CHRISTIAN HOPE & HISTORY WILL RHYME
The
famous Irish poet and playwright, Nobel Prize winner, Seamus Heaney, died
recently. What prize did he not win? Google him and see for yourself.
I’m not competent to judge the structure and depth of great poets but I know
what I like; I know what moves, inspires and enriches me and much of the little I’ve
read of him did just that.
Some
years back he adapted a play of Sophocles ("Philoctetes"). The
central character is Philoctetes, a Greek hero who possessed a charmed bow and
arrows given to him by Hercules. On the island of Lemnos a serpent bit him and
his foot began to rot. The intolerable pain made him scream all the time and
the stench from the foot became unbearable to those around him so they deserted
him. He endured ten years of loneliness, pain and the anguish of betrayal. Days
became weeks, weeks became months and months became years and hope of rescue
faded as his bitterness grew.
But an
oracle told the Greeks they couldn't take Troy without the bow of Philoctetes
so they went back to ask him if he would go with them. His years of
disappointed hope were over and when he emptied himself of the bitterness that
had built up inside him the cripple marched off with them to glory.
Heaney
puts these words in the mouths of the chorus at the end of the play:
History forbids us
to hope this side of the grave. But once in a lifetime, the longed-for tide of
justice can arise and hope and history rhyme.
With
Northern Ireland as its setting, with its long history of feuds and killings,
dashed hopes, treachery and unfulfilled promises, Heaney's call was well
contextualized. Don't cease to hope for one day hope and history will rhyme and
crippled truths will walk! [To a marked
degree that has indeed happened in Northern Ireland.]
Much of
history is humdrum. When isolated and seen as a long series of independent happenings it is meaningless! Much of it
forbids us to hope any side of the grave. Some biblical history [isolated or thrown together] shares
this feature since it too shares a God-denying look as much of modern daily
living does.
Not
every event recorded in the Bible is filled with theological significance but
here and there, an event or a cluster of events seizes our attention and God
has reached from behind the curtain of his hiddenness and in these events we
catch a glimpse of him. And once we've seen him we can't unsee him. In light of
those events the entire history of humanity is given a different complexion.
The
Exodus shoves the curtain aside and generations live in the strength of that
vision. The Incarnation catches us by the breath and the Cross of the Christ
drives us to joyful amazement. Paul, on whom the shadow of the cross fell, was
driven, careering off across half a world to proclaim triumph and hope in the
name of the God who was hung on a public gallows. And when friendly hands would
try to slow Paul down, telling him to take it easy, he would shrug them off and
say: "I can't be different, the love of Christ compels me and the world
needs hope." (2 Corinthians 5:14)
And it
doesn't matter that we moderns hang Christ again and again, thinking we've
got rid of him, he's been there and done that!
Christ
can't be harmed by crucifixion.
In fact
there's every reason to believe that he is never as powerful as he is when he's
weak so to crucify him over again is in some ways to turn him loose on society.
Even to
watch him die (as, for example, when we seriously trouble the church, which is
his body—2 Corinthians 4:7-12) is to put ourselves in danger of being drawn to
him because he said when he was "lifted up from the earth" he would
draw all men unto him [John 12:32].
The
mourning and lamentation [and in some quarters, almost panic] about the
dwindling number of believers is pathetic in many ways. Believers, don't you know, aren’t to be
excused when they turn from the Lord Jesus [either in an overt act of rejection
or in the more subtle loss of spirit that wishes Jesus well but cares little to
run the race with and for him and the world he so loves]. The Church of Jesus
Christ has been called to be a faithful steward of the gospel but its weakness
won’t lead God to vanish in a puff of purple smoke.
There’s
always that cross...that strange cross.
And then
there’s always that Sunday morning: “Good morning!” [Matthew 28:9]
One day history and the Christian hope will rhyme and
nail-pierced Truth will walk.
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.