May 14, 2005
The Books: "Bright Evening Star: Mystery of the Incarnation" (Madeleine L'Engle)
Moving right along through "Red's Bookshelf - An Excerpt a Day".
Next book is Bright Evening Star: Mystery of the Incarnation, by Madeleine L'Engle. Another in a long line of religious inspirational books. This one focuses on the "mystery of the incarnation". She writes about her own journey of religious faith - from when she was a little kid to now. The book is about God coming "down to earth" in the form of a man, but L'Engle - as always - mixes that up with stories from her own life, personal reflections, etc. I love these little books of hers - not as much as her fiction certainly - but still. I enjoy the experience of reading them.
EXCERPT FROM Bright Evening Star: Mystery of the Incarnation, by Madeleine L'Engle.
He was special even to those who failed to understand him and were frightened by him. We know from his words and actions that he was not weakling. He shocked his own family with his unconventional behavior. His sense of mission was passionate and he tried to elucidate it by telling stories, and even when he explained the stories to his friends and disciples they still didn't understand, and he wanted and expected them to understand. Sometimes it seems that th emore he explained the less he understood.
He had a robust sense of humor. Many of his parables are jokes, told to put over a point. How many times can we hear a joke and still think it's funny? What's black and white and red all over? An embarrassed zebra. A newspaper. The responses are stale with repetition. They no longer amuse or shock. We've heard Jesus' jokes too often. When he first told that story of the man with the plank of wood in his eye, wasn't it supposed to be hilarious as well as pointed? The more openly we read the Gospels, trying to listen to them freshly, the more we understand Jesus, and the more we understand how easily he was misunderstood. And the more we understand why he was feared.
What did Jesus fear? His very fearlessness antagonized the authorities. If you can make someone afraid, you have power over that person. Jesus' references to power were to the power of the Father, the Creator, something very different from human power which seeks to grasp, dominate, humiliate.
Is Jesus still feared today? Are we still trying to tame him? It doesn't work, then, or now.
Even when his immediate family criticized and misunderstood him, his disciples wanted to follow him wherever he went because they were utterly drawn to the brilliance of his love. But whenever they were tested they drew back in fear; it was too much. They were amazed at the unconventional people who were his dinner companions -- lepers, and Romans, the occupying enemy, and tax collectors, who were even worse than enemies because they collected taxes for the enemy, keeping some for themselves. He even chose one of them as a disciple, one of the Twelve.
He chose the wrong friends, people who failed to understand him and who would abandon him in the end. He did his best to reach out to the people he grew up with; were they so familiar with him that they were unable to hear him? Scripture has given us hints that some of his friends and relatives thought he was crazy and so did not believe in his miracles, or in him. But Jesus continued his loving healing, his strange way of regarding people as though everybody matters. He enjoyed his friends, but they were strange friends, not the ones his family would have chosen for him.
Luke in his Gospel was very clear about what Jesus expected (and expects):
What you want people to do to you, do also to them. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them ... Love your enemies, do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be children of God. For he is kind to the unthankful and evil. (from The New Zealand Prayer Book)
What did his listeners think of that? Did they like it? Do we?
Luke continues,
Therefore be merciful just as your Father also is merciful. Judge not and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.
I need to hear and heed that over and over again.
Posted by sheila