The Darkness Shall Turn to Dawning

My lauds hymn this morning is My Life Flows On. I have to confess that in 2020 I have had a hard time hearing “the clear though far off hymn that hails a new creation.” However, as the calls for justice in the wake of George Floyd’s murder have persisted and seem to be awakening some openness to addressing deeply engrained violent injustice, I think I am finding “an echo in my soul.”

As I was showering this morning, knowing I would be singing My Life Flows On, I heard the echo of the refrain of We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations from my childhood.

For the darkness shall turn to dawning,
and the dawning to noonday bright;
and Christ's great kingdom shall come on earth,
the kingdom of love and light.

I looked it up and found the verses speaking powerfully to our present situation in ways I was completely unaware of when I was growing up. So I share them here as an affirmation of the call for the justice of the Kingdom of God springing from the soil of the beginning of my journey with Jesus.

We've a story to tell to the nations,
that shall turn their hearts to the right,
a story of truth and mercy,
a story of peace and light,
a story of peace and light.

(Refrain)

2. We've a song to be sung to the nations,
that shall lift their hearts to the Lord,
a song that shall conquer evil
and shatter the spear and sword,
and shatter the spear and sword.
(Refrain)

3. We've a message to give to the nations,
that the Lord who reigneth above
hath sent us his Son to save us,
and show us that God is love,
and show us that God is love.
(Refrain)

4. We've a Savior to show to the nations,
who the path of sorrow hath trod,
that all of the world's great peoples
might come to the truth of God,
might come to the truth of God.

(Refrain)

Confessing the Sins of History

In light of the variety of things prompting a reexamination of US history, these lines from the Hebrew Scriptures seem to speak significantly. I understand that they each come from a time and context quite different from our own, and I am not trying to directly connect those specifics with our specifics but only suggest a biblically appropriate historical retrospective that offers hope for a more constructive future. For sure, in no way is the US equivalent to ancient Israel, but it seems to me that the People of the Book have an opportunity to point in a healthy, counter-cultural direction in our time.

Psalm 106:6

Both we and our ancestors have sinned; we have committed iniquity, have done wickedly.

Psalm 79:8

Do not remember against us the iniquities of our ancestors; let your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low.

Ezra 10:1

While Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a very great assembly of men, women, and children gathered to him out of Israel; the people also wept bitterly.

Nehemiah 1.6:

Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Both I and my family have sinned.

Daniel 9:3-5

I turned to the Lord God, to seek an answer by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, “Ah, Lord, great and awesome God, keeping covenant and steadfast love with those who love you and keep your commandments, we have sinned.

Obvious/Apparent Discrepancies

This week my lectio divina includes the raising of the leader’s daughter (he isn’t identified as Jairus here and some manuscripts don’t even say he was a synagogue leader) and the healing of the woman with the hemorrhage in Matthew 9:18-26. Matthew’s version is much more compact than Mark 5:22-43 and Luke 8:41-56.  (This is not recorded in John’s Gospel, no surprise there.) Starting out with curiosity, I have been looking at all three versions of this story. The more I looked, the more aware I became of the inconsistencies between them. (You can make your own inventory.) I have to say that I am not particularly interested in compressing them in an attempt to make a single, harmonious narrative, nor am I interested in explaining away the obvious/apparent discrepancies. This observation does not at all undermine my confidence in the Gospel accounts. Rather, I am fascinated by each Gospel’s perspective and pondering each writer’s focus. But even deeper, I am finding that by, as it were, staring unswervingly into the spaces between these accounts I am relishing and exploring mystery beyond my rational capabilities.

For me, gazing into the spaces between the juxtaposed variations in these three accounts of the same event is something akin to an Eastern Orthodox icon. Not a picture to look at, but a window to look through to be encountered by a spiritual reality beyond that may be more mysterious than may be amenable to being reduced to human language. The drive to make all of the details match seems to me to be a very Western, post-Enlightenment elevation of human rationalism that is inadequate for encountering the full scope of reality or being encountered by the numinous.