All Saints Church, River Ridge 06 06 09
Dear Friends in Christ,
In the first volume of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia Chronicles, known as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the world of Narnia is under the spell of the White Witch, who keeps Narnia in a perpetual state of winter. It is as if life and time are stopped in its track. One of the inhabitants of Narnia described this state as “always winter, but never Christmas.” With Trinity Sunday past us, we move into the long season which we enumerate as the “X Sunday after Pentecost.” The color for this season is Green. In the Roman tradition, this season (as well as the Sundays after the Epiphany), is called “Ordinary Time.” This season occupies about half the year. About half way through, I start longing for some variety as we get with Advent/Christmas and Lent/Holy Week/Easter, but to no avail. I start to feel like the poor resident of Narnia under the spell of the White Witch, saying “always Pentecost, but never Advent.” Fortunately, for us, eventually the endless sea of green does end.
Despite the apparent sameness of the season, there is an inner dynamic at work here which is at once subtle and at the same time powerful. Sameness is sometimes comfortable, it is a known quantity. Yet sameness can also be deadly and stifling. This was the case in Lewis’s Narnia Chronicles. The White Witch has all of Narnia in suspended animation. It is the sameness of a prison. It is the sameness of oppression. For decades, the countries of Eastern and Central Europe, and China experienced the oppression of communist totalitarianism. There was a kind of bland sameness which was immediately apparent to visitors. In my student days in Germany, I visited Berlin several times. The contrast between the two sides of the Wall was stark. Not because East Berlin was poorer (it was), or that there were still ruins from WWII (there were still many), was it so stark, it was that all the new stuff was the same. Oppression killed creativity, diversity and individuality. In the West there was color, in the East all was gray, except the occasional remnant of pre-war life. Yet in a world created by the living God, oppression and its enforced sameness do not have the last word. In Narnia the spell of the White Witch is broken when “Aslan is on the move.” Aslan is the redemptive Christ figure. In Eastern and Central Europe, poetry, literature, the churches, and labor organizations could not ultimately be suppressed. When the forces of Soviet oppression lightened, the entire edifice collapsed and new life, creativity, and freedom came to the fore.
In the New Testament worldview, the world is currently under the spell of the “prince of this world.” Yet the New Testament tells us that the Kingdom (or Rule) of God is breaking into this world of sameness and oppression. Most of the parables of Jesus are precisely about this point. And it is these parables and stories that we hear about in the long and endless “green season.” It is the growth and ultimate victory of this Kingdom of God in our midst that we talk about in this season. The green is about the verdant dynamic of growth. This Sunday’s Gospel about the miraculous growth of seeds, and the parable of the mustard seed are parables of the Kingdom. It is the nature of the Kingdom – that this Reign of God is near us, in our midst and in us. May we enjoy the dynamic of the Kingdom in this long season of “ordinary time” which is in no way ordinary, for where God is planting and giving growth it is always extraordinary!
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Götterdämmerung and Pentecost
All Saints Church, River Ridge, La. 05 25 09
Dear Friends in Christ,
A few weeks ago, I was privileged to be in New York at the Metropolitan Opera to see the last performance of the Otto Schenk production of Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods), the final opera of the Ring Cycle. At close to six hours, it is considered to be the longest opera in existence. This particular production is very conservative, using traditional scenery, costuming and staging. (The Met, in general, is a quite conservative opera company in this regard and eschews those avant garde productions now so common in Europe – which our friend Jim Wyrick and other opera critics refer to as “Euro-trash.”) The Ring Cycle (and Wagner in general) is often reviled as being intensely boring and much too long. One issue is that Wagner deals with great mythological, philosophical, and theological themes, while most operas are about lighter subjects. My experience with this opera was very positive. Each of the 3800 seats in the house was filled, and all the people I saw were on the edge of their seats for the entire six hour performance. What is so compelling about this?
In the Ring Cycle, Wagner presents a version of the Nordic myth of the Ring of the Nibelungen, in which, much like in Greek mythology, gods, goddesses, and humans interact in complex and often devious ways. The gods and goddesses often have far less integrity than the humans. The climax of the Ring Cycle is the collapse and destruction of Valhalla in the last act of Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods). Here the whole world of Pagan deities is destroyed and the fate of the world is placed in the hands of humanity, and an unknown future. The answer to this future comes in Wagner’s final opera, Parsifal, which is much later than the Ring Cycle. Here he picks up these themes by depicting the triumph of Christian love and the Eucharist over Pagan intrigue. What Wagner presents in elaborate allegory, the Bible presents with splendid reality.
