Human traditions are to the Gospel of Jesus what bowls are to soup.
Why?
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"You cannot retire too much from the mindless chatter of the world." - Francois Fenelon
The Church I Serve
Seven Stanzas at Easter, by John Updike
Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells' dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.
It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His Flesh: ours.
The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that — pierced — died, withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.
Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.
The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow
grinding of time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.
And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck's quanta, vivid with hair,
opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.
Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.
it was as His body;
if the cells' dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.
It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His Flesh: ours.
The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that — pierced — died, withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.
Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.
The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow
grinding of time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.
And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck's quanta, vivid with hair,
opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.
Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.
About Me
- Elliott Scott
- Houston, Texas, United States
- I'm not really cynical. I just try to sound that way because I think it's cool.
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8 comments:
without the bowl (gospel of Jesus) holding everything human together, we would have cold soup splattered all over the place and impossible to consume for nourishment.
Good good. But in riddle, the bowl is the human tradition and the Gospel is the soup.
Still, you're on the right track.
... I'm gonna be late back from my lunch now pondering this but I got a stab for ya...
Human Traditions helped shape the gospel. The stories, the interactions, the recording of it all, just like the bowl shapes the soup and the traditions are what contains the gospel and keeps it around, example the church, camps, bible studies our every day hoopla. Just like a bowl keeps the soup around and not a silly soupy mess all over the floor and table, and my new table cloth!
Alright well back to make Frappuccinos and Cappuccinos for the next 4 hours...
(DON'T FORGET TO TRY OUR NEW MINT MOCHA CHIP FRAPPUCCINO ;) )
Keep the thoughts coming. I'll just say that the metaphor works on more than one level.
I'll give my thoughts after everybody has had a chance.
A bowl, depending on its size, can only hold so much soup. A tradition is also limited subject to its "depth". A bowl can be empty of soup.
A bowl is also warmed according to the temperature of the soup. The bowl is not used to warm the soup.
more thoughts:
The soup conforms to the shape of the bowl.
If the bowl is cracked, the soup will leak out.
The bowl must be held upright to keep from spilling the soup.
It is generally a bad idea to mix soups in the same bowl, or the flavor of the soup is lost.
Getting warm yet?
The soup remains the same but we humans all like different shapes and colors of bowls.
Great responses that are essentially the same as mine.
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