Wednesday 27 July 2011

Creation groaning - God as woman in the Psalter

Hear in your gut

Some arguments remove half my being from me. All the breath-bearing to praise - you recognize that phrase? I am sure you do.
כֹּל הַנְּשָׁמָה תְּהַלֵּל יָהּ
The only other place where I used it in the psalms, Beloved, was to show you how I pant (that's breathing) with the labour of birth for you. Psalm 18.
וַיֵּרָאוּ אֲפִיקֵי מַיִם
וַיִּגָּלוּ מוֹסְדוֹת תֵּבֵל
מִגַּעֲרָתְךָ יְהוָה
מִנִּשְׁמַת רוּחַ אַפֶּךָ
Then seen are channels of waters
and discovered are the foundations of the world
at your rebuke יְהוָה
at the breath of the wind of your nostrils

Waters break, foundations discovered, at my rebuke - such as it is. My rebuke is a blessing, like children. You should know. At the breath - the panting - the child bearing - of the wind of my nostrils.

'Imagine' I talked that way with you, O Creation Groaning, by my Spirit.

Mind the gap

I have just returned from a mental institution where my youngest son, aged 33 is a patient, impatient, or in patient, breath borne by another mother, but bequeathed to us by adoption. Who is your Mother? A troubled boy, brain-damaged in the scientific sense by alcohol from birth, and by street unwisdom in later life. Would you nurture him?  Created time wasted? Why this birth? Why this world where the males seem to know what is right and let their good be evil spoken of?

Righteous rigorous and even gracious evangelicals are to be tolerated but ... but they are unbelievable. (Not to put too fine a point of faith on them.)


2 comments:

  1. Bob--

    Sorry about your son. Michael Greer (a blogger about futurism) makes the distinction between problems and predicaments. Problems have solutions; predicaments have responses. In my experience, mental illness is not a problem, it's a predicament. So there is no solution; only responses that are filled with ethical methods, ethical outcomes, and hopefully, incremental improvements.

    It may seem strange to you, but I find this distinction comforting when I try to respond justly to what I judge as solutionless problems. I am compelled to respond; but my efforts 'solve' little. Rather, i try to respond justly, and with the hope of small improvements.

    All the best--

    Scott Gray

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  2. Scott
    lovely to hear from you
    we are in NY with son and daughter and their spouses and 1 mother-in-law - having fun. Sarah our daughter will conduct services at St Thomas fifth ave tomorrow at 11. Our daughter-in-law is here for intensive dance workshops for two weeks. Son Simon is here in holiday. Their brothers, Jeremy (at his own home) and James (in hospital) are back in Victoria - and I agree with you there are 'predicament' situations that are unfixable - but there is a response - always unique, specific, creative, that remains possible.

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