Did the minds behind the hands that raised Stonehenge imagine their reality would go on forever? Did the citizens of Sumer or Chichen Itza or Harrppa believe theirs was the way the world would stay? Each culture claims its moment. Each age assumes reality. But even the foreheads of nations are marked with the ashes of time. Do not despair, Ozymandias, for loss of the ephemeral. Even the Pleiades may be passing, but the God who spins the seasons and knits the threads of time will offer a gift eternal to let love the last Word be.
~ Bishop Steven Charleston
3 comments:
Great words, among all the "Oh Noes, TEC is dying, Oh Noes!!!1!1!" hand-wringing we've heard lately...
The God who 'spins the seasons' had/has nothing to do with the pagan worshippers at Stonehenge, Sumer, Chichen Itza, Harppan, & ancient Egypt...
[Seems weird that Charleston romanticizes cultures that practice ritualized murder-- obviously abhorrent to the God 'that spins the seasons & knits the threads of time'].
To LGMarshall: Are you suggesting that theirs was a different Creation, a different planet, a different Creator?
On this Good Friday, I came upon the following, part of a comment on a post about the atonement:
"In my Catholic school, during one of our Ignatian meditation periods (visualizing events in the life of Jesus), I saw Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemene asking God to let this cup pass. I asked "What cup?" Jesus responded by showing me what he saw: the Christian church, and Christians, making people suffer the way He suffered, the church persecuting people, acting like self-righteous demons. This was the cup that he had to drink. In founding his spiritual movement it was inevitable that some human beings would use His teachings to somehow justify being cruel and unjust to other human beings. The founding of his religion could not be separated from human history. My reaction was: 'Why are you showing me this? I'm just a little boy.'"
Is our historical reality not also "obviously abhorrent" to God? Does God not suffer with us all?
Post a Comment