April 4, 2007. Wednesday in Holy Week. Here are the two weeks when the destiny of the world is seen and the mighty acts that sealed it remembered. Here, in Holy Week, and in Easter Week (which the Orthodox, so happily, call Bright Week) we see the great contrast between the unrelieved darkness and evil that deserve the ultimate condemnation, and the irrepressible life and light that arise from the infinite love of God. I set about to write a letter, and had to stop for this piece to bubble forth …
Fourteen days:
the days in which the world quakes,
in which the world shakes,
in which the world awakes
to the way the Maker makes.
Fourteen days:
the days of dark and light,
when He stepped into a world of night,
a world that’s evil in His sight,
with destruction as its only right.
Fourteen days:
in which the God made man,
the Lamb once slain e’er the world began,
at the end of a race He with us ran,
ended His life - new life began.
Fourteen days:
when cheering rang out,
and cheering changed into an angry shout,
his head with thorns now crowned about,
and Satan seems to give him rout.
Fourteen days:
when the wood of the Cross,
bears what seems to be our loss,
and all our hopes fate seems to toss
into the garbage with all the dross.
Fourteen days:
midway through,
when mankind knows not what to do,
when blackness covers skies of blue,
but from the blackness comes the new.
Fourteen days:
when angels’ eyes,
have watched Him from his grave arise,
when hope and brilliance fill the skies,
and trampled death in darkness lies.
Fourteen days:
when His own light,
has driven back fore’er the night,
and in the week that we call bright,
we see the vic’ry that ends the fight.
Fourteen days:
the days in which the world quakes,
in which the world shakes,
in which the world awakes
to the way the Maker makes.
Fourteen days:
the days of dark and light,
when He stepped into a world of night,
a world that’s evil in His sight,
with destruction as its only right.
Fourteen days:
in which the God made man,
the Lamb once slain e’er the world began,
at the end of a race He with us ran,
ended His life - new life began.
Fourteen days:
when cheering rang out,
and cheering changed into an angry shout,
his head with thorns now crowned about,
and Satan seems to give him rout.
Fourteen days:
when the wood of the Cross,
bears what seems to be our loss,
and all our hopes fate seems to toss
into the garbage with all the dross.
Fourteen days:
midway through,
when mankind knows not what to do,
when blackness covers skies of blue,
but from the blackness comes the new.
Fourteen days:
when angels’ eyes,
have watched Him from his grave arise,
when hope and brilliance fill the skies,
and trampled death in darkness lies.
Fourteen days:
when His own light,
has driven back fore’er the night,
and in the week that we call bright,
we see the vict’ry that ends the fight.
-----------------ed pacht
6 comments:
"Fourteen days:
in which the God made man,
the Lamb once slain e’er the world began..."
Please explain what you mean by "God made man" - Christ was begotten, not made.
Dear Anonymous,
I deleted your comment yesterday, because you spoke of heresy where no heresy was. I also deleted it because this is the Triduum, and not a time for polemics. And I deleted it because you did not sign it.
But, as you may be a new reader here, hence unaware of The Continuum's policy of not accepting anonymous comments, and because you have spoken in a more eirenic fashion, I have published it today.
Because I have no idea who you are, or from what perspective you may be asking, let me refer you to the Nicene Creed, which sets out what we as Christians believe.
In part, it says I believe ... "in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, AND WAS MADE MAN ... (my emphasis).
That is to say that Jesus, eternally begotten of the Father, as the Second Person of the Trinity, was made man (incarnate, made flesh) by the action of the Holy Spirit and the cooperation of the Blessed Virgin.
A blessed Easter to you.
Thank you, Albion. I would also mention St. John 1.14
"and the Word was MADE flesh and dwelt among us."
I had a couple of similarly tendentious posts show up on my own Blog regarding another poem and deleted them.
ed
Anonymous is actually Bev Thompson, a parishioner and the director of music at APCK's Church of the Resurrection in Ansonia, CT. She is still sorting out her software, and has graciously allowed me to post the following, which she sent to me by email. I also include my reply. If anyone can improve on what I said, which shouldn't be difficult, please do.
"I have read and re-read your comment to really understand what you are saying. Please know that I am just an organist – not a theologian. I’m also a little sensitive to this particular subject with good reason – I was unfortunate enough to substitute in a nearby Methodist church some years ago on Confirmation Sunday. The Confirmands had studied the creed and, as a class project, had written their own. The ‘creed’ was published in the Sunday bulletin and the whole congregation joined in reciting it. In it was contained the heresy of God making Jesus – it was worded differently than in the subject poem and the language was pretty blatant – when I sent the ‘creed’ to a priest for review, he replied that “at least there is only one glaring heresy.” Sadly, no matter how many creeds I quoted, the Methodists could not understand the point and merely wrote back to tell me that they’re “not a creedal church.” Sort of begs the question as to why they engaged in the study of the creed at all, but that’s another story.
"To quote - “That is to say that Jesus, eternally begotten of the Father, as the Second Person of the Trinity, was made man (incarnate, made flesh) by the action of the Holy Spirit and the cooperation of the Blessed Virgin.” Agreed – but isn’t this different from saying “God made man” which implies that God made Jesus, when in fact Jesus is God, and was begotten, not made, as we both pointed out in the excerpt from the creed? Why does the creed specifically state “begotten, not made”? Isn’t there is a difference between God begetting the Savior, and God ‘making’ the Savior? Is God allowing himself to be incarnated into human form the same as God making a man (as in making Adam, or making Eve out of Adam’s rib)?
"I am not an argumentative person, but I do speak up if something troubles me, and I am not writing this to be prickly; I am simply genuinely troubled by one particular statement in the poem, am trying to get clarification, and wish no one any ill will.
I also wish you a blessed Easter."
My reply:
I sympathise with you about your "Methodist experience," and what you describe is truly heretical -- the so-called Arian heresy. But what we speak of in the creed are two things: Jesus as God, as the Second Person of the Trinity is NOT created in any way, shape or form. He is eternally co-existent with the Father and the Holy Spirit, never having "not been. In contrast, Jesus as man is outside of eternity, as it were, very much at a time and a place in human history. And, as the creed states, was "made man" by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary.
Bev,
I do appreciate the depth of your concern, but I'm afraid it betrays a lack of careful reading of the words of my poem.
"the God made man" is a precise and theologically accurate statement of who Jesus is.
He is the God who was made man. This concept is absolutely crucial to any statement about the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord. He is God eternal, begotten not made in His Godhead, but to be Savior, he, the eternal God was made to be man, to inhabit a body and to possess a nature, both of which are as created as you and I. This is the paradox of the Incarnation. God cannot die. But a created being can - and inasmuch as His eternal uncreated nature and His created nature are indivisibly one Person, God, who could not di4e nonetheless experienced death, and, by that death and resurrection is the eternal Lamb, our Savior. This is all parodoxical to the human mind, but entirely true in the economy of an unfinite and incomprehensible God.
There is no grammatical way to take that as a statment that God the Father made God the Son. To read it in that way is to bypass the meaning of the language itself.
As I said, I do appreciate a concern for Orthodoxy, but I counsel considerably more care in reading passages that seem troubling. Very often the trouble arises from misreading.
ed
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