). but that is a story with many threads of narrative, and they all start in genesis.

the first geneology will be that of cain, "who went out from the presence of the lord." it is interestingly enough from the line of cain that most of the things in which we most pride ourselves as "civilized" people originate: cities, tent-dwellers with cattle, harp and organ, artifice in brass and iron, and, in lamech's declaration to his wives, the idea that we can, in our own wisdom, act without consequences.

except for lamech's conceit, these things are not all wrong in themselves. but they are fruitless done "out from the presence of the lord." as david will recognize in psalm 127, david, who wanted to built a great city with a house for the holy one: "except the lord build the house, their labor is but lost that build it." indeed the ultimate or at least penultimate vision in the revelation to john is "the holy city, new jerusalem, coming down out of heaven . . . ."(21:2) the messiah will tent among us, and we will be his cattle, says john in his gospel. (1:14; 10:11) david, the clearest image of the messiah in the old testament, will tell how to redeem harp and organ and instruments of brass and iron, culminating the psalter with "praise ye the lord. . . . praise him with stringed instruments and organs. praise him with the loud cumbals; praise him upon the high sounding cymbals." (150:1, 4-5), an image paul will pick up in first corinthians, saying that without charity, we are sounding brass, or tinkling cymbal, nothing. (13:1-2)

and nothing is what becomes of the line of cain, "out of the presence of the lord." perhaps they are mentioned in the enigmatic passage about "giants in the earth" that leads to the story of noah. either way, the holy one will continue his story of redemption through the line of seth.

a note on cain's wife

cain's wife as a befuddlement to freshman bible students is a result of the odd way we have come to read genesis. few of us read genesis 1:25, "and god made the beast after his kind," and imagine, say, all the beasts descending from one great ur-bear. but when we read about man, we think of only two people, or maybe in the second story in the second chapter, one person.

we want to make adam a proper noun, when a better understanding might be earthlings, the human ones, made from the humous.

the transgression of the man and the woman was not so importantly a singular historical event, but the description, as much as we might wish otherwise, of how all of us earthlings, unhumble human ones, act when we are beguiled by the subleties of the serpent, the shiny one, unless we are living in the presence of the holy one.

by "coincidence" i am writing this essay on february 16th, the commemoration of st. juliana. ". . . the devil is said to have appeared to the saint as an angel of light. his aim was to persuade her that what she had renounced in the world [,marriage to a roman prefect,]was in fact good." (james bentley, a calendar of saints (new york: facts on file publications, 1986.))

man, born of woman. 4: eva & ave

2009-01-14T09:22:00.000-08:00

"and adam knew eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare cain, and said, i have gotten a man from the Lord. and she again bare his brother abel. . . . and adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name seth: for god, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of abel, whom cain slew. and to seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name enos . . . ." (genesis 4: 1-2, 25-26)

the part of genesis we call the fourth chapter is so dense it is easy to miss some notes. there is a unusual way of describing birth recorded here. the emphasis is on the mother, eve. "she bare ... and . . . again bare . . . and called his name."

then comes the interlude of cain and able, climaxing in the strange story of lamech, whose seventy and seven-fold vengeance we will not hear echoed until jesus declares seven and seventy-fold forgiveness. (matthew 18:21-22)

then "she bare a son, and called his name seth: for god, she said, hath appointed me another seed instead of abel, whom cain slew." almost as if to point out the rarity of eve's centrality, verse 26 returns to the more usual way of noting births: "and to seth, to him also there was born a son, and he called his name enos."

one of the fascinating thigs about these early genesis stories is that they are seldom mentioned again in the old testament, but they become very important in the new testament. from the time of irenaeus until the middle ages it was very popular to see eve as the type of mary, and much was made of the pun of "ave (maria)" and "eva." we would do well not to let the singularity of eve's baring the first-born son go unmarked.

