Waxing Poetic

​Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Greenwood, Virginia
Proper 27, Year A
November 8, 2020
 
Introduction to Poetry
By Billy Collins
 
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
 
or press an ear against its hive.
 
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
 
or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
 
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.
 
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
 
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
 
I love this poem.  I loved it because of its irony, its ambiguity, and its paradox.  Here we are, hearing a poem that criticizes any narrow interpretation of its meaning, all while the poet wants to make a point about its meaning.  The joke, here, is on all of us.
 
When we gather each week to hear parts of the sacred story of God in relationship with us, we wrestle with the truth as presented.  We look through different lenses: the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament) Letters from Paul and other early Christians, and the Gospels (literally Good news) of Jesus the Christ.  It is not always easy to interpret what we read.  Sometimes, it is just hard to pay attention to what is said.  And there are so many holy words, cultural nuances, translational issues, historical contexts to understand, and scads of commentary and literary criticism from their time to our time.  And then there is theology (literally God words).  Theology is extracted from the texts as well.  Heaps and volumes of theology have spewed forth from monastics, clerics and academic researchers.  I you want to read about a word, a line, a passage, a parable, or book of the Bible, there is more than one could ever read out there. 
 
Every now and then I just google a verse or two and see what people have written about them.  I am not sure how their search engine chooses what to show me, but usually Wikipedia is in there as are some super fundamentalist sites that want to tell me what to think and where to send my money.  The internet can take us from being a searcher to being a product for commerce pretty quickly.  I do not recommend this form of inquiry as more than entertainment.
 
I am all for scholarly inquiry and I spend much of my life immersed in interpretation, but in the end the Word of God is more like a poem than a theological treatise.  The Word of God is a story not a text book.  And that story intersects with my story as a Christ follower and our story as a faithful body.  It might be good to take Billy Collins’s advice and hold it up to the light like a color slide rather than tie it down to find out what it really means.
 
All of our lessons for today are both revelatory and problematic.  Joshua issues the clarion and bedrock call to “choose this day whom we will serve,” but in process portrays God as jealous and vengeful God.  Saint Paul, in his effort to comfort the Thessalonians who are expect God’s kingdom to come immediately, gives us this end times apocalyptic rapture image of being drawn up into the sky.  All of that muddies the waters of what happens when we die because, he says, the dead do not rise until some second coming of Christ, but at the cross Jesus tells the thief at his side he will be with him in paradise that day.
 
We tend to look to the Gospels to be more definitive and central as they focus on God made human.  And yet, Jesus’ parable of the ten bridesmaids is more of a head scratcher than an affirmation of truth.  We can’t be sure who the bridegroom represents or if we are the wise or the foolish bridesmaids, or if we have enough to share or not.  About the only clarity to be found here is the final line’s admonition “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
 
I am not suggesting that the Word of God is meant to confuse us, but it is meant to challenge us as much as it is to comfort us.  Holding these passages up to the light, we might find a broader and wider meaning rather than chasing details down a rabbit hole.  As the Orthodox say: “Is mystery.” 
 
From Joshua, it is fair to say that we set up false gods of money, ego, and power.  They may not be Amorite or Egyptian gods, but they do obscure our faith and devotion to our One God.
 
From Saint Paul, the details of what happens when we die may be unknown, but we rest in hope of resurrection as is promised.  This life is part of a much bigger life in God.
 
And from Matthew, the parable may be confusing, but the conclusion is not.  God comes to us whether or not we expect God to show up, and it is good to be on the lookout for holy happenings.
 
We have just lived through a week of shifting sands.  The back and forth of our election have us all reeling to the extent that we are concerned or paying attention.  There are and will be endless analyses, speculations, accusations, and interpretations.  What does it all mean?  It means we are divided and not of one mind as people and as a nation.  That is really nothing new, and it was true before the first votes were cast.
 
If your candidate lost, fellow Christians we still have our mission.  It comes not from party affiliation but from baptism: to proclaim the Good News of God in Christ, to seek and serve all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves, and to strive for justice and peace among all people, respecting the dignity of every human being.  If your candidate won, we still have that same mission.
 
There is a great scene in the classic movie Rudy that helps sum this up.  In the film Rudy is young man working tirelessly to make the Notre Dame football team.  Along the way he in befriended by a Catholic priest who looks out for him.  Near the end, Rudy asks the priest if he has done enough, if he has prayed enough.  The priest responds: “Prayers happen in our time, the answers come in God’s time.  And in 35 years of religious studies, I have come to realize only two incontrovertible facts:  There is a God, and I am not Him.”
 
We can wax philosophical, theological, and even poetic, but the truth remains: our meaning, our existence, and our destiny is a gift of God.  In all of the confusion and chaos of life, may we hold ourselves and one another up to the light and shine.