On National Days

National Days commemorate change: events that shaped the nation’s identity. What defining moments do nations select?

            Russia Day: declaration of sovereignty (not independence) of the Russian Federation from the Soviet Union in 1992. Independence Day, July 4, l776, Declaration of Independence from Great Britain by American colonies now the United States. St. Patrick’s Day, symbolic of conversion of Ireland to Christian faith. Bastille Day, destruction of the fortress prison in Paris: symbolic of the monarchy’s downfall, releasing the only seven prisoners within, four of them counterfeiters.

             

            The archetypal National Day is known to the prophets as The Day of the Lord (or sometimes, That Day), when all the shonky politicians, unjust judges, greedy rulers, corrupt enforcers, negligent bosses and violent thugs will meet their God and become acquainted with a new nation and a new creation. In the second book of Isaiah comes a vision of the nations streaming up to the mountain of the Lord, destroying their weapons of destruction, and ‘neither shall they learn war any more.’

            Jesus reads Isaiah in Nazareth, his own place, the vision of enlightenment given to the blind, deliverance to the captives, liberty to the oppressed: the declaration of the acceptable year of the Lord. There are plenty of unacceptable years. What do nations select to commemorate? How will the nations stand on the Day of the Lord?

On the Marriage

My friend shows me his wedding ring, recently removed from right hand to left. A trip to the British Consulate, signing of papers, presentation of a Marriage Certificate: actually those Civil Partnerships were really weddings of same-sex couples. My friend’s husband is a British citizen: he’s entitled to the protection of his government.

            Marriage is associated with matters of procreation, inheritance and authenticity. Biblical references narrate such questions as adoption (beloved by St. Paul), surrogacy (can a slave produce a legitimate heir?), adultery (alienation of rights), divorce (severance of contracts involving families, clans or nations) and possession (specifically of land). Marriage in antiquity carries heavy symbolism.

            Mme. de Sevigné writes that her daughter’s bridegroom has the desired qualities of wealth, birth, and high position (as well as other ‘good qualities’) so without question they (her family) trust in the two families who were connected to M. de Grignan through his marriages to his earlier wives who have died. Marriages unite families. Marriages tell you who is family.

            At the wedding in Cana, Christ transmuted water into wine. The water involved is ritual water; the wine is the most honourable. Marriage symbolises integrity, devotion, love, and respect. Therefore same-sex couples should be married:  for the sake of the family.

Holy Innocents: A Curious Baptism

John came preaching a baptism of repentance. For the forgiveness of sins. Repentance needs to be deeply understood.

            Christmas passed, and the Holy Innocents were slaughtered. Or should we say, they continue to be killed. In home, street and playing field and over, or in the water. There have been several cases where the bodies of young children have found their way into the water.

            A curious baptism. Admittedly, this Christmas other children have been killed in other ways, in addition to those in the water. Domestic violence can be fatal, but is it a fate? Every day and every week, the holy innocents die. Sometimes this occurs in connection with a suicide.

             Is there a relationship of suicide to repentance, a reverse logic? Can someone become so dismayed by actions, thoughts, behaviours that repentance takes the form of self-destruction? Is it possible for a person to be worthless? No. God’s mercy is unending. Repentance is for forgiveness, not punishment of sins. God’s holy mad were once considered saints: holy innocents. The troubled mind is someone for whom Christ died.

            It needs to be spoken. Speak your trouble. Speak your concern. Speak now.

A good resource for help is https://www.beyondblue.org.au/the-facts/suicide

On Gold: Epiphany

There are always three of them, bringing their gold past Herod: three in old masters, predellas, and presepios, with their peregrine cultures, evidence of a new world.

            How much gold? How much gold dust, how many gold bars? How many slaves and attendants to carry it; how did these men become kings?

            Kings travel with retinues. Courtiers like the Medici, kneeling in Renaissance Adorations, bankers to princes, handlers of gold. Patrons of the poor?

            Frankincense, myrrh, more valuable than gold: treasures of Arabia, or sometimes Africa.