man, born of woman.3: a crescendo of mercy

2008-11-13T10:29:00.001-08:00

"and the Lord said unto cain, where is abel thy brother? and he said, i know not: am i my brothers keeper?
and he said, what hast thou done? the voice of thy brothers blood crieth unto me from the ground.
and now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brothers blood from thy hand;
when thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.
and cain said unto the lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear.
behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.
and the lord said unto him, therefore whosoever slayeth cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the lord set a mark upon cain, lest any finding him should kill him." (genesis 4:7-15)

is there a more poignant question in any scripture than cain's: "am i my brother's keeper?" i would suggest that in the recognition of the proper answer to that question is all that is necessary for politics and ethics. nor is there a more bitter irony in any scripture than abel's blood which cries unto the holy one from the very ground which cain had tilled.

building is slow, destruction is swift, and sorrow does not restore. cain the farmer becomes a vagabond on the earth. no cain cries out, "my punishment is more than i can bear. . . . everyone that findeth me shall kill me." justice seldom seems so attractive when it is happening to ourselves as it does when it is happening to those with whom we are vexed. but cain does not meet the punishment he thinks he deserves. "the lord set a mark upon cain, lest any finding him should kill him." even over the cacophony plays the theme of the holy one's faithful mercy.

(the image above is a capital in the cathedral of st. lazare in autun, depicting a legend that cain was accidentally killed by the young tubalcain who mistook him for an animal.)

man, born of woman.2: the invention of murder

2008-11-13T10:11:00.001-08:00

"and the Lord said unto cain, why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
if thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
and cain talked with abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that cain rose up against abel his brother, and slew him." (genesis 4:6-8)

one of my favourite oscar wilde aphorisms, the theme of his amazing de profundis, is that all sin results from a lack of imagination. perhaps eve had not been able to imagine that any creature so glittery as the serpent would not speak gold.

cain, who had been his mother's favourite, now can imagine no other way to regain the holy one's respect than to kill his brother. he cannot imagine that he could, as the holy one tells him, rule over [sin]. rather than hearing the good news, "if thou doest well, shall thou not be accepted," he seems to think that if he is the only son, he will be the favourite son. so, he talks with his brother, takes him out to "the field," and murders him. in these few notes is already written the story of jesus' crucifixion, when, after the accusers talk to him, they take him outside the city to murder him.

into the joyous song of creation comes the dark cacophonic theme of murder, as well as the motif of adversity between the first- and second-born.

man, born of woman 1: the invention of religion

2008-10-08T10:28:00.000-07:00

"and adam knew eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare cain, and said, i have gotten a man from the lord. and she again bare his brother abel. and abel was a keeper of sheep, but cain was a tiller of the ground. and in process of time it came to pass, that cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the lord. and abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. and the lord had respect unto abel and to his offering: but unto cain and to his offering he had not respect. and cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell." (genesis 4:1-5)

our history begins. the woman, now named eve, "the mother of all," mothers: ". . . she conceived, and bare cain, and said, i have gotten a man from the lord. and she again bare his brother abel, and able was a keeper of sheep, but cain was a tiller of the ground."

the first first born, the first two brothers, the first favourite son. now it is the woman who names, and cain's name is a proud statement of achievement while abel's means at best merely "brother" and perhaps merely "futile."

the futile second brother seems to ignore the curse on the ground, not eating of it but becoming a shepherd, precurser to david and the messiah.

hard-working, brow-sweating cain, however, tills the ground and invents religion: "cain brought of the fruit of the ground and offering unto the lord."

much of the strength of these stories is their spare emptiness. one of the few things helpful that i learned in seminary is that the why question is seldom helpful. this story does not present us with whys.

so we speculate, perhaps, why cain made this offering. he is not told to. leon cass, in one of the most insightful readings of genesis i have found, the beginning of wisdom, suggests that cain must have thought the holy one like himself, and hungry. (noah, released from the ark, also ". . . builded an altar unto the lord . . . and offered burnt offerings on the altar" (gen. 8:30), and in what can be seen as the ultimate ironic fulfillment of this passage as prophecy, jesus, released from the tomb, will prepare for the disciples "a fire of coals . . . , and fish laid thereon, and bread." (john 21:9))

"and abel, he also brought the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. and the lord had respect unto abel and to his offering: but unto cain and his offering he had not respect. and cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell."

