Lent Twenty One "Get up and Walk"

 

Breaking the Silence by Scott Denholm.

I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.  Emerson, ‘Self-Reliance’, essays, first series, 1841.

Margaret visited a local church recently to support a colleague who was going to be preaching.  She sat in a pew near a man.  They spoke a bit, and then as the service began, he got up and left, saying he came only for the silence at the beginning.  Ralph Waldo Emerson, and American thinker and transcendentalist, recognised the thought that  I have pondered, that we can conceive of times when humanity had to 'make it up'.  Imagine being stranded on a desert island.  Life begins again.  Faith, belief and wisdom begin again.  There is one simple flaw in this approach.  The Creator is the one consistent factor in all eternity.  And we believe the Creator relates to all of the creation, across time.  We are not alone.

Isaiah Chapter Six

It was in the year that King Uzziah died that I saw the creator,

Seated on a high throne, with billowing robes filling the chamber.

In attendance were mighty and strange figures; people with six wings.

Two wings covered their face, two their feet, and they flew with the third.

Together they sung an awesome song of praise to the creator.

“Great, Mighty, Perfect is the creator,

Every part of the earth is filled with this glory.”

As they spoke, the building shook terribly and from its foundations smoke rose up.

I cried out

“my life is over, I have seen perfection, and I am wretched and contaminated.

I am from a people who do wrong.  Surely I cannot see the creator and live?”

 

Then one of the strange beasts flew to the centre of the room to a great fire of burning coals. 

The beast took tongs and picked up a coal,

Coming over to me and gently touched the coal to my lips.

I then hear say:

“See this coal; it has touched your lips.  Now your imperfections are removed. 

You are made clean as new.”

 

The creator surveyed the whole world and asked,

“Who can I send as a messenger to these people in their need?”

 

And I stood up and said

“Here I am, Send me.”

And the creator replied,

“yes, you go, but be aware, these people will hear, but they will not understand.

They will watch, but learn nothing.

They will see with their eyes, but turn away from healing.”

Continue until all their towns are empty, their houses deserted.

The land turned to waste.

But a remnant will endure, a stump, a terebinth.

This is the hope that remains.”

PRAYER:  Thank you that I am worth to be the one who is chosen to live as you.