So, what are we to do with our Scripture readings today?
We have Elijah being carried up into heaven in some wondrous happening worthy of the best special effects Hollywood can muster, and we have the Transfiguration of Jesus on the top of the mountain that also stretches our imagination and leaves us wondering …
So, what are we to do with these stories?
Do we opt to take the stance that because they are in the Bible – The HOLY Bible, that our only option is to simply believe? And go along with them uncritically?
Or do we take the modern stance of disbelief and dismiss the whole thing as poppy-cock?
Or is there another option?
What if we step back and consider the concept of the Axis Mundi that I touched on briefly last week and expanded our understanding of the Axis Mundi so that we could view these accounts from a place of faith that understands what and where our Axis Mundi is, and views the world from there …
The Axis Mundi, is essentially the place where heaven, earth and hell meet – it is the centre of the universe – the navel of the Earth to use a more ancient understanding. To the First Nations cultures of the West Coast, the Axis Mundi is the Totem Pole that stands in the heart of their village and conveys the mythic stories of the people while providing them a focal point around which everything earthly and spiritual revolves.
In the Christian Church our Axis Mundi is Golgotha where Jesus was crucified, died and was risen … in ancient Judaism the axis mundi of the people was the temple, but more ancient traditions within Judaism posited the axis mundi at Mt Tabor in the Galilea … Mt Tabor rises like out of the flat plains that surround it like some strange out of place mountain. The physical anomaly gave rise to an understanding of its place and role as something different spiritually … and so it was regarded as the cosmic mountain – the very navel of the earth. And that may be why the story of the Transfiguration is placed on its summit, rather than just one some random mountain …
If you’re going to change our understanding of the world, better to do it some where significant and meaningful, rather than on some random street corner somewhere …
So, with our Axis Mundi posited physically and spiritually on the site where Jesus suffered, died and rose again, we can begin to see the first lessons offered by our readings today:
Undergirding these accounts is the understanding that we are never alone. Elijah being bodily lifted up into heaven, and the disciples experiencing the transfiguration of Jesus are ALL happening within the very presence of God. They are not alone … we are not alone … Jesus and Elijah are not alone …
What if the next step in this is to realize from that – being immersed and surrounded by the Holy Presence – is to allow that understanding to alter our experience of the world, and to open our eyes, our hearts, and the whole of beings to that Holiness that is ALL around us?
What if we are to be open to the wondrous presence that is found ALL around us everyday, rather than expecting the big flashy and grandiose moments like our readings?
Do we dare see and feel Holiness all around us?
It’s a good question to consider as we begin our Lenten Journey. Traditionally, Lent was a time of preparing for the coming of Easter . Fasts and special observances were standard.
We still speak of ‘giving something up for Lent’ but often we tend in our modern church to give up superfluous things that we don’t need anyway.
I’ve encountered people who would proudly proclaim they were giving up paprika for Lent. Do you use Paprika? They’d be asked – ‘no,’ they’d answer, ‘so it’s easy to give it up.’
Traditionally in the Church we’d give up meat, fatty foods, sugar, coffee, tea … something who’s absence would be noted and felt – something we crave so that when we think about NOT having it, we’re recognizing its absence and reflecting on why.
But what if, instead of reflecting on our piety for only 40 days of the year, we moved that idea of standing in a Holy Place outwards and into our lives EVERY DAY of the year?
What if we strived to live holy lives ALL year long instead of just in Lent, or just on Sunday morning for an hour and half while we gather around this place?
What if, we used the axis mundi of our faith to reorient our thoughts and hearts on a more permanent basis?
Rabbi Abraham Heschel observed of the Sabbath:
“In the tempestuous ocean of time and toil there are islands of stillness where man may enter a harbour and reclaim his dignity. The island is the seventh day – the Sabbath – a day of detachment from things, instruments and practical affairs as wells as of attachment to the Spirit.”
What if we are to take these islands in time and stretch them outwards into our lives and embrace the other days of the week?
What if the transfiguration made real within us, is about transforming our lives with the peace – the true Shalom – of the Sabbath, and allowing it to permeate the whole of our being and our lives?
Heschel also contends that the heard of the Sabbath is a manifestation of peace, not only in our spiritual lives, but in the whole of our lives. He writes:
“The Seventh day is the armistice in man’s cruel struggle for existence, a truce in all conflicts, personal and social, peace between man and man, man and nature, peace within: a day on which handling money is considered a desecration, on which man avows his independence of that which is the world’s chief idol: riches. The seventh day is an exodus from tension, the liberation of man from his own muddiness …”
The location of the Transfiguration is hugely significant theologically because it is posited on the Cosmic Mountain of Mt Tabor – the navel/belly button of the Earth, AND the characters present renders the time, the place, the happenings AND the recollection of it as HOLY.
Holy is a remarkably transcendent way.
Holy in a way that transcends ALL time and ALL space.
What we need to do then, is to move forward from this radical island of Holiness, and bring that understanding into ALL corners of our world.
We need to bring that place of peace and stretch it into the entirety of our existence … Lent is a season of preparing for the events of Holy Week and Easter – preparing for the Holy …
Today, our readings are calling us to stand firmly on the axis mundi of our faith that embodies the life, the death and the resurrection of Christ, and share that gift of Holiness with the world.
Not just for 40 days every spring … not just for an hour or two every week … but every day, as we carry that experience of the Holy down from the mountaintop and back into our day to day lives, stretching that safe harbour of peace and sanctity out into our world …
And it begins with an understanding that we are not alone …
(the new creed)
May it be so – thanks be to God … Let us pray …
No comments:
Post a Comment