i am tempted toward theodicy here, to quote later scriptures about the holy one's knowing the hearts of men (a theme which also crops in john's gospel (2:24-25)), but the text does not say anything about what the holy one knows about the brothers' hearts or why he respects one's sacrifice and not the others'. rather, i will suggest this story shows how limited man's knowledge is. we are, as eve said, "beguiled" by "shiny things" (the hebrew name for serpents), and nothing seems so shiny to us as our own good ideas about religion.

an excursus on eating

2008-10-07T10:35:00.001-07:00

so much happens in these first chapters of genesis that it's easy to let some of the "most important themes slip by unheard. so, i want to take a moment to think about the role of eating in genesis.

the second commandment is about food:

"and god said, behold, i have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, i have given every green herb for meat: and it was so." (genesis 1:29-30)

(the first commandment, to "be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth" (genesis 1:28), is perhaps fulfilled, but in an unsatisfactory manner.)

so the man and the woman (it is not really accurate to call them adam and eve, since adam means both of them, male and female, and the name eve does not occur until after the fatal bite) sin by eating the forbidden fruit.

again and again eating, being fed, banqueting, or feasting will occur in the scriptural story. indeed the ultimate act of salvation will be celebrated in a holy meal.

songs between the acts: the begats

2008-08-12T17:09:00.000-07:00

i try to be a minimalist, so i've never bought a copy, but my little branch of the one holy catholic and apostolic church publishes my pedigree. it lists my consecrating bishop richard's chief consecrator, and his chief consecrator adrian's chief consecrator, and so on all the way back to peter in antioch. peter was martyred in rome, and he may have been the bishop of rome, but he almost certainly was the bishop of antioch, and his chair is there to prove it. when each year in mid-january even the roman church celebrates the feast of peter's chair, it his chair in antioch that is remembered.

this is one of the meanings of apostolic succession: the physical reception of the power of the holy spirit to perform the office of a bishop by the laying-on-of-hands of previously consecrated bishops. there is another part, the nature of which can be a bit mor controversial: the passing on, the tradition, of the faith and teaching of the apostles. one of the specific parts of the teaching i received was the liturgy of sts. addai (thaddeus in the new testament) and mari (addai's barnabas, as it were). this liturgy, this work of the people of god, was widely spread in the first days of the church's going into all the world, being taken into persia, burma, and india. as we recite these ancient prayers still today, we gather "to remember that which we have received through tradition from [the father], rejoicing, glorifying, exalting, commemorating, and celebrating this great mystery of the passion, death, and resurrection of our lord jesus christ."

i take this somewhat backwards entry to discussing the "begats" because to many who call themselves christian they are perhaps even less interesting than the details of my apostolic succession. in the big church, however, apostolic succession is what assures church unity, and in a similar way it is the begats that assure the unity of the story of scripture. the new testament begins with the begats leading to jesus (and apostolic succession may be thought of as the spiritual begats after jesus). like themes in much great music, the begats start simply, and grow. so we find simply in the fourth chapter of genesis, "and adam knew eve his wife: and she conceived, and bare cain . . . ." (4:1) what follows is easy to understand as part of the same story that began innocently in the garden.

as the story grows longer, and more complicated, the acts are often separated by longer periods of time with fewer details. the begats that start matthew's gospel will lead all the way from abraham. luke's gospel takes them back to adam. but whever the song of the begats is sung, it reminds us that the acts it connects are part of the same great operatic story, assuring its unity. "and celebrating this great mystery of the passion, death, and resurrection of our lord jesus christ."

mis en scene: genesis 1:27-28

2008-08-12T16:31:00.000-07:00

this passage says far more than one might wish.

"so god created man in his own image,
in the image of god created he him;
male and female created he them.
and god blessed them,
and god said unto them,
be fruitful, and multiply,
and replenish the earth and subdue it.
and have dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the fowls of the air,
and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

this is one of the most commented-upon passages in all scripture. these few sentences, which to some readers have seemed to describe a more-or-less self-evident situation, can also be very controversial. for many non- or anti- or even professing-christian environmentalists, they seem to be the reason for western, nominally "christian" civilization's trashing of creation. then there are christian apologists who defend the bible and argue that modern westeners have it all wrong. in fact there is even a green bible (new york: harpercollins, 2008), with all the words in green which support an environmentally aware reading of the texts.

i would point out merely two examples to suggest that the text is not responsible for our greedy subduing without replenishment. first there is the demise of the anasazi, a native american culture which should act better if our idea of the noble savage is correct, but who apparently acted just as greedily as we do and over-consumed themselves right out of existence without the benefit of this story. then there was the necessity for nineteenth-century capitalists to free themselves from any restraints of scripture, a desire that expressed itself as darwinism, which was well-described by nietzsche, and which led to the modern wonders of the war to end all wars, and then endless war.

