Sunday, August 11, 2019

A Scattering of Poems in the Sky


In the notes of scene 6 in the Glass Menagerie, the playwright, Tennesse Williams, describes the lighting for the scene: the light comes up in the living room---a delicate lemony yellow. It is about five on a Friday evening of late spring which comes “scattering poems in the sky.” 
This was my experience of reading the scriptures for this week, a scattering of poems in the sky. You know that change of time: when the sky softens, and what clouds there are manipulate through a series of colour as if kaleidoscopes dancing the departure of the setting sun; in the soft and darkening hues, the night lights –the stars, the milky way- are seen twinkling in the evening sky. The poets and songwriters catch it all in the tips of their pencils, capturing in words the glimpses of the beauty before them. It is that change of time that if we are paying attention touches our spirits and our emotions – it affects us and we bathe in wonder and awe.  
The Glass Menagerie has other stage notes.  It is suggested that in the setting of the play, screens are used to project words, phrases, titles, memories – snippets of this or that. The scripture texts for today struck me in this way. I read them, not as a full text, but, rather, snippets that scattered before my eyes. I can see them illuminated on a screen, or scattered as poems in the sky.  Words that I have heard many times before, words that have been used at funerals or weddings, words that are in some way treasured because they are remembered.  Imagine these words twinkling across the evening sky: 
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen 
Don’t be afraid, little flock, it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 
Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 
though your sins are like scarlet they shall be like snow...become like wool 
Cease to do evil/learn to do good/seek justice/rescue the oppressed/defend the orphan/plead for the widow 
A beautiful cacophony stretched across the sky, across the universe, out beyond time; and in the very dust and gas that forms life. 

The Glass Menagerie is a play where the characters are imprisoned by life circumstances.  There is a sense of hopelessness and uncertainty. Confined to a small apartment the characters seek to break away, to find freedom, change, meaning, hope --- for a moment. The mother returns to old memories, to get lost in a time when life was full of options and opportunities, with a hope that these opportunities may once again become real for her children. The son writes poetry when not at work, he watches the sky from the fire escape, and escapes by going to the movies and living other peoples’ adventures --- seeking adventure to be freed from circumstance. The daughter is physically fragile, she has taken to collecting tiny glass ornaments; by manipulating them in light, she catches fleeting glimmers of beauty, of hope. 
Their treasures: memories, adventure, glass ornaments. 
Sometimes I feel like I live in a glass menagerie; a place of fragility, where any movement might break the last pieces of sanity and scatter what hope and optimism I can muster. The world is in precarious times – not that it hasn’t been before, but, for those my age – the reality of unrest, blatant racism, gun violence, political vitriol, bombs, inadequate social systems, crisis brought about by global warming, movement of displaced people, were things that we deemed happened in other places; not in North America, not in Canada. Perhaps our emotions have caught up to a reality that has always been present.  We are now watchful, alert. 
In times like these- --in times like that of the people to whom Isaiah was talking, when at their door were the armies of the Assyrians, then the Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Persians; when vast armies marched through them, trampling their crops, pillaging and plundering; taking people into captivity, displacing others; ---in times like that of the people who first heard Luke’s gospel, when the rich were rich and the poor, poor; when the foreign occupying power enslaved, and killed, and prevented people from honouring their God; --in times like these, the uncontrollable circumstance of life, what is one to do? Where is one to find their treasure? 

The author of Hebrews, writes about people of faith; people who were legends in the eyes of the listener – the section we heard was of Abraham and Sarah. By faith Abraham and Sarah became as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sands of the sea. And where or what was their treasure?  It was not in the land from which they came, not in memories. The text says that, They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth (for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.) Their treasure was not in a memory, not a material place, a thing, a glass ornament; or living other peoples’ adventures.  Their treasure was faith. And by faith they had confidence and assurance and conviction. Their treasure was in the heart of God- those things unseen. 

Until a Sunday like this, when the scripture texts are not really a story, not easy to get into, not particularly themed, I forget about “those things unseen”– the very heart of God.  Today I am reminded that the depth of the scripture, the treasure of the text – is the Word.  
Within Lutheran circles, Word used in this way is capitalized.  The Word –God's heart- is Christ coming to us through words. When watchful, alert, listening, and open – the Word filters into our being and waits to blossom in those times when we are feeling paralyzed and imprisoned by the circumstances of life. 
In the community of the Hebrews, the people of Isaiah’s time, and those to whom Luke was writing, the texts offer the listeners a glimpse into “those things unseen.” Each text eludes to a time when all will be set right, a time when human circumstance will be but a shadow of memory eclipsed by the reality of  
God's lifegiving kingdom; an inclusion and welcome to live in the heart of God.  The texts are a paradox: speaking of a glorious time to come, remembering glimpses of past faith brought to life, and the directive to live God’s coming kingdom in the present. Time conflates. The Word is in all time and all place and all circumstance and all substance and is the unseen. 
The Word as articulated through sacred text across the centuries, repeats and scatters the same familiar poems through the sky. Humans are reminded that treasure, is living by faith in the Word. It is the Word that tells us how it is that one can journey toward and live more and more in the heart of God. The words flash before our eyes, as twinkling stars: Plead for the widow, defend the orphan, rescue the oppressed, seek justice, learn to do good, cease to do evil. 

Currently, there are a couple of television commercials that have children unplugging, going outside, lying on their backs and looking up into a vast evening sky.  With wonder and delight in their eyes and voices, one is left with hope and possibilities of what is to come. In that moment one feels, 
though your sins are like scarlet they shall be like snow...become like wool, the Word present to snuggle us closer into the heart of God. 
Living into God’s heart we find there the widow, the orphan, the oppressed; and surprisingly our circumstances, lives circumstances, are but glass ornaments collecting dust on a shelf. Our treasure has changed from: memories, seeking adventure, and glass ornaments – expanded by faith, in relationship with the Word – to new a treasure. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 
By faith, and with continual practice, living the Word is treasure.  We become the mirrors that reflect Christ’s light – the Word- through the very ornaments that are collecting dust; we shine through the circumstances. We are the Word in motion – the words going up on silk screens to dislodge memories, shine through fixed ornaments, bump into those lost and hiding in the next adventure; the snippets of text –of Word- we carry with us interrupt and blossom into the lives of the imprisoned and fearful world. And with it the unseen...the kingdom passes through us. 
Don’t be afraid, little flock, it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 
With awe and wonder look up to the heavens and take with you this morning snippets of sacred text.  Take with you the Word in the fullness of faith and the promises that lie therein; treasure the Word in your heart, and live into the heart of God.  Look up, be alert, see – believe – act into... 


Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen...so it is written – a scattering of poems in the sky.  


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