Postscript for Day 3: Today I was picking up a sandwich at Mancino's and 93.1 The Lite radio station was playing on their system and guess what song came on? "Here I Go Again on My Own!" I asked the workers to confirm if I was actually hearing Whitesnake on a lite rock radio station. I think they were too young to be familiar with the song.
OK Here's Day 4 entry.
In Exodus 2, we get acquainted with another fugitive who, like Cain, hops on the eastbound interstate after he commits a murder. Moses attempts to settle down in an isolated nomadic community of Midian, get married, have kids and stay out of trouble by tending sheep in the wilderness.
But this Hebrew-Egyptian-Midianite finds out that, like Macbeth, he has stumbled onto path of blood and there must be more blood to come.
The first encounter with blood is a mysterious story in Exodus 4 that happens in the middle of the night as Moses and his family are traveling back to Egypt. A shadow moves up to their tent, they see a knife in the intruder's hand, he's intending to kill someone, is it Moses or his son? Moses’ wife does not scream or hide in her sleeping bag, instead, she grabs a sharp rock and circumcises her son. It seems to be a very unpleasant campout for the whole family. Why was it a life or death matter that Moses had an uncircumcised son? I wonder if Moses' parents forgot to circumcise him while they were so preoccupied with keeping him undrowned. Was Moses trying to put his whole past behind him, to allow his son to escape the responsibility and relationship of being a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel? I wonder if Zipporah realized that night that she knew very little about her husband. Did she know he was a Hebrew slave baby before he became an Egyptian prince? Did she ever guess he was a murderer? Does she have any idea what Moses’ God is expecting him to do for the next forty years? Something shifts in the family dynamics when a woman holds her son’s bloody foreskin against her husband’s body and says, “Truly you are a bridegroom of blood to me!”
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Day 3: Avenger of Blood
Sing praises to the Lord, who dwells in Zion. Declare his deeds among the peoples. For he who avenges blood is mindful of them; he does not forget the cry of the afflicted. Psalm 9:11-12
I had a phase in 8th and 9th grade? early high school? when I enjoyed listening to “heavy metal” music. At least that is what it was called then. Now if I hear one of those big-hair band ballads by White Lion or Whitesnake or Def Leppard or AC/DC, the songs seem to have lost weight—“light metal?” At least compared to the musical genre of thrash metal. I know next to nothing about thrash metal, but I just sampled a few audio clips from a band called Avenger of Blood on their My Space page, now that is heavy. Listen to one of the clips for a minute and note how it presses down upon the brain.
Until this week, I was not familiar with the term blood-avenger or its synonym Avenger of Blood. But it is a common phrase in some sections of the Old Testament, it seems. In ancient cultures, we’d be unlikely to run across the type of people that act out a typical Law and Order plotline. No undercover detective pairs, badge-flashing police, swat teams, prosecuting attorneys, plea-bargaining defense lawyers, judges, bailiffs. In those less centralized social systems, justice and order was upheld by clan members. Every person had a close relative who was obligated to be their blood-avenger in case they were killed. Numbers 35 and Deuteronomy 19 describe a bit more of how it all worked, for the Hebrew people at least. Unless the death was proven to be unintentional manslaughter, the avenger of blood had the right, the privilege, the duty, the obligation, the burden, the pleasure?—of turning the community right-side up again by putting the murderer to death. No amount of ransom money could fix the problem, only the spilled blood of the murderer. Here's the Avenger of Blood entry from the Jewish Encyclopedia.
So members of the twelve tribes of Israel who were telling or hearing the old, old story of Cain and Abel must have recognized the tragic irony of fratricide. Cain as Abel’s closest blood relative, twin brother!, is also Abel’s blood avenger. What happens if the blood-avenger and the murderer are the same person? That creates a problem in a system of justice that assumes family members would protect the lives of their own kin. I wonder if people in a blood-avenger system thought it strange that Cain and Abel’s God didn’t avenge the murder and kill Cain himself. Or stranger still, that Cain’s God went so far as to put a mark on Cain to deter anyone else from taking on the work of Abel’s blood-avenger. It all seems quite mysterious. Why isn’t God answering the cries of Abel’s spilled blood? Has he forgotten Abel now that Cain has left town and a replacement son, Seth, has arrived on the scene?
I had a phase in 8th and 9th grade? early high school? when I enjoyed listening to “heavy metal” music. At least that is what it was called then. Now if I hear one of those big-hair band ballads by White Lion or Whitesnake or Def Leppard or AC/DC, the songs seem to have lost weight—“light metal?” At least compared to the musical genre of thrash metal. I know next to nothing about thrash metal, but I just sampled a few audio clips from a band called Avenger of Blood on their My Space page, now that is heavy. Listen to one of the clips for a minute and note how it presses down upon the brain.
Until this week, I was not familiar with the term blood-avenger or its synonym Avenger of Blood. But it is a common phrase in some sections of the Old Testament, it seems. In ancient cultures, we’d be unlikely to run across the type of people that act out a typical Law and Order plotline. No undercover detective pairs, badge-flashing police, swat teams, prosecuting attorneys, plea-bargaining defense lawyers, judges, bailiffs. In those less centralized social systems, justice and order was upheld by clan members. Every person had a close relative who was obligated to be their blood-avenger in case they were killed. Numbers 35 and Deuteronomy 19 describe a bit more of how it all worked, for the Hebrew people at least. Unless the death was proven to be unintentional manslaughter, the avenger of blood had the right, the privilege, the duty, the obligation, the burden, the pleasure?—of turning the community right-side up again by putting the murderer to death. No amount of ransom money could fix the problem, only the spilled blood of the murderer. Here's the Avenger of Blood entry from the Jewish Encyclopedia.
So members of the twelve tribes of Israel who were telling or hearing the old, old story of Cain and Abel must have recognized the tragic irony of fratricide. Cain as Abel’s closest blood relative, twin brother!, is also Abel’s blood avenger. What happens if the blood-avenger and the murderer are the same person? That creates a problem in a system of justice that assumes family members would protect the lives of their own kin. I wonder if people in a blood-avenger system thought it strange that Cain and Abel’s God didn’t avenge the murder and kill Cain himself. Or stranger still, that Cain’s God went so far as to put a mark on Cain to deter anyone else from taking on the work of Abel’s blood-avenger. It all seems quite mysterious. Why isn’t God answering the cries of Abel’s spilled blood? Has he forgotten Abel now that Cain has left town and a replacement son, Seth, has arrived on the scene?
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Day 2: Blood Will Have Blood
I saw a live production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth last month and the visual effects made sure to communicate the gory-ness of the plotline. “Blood” is a common word throughout the text of the tragedy.
It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood.
Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak;
Augurs and understood relations have
By maggotpies and choughs and rooks brought forth
The secret’st man of blood.
I am in blood
Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er.
from Macbeth 3.4
Macbeth says the above words to his wife shortly after the stabbing deaths of King Duncan and Banquo. He has just been haunted by Banquo’s bloody ghost at a dinner party, and now realizes that even the natural world does not rest until all secret murderers have been exposed and vindicated. Macbeth admits he is past the point of no return, however, and we audience members know as well as he that whether he chooses to sink or swim, it’ll be in blood.
In the first biblical story of bloodshed in Genesis 4, there is a similar realization that the natural world is a prosecuting witness to murder, insisting in its own way that “blood must have blood.” Cain’s field opened its mouth to drink Abel’s blood, and now Cain’s future efforts to farm the land will be futile. Listen, what is Abel’s blood saying? “Execute justice, spill the blood of the murderer, avenge this atrocity, or the land will be perpetually polluted!” How can that be ignored? It is the only way to get Nature back in tandem with Humanity. This reality was emphasized to the Israelites who were being taught how to live in community with each other and the Lord who had freed them from slavery: 'Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.’ Numbers 35:33 It’s not just a “bad” deed that violates an abstract moral sphere, it seems like murder literally pollutes and distresses the created world.
What will be done? Who will respond to the crying out of Abel’s blood and remediate the polluted land? Who will execute Cain? Who will make things right?
It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood.
Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak;
Augurs and understood relations have
By maggotpies and choughs and rooks brought forth
The secret’st man of blood.
I am in blood
Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er.
from Macbeth 3.4
Macbeth says the above words to his wife shortly after the stabbing deaths of King Duncan and Banquo. He has just been haunted by Banquo’s bloody ghost at a dinner party, and now realizes that even the natural world does not rest until all secret murderers have been exposed and vindicated. Macbeth admits he is past the point of no return, however, and we audience members know as well as he that whether he chooses to sink or swim, it’ll be in blood.
In the first biblical story of bloodshed in Genesis 4, there is a similar realization that the natural world is a prosecuting witness to murder, insisting in its own way that “blood must have blood.” Cain’s field opened its mouth to drink Abel’s blood, and now Cain’s future efforts to farm the land will be futile. Listen, what is Abel’s blood saying? “Execute justice, spill the blood of the murderer, avenge this atrocity, or the land will be perpetually polluted!” How can that be ignored? It is the only way to get Nature back in tandem with Humanity. This reality was emphasized to the Israelites who were being taught how to live in community with each other and the Lord who had freed them from slavery: 'Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.’ Numbers 35:33 It’s not just a “bad” deed that violates an abstract moral sphere, it seems like murder literally pollutes and distresses the created world.
What will be done? Who will respond to the crying out of Abel’s blood and remediate the polluted land? Who will execute Cain? Who will make things right?
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Day 1: Body Fluids are Flowing
As a newer stay-at-home mom, I have been having close encounters with bodily fluids much more often. My toddler has been literally snot-nosed for the last three weeks. Those streams of mucus began flowing the morning after he spewed chunks of macncheese vomit on my hair, pajamas, pillow and sheets in the middle of the night. Last week, Douwe cut open his lip in two places after a stumble landed him face first into the ceramic pot of a houseplant. Within thirty seconds his clothes, my clothes and three rags were stained with blood. My hands get chapped on these cold February Tuesdays (laundry day) after I use cold water and the Fels-Naptha bar at the laundry tub to scrub out various stains of nose-blood, lip-blood, menstrual blood, urine, diarrhea, snot-crust, and vomit from shirts, onsies and bed linens. This afternoon, I forgot to change the sub-par Target diaper which only last about 2 hours (Huggies can absorb about 6 hours worth of urine), so while peeling squished broccoli and corn morsels from Douwe’s crotch area after supper, I noticed his pants were soaked from waist to shins. A bathroom and a bedroom rug were sprinkled with pee, one before, and one right after Douwe’s bath.