(please note that what was most helpful to the expanding capitalism of the nineteenth century was not a theory of evolution. indeed, gregory of nyssa, commenting on genesis in the creation of man, had assumed an evolutionary working out of creation in the fourth century. but gregory's understanding was of creation, with a creator. nineteenth-century darwinism removed the creator from the mix. no longer were all men created in the image of god. if, say, the zulu had to be destroyed for the species to make progress, it could be written off as the survival of the fittest.)

in this passage of genesis is expressed the biblical understanding of humanity's place in the universe, a place the psalmist would find quite remarkable:

"what is man, that thou art mindful of him?
and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
thou madest him lower than the angels,
to crown him with glory and worship.
thou makest him to have dominion of the works of thy hands;
and thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet:
all sheep and oxen; yea, and the beasts of the field;
the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea;
and whatsoever walketh through the paths of the seas." (psalm 8:4-8)

it is a place we find difficult to accept, either yielding to the temptation to "be as gods" (genesis 3:5), or denying our responsibility: "am i my brother's keeper?" (genesis 4:9) these extremes of human behaviour are not limited to the early stories of genesis. still today we overreach ourselves, gleefully unleashing nuclear power, a force over which truly we are powerless. and we look around at global warming, demonstrably the result of human activity, and say, these are just natural cycles; no need for us to act responsibly.

"and god said unto them,
be fruitful, and multiply,
and replenish the earth and subdue it.
and have dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the fowls of the air,
and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

it is possible to look at the bible as the story of how poorly we have carried out these first commandments, with jesus the ultimate example of how it should be done.

an interlude: the music and the song

2008-07-01T06:44:00.000-07:00

when i was born, my father bought me two gifts: a set of the american educator encyclopedia, and a speedo swim suit; whether he was encouraging a penchant for knowledge and near-nakedness, or minimalism, i'm not sure, but i still find the excess baggage of baggy swimwear silly, and i remember the end-papers of the encyclopedia vividly.

the endpapers showed the relative size of objects in the universe, described in powers of ten, with a hydrogen molecule as the smallest, the galaxy as the largest, and man right in the middle. i don't know how accurate this was, but it does reflect a good theological understanding of man's place in the universe in the biblical tradition.

indeed it is not only in the biblical tradition, but widely, that a human being is seen as a microcosm. the imago dei of genesis chapter one is also an image of the cosmos. between all the parts of creation there is a harmonic relationship. the pythagoreans understood this, and found it the basis of how we understand the universe; students at st. john's college in annapolis and santa fe start their education with pythagoras until this day.

if, however, the very nature of creation is musical, it does not therefore follow that there is only one song. so if i take the writings of the christian scriptures very seriously, and find in them a great song of the holy one's revelation to us, i am not claiming that this is the only way we can know god. indeed, it is the harmony between the revelation of creation (see my blog cycles of praise), the revelation of scripture, and ultimate the revelation in god the son, jesus christ, which verifies the truth of the song heard in scripture.

not all knowledge was contained within the volumes of the encyclopedia my father gave me at my birth. not everything we can know of god is contained in the book we believe our heavenly father gave us, either. but such gifts can be very good starts.

enter discord

2008-04-24T09:34:00.001-07:00

"now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the lord god had made. and he said unto the woman, yea, hath god said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? and the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, god hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. and the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die: for god doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. and the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

"and they heard the voice of the lord god walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the lord god amongst the trees of the garden. and the lord god called unto adam, and said unto him, where art thou? and he said, i heard thy voice in the garden, and i was afraid, because i was naked; and i hid myself. and he said, who told thee that thou wast naked? hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof i commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? and the man said, the woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and i did eat. and the lord god said unto the woman, what is this that thou hast done? and the woman said, the serpent beguiled me, and i did eat. and the lord god said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. unto the woman he said, i will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. and unto adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which i commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