Sunday is Pentecost. Pentecost celebrates the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father, through the Son, to transform the world. Pentecost is often thought of as the Birthday of the Church. It is beginning of the undoing of and transcending of the curses associated with Genesis 3-11. This undoing begins with of the curse of languages and tribes and nations which are depicted in the Tower of Babel story. Human pride, as an affront to God, is displayed in the building of the tower. God destroys this tower, multiplies languages, and divides humanity into competing tribes and nations. This is seen as the judgment of God against human pride. The gift at Pentecost is the answer to this. Without undoing the beauty of the diversity of peoples and languages, the Holy Spirit transcends this curse and allows mutual comprehension of the message of salvation. Each person hears the Good News in his or her own language. The book of Acts then follows this as a new community is formed out of peoples from every tribe, family and nation. The many Valhallas of competing gods and goddesses collapse as the church’s message of salvation in Christ spreads from Jerusalem, to Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the world. The Pentecostal gift of the Spirit undoes and transforms the stains of sin into a new life of Love and Communion. May the Valhallas of our many contemporary gods and goddesses, collapse as the transformative power of the Holy Spirit breaks in among us in new and powerful ways.
Dear Friends in Christ,
A few weeks ago, I was privileged to be in New York at the Metropolitan Opera to see the last performance of the Otto Schenk production of Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods), the final opera of the Ring Cycle. At close to six hours, it is considered to be the longest opera in existence. This particular production is very conservative, using traditional scenery, costuming and staging. (The Met, in general, is a quite conservative opera company in this regard and eschews those avant garde productions now so common in Europe – which our friend Jim Wyrick and other opera critics refer to as “Euro-trash.”) The Ring Cycle (and Wagner in general) is often reviled as being intensely boring and much too long. One issue is that Wagner deals with great mythological, philosophical, and theological themes, while most operas are about lighter subjects. My experience with this opera was very positive. Each of the 3800 seats in the house was filled, and all the people I saw were on the edge of their seats for the entire six hour performance. What is so compelling about this?
In the Ring Cycle, Wagner presents a version of the Nordic myth of the Ring of the Nibelungen, in which, much like in Greek mythology, gods, goddesses, and humans interact in complex and often devious ways. The gods and goddesses often have far less integrity than the humans. The climax of the Ring Cycle is the collapse and destruction of Valhalla in the last act of Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods). Here the whole world of Pagan deities is destroyed and the fate of the world is placed in the hands of humanity, and an unknown future. The answer to this future comes in Wagner’s final opera, Parsifal, which is much later than the Ring Cycle. Here he picks up these themes by depicting the triumph of Christian love and the Eucharist over Pagan intrigue. What Wagner presents in elaborate allegory, the Bible presents with splendid reality.
Sunday is Pentecost. Pentecost celebrates the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father, through the Son, to transform the world. Pentecost is often thought of as the Birthday of the Church. It is beginning of the undoing of and transcending of the curses associated with Genesis 3-11. This undoing begins with of the curse of languages and tribes and nations which are depicted in the Tower of Babel story. Human pride, as an affront to God, is displayed in the building of the tower. God destroys this tower, multiplies languages, and divides humanity into competing tribes and nations. This is seen as the judgment of God against human pride. The gift at Pentecost is the answer to this. Without undoing the beauty of the diversity of peoples and languages, the Holy Spirit transcends this curse and allows mutual comprehension of the message of salvation. Each person hears the Good News in his or her own language. The book of Acts then follows this as a new community is formed out of peoples from every tribe, family and nation. The many Valhallas of competing gods and goddesses collapse as the church’s message of salvation in Christ spreads from Jerusalem, to Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the world. The Pentecostal gift of the Spirit undoes and transforms the stains of sin into a new life of Love and Communion. May the Valhallas of our many contemporary gods and goddesses, collapse as the transformative power of the Holy Spirit breaks in among us in new and powerful ways.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
