For 2 weeks now I have been interacting with a narrative whose presence in the Gospels leaves me feeling slightly off balance. It is becoming like a splinter in my imagination.
6 times the story of Jesus and his followers out in a boat on wind blown waters at night appears in the gospels. In each telling some elements of the story remain the same – the disciples, a boat, the wind, unbridled fear - yet the identity of Jesus is elastic and ambiguous ! In some instances Jesus is in the boat and in other instances he is out of the boat walking on the water. The disturbing thing is that when Jesus is in the boat up close and personal, those who know him best are left asking the question, “What sort of man is this ?” Out of the boat he appears at distance like some kind of ghost or phantasm and the disciples cry out in fear and terror. Neither option brings relief.
As the boat moves out onto the water, away from the crowd and the safety of the known, it is as though it slipped through a crack between the worlds. The disciples took Jesus out in the boat ‘as he was’ yet out on this margin Jesus expands and intensifies. In sleep his dreams evoke the restless, primordial, creative possibilities of Genesis – the storm like ‘a wind from God over the face of the waters’ - pregnant with change & newness. Likewise his prayer alone on the mountain evokes Moses and encounter with holy Otherness - the storm moving before him like ‘the voice of the Lord… over the waters… the God of Glory… thundering’ - powerfully declaring the One who walks on water.
John captures this ‘holy Otherness’ when he tells the story. In his telling, Jesus doesn’t calm the storm. He instead reveals himself to them as ‘I am – do be afraid’ & when the disciples try to take him into the boat, they instantly arrive at the their destination. What happens in-between happens on Jesus’ terms. And Jesus will not be contained or domesticated. Outwards & Downwards !
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Sunday, April 02, 2006
King Kong Chaos...
The other day I saw the new King Kong movie directed by Peter Jackson. Out on the edge of the world awaits the mist-shrouded enigma of Skull Island. It is an island of death but also of life intensified in its raw & primordial power. A place where creatures are larger than life & deadly in their magnificence.
In one scene, a grazing herd of brontosaurus stampede in response to a circling pack of raptors. The desperate need to escape, forces these massive creatures into a narrow gorge - into the path of a resting, rescue party of 15 armed & self-sufficient men. Hugely awkward motion, is now mixed with the humour of small and fragile, fleeing men, caught up suddenly in desperate flight. They are driven onward - in front of and between the bone crushing legs of ancient creatures. Stopping means death.
For me this strange juxtaposition is an image of asymmetrical rhythm intensified by the edge of chaos.
The next unpredictable moment unfolds with men & dinosaurs - forced to change direction. The gorge ends ! As focus shifts sideways, momentum forces these tremendous masses dinosaurs & men onwards toward the precipice. All now scramble for footing as the way forward crumbles beneath them, some hurtling over into the abyss.
For me it is the sheer energy – the random, almost arbitrary possibility of death & life, for men & creatures now immersed in chaos.
The ones who survive on this margin are those who move intuitively and without hesitation towards the next unpredictable moment !
The scene climaxes when lumbering flesh & escaping movement is interrupted. Suddenly, the leading brontosaurus stumbles and the entire moving bulk of epic motion comes crashing down. There is nothing harmonious or ordered about it. Large cumbersome creatures falling awkwardly and heavily and tumbling - crushing themselves and everything in their path.
All is now overwhelmed by chaos. The pack of raptors seize their opportunity.
Give me an equal measure of the peaceful unpredictability of the dragonfly... any day !
In one scene, a grazing herd of brontosaurus stampede in response to a circling pack of raptors. The desperate need to escape, forces these massive creatures into a narrow gorge - into the path of a resting, rescue party of 15 armed & self-sufficient men. Hugely awkward motion, is now mixed with the humour of small and fragile, fleeing men, caught up suddenly in desperate flight. They are driven onward - in front of and between the bone crushing legs of ancient creatures. Stopping means death.
For me this strange juxtaposition is an image of asymmetrical rhythm intensified by the edge of chaos.
The next unpredictable moment unfolds with men & dinosaurs - forced to change direction. The gorge ends ! As focus shifts sideways, momentum forces these tremendous masses dinosaurs & men onwards toward the precipice. All now scramble for footing as the way forward crumbles beneath them, some hurtling over into the abyss.
For me it is the sheer energy – the random, almost arbitrary possibility of death & life, for men & creatures now immersed in chaos.
The ones who survive on this margin are those who move intuitively and without hesitation towards the next unpredictable moment !
The scene climaxes when lumbering flesh & escaping movement is interrupted. Suddenly, the leading brontosaurus stumbles and the entire moving bulk of epic motion comes crashing down. There is nothing harmonious or ordered about it. Large cumbersome creatures falling awkwardly and heavily and tumbling - crushing themselves and everything in their path.
All is now overwhelmed by chaos. The pack of raptors seize their opportunity.
Give me an equal measure of the peaceful unpredictability of the dragonfly... any day !
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