            Herod has gold. He’s the richest ruler after the Emperor. He doesn’t need to imprison the slaves or war in distant places for gold alone. Like any ruler, he wants power. His spies are everywhere. Death is everywhere. Innocents dying while Herod tries to find something out. The merest infant could be a threat.

            We Three Kings have more sense than returning via Herod, empty of gold. Joseph packs up his household and flees. The gold is now travelling in a different direction.

            There are three wise kings, getting themselves out of the middle east, and one King, who is also three, on the road with gold, frankincense and myrrh. Somebody new to look after it.

On Advent

Are babies born bad? What is original sin? Why does John the Baptist leap in Elizabeth’s womb, welcoming the arrival of his cousin, Jesus? Why will he later say, ‘He must increase, but I must decrease?” What kind of world is this?

            I think ‘original sin’ represents the human capacity to make mistakes, coupled with the likelihood that persons will make them: a potentiality, requiring action before it becomes guilt. Of course, babies are too young to do much wrong. There are myriads of mistakes: simple, complicated, trivial, grave, due often to limitations from outside, maybe not our fault, just our mistake. With consequences, though.

            John Baptist leaps with joy, Elizabeth blesses Mary, John says, ‘I must decrease’: a very strange comment to make. His joy is fulfilled; his message is given; he accomplishes his purpose. They have been waiting for a saviour, to be released in a political sense but also in a spiritual sense. A Prince of Peace. War resulting from, and compounding upon, mistake after mistake at the grave end of the spectrum.

            I like infant baptism, placing a child under the protection of the one who forgives sins, those mistakes made actual with consequences for ourselves and others. At Advent we wait for a Saviour, the shattered fragments of our mistakes fallen over all the world. What kind of world is this?

On Timekeeping

Time, by its nature, cannot be kept, but the observation of its flight is known as timekeeping. A small child interprets the hands of the clock. A twelve-year-old gets a watch for that birthday; a twenty-one-year old a better watch. Some of them flash numbers, a sign of greater accuracy maybe. Carpe diem.

            Time can be kept in music, confining time to beat and measure with stick and metronome. An hourglass times the egg’s boiling; the twenty-four-hour clock lands planes. The watches I’ve owned time years: the one I inherited from my mother, the year overseas, the Roman numerals I bought at the airport to keep me grounded. My watch tells the time when it’s not there. Glance at your wrist where the watch should be and see what happens.

            Physicists find time a real quantity, studied through mathematics. Is it true that Buddhists and Hindus see time as circular, comprising vast ages? Since there are many schools of philosophy, the Dalai Lama says some say past and future are in the mind, others, abstract concepts relative to continuing events.[1] What of the Christian, linear view of time as beginning and ending, a new heaven and a new earth?       

            The present moment exists. Time ‘to cast away the works of darkness’ — a Collect introduced in 1549 — ‘now in the time of this mortal life’ the time to keep time in mind, even if we cannot grasp it.

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[1] http://hhdl.dharmakara.net/hhdlquotes3.html#time (accessed 7 December, 2015).

On Fear

The opposite of fear is peace. The evening collect prays, that ‘by thee we, being defended from the fear of our enemies, may pass our time in rest and quietness’ through peace. Unworldly peace, this is.

            It must be unworldly peace, because in the world, there’s no lasting peace without justice. Effects of injustice routinely devolve to the innocent: in household, nation, or among nations. It may be distant injustice, half a world away; it might be employed by states, democratic or tyrannical, insurgents, religions or cults; it often believes it’s doing good. The Herods of the age go on killing children, by many and various means. Perhaps the greatest fear of many isn’t for selves, but for the child, too young to create injustice, suffering as injustice fires injustice.

            Fear and hate are bedmates. As we are defended from fear, God grant we be made free of hatred. Hate is actually a sin. And what fear makes us do is often sinful also. ‘Wisdom is better than weapons of war’ says that wise Preacher, therefore ‘Fear God,’ who ‘will bring every deed into judgement, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.’ We have enemies: defend us from fear.