This is how it has always been:
Christ upturning the cosmos, mingling the darkness of death
With the ever-burning promise of life
The Feast of the Stigmata – on the 15th Sunday after Pentecost 2023
Moses stretches his hands wide across the Stop Signed Red Sea. The prophet is backlit by the pillar of cloud and fire (The double defence cleaving the hosts of Egypt from the hosts of Israel.) His arms cast a vast shadow on the dark billowing waters. The shadow is a cross leaning forward centuries and cross countries Through forty ages of wilderness and desire The pillar of fire with its mass of deaths behind – the cream of Pharaoh’s army Separated from the joyful fire of the feasting masses ahead.
This is how it has always been: Christ upturning the cosmos, mingling the darkness of death With the ever-burning promise of life; sifting through the expiration of tohu and bohu* which is death He forever speaks into existence the tenacity of fresh life: And on the steep mountain top near Assisi, Saint Francis sees with his eyes within The truth of this eternal intermingling when only life can win
Ted Witham tssf. Feast of the Stigmata 2023
Genesis 1:2. ‘And the earth was tohu and bohu’ (formless and void)
The Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) is convinced of two things about God: one, God will show God’s people a pathway out; and two, God will lead God’s people back to God. Jews and Christians tell the story of “The Pathway Out” (The Exodus) at least annually.
Passover meal – telling the story of The Pathway Out
It is one of humanity’s great stories, bursting with the power of God to bring the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt by parting the Sea of Reeds to allow the Israelites to pass dry-footed to the other side, and pouring the waters back over the pursuing Egyptian army.
“Pharaoh’s chariots and his army he cast into the sea; his picked officers were sunk in the Red Sea. The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone.” (Exodus 15:4-5)
The joy of this escape reverberates through the Bible. The Psalms sing of the joy of the Pathway Out, “for his steadfast love endures for ever” (Psalm 136)!
But the story of The Pathway Out does not end on the north bank of the Sea of Reeds. The Israelites have still to learn to follow God’s lead, and it takes them a generation to find their destination. God is patient with God’s people until they are prepared to battle through the wilderness and arrive where God is, a land of milk and honey that God has prepared for them (Deuteronomy 6:3).
Our political leaders are working hard to find a pathway out of the pandemic. We should pray for them; as Moses learned, leading people through the Pathway Out is taxing and personally costly. Part of our prayer for Premier and Prime Minister may be to email them messages of support.
To give us hope, our leaders are showing us the end point, the return to a “new normal”, with the community re-opened and again functionally healthily.
For us Christians, the question might be, where is God leading us to through this pandemic’s Pathway Out? What new world is God preparing for us? Where we can we follow God to assist in breathing new life into the community? How will we know that God has led us back to God?
Part of the answer may be for us to look further afield than our suburbs. Those who were already vulnerable at the beginning of 2020 are most vulnerable to Covid-19: the poor, especially those in crowded slums, prisoners and refugees. We are so blessed in Australia’s modern medical system and our public health response, but we must not be blind to nations which struggle to provide care for their people.
For example, we may give of our abundance through CBM, World Vision, or Oxfam or our favourite charity to their Covid-19 appeals.
The Hebrew Bible has it right: God will show us the Pathway Out of the pandemic, and God will lead God’s people back to Godself. Are we willing to follow?
Mind Journeys 