"and adam called his wifes name eve; because she was the mother of all living. unto adam also and to his wife did the lord god make coats of skins, and clothed them. and the lord god said, behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: therefore the lord god sent him forth from the garden of eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. so he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of eden cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." (genesis 3)

of course, i cannot begin to exhaust the many meanings, the many melodies that flow through this part of the story. i remember another time, a saturday, in which i found myself in four very different groups of people through the day, and each group found a reason to talk about this story. the groups ranged in "belief" from fairly orthodox christian to adamantly anti-religious folk who described themselves as "scientific" or "spiritual." all of them however found material for discussion and discovery in this story. no one simply dismissed the story as unworthy of consideration.

there are some things i would point out. one is that when the serpent and eve are talking about the holy one, they call him "god," the theoretical, transcendant god of the intellect. when the holy one returns in the cool of the evening to walk with his creatures, it is YHWH, the holy one who is a person with a name.

this holy one, i suppose, knows what has happened. but he is not sending his lightning bolts ahead of him to fry the miscreants. it is only when they first try to hide from him, adam blaming eve, eve blaming the serpent, that what we often call "original sin" is manifested. once again, this, you see, is the "the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, who dwells in the high and holy place, who also dwells with the one who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite." (isaiah 57:15)

from this point onward, at least unto the resurrection accounts in the gospels, in which i would include the pentecost story of the acts of the apostles, the songs are about the high and lofty one's actions to restore that original and deep communion which our pride breaks.

back to the garden

2008-04-24T08:44:00.000-07:00

the next story of creation in genesis is one of the most engaging works in all of literature. i suppose we should start by reading it:

"these are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the lord god made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the lord god had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. but there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
and the lord god formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
and the lord god planted a garden eastward in eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. and out of the ground made the lord god to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. and a river went out of eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. the name of the first is pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. and the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of ethiopia. and the name of the third river is hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of assyria. and the fourth river is euphrates.
and the lord god took the man, and put him into the garden of eden to dress it and to keep it. and the lord god commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
and the lord god said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. and out of the ground the lord god formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. and adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for adam there was not found an help meet for him. and the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the lord god had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. and adam said, this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. and they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." (genesis 2:4-25)

i remember once going to a talk by a christian environmentalist at a baptist church, no less. i don't remember his name, except jim, but i remember the poster he distributed. it was of print of a painting by diana bryer showing adam and eve sitting under a tree, surrounded by animals of all kinds, with a caption saying "god's original intention was to hang out in a garden with a couple of naked vegetarians.

when i took the poster home to the community in which i was living, we stayed up for about three hours talking about the poster. it generated all sorts of responses, this depiction of only some of the images in this story. and several times the poster was "borrowed" by other friends who loved it so much they wanted to enjoy it in their own homes for a while.

i suspect the reaction so many of us had to the poster is a result of the intrinsic understanding we have that originally we were made for a very deep and intimate communion with god, an understanding that has been part of many human activities, and reflected in many poems and songs, such as crosby, stills, and nash's back to the garden.

unfortunately, human activity does not always bring about the results we want, as we find in this next chapter of genesis.

warning: fugue ahead

2008-04-17T13:07:00.000-07:00

the first story of genesis describes creation by elohim, a strange plural-singular form for god, which is not a name so much as a category. this is the wonderfully conceptual understanding of creation and god that will be consonant with greek philosophy and what we often call natural religion. this is the god of whom paul will tell the romans ". . . the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made." (romans 1:20)

against the orderly strains of this creation song plays another melody, one more difficult to describe with music theory or theology, in which the holy creator is revealed as a person with a name, although the name is too powerful to be pronounced.

the god of the first story we sing in the hymn,
"almighty, invisible, god only wise,
in light inaccessible, hid from our eyes."
this is the transcendant god, subject of systematic theology, who is described by rudolf otto in the holy as tremendum, of whom thomas acquinas wrote.

