Undone
THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT
THE LONG TAKE: Undone
Growing up in the 90's, the band Weezer held a prominent position in my playlist. Well, technically I didn't have playlists back then, but mix tapes / CD's and the such--you get the idea. Regardless, one of their classic songs was Undone (The Sweater Song). I cannot say that the song aligns with what the Christian life espouses, but the chorus holds an interesting visual:
If you want to destroy my sweater, Hold this thread as I walk away. Watch me unravel, I'll soon be naked Lying on the floor, I've come undone.
What was one's warmth, comfort, security, covering is now a de-constructed pile of threads serving no purpose and function. The singer has become undone.
The prophet Isaiah encountered a similar episode (albeit of slightly greater significance). Upon seeing the Holy One high and lifted up, surrounded by a chorus of angels crying, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory."
Isaiah's response is instructive. Counter to our modern tendency to treat God as a friend or buddy, Isaiah is completely wrecked by his encounter. Consider his words (and compare them to our approach to entering God's presence):
Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips , and I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes and seen the King, the Lord of Hosts (emphasis added)
An encounter with the Holy will certainly make clear our sin and inability to stand before such holiness. There are, however, two responses seen in the Bible. In one, the unrepentant will gnash their teeth at the righteousness of God; the other will fall on their knees in repentance. What is interesting is God restores the truly penitent man. Right after Isaiah's declaration, an angel flew down with a burning coal, touched it to Isaiah's lips and said, "Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven." Isaiah was then commissioned to carry the message of the Lord to His people.
Other biblical examples abound. Look at the life of Peter. The Gospels record the actions of a brash and impulsive man, constantly promoting his own strength despite the numerous warnings of Jesus that his flesh is weak. That same Peter concludes his first epistle with a call to humility under the mighty hand of God (1 Peter 5:6). That same Peter constantly declares that it is not by his merit and power by which many miracles were performed in the early chapters of Acts, but by the power of the Spirit. So what happened? Simply put, Peter had an encounter with the Holy.
Right before Jesus was arrested, Peter declared that he would not fall away like the other disciples may (and did) do. All it took was a simple question from a servant girl to unravel Peter's unfounded security in his own ability. He was left with nothing, but Christ used that, along with countless other lessons, to restore and redeem Peter to be of service in the Kingdom of God. But first, he had to be undone.
Recently, I read a blog where the writer referenced a book by Frederick Buechner entitled Son of Laughter. I've never heard of the author nor the book, but the blog quoted a section from there that describes how an encounter with the Holy is not just simply an encounter with humanity writ large. To set the stage, the passage opens up with how our lives are invaded by all these little "gods", gods that we depend on for our security and function. These gods are hybrids of a butler to attend to us when summoned and a banker to ensure equality in our transactional interactions. We ask; they respond. We give; they take. We name these gods. We control these gods. But, in Buechner's words, echoing Genesis 31:42, he refers to God as the Fear, an entity that cannot be controlled. Take yourself out of 21st century modernism and place yourself in the context of Abraham, Job, Isaiah, and Moses when they heard the voice of the Most High and see how these words reflect their understanding of being undone:
They (the little gods) give their names [while] the Fear refused to give me his when I asked it, and a god named is a god summoned. The Fear comes when he comes. It is the Fear who summons. The gods give in return for your gifts to them: the strangled dove, the burnt ox, the first fruit. There are those who give them their firstborn even, the child bound to the altar for knifing as Abraham bound Isaac till the Fear, of his mercy, bade the urine-soaked old man unbind him. The Fear gives to the empty-handed, the empty-hearted, as to me from the stone stair he gave promise and blessing, and gave them also to Isaac before me, to Abraham before Isaac, all of us wanderers only, herdsmen and planters moving with the seasons as gales of dry sand move with the wind. In return it is only the heart’s trust that the Fear asks. Trust him though you cannot see him and he has no silver hand to hold. Trust him though you have no name to call him by, though out of the black night he leaps like a stranger to cripple and bless.
Two things: (1) The Fear comes when he comes and summons when he summons. The Fear is sovereign. (2) The Fear blesses those who are empty-handed and empty-hearted. In effect, the Fear saves those who are reverently undone...
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
After 4 years (and three starts), I finally finished Frankenstein. I read this book in thirds; what I mean by that is, in my reader's mind, the book presented itself to me in three distinct sections. Now I know I'm bringing in reader's bias without considering Mary Shelley's purpose for writing, but I'm not here to discount what many others have said (you can read some here and here) about the inherent themes in the book. They are there, but this is more how Shelly's writing is affecting me in the here and now.
The opening third forced me to consider the limits of humanity in the pursuit of knowledge (playing God, Promethean ideas, etc). The middle third forced me to consider the relationship between the creator and the created. Perhaps this is because I'm focusing a substantial amount of thought to the creation narrative in Genesis 1-3 for an upcoming conference. The final third was, in my mind, simple literary gold. I read the final section with an appreciation of plot development, conflict, and resolution. Those final chapters were "on the edge of my seat" quality.
I'm glad I read it; I'm glad I finished it. It has renewed an appreciation of the classics. I hope to knock out a few more before the year is out (looking at you, Les Mis and Great Expectations).
THIS AND THAT
- We are in the midst (both literally and figuratively) of pollen season here in North Carolina. Or, as the locals say, "The Yellowing"...
- Interesting article on how a husband and wife team created MLB schedules for all 30 teams over two decades.
- Just a thought regarding NCAA tournament games, if something is definitely a foul in the first half of a game, why is there controversy when it is called in the last 2 seconds of a game?
MY CURRENT INTAKE
- What I'm Listening To: As I've seen the musical Music Man a few times over the past few days, I've got those songs echoing in my head. Here is the soundtrack from the original Broadway performance.
- What I'm Reading For Fun: Now that I'm done with Frankenstein, I've picked up the Harry Potter series again with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Opening chapters have been good...
- What I'm Reading For Work: Anything involving interpretation of Genesis 1-3. The stack is quite high at the moment.
- Recommended Spotify Playlist: In light of the Music Man theme, here is a playlist of some of my favorite musical / Broadway songs. Live orchestra and a half-faced mask not included...
Soli Deo Gloria,
Mitch Evans, Ed.D.