A meditation inspired by Luke 20:27-38 and Arcade Fire’s Reflektor.
Where were we again?
Trapped in a prison, a prism of light
Alone in the darkness, a darkness of white
Oh right. That was it.
Entre la nuit, la nuit et l’aurore
Entre le royaume des vivants et des morts
Between the night, the night and the dawn, between the kingdom of the living and the dead, that’s where we were. Imprisoned somewhere entre la nuit et l’aurore, between the kingdom of the living and the dead. And the persistent question on our lips, the persistent question on our hearts: where is God in the midst of all this?
Watching, waiting, hoping and praying for the dawn to come, for new life, we find ourselves caught up in the contradictions of daily existence. There are days we’re on top. Others we’re in the pits of hell. There is darkness, and there is the promise of dawn.
The Sadducees, it seems, are there to expose Jesus as a fraud. They seem keen on catching him up in his inconsistent testimony. They’ve written him off, and this is one last question to hammer the point home:
In the resurrection, whose wife will this woman be? And Jesus, quoting Win Butler might find himself saying:
Thought you were praying to the resurrector
Turns out it was just a reflektor.
Jesus pushes back, redirects, and turns it on them. Why do you think that God is limited by your understanding of the divine? Trapped in this prison, your prism and lens. Trapped in your self-imposed prison, you’ve appointed yourself judge, jury and executioner for those without the right answers. But this is the God of the living, not of the dead. This God is more than a reflection of your finite mind.
And the question. The Sadducees prompt the question for you, for me, for all of us: how often do we try to limit God within the prisons our own enlightened understanding? How often do we put Jesus on trial?
And how often do we find ourselves praying, not to the resurrector, but to our own pale reflections in the black mirror?
He currently serves as the Director of Missional Renewal for the Anglican Diocese of Kootenay on the unceded territories of the Sinixt, Syilx, and Ktunaxa nations. He previously served as the Director of Ministry Innovation at Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver, BC.
Andrew is cofounder and contributing editor at www.empireremixed.com, and co-editor of "A Sort of Homecoming: Essays Honoring the Academic and Community Work of Brian Walsh" with Marcia Boniferro and Amanda Jagt.