Horses and riders, let them go!

Israel in Egypt, G. F. Handel

Recitative (tenor)

And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them: —  

(Exodus xv: 20, 21)  

Soprano Solo and Chorus

Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea.  

(Exodus xv: 21)  

It has been awhile.  My sharing with you ended on the Second Sunday of Easter.  It has been busy. The post Easter mystagogy, that turning toward the word and living the Resurrection, has been quite busy and wrought with distractions.  Glad to have a minute to share some thoughts.

I left the story with the encounter with the risen Jesus.  With Miriam, we sang, “I will sing to the Lord, He is gloriously triumphant. Horse and chariot are cast into the sea.”

However did they come back, chasing me through the Red Sea of my life?  Those horses, chariots, and charioteers are persistent and pernicious. Didn’t  I take care of this on Easter?  It hasn’t even been 40 days.

To reconnect with  the Easter message, I went back to read various commentators who wrote on or around Easter.  Many wrote that we live stuck in Holy Saturday.  This has not settled into my heart as true. 

Consider, the apostles are in the upper room, likely sitting Shiva, telling stories of their beloved friend. Wrapped in their rent garments, they consoled each other and prepared themselves for a life without their teacher. 

Was it enough for them to have an experience of the risen Jesus, not once but twice?  Is it enough for us?

I suspect not.  I suggest that it is not Holy Saturday that holds us with a false sense of safety. Rather, we live in the upper room of the post Resurrection experience.  Time and time again, we are visited by our risen Friend and in our comfort with the memories of the past cannot understand the greeting, “Peace; Do not be afraid.” 

Holding to the past, keeping our fears alive, choosing to live sitting shiva, rejecting peace keeps those chariots and charioteers alive.  How quickly we have forgotten the ecstatic energy of Easter morning.

We believe that we are transformed by the grace of resurrection in our baptism.  The time is now to put those chariots and charioteers to rest and say yes to the ecstatic peace that overcame Miriam.  Our call is to leave the upper room and live the life of the transformed and be Miriam.

On this first night of Passover, don’t miss a chance to “Sing unto the Lord….he has triumphed gloriously!  Shalom.

Zika, Exodus, and Hardened Hearts

I look forward to lent if for nothing else but for the Office of Readings.  I read the Exodus story with the excitement and imagination of a young boy. It is an adventure story packed with magical events and intriguing plots all woven around quite a cast of villains and heroes. I have an entire 21^st century mini-series using the plot worked out in my mind. Someday.

This year as I read about the plagues, the hard hearts of Pharaoh and the Israelites, the trepidation of Moses and the interventions of G-d, I am focused on the emergence the zika virus.  As amazingly set to music by Handel, we hear again, “He spake the word and there came all manner of flies…..and the locusts came without number….”

Did the pestilence have to come?  Certainly not.  Had the whole lot been open to G-d’s insistent call, the story would have been so very different.   Flip to another culture and another time and reread Oedipus.   Same message. Different format. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Translated to our time, in this context: Power, greed, narcissism embolden us to believe we can control the expression of G-d.

One of my favorite classes to teach it the “Politics of Green.”  It is a hybrid course that  is based in political ecology.  There are many Pharaohs building pyramids in our time.  How long will politics and economic theory drive the agenda that is leading the world to destruction?  What are today’s plagues?  Zika is the latest of several I can easily name:  Coal slurry in the Elk River, West Virginia; autism; HIV; cancer clusters; destruction of the Amazon rainforest, The Bhopal Disaster.  We manipulate food sources without regard for the longitudinal impact of the genetic modifications.   When do we melt our hard hearts and see that creation is a precious gift?  This can only happen when we turn toward and see the face G-d.

Here the Catholic in the Diaspora can join easily with the voice of Pope Francis. Laudato Si  call us all to account.  This document cries out with a clarion call to change the heart of stone and awake to the destruction we have wrought on our earth and upon each other.

On each day of creation, G-d saw that it was good. “The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.”  Do we believe it is good enough? 

"Harden not your hearts ....."

Two versions to consider