Step 1 – Uniformity of Chaos
[1] Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. [2] As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
[3] They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. [4] Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
[5] But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. [6] The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. [7] Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
[8] So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. [9] That is why it was called Babel-because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
-Genesis 11
Step 2 – Diversity of the Tongue
[1] Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. [2] For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit. [3] But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort.
-1st Corinthians 14
Step 3 – The Beauty of Incompleteness
It is just because we can go no further, because speech so marvelously fails us, that we experience the certitude of a divine meaning surpassing and enfolding ours. What lies beyond man’s word is eloquent of God.
-George Steiner
Step 4 – The Removal of Self
It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I am the more affection I have for them…. Solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say.
-Thomas Merton
1 response so far ↓
Philip // September 25, 2008 at 3:05 pm |
i must be too linear in my thinking. for i read all of these as God acting out salvation. as in God making his introduction to us at the edge of human limits. again i wonder if we’re saying the same thing differently. see i get where you say “god has found his way into my life not because of a promise of more, but a realization of less.” but there is no darkness that isn’t met with a light impossible to overcome, no edge of this world that doesn’t border the edge of heaven, no failing of my flesh that doesn’t meet the resurrected Christ. All of the above are spaces where God shows up. he shows up not to remain hidden, but to make himself known. that we may find hope, that we may indeed find comfort even if only a bleary eyed byproduct of finding his face, of collapsing under his glory. in that way though i believe God is in part mystery he is no bearer of darkness, but the bringer of light. does he bring confusion so that he may make himself known? I guess I may concede that point as something I couldn’t answer. Certainly I can read that from the tower of Babel. as being a God who presses back at humanity’s limits, but just like God’s response to Job he will be heard. He will be known. He will reveal his might and mercy, his righteousness. And by grace he’ll call us to faith in it. And by faith his grace make us a part of it. a benefactor. and from this gift all gifts: peace, joy, even comfort. i think it could be argued that for all eternity God has worked to make himself known. But he has given us no more perfect a revelation than through Jesus Christ, who I again argue may be part mystery, who may overwhelm our ability to fully understand, but who is no abstraction. cause though Merton reaches the end of himself with silence as an aid, it is Christ who teaches him love and that he should even urge to love his brothers at all. 1 john 4:10