A Time of Redemption

Spoken through the Prophets–8
Isaiah reference / Chapter 25-26
Format / Japanese renga

You are a shelter
from the storm, a quiet place
for those in distress.
  For you have been a refuge
  for the weak, shade from the heat.

You are preparing,
on this mountain, a banquet
for all your children.
  The banquet will have rich food,
  succulent food and fine wine.

Here on this mountain
the shadow of doom will end. 
Death will be destroyed.
  Yahweh has spoken and will wipe 
  away tears from every cheek.

On that day we will 
say, “Look, our God is present.
and has redeemed us.”
  Let us exalt and rejoice,
  all nations and all people.

Let nations keep faith.
Trust in Yahweh forever 
and give thanks for peace.
  His path is an honest one.
  His judgements will be upright.

My soul longs for you,
and my spirit seeks you out,
morning and evening.
  Let all learn what justice is.
  You will grant us peace always.

Reflections and Connexions

This poem is not about a private spirituality but a social one. The Hebrew prophets all wrote in the middle centuries of the first millennium B.C.E., but they were not the only ones in Eurasia doing their work then. Works with similar purposes were coming from Lao Tzu and Confucius in China, the Buddha and the writer of of the Bhagavad Gita in India, Zoroastrians in Persia, and philosophers in Greece. Philosopher Karl Jaspers in 1948 was the first to call this period of history the Axial Age. Why was all this writing happening in isolated places in the same historical period? Perhaps all these writers were responding to similar problems in their separate civilizations. They were trying to humanize the civilizations that had produced cities, needed kings, and involved dominance. Perhaps some even had a vision of a return to something like the more peaceful and supportive tribal societies that had existed earlier. I think this social advocacy is present in the writings of the prophets and others but not the only factor which led them to be important contributors to the axial age. More than a millennia before the prophets Abraham left city life for the promised land at God’s prompting, but what Abraham’s time did not have was a sophisticated written language. (Of course other cultures also had their exemplars like Abraham and Moses before the Axial Age.) It was both a general dissatisfaction with the civilizations of cities and kings and development of sophisticated written languages that produced the Axial Age.

The Axial Age and especially the prophets looked both ways, back to a world that was in balance and forward to one that was being redeemed. In this poem Isaiah is beginning to understand that Yahweh is not only the God of Israel and Judah but also the God of all the nations. The banquet is on a mountain for all to see. All are invited so humanity can be seen in its fullness. Because God created us and loves us, justice and peace can come to humanity. The party on the mountain, this abundance, and this love is for every person, every people, every quark and star. Skeptics might say that such parties have never and will never happen. We can’t say about the future but in the past they did happen. The latest research on the Stonehenge site suggests it was a site for celebrations, and people came from all over the island of Britain. There are similar sites in many places.

Several centuries later the vision of the prophets began to be realized in the life of Jesus and early Christian communities such as the Desert Fathers and Mothers, but then in the 4th century church became empire and the vision was lost. There were several other monastic movements in later centuries like the Benedictines and Franciscans but these mostly stayed on as small institutions within nations and societies controlled by kings and bishops. The longest running and closest manifestation to a prophetic social movement were the monasteries of the Irish Golden Age, begun by Brigid, Columcille, and others in the 5th century and finally sacked by Norse raiders in the 10th and then controlled by the Roman church. (See How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill.) Perhaps some would put forward the American experiment as prophetic realization. I think maybe in the vision of the founding fathers but definitely not in its reality, especially from the perspective of indigenous peoples and the descendents of slaves. The prophetic vision has been put forward for 2700 years now. Do the people want the freedom of God’s party or to be controlled by the king and his minions?