What makes everything happen? Us? Chance? God? Advent is a time to speculate and play with the linkages between thngs. In the great scheme of things, all the dominos fall towards eventual glory, says the faith, but in roundabout and counter-intuitive ways.
Corporate reading of Scripture, in season and out of season, unlocks awareness of hidden process. By not ditching it, even when it doesn’t seem relevant, we hold open the possibility of meaning breaking through from it.
I had been thinking how irrelevant the strange psychedelic poetry of Revelation was, and glad we only really encounter it seriously at this time of year, when I was handed a Bible to read from at a lunchtime Eucharist this week, the day after Woolworth’s bankruptcy, only to find it was Revelation 18:
Alas, alas, thou great Babylon, that mighty city, for in one hour is thy judgment come! The merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over their city; for in an instant no man buyeth their corrupt merchandise any more. Thy merchandise was gold and silver, precious stones, pearls, fine linen, purple silk, and scarlet and fine wood, all manner of vessels of ivory, and of the most precious wood, and thy buildings of brass, and iron and marble, and thy slaves which were the souls of men. Yet now the fruits which thy soul hast lusted after and for which thou hast laboured so long are wholly departed from thee, and all things that were dainty and goodly are departed, and thou shalt know them no more... In one hour is so great riches come to nought...
I wonder what the evaporation of all the mighty city’s wealth in an hour meant in the first century — certainly a phenomenon you would have to be a wacky psychedelic apocalyptic poet to imagine.
The sober fact is that today, like global destruction, we have the technology. When apocalyptic suddenly leaps off the page in this way, it’s a powerful reminder that
the framework in which we take such pride, and from which we derive such security, is, in fact paper thin. Everything is connected, fragile, vulnerable and dependent on God — to use a slightly eggheaded word, contingent:
What makes everything happen? Us? Chance? God? Advent is a time to speculate and play with the linkages between thngs. In the great scheme of things, all the dominos fall towards eventual glory, says the faith, but in roundabout and counter-intuitive ways.
Corporate reading of Scripture, in season and out of season, unlocks awareness of hidden process. By not ditching it, even when it doesn’t seem relevant, we hold open the possibility of meaning breaking through from it.
I had been thinking how irrelevant the strange psychedelic poetry of Revelation was, and glad we only really encounter it seriously at this time of year, when I was handed a Bible to read from at a lunchtime Eucharist this week, the day after Woolworth’s bankruptcy, only to find it was Revelation 18:
I wonder what the evaporation of all the mighty city’s wealth in an hour meant in the first century — certainly a phenomenon you would have to be a wacky psychedelic apocalyptic poet to imagine. The sober fact is that today, like global destruction, we have the technology. When apocalyptic suddenly leaps off the page in this way, it’s a powerful reminder that the framework in which we take such pride, and from which we derive such security, is, in fact paper thin. Everything is connected, fragile, vulnerable and dependent on God — to use a slightly eggheaded word, contingent:
3 comments:
I think those dominoes are symbolic of a certain chain of bookshops.
I get your gist, I think — Call me old fashioned, but I am deeply confused by some of the cashflows that seem to be coming to light today...
I don't see what God has to do with chaos theory - which is at the core of weather and financial systems, where the more integrated and faster things move the more likely they are to be subject to chaotic outcomes at critical moments.
I can see who the God Shiva in Hinduism might relate to chaos, or the importance of detachment in Buddhism in relationship to Chaos, but the Christian God seems somewhat more in favour of order and ordered if hair raising endings.
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