Ashes and diamonds
Foe and Friend
We were all equal in the end(1)
All kinds of Christians will hear words similar to those above with the more orthodox tone, “you are dust and to dust you shall return” or something similar. Smudge marks of a cross on foreheads or hands identify those among us convinced, convicted, or clinging to the old, old story unsure what it does to us, or for us, anymore. But, we want to belong. We want to believe. Jesus. Jesus, what’s it all about?
I’ve been smudged with ashes. I’ve smudged the old and the young alike. The world is full of mortality reminders. Coronavirus, the newest one. In a Nation consumed by “identity politics” we Christians play our part, particularly today. Of late many siblings in faith have embraced transactional relationships because the covenantal ones of old don’t seem to be working anymore or meeting needs. As if the Golden Rule or Greatest Commandment, like the hymn, “In The Very Room”(2) is spaciously specific theology. You don’t have to be cynical to observe that spaciously specific economics, ethnicity, gender, and religion are the norm now. Maybe the Rolling Stones are right. “You can’t always get what you want. But, if you try sometimes well you might just find, you’ll get what you need.”(3)
In the spring of my senior year of high school, Pink Floyd released “The Final Cut” (1983). I was already a fan, but this album captured the history classes and social studies of junior high and high school. It captured the stories I had heard from relatives, and the general fear of the late decades of the Cold War as people were just going about their lives. It challenged the Christianity that had been passed on to me. The album’s final song, “Two Suns in the Sunset,” is a daily ash reminder seared into my memory that makes ordinary time, everyday, a journey through lent. Shall we overcome?
In my rear view mirror
The sun is going down
Sinking behind bridges in the road
I think of all the good things
That we have left undone
And I suffer premonitions
Confirm suspicions
Of the holocaust to come
The rusty wire that holds the cork
that keeps the anger in
Gives way and suddenly
It’s day again
The sun is in the east
even though the day is done
Two suns in the sunset
Could be the human race is run
Like the moment when the brakes lock
And you slide towards the big truck
(Oh no!)
You stretch the frozen moments with your fear
And you’ll never hear their voices
(Daddy, Daddy!)
And you’ll never see their faces
You have no recourse to the law anymore
And as the windshield melts and my tears evaporate
Leaving only charcoal to defend
Finally I understand the feelings of the few
Ashes and diamonds
Foe and friend
We were all equal in the end.
Notes
1. Pink Floyd, “The Final Cut”. Harvest Columbia, 1983.
2. Ron and Carol Harris, “In This Very Room”. Ron Harris Music, 1979.
3. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, “Let It Bleed”. Decca Records (UK), 1968.
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”(1)
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent. It is a day when many Christians remember we are all equal in the end. You are dust and to dust you shall return. The story about Jesus has tumbled through time as if we climbed aboard Bill and Ted’s phone booth time machine(2), and followed Jesus from birth to young adult. Pause, and think about the speed of the story we journey through each year.
Advent’s waiting, candles, magnificat, and wading into hope, peace, joy, and love led shepherds, and some of us, to a manger.
Some of us journeyed with the Magi from far away places in our lives searching for a person, this child, hoping that the epiphany of his presence could help us change our stars. And when two paths diverged did you take the one less traveled?
Still, some of us fled with Joseph, Mary, and Jesus. Fled from bad situations. Fled from feelings to strong to deal with. Fled from our mistakes, from our neighbors, or fled from ourselves dropping our compass along the way. Through this migration Jesus has grown. During the season of Epiphany we meet him in young adulthood. The once refugee now welcomes as he has been welcomed in a land occupied and yet still home. This Jesus of Nazareth emerges from the desert to hand us a compass he picked up on his journey. He is ready to help disciples recalibrate their moral compass with his teaching and by an example he set.
The parables can be effective tools to recalibrate your compass. These little teaching stories, the ones that scholars think are authentic to Jesus and those attributed to his unofficial biographers, these teaching stories may be the best way to test out your beliefs and practice the way of Jesus against the backdrop of our historical context. Arguably, it’s always been that way. You have heard it was said in ancient times that a little child would lead them, well I say to you that our youth are leading us.
Our Regional Youth Council is blogging for lent this year, and once again will turn their attention to the parables of Jesus. (See a complete list of the parables below.) I asked them to pick two parables: a favorite and one that challenges them. The assignment: create a devotion about those parables. Devotions will be posted on Monday morning of each week in Lent and will continue to the Monday of Holy Week.
Join us on the road with Jesus by following my “Old Camp Hat” blog during Lent.
Parables of Jesus
According the the work of the Jesus Seminar, these five parables are probably original to Jesus.(3)
- Leven [Matt 13.33b, Luke 13:20b-21]
- Good Samaritan [Luke 10:30-37]
- Dishonest Steward [Luke 16:1-9]
- Vineyard Laborers [Matthew 20:1=15]
- Mustard Seed [Matthew 13:31b-32 / Mark 4:31-32 / Luke 13:19]
And here is a list of all the parables.
- The Growing Seed: Mark 4:26–29
- The Two Debtors: Luke 7:41–43
- The Lamp under a Bushel: Matthew 5:14–15, Mark 4:21–25, Luke 8:16–18
- Parable of the Good Samaritan, Luke 10:25–37
- The Friend at Night: Luke 11:5–8
- The Rich Fool: Luke 12:16–21
- The Wise and the Foolish Builders: Matthew 7:24–27, Luke 6:46–49
- New Wine into Old Wineskins: Matthew 9:17–17, Mark 2:21–22, Luke 5:37–39
- Parable of the Strong Man: Matthew 12:29–29, Mark 3:27–27, Luke 11:21–22
- Parable of the Sower: Matthew 13:3–9, Mark 4:3–9, Luke 8:5–8
- The Tares: Matthew 13:24–30
- The Barren Fig Tree: Luke 13:6–9
- Parable of the Mustard Seed: Matthew 13:31–32, Mark 4:30–32, Luke 13:18–19
- Leaven: Matthew 13:33–33, Luke 13:20–21
- Parable of the Pearl: Matthew 13:45–46
- Drawing in the Net: Matthew 13:47–50
- The Hidden Treasure: Matthew 13:44–44
- Counting the Cost: Luke 14:28–33
- The Lost Sheep frequently called The Good Shepherd: Matthew 18:10–14, Luke 15:4–6
- The Unforgiving Servant: Matthew 18:23–35
- The Lost Coin: Luke 15:8–9
- Parable of the Prodigal Son: Luke 15:11–32
- The Unjust Steward: Luke 16:1–13
- Rich man and Lazarus: Luke 16:19–31
- The Master and Servant: Luke 17:7–10
- The Unjust Judge: Luke 18:1–9
- Pharisees and the Publican: Luke 18:10–14
- The Workers in the Vineyard: Matthew 20:1–16
- The Two Sons: Matthew 21:28–32
- The Wicked Husbandmen: Matthew 21:33–41, Mark 12:1–9, Luke 20:9–16
- The Great Banquet: Matthew 22:1–14, Luke 14:15–24
- The Budding Fig Tree: Matthew 24:32–35, Mark 13:28–31, Luke 21:29–33
- The Faithful Servant: Matthew 24:42–51, Mark 13:34–37, Luke 12:35–48
- The Ten Virgins: Matthew 25:1–13
- The Talents or Minas: Matthew 25:14–30, Luke 19:12–27
- The Sheep and the Goats: Matthew 25:31–46
- Parable of the Wedding Feast: Luke 14:7–14
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Notes
1. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, 1986.
2. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, 1989.
3. Funk, Robert, et al. The Parables of Jesus: A Report of the Jesus Seminar. Polebridge Press, 1988.
