Hurry up please, it's time

 Murder, rape, and war in a love song? What kind of a song is this? I have seen that it is possible to consider the Bible in its original tongue. Not that I am any sort of an expert at languages or translation, but that at least it is possible to look at the problem of this religious history as if it were a puzzle of a few hundred thousand words.

I have done this. And I found out a few things. And I hope to find more. Because the reality of love … - a very difficult work it is to exercise love -- I am not good at it. But this reality is possible and worthwhile and a presence worth knowing. It appears that such a reality is not possible without the aforementioned troubles in my first question.

I doubt that I can get from song to theology, and from theology to practicality, and from practicality to healing, and from healing back to a song of thanksgiving. But perhaps the song of the Hebrew Bible was meant for just such a time as this. This time of failure of humanity on so many levels.

I don't want to leave you to imagine the failures. I am thinking of the war in Ukraine instigated by the dictator Putin, and the oligarchs who support this mechanism called Russia. And I am considering the state of war between the brothers who have grown from Abraham, Hagar, Sarah, and Isaac, Rebecka, Esau, Edom, Rachel, Leah, and Bilhah, Zilpah, and Jacob, called Israel. Like Cain and Abel, it is a war between brothers. And I am thinking of the failure of self-governance that is clear in all the lands of the earth. There are some responsible leaders, but there are many for whom the grasping of power is paramount and even in so-called democratic lands, the failure of truth in the media is evident. And I am thinking of the report from the UN on the state of climate change. Read it here if you haven't.

Genesis 4:13

And Cain said to Yahweh, Greater is my iniquity than I can bear.
יג וי֥אמר ק֖ין אל־יהו֑ה גד֥ול עונ֖י מנשֽא	7 7		ig viamr qin al-ihvh gdol yvoni mnwoa

[I will use my own translation for the Hebrew songs I include, together with the words in square text with the musical accents as well as SimHebrew, the full text in Latin characters.]

Will Adam be stillborn? Will Eve never emerge from the rib? The Wind of God still broods over our chaos in this bruised world. The birth of a people who are able to show mercy rather than revenge is not impossible. The work required is a work of death and new life in that life-giving Spirit, self-giving rather than grasping.

I never did translate the Greek of the New Testament, so my memory of its words is traditional-- when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?

Hurry up please, it's time.

The bar will soon be closing for me. My background is Christian. I even understand fundamentalism. I know fear and shame. I cannot agree with much of the complex religious past that is part of me. It takes time, elapsed time, to learn. There are so many questions. But I had a thought one day, sometime in the not too distant past in the later stages of my zeal, saying to me: How can you say you know me when you don't know my language? It was then that I stopped reading the New Testament and began to translate for myself the One called Old. The Old Word has kept me going for 20 years now. I used technology to control my translation and wrote programs to decode the music and connect the defective language of the Leningrad codex (that's the pointed text) to the modern text with full spelling. I still don't know Hebrew well but I understand now that along with its structure and wordplay, the whole scripture is to be heard as music.

No one is required to read in Hebrew. It is fun but not mandated. I like puzzles. But we should know that the word of God is not an exercise in getting the abstract truth right. Love is action directed to the good of another. If I love my fellow human, I will take actions that are for our shared good. I heard on the news tonight about a political local leader accused of being anti-vax. And he said, I'm not anti-vax, just anti-mandate. Well, that's just bad science. I don't want that attitude being in charge. And it ends up being unjust. I am also trained in science. Vaccines only work if herd immunity is reached. Love says, I get a vaccine not just for me but for my neighbour also. There are going to be exceptions, but they must be rare. A 50% vaccination rate will not stop a bug. I could go on about the homeless - but enough.

We are not ultimately individuals. It would be impossible for me even to communicate with you without the support of a host of other people who are manufacturing devices and their accompanying software that have allowed us to hear each other and the music. So with many of our actions, a mandate is needed to achieve the desired end. The mandate helps us overcome our resistance to truth. Mandates are only practice however. We will need much stronger tools to actually work the reality of love.

News is not necessarily good news! The good news is that the love that works for another's good is possible and desirable even in the face of death. I could try and formulate this, but it would not get the Old Song to be heard for its own sake. My words would not substitute. But perhaps I can put together a selection of the Old Song that would work the work of love for a moment.

This music is going to attempt to teach about that mystery that goes by the three letter word g-o-d. What is this g-d like? I really have to stop talk and start to sing. But - I am voiceless for the most part these days, so I have to rely on musical scores and performances whether live or mechanical. And I have to tell the story. It's a good story. Here's hoping I have time.

No theology should be unaccompanied. So here is the beginning:

Genesis 1:1-3 - not too much at once please - the first 22 bars of the song.

1 In the beginning of God's creating, the heavens and the earth,
א בראש֖ית בר֣א אלה֑ים א֥ת השמ֖ים וא֥ת האֽרץ	8 9		a brawit bra alohim at hwmiim vat harx
2 when the earth was formless and void and darkness was over the face of the abyss, and the wind of God brooded over the face of the waters,
ב והא֗רץ הית֥ה ת֙הו֙ וב֔הו וח֖שך על־פנ֣י תה֑ום ור֣וח אלה֔ים מרח֖פת על־פנ֥י המֽים	19 16		b vharx hiith tohu vbohu vkowç yl-pni thom vruk alohim mrkpt yl-pni hmim
3 then said God: Let there be light. And there was light.
ג וי֥אמר אלה֖ים יה֣י א֑ור וֽיהי־אֽור	9 3		g viamr alohim ihi aor vihi-aor