{"id":1041,"date":"2012-12-09T08:00:38","date_gmt":"2012-12-09T13:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/?p=1041"},"modified":"2012-12-09T08:00:38","modified_gmt":"2012-12-09T13:00:38","slug":"everystoneshallcry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/biteintheapple\/everystoneshallcry\/","title":{"rendered":"Every Stone Shall Cry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
\u00a0<\/address>\n

\"Replace<\/a>What is the alchemy for making flesh from stone?<\/p>\n

In mid rant, John insists God can do this, and will, if we do not transform our stony selves into living children of God.\u00a0 \u00a0God will not go childless into oblivion, John shouts.<\/p>\n

So, how do you turn a stone into a child?\u00a0\u00a0 John says, tears and generosity can do it. Then, for good measure, he threatens axes and winnowing forks if we fail, if we\u00a0grow wooden, or choke with weeds.\u00a0 After that, he says, comes fire.<\/p>\n

It is John who describes himself as water and Jesus as fire.\u00a0 When the crowd presses John to say he is the Messiah he replies No, I only baptize with water but the one we are all waiting for will use fire and the Spirit.\"Replace<\/a><\/p>\n

Jesus, by contrast, speaks words that fall like water on parched ground. With his cooling spirit Jesus calms fevers of fear and guilt, shame and madness, even stops the smoldering rot of disease and death.\u00a0 Jesus offers an eternally quenching cup to soothe the charred soul, and his coolness holds in fiery encounters with Judas, Herod, Pilate, the Roman henchmen. \u00a0In Luke\u2019s gospel Jesus crosses the sea of Galilee again and again, and each crossing seems to refill him with power.\u00a0 In some mystical way, water supports and sustains him.<\/p>\n

\"Replace<\/a>Jesus mingles fire and water in alchemy \u2013 mystical fire, like the burning bush. \u00a0And Jesus expands and changes John\u2019s advice:\u00a0 tears become grace;\u00a0 generosity becomes blessing;\u00a0 love becomes central.\u00a0 \u00a0Yet, John\u2019s challenge remains the theme of Advent, and the great question of Christmas:\u00a0 how do you make a child of God from cold-hearts?<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mind without soul may blast some universe<\/em><\/p>\n

to might have been and stop ten thousand stars,<\/p>\n

but not one heart beat of this child . . .<\/p>\n

\u2013 ee cummings, in spiralling ecstatically this<\/strong><\/p>\n

The literature of Christmas explores avenues of answers.\u00a0 Charles Dickens writes that memory, hope and desire are the mix that makes Scrooge a Christmas child again.\u00a0 Remembering himself as young, vulnerable and in pain, in Christmases past;\u00a0 meeting a boy whose loving heart wins his in Christmas present; and weeping at the terrible winnowing that awaits them both if he fails to change; these remake Scrooge into a child of God.<\/p>\n

George Bailey, in Frank Capra\u2019s It\u2019s a Wonderful Life<\/em><\/strong>, a kind man who is overwhelmed\"Replace<\/a> on one disastrous day, learns to see all he has meant to others, how he has helped them to stay human, and is freed from turning himself to stone on a desperate Christmas Eve.<\/p>\n

For the Littlest Angel, having his grief for the life he has lost chosen as the greatest gift for the Child of Christmas lifts him at last into heaven.\u00a0 For the Grinch it is being given a gift by a generous child.\u00a0 In these stories, and in our own tales, a mingling of water and fire in the crucible of experience enlivens what has turned to stone in us, and makes us human again.<\/p>\n

And what is it we drink in the chalice we share, what is our own blood, if not water with a form of fire in it?\u00a0 But there is no formula for making us children of God.\u00a0 The transformation never happens the same way twice.<\/p>\n

So how do you make a child from stone?\u00a0\u00a0From prophet to prophet, the challenge and the question have come to us, until we receive them\u00a0from John, who does not have the\u00a0answer.\u00a0 And so the urgency passes on, to a woman whom Luke tells us is already full of grace, capable of answering \u2013 and questioning \u2013 the Angel.<\/p>\n

Mary of Nazareth arrives on the Advent stage in the nick of time.\u00a0 Knitting the eternal into dust, she makes a Child with life that can outlast a lifetime \u2013 mortal (tired and weary) \u00a0and \"\"<\/a>immortal (shining even in a body broken). \u00a0Advent moves into her agency.<\/p>\n

A stable lamp is lighted<\/em><\/p>\n

Whose glow shall wake the sky;<\/em><\/p>\n

The stars shall bend their voices,<\/em><\/p>\n

And every stone shall cry.<\/em><\/p>\n

And every stone shall cry<\/em><\/p>\n

(from Richard Wilbur\u2019s<\/em> Christmas Hymn)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the dark of the year we wander among miracles as the hopes and fears of all the years<\/em> are met in us.<\/p>\n

_________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Illustrations:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0The Hand of God Giving Life to Adam<\/strong><\/em>. Michelangelo Buonarroti. 1508-12. Cappella Sistina. Vatican City. Vanderbilt Divinity School Library, Art in the Christian Tradition.<\/p>\n

2. Fire Window.<\/strong><\/em> \u00a0Washington National Cathedral, D.C. Vanderbilt Divinity School Library, Art in the Christian Tradition.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Fresco from Kariye Camii, Anastasis showing Christ-pulling Adam and Eve out of their graves.<\/strong><\/em> \u00a01310-20. Kariye Museum, Istanbul, Turkey.\u00a0Vanderbilt Divinity School Library, Art in the Christian Tradition.<\/p>\n

4. \u00a0It\u2019s a Wonderful Life,<\/strong><\/em> freeze frame from the Frank Capra film. George in despair.<\/p>\n

5. Annunciation by He Qi.<\/strong><\/em> \u00a0Nanqing, China. Vanderbilt Divinity School Library, Art in the Christian Tradition.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 What is the alchemy for making flesh from stone? In mid rant, John insists God can do this, and will, if we do not transform our stony selves into living children of God.\u00a0 \u00a0God will not go childless into oblivion, John shouts. So, how do you turn a stone into a child?\u00a0\u00a0 John says, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2483,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[19,27,35,38,44,51,67,68,76],"class_list":["post-1041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bites","tag-children-of-god","tag-fire","tag-hopes-and-fears","tag-john","tag-luke","tag-nick-of-time","tag-stones","tag-stories-of-christmas","tag-water"],"yoast_head":"\nEvery Stone Shall Cry<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u00a0What is the alchemy for making flesh from stone? 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