Last month I wrote a poem in anticipation of the upcoming celebration of Easter, and not surprisingly, it is preoccupied with bodily fluids. Of all the fluids that spew forth from our various orifices, blood, of course, gets front and center in the Christian religion, so I am going to spend the next six weeks till Easter paying some more attention to that fact. What is it about blood anyway? What does that gory liquid have to do with faith, hope and love? Today is Ash Wednesday, and this is the first of 40 entries under the theme “A Desperate Housewife’s Bloody Lenten Devotional.”
Here’s a blood-focused hymn that many 20th century Christians have sung a few times:
What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
For my pardon, this I see, Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
For my cleansing this my plea, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Nothing can for sin atone, Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
Naught of good that I have done, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my hope and peace, Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
This is all my righteousness, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Refrain: Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow
No other fount I know, Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Robert Lowry 1876
Is that over the top? I'm not quite sure what to think. It does seem a bit undignified to sing a song that is all about blood.
Last month I wrote a poem in anticipation of the upcoming celebration of Easter, and not surprisingly, it is preoccupied with bodily fluids. Of all the fluids that spew forth from our various orifices, blood, of course, gets front and center in the Christian religion, so I am going to spend the next six weeks till Easter paying some more attention to that fact. What is it about blood anyway? What does that gory liquid have to do with faith, hope and love? Today is Ash Wednesday, and this is the first of 40 entries under the theme “A Desperate Housewife’s Bloody Lenten Devotional.”
Here’s a blood-focused hymn that many 20th century Christians have sung a few times:
What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
For my pardon, this I see, Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
For my cleansing this my plea, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Nothing can for sin atone, Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
Naught of good that I have done, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my hope and peace, Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
This is all my righteousness, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Refrain: Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow
No other fount I know, Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Robert Lowry 1876
Is that over the top? I'm not quite sure what to think. It does seem a bit undignified to sing a song that is all about blood.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
LLBC
Our third annual Lanting Ladies Book Club over President's Day weekend took place in Shipshewana for an overnight event. We discussed Journey of A Thousand Miles, which is an autobiography by the Chinese pianist Lang Lang. Our discussion was very lively and interesting, and we also had time for lots of shopping, eating and catching up. Here's a photo of most but not all of our group.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Warm day at the park
We took advantage of a day in the 60's this week to go for a walk to the park. Douwe got new corrective shoes this week, and is starting to wear 18 month clothes, so he looks so much older and taller in these pictures!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Weekend in GR
We had a fun weekend involving a "house exchange" with our friends Dan and Amy who live in Grand Rapids. Douwe and I went to Michigan on Thursday and Jeff took the Amtrak after work on Friday. We had a nice time enjoying our beautiful accomodations, visiting some friends and relatives, and eating tasty lunches at Marie Katrib's and the Green Well. Douwe's favorite activity was the Children's Museum, because so many activities involved balls. He is no longer allowed to handle golf balls in our house because clock faces and tv screens are now endangered. So when he found golf balls at this museum, he was hoping to carry one in each hand for the rest of the vist. Dan and Amy returned to GR on Sunday before we went back to Chicago so we could share a meal and let the kids have some time to play and get more acquainted.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Citizen Ruth
I have been thinking a lot about a movie I watched a few weeks ago called Citizen Ruth. It is a self-labeled "pro-laugh comedy" from the mid 1990's, with exaggerated stereotypes of certain groups of people that were very humorous. Ruth is the main character and is an indigent woman who is addicted to inhalants and also pregnant. She has had her other four children removed from her care because she is unable to care for them. Many people interact with her and tell her they love her and they will help her, but there seems to be no authentic love extended to this woman. I felt sad after I saw the movie and I have been wondering, What would authentic love look like? If the State response, the religious response and the secular response to her dead-end situation are all lacking real helpfulness, who could help and heal a situation like this?
After I have been re-reading some Karl Barth commenting on Romans 1 and 2 this past weekend, I still don't have an answer but I feel better about Ruth's situation. Love will respond to Ruth and heal her because she did the only really right thing of any character in that movie: She curled up on the floor and cried, "Help me God, Help me God." She was much closer than any of her so-called helpers to the salvation they thought they were offering her.
After I have been re-reading some Karl Barth commenting on Romans 1 and 2 this past weekend, I still don't have an answer but I feel better about Ruth's situation. Love will respond to Ruth and heal her because she did the only really right thing of any character in that movie: She curled up on the floor and cried, "Help me God, Help me God." She was much closer than any of her so-called helpers to the salvation they thought they were offering her.
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