the god of the countermelody is sung in
"come down, o love divine,
and fill this heart of mine."
this is the holy one immanent, who is described by otto as fascinans, of whom thomas acquinas found, once he had experienced the one, that he could write nothing.

but there is only one god, creator of heaven and earth, transcendant and immanent. in the tension between these two revelations of the holy one are the contrasts between the conquered promised land and the lingering presence of israel's oppoenents. here are the kingdom of heaven which is at hand and the kingdom which comes at the end of the age.

this, you see, is the "the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity,
whose name is holy, who dwells in the high and holy place, who
also dwells with the one who has a contrite and humble spirit, to
revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the
contrite." (isaiah 57:15) this is the god who created by speaking the word in the beginning, but also the god who accepts the limitation of creation to walk with his creature in the garden in the cool of the evening.

this is the god for whom i have moved into a garden so that i might have a cool of the evening in which we might walk. it is to the story of the revelation of that god, described again and again in the liturgy as a "man-befriending god," to which we turn next.

back to the hillside: earth & breath

2008-04-10T16:22:00.000-07:00

surrounded by the darkness in which the paschal light of christ shines, i read on:

"and god said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
and god called the dry land earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he seas: and god saw that it was good.
and god said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
and the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and god saw that it was good.
and the evening and the morning were the third day.
and god said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
and god made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
and god set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and god saw that it was good.
and the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
and god said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
and god created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and god saw that it was good.
and god blessed them, saying, be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
and the evening and the morning were the fifth day." (genesis 1:9-23)

waters, earth, light, moving creatures: we heard all these themes at the beginning of the beginning. it is as if the first two verses of genesis were one huge chord comprised of all the songs of creation, played for god only knows how long. as god said to job, he says to each of us: "where wast thou when i laid the foundations of the earth?" (job 38:4) yet even as he spoke to job by describing not himself but his creation, so he has spoken to us through the creation.

earth, seas, grass, herb, fruit tree, lights in heaven, moving creatures that hath life, birds that fly in the open firmament, great whales, and every living creature which the waters brought forth, they all have their own songs, which god blessed and told them to repeat. the late-homing squirrels and the early-hooting owls on my hillside are here because the first squirrels, the first owls, "brought forth abundantly."

the story continues:

"and god said, let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
and god made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and god saw that it was good.
and god said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
so god created man in his own image, in the image of god created he him; male and female created he them.
and god blessed them, and god said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
and God said, Behold, i have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, i have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
and god saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
and on the seventh day god ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
and god blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." (genesis 1:24-2:3)

so here i sit, image of god, blessed, marking the completion of yet another holy, seventh, sabbath day, but starting the beginning of the eighth day, the first day of the new creation.

how am i the image of god? the navajo say in the whorls of finger- and toe-tips. hebrew, like so many ancient languages,has one word, ruach for both "spirit" and "wind." either translation in genesis 1:1 is correct, or rather both of them are correct. perhaps only one translation is incorrect. the wind, the spirit, moves in spirals and eddies, like our finger prints.

ruach also enables speech. again and again, "god said," and i, too, say the words, not reading silently but speaking the story. (in this discussion i rely heavily on david abrams' the spell of the sensuous(new york: pantheon, 1996), pp. 225-244.) speaking means using vowels. the consenants, which were the only letters in the original hebrew alphabet, "are those shapes made by the lips, teeth, tongue, palate or throat, that momentarily obscructs the flow of breath, and so give form to our words. . . . the vowels . . . are nothing more than sounded breath." (abrams, p. 241)

the breath of god, which introduces the first story of genesis, becomes more important in the second story. i use my breath, making in the darkness sworls of wind that my candle follows, saying those last words from the first story, "god blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." (genesis 2:3)

here, now: light, water

2008-03-31T07:35:00.000-07:00

it is just-dark, and a bit cold on this march night on a hill in eureka springs. the sun has set cloud-hidden, and the paschal moon will not rise for two hours. in the darkness i strike steel to flint and ignite a new fire, from which i light a candle, holding it high enough for the owls and pine trees and late-homing squirrels to see, and sing:

"christ, as a light, illumine and guide me.
christ, as a shield, overshadow me.
christ under me;
christ over me;
christ beside me on my left and my right.
this day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
be in the mouth of each who speaks unto me.
this day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all powerful.
christ as a light; christ as a shield'
christ beside me on my left and my right."

having no deacon, young or old, i chant an ancient hymn claiming this night, this here, this now, to that night, to be that there, that then, when the holy one led his people out of bondage in egypt. i sing in english, using a translation by the northumbrian community of the song patrick knew in latin as exultet:

"leap and spin, you powers of heaven.
burst into explosive songs of joy,
all you companies of angels.
let the throne of god be surrounded
with the praise of all that has life.

