Thursday 25 December 2003

Pic of the day: Taken from a painting by van Eyck. A medieval look at the Kingdom of Heaven and Jesus' place in the future. Hopefully this outlook was as nearsighted as it looks today.

Eons

There is a Christian hymn that is well loved here in Scandinavia, and I have also seen it in German, but I cannot find it in English. It is called "Navnet Jesus blekner aldri" (The name Jesus never fades). The melody is African, Zulu I believe, but very uplifting even to us frosty North Europeans. The lyrics fit strangely in, in a manner of speaking, with something that has recurred to me lately. It is kind of disturbing, though. The very name of the song, and the very end of it (translated on the fly for the benefit of foreign readers):

"When the sun no more is shining,
Jesus' name does still shine on.
Then the saved host in Heaven
loudly praises it in song."

Uhm. Perhaps so. Then again, perhaps not. That's the thing. And a kind of Christmassy thing it is too; but for now, the sun.

***

Scientists have had the opportunity to study millions of stars, and ours is one of the most stable and well-behaved of the lot. But it is steadily growing brighter. And about 5 billion years from now, it undergoes a dramatic shift in its fusion process, and expands to swallow Mercury and Venus. Earth, its surface molten by the heat, will be circling inside its corona. The friction will no doubt slow our planet down. Whether Earth will take the plunge into the fiery globe is uncertain, before the sun sheds its outer layer and contracts into a small white dwarf no larger than Earth is today. It continues to shine while shrinking, for quite a while. But approximately 6 billion years from now, it will be quite pale.

So ... 6 billion years from now, will we STILL be sitting or standing around in Heaven singing hymns to this man who walked on Earth when it was still green and blue?

Don't get me wrong, I am a great fan of Jesus and I'd like to live forever with him. But surely there must be better ways to spend 6 billion years than just having one big church service. Was this what Jesus came for? It would diminish him much in my eyes, if I were to learn that his plans for our shared future is him sitting in the middle while we sing his praises for billions of years. Come on already. Jesus isn't that kind of guy. Not my Jesus anyway.

Ah, but that is the sore spot. I have evolved a lot during these 2000 years. What if Jesus has not? Not to mention the God of Moses and Joshua, who ordered Israel to kill every man, woman and child of the enemies in the land, and then the cattle and the sheep and the camels, everything that drew breath. Well, that would certainly put down the Intifada. But the Jews today have evolved beyond that point (believe it or not). Hasn't their God too? If you ask them, I am sure they will still say they worship the same God as Moses did.

***

Some weeks ago, I bought a graphic novel, The Life Eaters by David Brin and Scott Hampton. I have enjoyed Brin's science fiction writing in the past, but this is slightly different. It is set in a world where Nazism was not crushed in 1945. Because they had the assistance of the Norse gods, brought back by the power of human sacrifice. This was the true meaning of the concentration camps. Why transport people from all over Europe to kill them? In this reality, the reason was twofold: To use them as a burnt offering to summon the old gods, and to strike a blow against the Abrahamic religions. In Brin's world, the defining moment of religion seems to have been Abraham's non-sacrifice of Isaac. I largely agree.

Back in our world, such as it is. God talks to Moses and reveals his name. He mentions that he was the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but they did not know him by this name. This extremely well known passage proves what we may call a gradual or progressive revelation. God has not told everything from the start, but kept adding new knowledge when the time was ripe for it. Abraham was surely troubled when he went off with his son Isaac to sacrifice him on an altar to God, but he went along with it. God had to send an angel to stay his hand at the last moment. Many centuries later, God spoke to one of the prophets about the evils of idolaters, how the even sacrificed their own children in fire, "a thought that never came up in my heart" says the God of Abraham. Yeah, right.

Years ago, when I was in my twenties, I was jobless for a while. I sat in the public library in Kristiansand and read a book by C.G. Jung: Answer to Job. As a Christian, I found my very mind reeling at the concept that God may have evolved over time. Admittedly, Jung made it clear that he was not talking about God as such, but our image of God. The God in our hearts, so to speak. As our culture evolved, so did God. Or perhaps the sequence was the opposite: As God in us evolved, so did we. The two are hard to keep apart.

"You have heard it was said to the ancients" said Jesus, "but I say unto you..." And he changed the focus of the law from formal crime to the good and evil inside our hearts. It was pretty revolutionary, but if you ask a modern Jew he will say that much of it is obvious. He will also point out that the prophets went part of the way from Moses to there, and that other rabbis around Jesus time taught similar things, if not quite the same. (I believe Rabbi Hillel was an advocate for the so-called Silver Rule: "Don't do unto others what you don't want them to do unto you". But it's been some years since I read about it so if any of my Jewish readers will correct me please do.)

In the Middle Ages, Jesus was often portrayed as a king sitting on an ornate throne, ruling and being worshiped by his subject. But Jesus himself said: "He who will be the greatest among you, shall be everyone's servant and slave." The Jesus I read about in the Bible can be hard and uncompromising in his teaching, but mild and compassionate in life. I can very well see why Psychology Today compares him to an ideal chaste boyfriend. I'd like to think that we understand Jesus better now than they did in the Middle Ages. But is this the end?

***

To us Christians, Jesus is the focus point of the Bible. (The Jews, from which we learned most of the book, will obviously disagree.) If you look at the beginning of the Bible, it should be obvious to most that there is a strong element of myth. I may write more detailed about that another time, how the creation myth in Genesis seems like a handed-down version of the scientific version. (Like a story told by one to another many times until greatly distorted.) Names, places, times ... there seems to be a lot of leeway and artistic liberty, so to speak, in the beginning of the book. Why not in the end? We don't walk on streets of gold these days, but there are many other wonders that could be said to exceed that. Pearly gates and golden streets are not really all that important. The important part is to achieve the Kingdom of Heaven, which comes not so that we can see it with out eyes (says Jesus, and he ought to know). But it may still come, even so.

I have been told (I wasn't there) that in ancient languages including Hebrew, "eternity" could also – or even primarily – mean a long period of time, an eon. If so, we may live to outlast the New Jerusalem. Well, I doubt I shall physically see that happen in this body and this soul. But even though I must die, I believe my spirit will go home to God, who gave it. And I don't expect it to sit passive there for all eternity. There may be untold eons yet to come, of which the prophesies are not yet uttered. And I hope to be there, in some form. Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom!