abraham heschel, covenant, exile, gospel, isaiah 42, justice, messiah, suffering servant, the great reversal, the scriptures
In archetype, blessing, compassion, disciple, judaism, kingdom of God on December 18, 2008 at 10:00 am
Traditionally Isaiah 42:1-9 describes one who is known as the Suffering Servant. There is definitely a sense of weakness and vulnerability about this figure in verses 2 and 3. “Here is my servant… he will not cry or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street”. This is one who lives among ‘bruised reeds’ and ‘dimly burning wicks’. This sounds like a subjugated person, a slave whose spirit has been broken… a man living from day to day who does what he is told.
However I also notice that this is vulnerability & weakness that has been turned on its head.
Scripture also says, “I have put my Spirit upon him”. And the suffering servant’s task is nothing less than bringing equity and justice to the nations. This is one who will redress the imbalance… And Scripture says, “…he will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice upon the earth”. Wow ! That is no small task for one who is an exiled foreigner in a strange land.
And what or who makes this possible ? v6 “I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations… I am the Lord, that is my name.”
I suppose my question here is, ‘Is this what it means to begin living life in ever increasing circles ?
It’s interesting… Abraham Heschel makes the comment that no other problem has occupied OT scholars more than the identity of the Suffering Servant. Who is he ? Is he the prophet who wrote the passage ? Is the suffering servant the whole of exiled Jewish nation ? Or is he the Messiah, the one who is to come ?
A couple of weeks ago I described the writing of Isaiah as deliciously ambiguous. This means that over time it seems to accrete more & more meaning. While a passage like this sits well within history, it is ambiguous because it also sits above history. In a sense it defies time – it is ageless.
That’s the remarkable thing about the Gospel… When people open themselves to the Spirit of God there is something remarkably consistent about the outcome. It gives people particular priorities, it evidences itself in particular actions, it inspires people with particular visions… Over time it establishes itself in ways that turns everyday experience on its head… Imagine for a moment the audacious possibility of a subjugated exiled foreigner, an alien bringing forth justice to the nations. Imagine an expat community of weakened Jewish exiles without a country being given as “a covenant to the peoples, a light to the nations”.
I call this living life in ever increasing circles…
abraham heschel, christmas, emmanuel, God, happy holidays, jurgen moltmann, messiah, old testament
In Jesus, blessing, connection, imagine, love, movement on December 4, 2008 at 9:19 am
Jurgen Moltmann says when we celebrate Christmas, at its heart we are celebrating something almost unimaginable, “the Creator of heaven and earth, whom even the heaven of heavens cannot contain, becomes so humble and small that in this child Jesus, he is beside us and lives among us”.
Matthew’s gospel says, “Look, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel which means, ‘God with us’”. Yet what manner of child is this, in whom is expressed all the majesty and glory of God himself ? I don’t just stumble at the thought of that, I literally stagger at the possibility.
Don’t worry about putting God into a box. When you consider the Creator and Sustainer of the universe freely packaged into a tiny, helpless frame of a baby – then God literally bursts out of the box of convention & cliché. And the unimaginable happens. Suddenly the God ‘whom even the heaven of heavens’ cannot contain is up close and personal.
Like Christmas wrapping after the presents are opened – there is nothing neat and tidy about it. I have my struggles with the logic of Incarnation as it is. Process it just for a moment – holy God and finite hormone driven, male humanity – packaged together in the God-man Jesus. The divine and human natures are united. At best this is holy irony – at worst it’s madness.
It leaves me feeling off balance & uneasy – almost overwhelmed at times with unknowing – like as though all I thought I knew has been erased back to ground zero. And what does that sound like ?
In Old Testament language we would call this being humbled in the presence of God. And you know what ? I don’t think rationalism or logical argument quite cuts it in these places.
In moments and events touched by the finger of God, a more appropriate response is wonder, awe and radical amazement. Abraham Herschel says, “…wonder is the pre-requisite for an authentic awareness of that which is.” You see, when we use reason, we are trying to explain & adapt the world to our concepts. However, when we experience wonder – we make a significant shift. We begin seeking to adapt our minds to the world as it is. Herschel says, “Under the running sea of all our theories & scientific explanations, lies the original abyss of radical amazement”.
abraham heschel, acts 12, angels, faith, holiness, invisible, messiah, prayer, roman empire, wisdom
In Jesus, discontinuity, judaism, kingdom of God, worldview on November 12, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Lately I have been thinking about Acts 12. The Apostle Peter is in prison when suddenly an angel appears to him but is seen by no other. This angel leads Peter past three sets of guards through one rather large iron-gate and Peter remains invisible… no one sees him. It reminds me of a passage in Proverbs (1:20ff)… Wisdom is depicted as a woman crying out in the street, on the busiest street corners. She is raising her voice in the squares but the busy people passing by don’t even notice. Wisdom remains dimly perceived… invisible.
Then there is the arrival of Jesus the Messiah. He appears unexpectedly, invisibly – in the guise of a peasant baby in a rural Jewish backwater. Even the people who are aware of his coming are invisible, beyond the awareness of the Roman Empire & the Jewish Religious Establishment. They are Magi from the East and shepherds, the elderly Simeon & Anna…
Later, as Jesus begins teaching in Galilee… He startles people by pointing to the invisible ones… ‘Blessed are you who are poor… blessed are you who are hungry now… blessed are you who weep now (Lk6:20ff)… I tell you, whoever doesn’t receive the Kingdom like a little child will never enter it…’ (Mk 10:15). Even the practice of Jesus’ teaching is to be mostly invisible, ‘And when you pray… go into your room and shut the door & pray to your Father… in secret’ (Mt6:5f).
And Jesus is humiliated… condemned to death. He is crucified publically, very visibly. Yet only three days later the Risen Jesus begins appearing to individuals and to small groups of his closest followers. He is present and reassuring, recognisable but different. As quickly as Jesus appears, he disappears again from their presence.
This is the tension of our faith. We live in a world perceived through the senses yet our faith is in, ‘the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen’ (Heb11:1). ‘Day after day pours forth speech…’ all attesting to the glory of God in our world yet, ‘there is no speech, nor are there words, their voice is not heard’.
Our invisible God is more present & active in our world than we will ever know, yet God mostly chooses to work below the radar and behind the scenes of human history. Amazingly God’s invitation is for us to participate with Him. We are His hands, His eyes, His ears and His feet…
I like what Abraham Heschel says. He says, “There are phenomena which appear irrelevant and accidental in the realm of nature but are of great meaning in the dimension of the holy.” That means our mostly invisible, everyday actions, can be of great consequence in our world. And they are effective because they are mostly invisible !
abraham, abraham heschel, God, jacques derrida, living, presence, thorleif borman, transparency
In margin, mission, movement, translation on August 11, 2008 at 8:49 pm
“There are times when I feel transparent – almost invisible. It is a fragile state in which I am diminishing. I have this feeling of being stretched so thin, of being insipid, diluted – a lite version of me. It is like speaking in a crowd and the conversation continues right through me – no one hearing. It is like being one of the weathered, nameless ones, appearing at my car window begging & when sated, blending right back into the shadowlands. Where did she go ?”
“The transparency of God… Abraham Heschel says that life passes on in close proximity to the sacred, “You are not alone, you live constantly in holy neighborhood: remember: ‘Love thy neighbor – God – as thyself.’” The accessibility of God, God drawing near – holiness moving in next door”.
“The discipline of transparency is positional. It implies sensitivity to place & openness to otherness in close proximity. It has that sense of vibrating in tune, of being immersed, enveloped and eventually becoming at ease and purposeful there. It is relationally significant yet non-threatening – reflective yet non-judgmental”.
“Transparency has that sense of being pores & permeable – of light passing through the thing uninterrupted. Relationally it risks greater vulnerability and exposure of self”.
“Transparency pragmatically embraces truth; not so much truth – universal & immutable but truth – local and dynamic. It is at ease with a reality that is pitted, asymmetrical & irregular. I think transparency is a choice – I choose to be present, I choose to be open, I choose to immerse myself & to allow myself to be penetrated & shaped by this place !”
“As for those others dwelling out on the margins – disempowered and vulnerable - the anonymity of transparency is a discipline of necessity & survival”.
I remember when I penned these words I had been living in South East Asia just a few short months. Almost daily I was being overloaded with exotic and unfamiliar experiences in my new home. As I looked about me I saw people who were marginal and poor using transparency as a survival strategy. I was fascinated by it.
At the same time I encountered the idea in the writing of Thorleif Boman. He was suggesting the idea of ‘transparency’ as a theological expression that more accurately captures the way God’s presence and activity is revealed in the world. I was also in the process of reflecting on Jacques Derrida’s usage of the Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of Isaac and the Tower of Babel as metaphors in his philosophical wonderings. Abraham struck me as a person who understood this idea of ‘transparency’ as he wandered about as an alien in the world.
I think it is time to revisit this practice of transparency ! I suspected it was a missional practice in South East Asia. It is time to see if it has currency back at home.
abraham heschel, derrida, eternity, glory, God, hope, hospitality, mysterious, perspective, philosophy, pilgrim, psalm 22, remember, tension, terror, translation, truth, vandalism
In blessing, chaos, connection, inbetween, judaism, pathos, the main thing, translation, violence on May 23, 2008 at 12:11 pm
The Sabbath… Abraham Heschel calls it ‘God’s architecture in time’. The Sabbath creates the regular rhythm of a space in-between. This is the context where local, individual moments touch eternity. This is truth local & asymmetrical brought into proximity with truth unchanging & persistent. The habit of regularly entering into that space is the discipline of perspective. It a journey towards difference and holy otherness where the revealed and the mysterious are held in tension. Derrida says, “there is a duty to translate and not to translate, to understand, to enter into relation with another but at the same time preserve the otherness of the other”.
It’s interesting… truth local, pitted and asymmetrical is often overwhelmed by a seemingly wanton, unpredictable vortex of violence and dislocation. It is that sometimes intensified aspect of chaos where there is a mischief and a vandalism in its milder forms and terror & death at its most determined.
Tragedy is potential dissipated, opportunity lost, beauty erased in a vacuum untouched by meaning.
The result of truth tinged with violence, overwhelmed with chaos is theodicy. The affective response to the harshness of local truth is, “Where is God ?” or the cry of Psalm 22, “I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint, my heart is like wax, it has melted within my breast… my God, my God, why have you forsaken me ?”
The Sabbath reminds us that not all truth is local. For the sensitive ones who create the space, it is the possibility of continuing revelation. It is the reminder of the close proximity of God’s glorious presence in the fabric of time. The Glory of God lightly touches the world and for those who engage in the holy habit of attending, of offering hospitality to the presence of God, this translates truth local & unrelenting into glorious possibility & a future punctuated with hope.
Every instant is an act of creation. There is a pilgrim journey, a constant and continuous movement that is made possible by the Sabbath – a journey towards otherness and difference away from our man made structures. Those who take this journey find day after day they are sustained, inspired and led by a God who is undiminished by truth local, pitted and unpredictable. This is the God whose glory is most easily perceived in the chaos.
abraham heschel, abstraction, athens, consuming, God, individual, jerusalem, martin buber, name, the gods, the Lord, torah, Yahweh
In judaism, worldview on May 12, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Martin Buber says, “In the Torah, God makes no philosophical statements about himself & speaks no formulas.” The God of Israel – the LORD, Yahweh – is a name and not a notion. The difference between the two is perhaps the difference between Jerusalem & Athens. A notion like ‘god’ applies to all objects of similar properties. That’s where we get the idea of ’the gods’ from.
A proper name, however, applies to a unique individual. A notion describes, a name evokes. The name Yahweh applies to the one and only God of all people. A notion is attained through generalization – a name is learned through interaction. From a Hebrew perspective to know a name is to know the character of the bearer of the name. A notion is conceived, a name is called. Abraham Heschel says, “the notion of a god and The God of Israel – the Lord Yahweh, are profoundly incompatible”. The God of Israel is a comsuming fire (Dt. 4:24)… not an abstraction and definitely not a generalization.