"the earth glories in her maker.
now mountains and valley glow in splendour;
the sea on the shore whispers the praises of jesus.
rivers stream through thirsty soil,
bringing news of gladness--
the redeemer is risen.
his glory fills the earth.
the trees thunder their praises,
and loudly clap their hands.

"sound a trumpet through all the earth.
our morning star is alive!
risen in splendour, he is among us;
the darkness is driven back.
we, his people, join in the dance of all creation.
. . .
"jesus is the true lamb that was slain,
whose blood is on the door of our hearts,
whose blood is the protection of the homes
of all believers.

"this is now the night
when first you freed your people,
and led israel's children
out of slavery in egypt.
dry-shoed, they walked through the sea.

"this is now the night when the pillar of fire
destroyed the darkness of sin!

"this night, christians everywhere,
washed clean, and free from any blemish,
are renewed in hope,
and learn to grow together as one.

"this night, jesus our mighty lord
broke the chains of death,
and returned to us, undefeated.
he is become our champion.
. . .
"in the joy of this night,
father, receive our offering:
this holy fire, this easter light.
let its flame ever-burning
break through the darkness of our times.
let it be a pillar of fire,
leading us forward in your truth.
may the sun of justice which never sets
find this flame still burning;
may christ the morning star
who came again from the dead
find his light brightly burning in our hearts."

then i read on pivot rock road in eureka springs, in a.d. 2008, the same story patrick had read on slane hill in ireland, in a. d. 433. the story is much older than patrick, indeed than any of the stories previously known to the celtic bards who would embrace it as their own.

"in the beginning, god created the heaven and the earth.
and the earth was without form, and void;
and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
and the spirit of god moved upon the face of the waters.
and god said, let there be light: and there was light.
and god saw the light, that it was good:
and god divided the light from the darkness.
and god called the light day, and the darkness he called night,
and the evening and the morning were the first day." (genesis 1:1-5 av)

in the beginning, and in the now: god; darkness, water, light, evening and morning, the model of creation.

i begin my essay with me and patrick and god because i want to show how the song works. it begins with god, and it brings us into god's presence, and because god is, as our french brothers and sisters so eloquently remind us, the eternal, it brings our times into the now of god's eternity.

we sing the story, not about then, but about now. the startling light that divides the darkness on pivot rock road is the same light that celtic bards agreed with god was good on the irish hill top; it is the same light god said, "let there be," "in the beginning."

i read on:

"and god said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters,
and let it divide the waters.
and god made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
and god called the firmament heaven.
and the evening and the morning were the second day." (genesis 1:6-8)

i pen these words on the ninth day of easter, a spring monday afternoon. the wind has been moving in rambunctious play over the deep ozark valleys as i have sat and pondered these simple words from the beginning of time. i wonder what to write about this melodic theme of divided waters. of course there is a continuity to the waters like the continuity of the light. the water in the earthenware bowl on my table is the same water in which patrick baptized the celtic bards, burying them in christ jesus; it is the water god divided on the second day. but the waters god treated differently from the light, not dividing it from something else, like the light from darkness, but dividing water from water, prophetic of dividing the waters of the red sea and the jordan river.

but there is more. the light remains transcendant, always slightly other. it is understood that the light reveals god's glory, so that we say in the creed that the son is "light from light, true god from true god," a light that shines "begotten not made."

as i sit the rain begins, gently at first, and then more insistently. water is more intimate than light. the intimacy can be seen as a caring act of god:

