Sunday, January 24, 2010

Two Powers?

There's lots of talk about two powers in the created order. I had not come across this phrase before. And it strikes me as wrong. I have not personally translated the verses M. Heiser is using for his argument, but my ears are blocked almost immediately. I prefer Harold Bloom's reading of Yahweh and Jesus than a kind of two-headed positive dualism. Traditional +/- dualism is also rejected in the OT. The archetypical rejection for me is the absence of the accuser in the epilogue of Job. One might also cite Revelation - the accuser of our companions is cast down. This makes Job a nice type of Jesus. But - remember this - I don't read theology, but I can't help doing it.

Over the past two months since a time of a strange command to me, I have been frequently heard to mutter - 'I don't know' as if I niftily listen to a silent question but know not the answer, the future, or how to respond. So I say to myself - am I under test? Who is the tester? Pick your power! I live through it with doing, waiting, hoping - if in fear, I hear - do not be afraid.

Some time later I wrote this scribble:

The Judge of all the earth is in human form.
Will the Judge of all the earth do wrong?
If you are the judge of all the earth,
why do you do what is hateful?
The world is telling you what is hateful to itself.
You say: the world rejected the Judge of all the earth.
No, it did not and does not.
It just knows when you are on a power trip.

What is the world that you have so judged it?
This thing was not done in a corner.
You say: are you greater than the Beloved disciple?
Not at all - does he speak of a second power?
Perhaps as world - the things of the world...
But any negative second power is defeated
because you the Judge of all the earth have in human form
expressed and lived the question of wholeness before all.

2 comments:

scott gray said...

bob--

i do love the beginning of this chapter, how wisdom shines brightest at the liminal points-- the moments just before conversion, before converging, before taking careful mindfulness to pass through doorways-- such lovely dynamic imagery at moments of stepping off the curb, or into the deep end of something.

scott

scott gray said...

oops! wrong post! i'll place it where it goes...