After Seven Days
A week since the tsunami hit I suppose we all feel bloody awful. We've come to know what a night under the olive trees is like, and know a little better what that night was all about. The swirling comments have led to looking closely at the photos and reconstructing the time sequence from the scant info we have. The more closely you look into this the more you feel the horror. The worst is that it might (must ?) have happened many times before.
There is faith and surrender to the Father's "will"
but there's no comfort to be had.
"I'm so sad I could die."
Everyone has a different way of seeing things.
I fear the dissolution of the church
as Jesus warned them to fear what was coming on the city Jerusalem:
not one stone left upon another.
But that, I can see, must happen, which is good
but I feel 'so sad it's killing me' for the hurt people will suffer
the chaos that will be terrifying
the in-fighting that will be fierce and bloody
and the shame.
He had planted a tiny grain
and his only hope was for it to strike root
to be in good soil - at least some of it
and it get good rains. When the Spirit rained from heaven
it was not cool water but drops of fire
to set them aflame, each one, even before the day of wrath!
They were to spread out like small fires running through the stubble
the kind they use as firebreak against a conflagration bearing down on them.
When the smoke cleared they sprung up through the ashes
tiny shoots, then leaves and shrubs and flowers dancing in the breeze.
They flourished for a little while before
the new growth got regimented and controlled and the beast
rebuilt itself structured and strong and ruthless
not with old stones but new concrete and iron
the beast of show-off religion,
and the kingdom of God within was held prisoner for two thousand years
again.
God! This is apocalyptic !
Can I send this to you? It will hurt, I'm sure, but can anything hurt more than what hurts already? I'd not thought these words till now, when I only wanted to send a word of greeting. It helps me to get it out there, the connection to Gethsemani and the destruction of the city and the way the new way came to birth, and the way it got shackled and deformed into a tyrant to keep the light imprisoned in the dark dungeon. These are terrible times to be living in. A Red Hat in Scotland, then a Red Hat in the USA, and now a Red Hat in Oz: I feel the end might come quickly. It would be foolish to fiddle around with incidentals while Rome burns, but how do we sound the warning from the tower? They will not hear or heed it. He wept over the city: How many times...? And thou wouldst not.
We must go underground
in the daylight as Jeshua did
and teach and train the few here and there
who will have sight and vision to see hope in the dark
real hope not of reclaiming former glory but of other births
in stables with angels and shepherds and kings
coming secretly by night to share that hope.
I will send it. It's only one old man's version of what's happening, and nothing compared to the narrative contained in the four published accounts of his last days. No time now for head-in-sand security. Too late to leave, the firemen warn. Have a plan. Implement your plan. Stay indoors, widows shut and curtains drawn. And may God help you for no human help will come.
Tony Lawless March 5 2019