by the setting of the sun

shall we all be undone

in the falling of the morning star

shows the dead dark depth

of our shame borne scar

 

dark are the dimlit days

of an empty birdless overvault

as the quaking bones of the earth

groan beneath our fallen feet

still is the air for lost breath breeze

she has flown, recalled home

for the great returning is at hand

all things lose voice

 

mute, mute

 

silence is the only cold king

while expectation reigns as queen

 

till –

 

first heard in heart than head

one blast does distant drone

one blow to bend-bow the knees

to rent heart that rides from the east

trailing life like a sacred spring

 

but this is only the end

 

for by the rising of the sun

shall we all be hard won

by the ever-present morning star

clean healing brings a borrowed worthiness

new priests, new kings we are

 

listen – the world cries GLORY!

 

Poetry Scotland published one of my poems – poem is up at Poetry Scotland’s website: http://www.zen39641.zen.co.uk/ps/openmouse.htm …it is This Tapering Hue.

 

What?

in full noon blue sky day

with sun like blazing oculus

makes everything more real

makes everything unreal

in the crisp and crisping

heat of mid day

 

What?

In blinding brilliance

sharp light, cornea cutting

puts the world to sleep

quiets shivering leaves

enacting seasonal siesta

till even all breath is held

 

What?

What could take this whitewashed world

and plunge to blurring pitch

crush rainbow in the colourless

fill blue dome of lapus lazuli

with cold hard onyx slate shell

 

What?

a lesson learned of sight

not each brave searching beam

finds naught but shadow

not each high watery vault

holds back the crushing night

while some new knowledge –

some knowledge holds terrible insight

 

Once on the Isle of Orkney

amid intrigue and plots to kill the earl

north of the cold and the crags

above the wind-whipped Scottish coast

a truth was needed most rapidly

so –

 

the Witch of Stenness was taken to die

no healer, no helper, no heroine they cried

two days of fire TWO did naught but steel

her hardy reserve and sew shut malignant maw

 

tear her heart through and through

in the torture of bedside beloveds

will confession cry forth from foul lips

so son and husband were put

to flame and iron and hammer they were put

yet nothing wrung the accused’s black tongue

except INNOCENT INNOCENT INNOCENT

not sick sweet smell of brave boy’s flesh

nor 57 blows of mallet each one as crashes

crushing nails through Christ his holy self

 

take husband then they said they said

take him to the lang irons to pile upon

the weight of the earth and see how far

how distant from Atlas old Balfour could be

as stone upon stone laid they upon he

but 81 years had petrified his bones

and not 700 pounds did move her mouth

so Parson Henry God’s servant Colville

did shine upon a devious thought

what evil can I do when this noble cause

shall make me immune from just judgement

 

bring in the child, cherub of her mother’s breast

put soft thumbs as yet used only to play

as kitten’s lure beneath the bedding blanket

secure them in the sin-eating screws

pierce milk-fed skin with every strength

till the drum shattering cries of

MAMA MAMA MAMA MAMA

do wrack her very shredded soul (what’s left)

it was enough to twist out their necessary truth

no mother’s heart can endure a baby’s wails

so from her throat rose up on high the desired

AYE and AYE again

just spare their lives and let it end

and end it did with defiant Alesoun on the stake

steely stern-eyed Alisoun crying one last time

INNOCENT, INNOCENT I die an INNOCENT

 

but death was not done as Parson Colville had sown sorrows

till sickle did reap a heavy harvest from him

left later dead blade bent and life lost in mud

now one rests well and the other tortured twists

waiting for the trumpet called day they kneel

side by side they kneel before come Lord

to speak for lives once lived as answers to His question –

"whither would you spend eternity?"

to one with family near "come thou my child stand with me"

to the other agrieved alone "depart accursed I never knew ye"

there is justice poured forth like rain upon the flesh of Alesoun Balfour

a salve to every burn and a hand  brushed ‘cross tear stained cheek

forever and forever in wholeness forever

 

cold falls the rain

upon the ground of the dead

where none but the stones

care to catch the fall

every drop lost in the millions

not one is heard but all –

a steady static drone

there are no ears to hear

there are no eyes to see

only the yawning earth

to swallow it all up

only the yearning earth

to draw it into itself

 

I knew from the minute I watched this movie that the reviews would be split and of course they were – almost right down the middle with some critics loving the movie and some hating it. I find when that happens the movie invariably has a strong moral or spiritual element that half the critics review the film as a film and the other half condemn it regardless of the quality as moralistic or heavy handed. So it is with The Book of Eli, a compelling (riveting really) film that stars Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman and Mila Kunis (of That 70’s Show and the voice of Meg from Family Guy).

 

The story essentially breaks down to a good versus evil post-apocalyptic action flick. Performances by Oldman and Washington were what you would expect from such seasoned actors – excellent. I was surprised at Kunis actually. She is not exactly a heavy-weight in terms of acting but her performance in this film was admirable. She will no doubt see many other offers as a result of this movie. While the storyline is a tad predictable the pacing is excellent and almost from the beginning you realize that this is a movie building to a surprise ending. Nevertheless the film never seems to drag (except for a little at the end) and you are invested from beginning to end. Speaking of the end, like I said before it drags a tad but only in the sense that it could have ended successfully in about three places but carries on a bit.

 

Now to the technical details. I watched the film in glorious Blu-ray and if ever there was a movie made for said format this is it. Wow. You really cannot fully appreciate this film in any other format. The cinematography is like another lead actor that deserves an academy award…it looks that good. Visually the film is incredibly crisp and bright (part of the story you will understand as you watch the film) with some wonderful framed shots that take adavantage of sillouette action. Although this is a film shot in full colour there are times when you feeling you are watching a classic black and white western…but this is no shades of grey filming…you’ve never seen so many shades of grey before and it is a real treat and another example of the Blu-ray advantage. The detail in some of the close-up shots is really not to be missed. It should be noted that the sound is excellent as well and a good surround sound system is not wasted with this film.