"thou visitest the earth, and blessest it;
thou makest it very plentous.
the river of god is full of water:
thou preparest their corn, for so thou preparest for the earth.
thou waterest her furrows;
thou sendest rain into the little valleys thereof;
thou makest it soft with the drops of rain, and blessest the increase of it.
thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy clouds drop fatness."
(psalm 65:9-12, coverdale)

but i am getting ahead of the story.

beginning to hear the song

2008-03-06T14:45:00.000-08:00

it is dark, and a bit cold this march-going-into-april saturday night on a hill called slane, on the banks of the river boyne. in the darknesss patrick strikes the steel to flint and ignites the new fire, from which he lights a large candle. holding it high enough to be seen on all the irish hills around, he sings, "the light of christ." walking into the crowd, some of whom have gathered to see if he would really challenge the high king of tara with claims of a higher king, he sings "the light of christ" again, a note higher. once more he will sing "the light of christ," another note higher, and share the fire with all the candles brought by the crowd. a young deacon at his side starts the lessons of the vigil, singing, "in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth. and the earth was without form, and void, and the spirit of the lord hovered on the face of the water. and god separated the darkness from the light, and god saw that the light was good, and the evening and the morning were the first day."

in the creed we sing, "we believe in one god, . . . creator of heaven and earth." the greek word we english as creator is poeton, poet, and of course greek poems are sung. so we believe that god the father almighty sang the heaven and the earth into being. and in most times and places the story of god that we call the bible has been sung as well. before there were printed texts, the melodies made the words more easily memorable. still today in the orthodox church there simple tones to which to sing the words; for the major feasts there are special tones.

after hearing scripture sung, any other way of hearing it is literally prosaic. most of the church sings the holy story, whether in coptic or syriac or greek or latin, and even in english. can you read the fortieth chapter of isaiah, "comfort ye my people," without hearing handle's melody?

if scripture is a song, what kind of song is it? a look at the huge red volume with which i introduced this essay would suggest it is not a simple song. rather it is more like a great wagnerian opera whose many themes weave together or sing against each other to make the magnum opus. the whole work may look complicated, but there are simple melodies within it, melodies that repeat and vary throughout. we have already heard one of the melodies, the melody of light. if we are going to think of the bible as a huge ring of operatic music, it will be especially important to pay attention to the overture, in which we may expect to hear all of the important melodies introduced. the overture is the first eleven chapters of genesis.

introduction

2008-03-06T14:25:00.000-08:00

i am sitting in a small room with the book. it is large, 14x10x4 inches,closed. it is bound in red heifer hide, and the edges of the pages glow with gold leaf. it weights about 20 pounds. both hands are needed to pick it up and open it, and then it covers most of my little desk, leaving only room for a candlestick, which i move from side to side because the book is wider than the taper's pool of light.

northrup frey claims that there are two kinds of writing, text and commentary. this is the text on which what we call western civilization has been a commentary. sometimes the commentary has been joyous, sometimes sad. some parts of that commentary have tried to stay close to the text, other parts have repudiated it. but even the repudiation has been of the text my candle lights in yellow pools for me to read.

the text is, of course, the holy bible, the authorized version, printed at the oxford university press by geoffrey cumberledge in letters that stand out on the paper, and appointed to be read in churches.

the older way of reading it in churches was to finish a reading with "thus endeth the lesson," to which the people would respond, "thanks be to god." more recently the lessons are often ended, "the word of the lord." this is not, however, the real teaching of the church. for muslims the koran is really the word of god. for christians the word is the second person of the trinity, "through whom all things were made," "who by the power of the holy spirit became incarnate from the virgin mary." but the books of the bible, it is taught, "containeth all things necessary to salvation."

that it is a book, one huge volume, also available in volumes of many other sizes, is itself a recent phenomenon, a product of the printing press that heralded the beginning of the modern age. we of my generation--i was born in 1946--are so accustomed to books and to the one we call "the good book" that we sometimes act as if the holy one can only be revealed by a book. for many of my friends born after 1980, that revelation is called up by a left-click on an icon on their laptop. at least the post-modern age is regaining the iconic nature of this revelation in words.

there was a time before there was a book, not only printed books but even hand-written books. then the words were a song. it is to encourage the recovery of the song that this essay is undertaken.