 

Ultimately the film is a hopeful one that I would encourage you to see. Be warned it is loaded with rough language and violence but the violence is not as gory as it could be with the creative camera work going on.

 

As I continue in my reading (Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas) I am being brought closer in familiarity with the road that led to World War 2. As distant as it seems in the past it is of critical importance to our present. It ended 65 years ago and many witnesses to what occured are still with us. At any rate part of what led to the atrocity of the war was the arrogant sense that such a thing could never happen again after World War 1 – the so called "war to end all wars". Part of what led to WW1 was that same arrogant sense (born out of the enlightenment) that humanity’s progress would inevtably lead to a world of peace because the human race was moving out of its adolescence and into a mre mature adulthood. We could manage ourselves and required no gods and certainly no autocratic God. Is it reasonable to suggest that our human arrogance has not abated much since WW2? Is it possible in fact that it has grown even? I stumbled across a great and clearly prophetic quote from Christian Johann Heinrich Heine, a German poet of Jewish background. In his book – The History of Religion and Philosophy of Germany, (written more than 100 years before World War 1 and 2) Heine  observed the following:

 

 

Very powerful and prescient as well. But rather than focus on what Heine clearly saw coming it might be worth considering the current state of affairs in the world. What happens when the cross falls in other places? What idols rise up in its place? This is a question no one cares to ask (or thinks worth asking). What happened in Germany is evident…but what happens in Canada? What rises up? Freedom? Equality and Justice? The very concepts were safeguarded by the cross and it is foolish to think somehow we would be better off without it. What happens in a country like the United States, a country forged in blood and war? How about Africa or South and Central America or Britain? What rushes in to fill the void? It seems we never take the time to think about the value of the ideals we are so ready to throw away. We tend to learn through painful error.

 

The Third Reich was not fond of Heine’s ideas. In 1933 in the Opernplatz in Berlin the Nazi’s held a massive book burning rally. Amoung the thousands of books burned at a midnight rally hosted by none other than Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels were Heine’s. It is worth quoting another bit of terrible prophetic wisdom from Heine in light of his books being burned (again written over 100 years before the incident) and perhaps take some time to think deeply about the value of things and ideas we are so willing to burn and the possible consequences:

 

 

to look up

the boiling under-cloud stares black

a roiling ash grey shroud glares back

this is the sky inside that hovers

prep the volley from on high

send down the forked bolts

raise up the hackles on our necks

while the wind roars with indignation

at upstaging nimbus corsairs

that loom above the spinning crying currents

see Zephyr waltz with Ouranos

while Gaia sulks in the mist

castdown wallflower washed in another’s passion

 

Where are the wise? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." – 1 Corinthians 1:20-24

To preach is to stand before the body of Christ and to cry out the gospel. To preach is to be a fearful vessel in God’s hands as He seeks to use you to pour out his truth on those who would hear.

I have been thinking lately about preaching. The process has been on my mind because of some of what I am reading and I consider preaching to be critical to the life of the body of Christ. Specifically I have been wondering to what degree sermons tend to be more eisegetical than they are exegetical…in my experience it is actually pretty hard to find an exegetical sermon in the 21st century church. Of course this begs the question what the heck is eisegesis and exegesis in the first place.

As always we must turn to the world’s best dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary, for a little definition help.

Exegesis: noun (plural exegeses /-siːz/)[mass noun] critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture: the task of biblical exegesis. Origin: early 17th century: from Greek exēgēsis, from exēgeisthai ‘interpret’, from ex- ‘out of’ + hēgeisthai ‘to guide, lead’

Eisegesis: (from Greek εἰς "into" and ending from exegesis from ἐξηγεῖσθαι "to lead out") is the process of misinterpreting a text in such a way that it introduces one’s own ideas, reading into the text.

There are generally two primary ways of developing a sermon – one is to take a list of ideas or themes relevant to the life of the congregation or the culture and then scour the scriptures searching for texts that support and develop that theme. While this can lead to sermons that one migt initially feel are very "relevant" the problem with such an approach is it subjects scripture to the leading of culture rather than the other way around. While it isn’t always reading into the text in the purest eisegetical sense there is a progression from the world toward scripture (eis) rather than starting with scripture and working out toward the world (ex). In that sense the pastor is moving in through the out door which will almost certainly lead to tragic consequences as any new waiter or waitress will tell you. 🙂

The other way (and as I have seen and read the increasingly less popular way) is to start with the Word and draw out of (ex) the text the truth God is intending to deliver, prayerfully and studiously seek to understand said truth in the context of the original audience and only after tis is done bring that truth into the cultural context of the congregation/body of Christ. In this way the Word seeks to inform culture and transform it (or as Walter Brueggeman says "the Word redefines the world").

One might think I am being a tad nitpicky but there is a real danger in an eisegetical approach. Rather than the Word redefining the world (exegesis) the world will seek to redefine the Word (eisegesis). Once the Word has been redefined by the world it then is no longer the Word – it is simply words which can be manipulated to our hearts content.

If, as Saint Paul has said, the wisdom of the world is foolishness then we should not allow it to shape out preaching nor to inform it.

I will close with an observation about the content of American preaching circa 1930 from Dietrich Bonhoeffer worth repeating and remembering:

"…they preach about virtually everything; only one thing is not addressed, or is addressed so rarely that I have as yet been unable to hear it, namely, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the cross, sin and forgiveness, death and life."