Prelude
I
When, finally, the last church shuts its doors;
when we run out of new identities
to choose from; when the politicians have
enough of power and wealth to make sure they
can always get a little more, and each
is safely snuggled in the pocket of
some corporation; when the next great plan
to save humanity falls through; when all
are duly boosted to deter the next
pandemic—or the next vaccine; when mobs
make downtown commerce a forgotten art;
when every word we speak is only hate;
when culture doesn’t matter anymore
and no one listens to the evening news
(since one lie’s just as good as all the rest);
when families are a distant memory,
and euthanasia’s just the next best thing
to make sure we have quality of life;
when prosecutors work themselves out of
a job and cops don’t ever dare to leave
their station house; when coastal cities are
abandoned and submerged; when art becomes
at last freed from all need to understand
or to explain; when war is everywhere
denounced and everywhere a fact; when
every desperate refugee and all
those seeking immigration are reduced
to some agenda item, and the poor
and homeless huddled masses are by all
forgotten; when we’re burning worthless cash
to keep our homes warm in the winter, if
we have a home at all; and when, because
no recognized authority exists
to tell us what is orderly and what
is not, and every person everywhere
does only what is right in their own eyes;
which is to say, that when at last the world,
in all its facets, institutions, people groups,
and parts, is ruled and populated by
the worst of our convictions; then perhaps
we’ll pause to wonder how we got this way
and how we can escape or start again.
But will such musings even matter then?
And will we care more then than we do now?
II
It came upon us slowly, not like dawn
but like the night dusk ushers in, a night
of wanton excess, bitter wrangling and
divisions, broken promises, despair,
and fear. The prophets of the New Day fought
and vilified each other, carved out turf,
raised banners, built defenses, and found new
ways to set brethren in array against
each other, all sides claiming that the Day
would dawn with them, and cursing those who shared
their common Name as sycophants and worse.
Each conflict, each retort, each plot and scheme
to gain supremacy was justified
as truth. Yet each became a wedge that split
the Wood of Calvary almost past hope
of restoration. This was nothing more
than hubris scorning unity for gain,
a bald denial of the teaching they
proclaimed themselves the keepers of, the first
steps of absimilation[1] from divine
design, an open gate through which a flood
of hellish lies[2] has overwhelmed the world
before our eyes. I know that some will point
to many large achievements to rebuke
such observations: See the churches, schools,
and multitudes won to the fold of Christ!
Note also all the many efforts to
relieve the poor and heal the sick, promote
the Word and publish the Good News! See this
or that large institution, all that art
and poetry and statesmanship and more!
Of course, I see the merit in such works.
But could it be that we have been deceived
about such things? Put too much stock in them?
Such works are testimony to the grace
of God; they demonstrate His faithfulness
despite our sadly settled status quo
of separation and suspicion, cold
indifference, and refusal to seek ways
to realize the oneness Jesus said
would validate our witness and convince
the world.[3] Well, it is clear the world is not
convinced. Our failure to make unity
our watchword and to bend our labors to
achieve and nurture it—while we pursue
instead mere doctrine, or tradition, or
ecstatic episodes, or this view of
the sacrament, that liturgy, those songs,
or that ecclesiology—has led
the world to turn a blind eye to the Church,
and more than that, to Jesus Christ, the Lord.
The New Day which was then announced is more
like Hezekiah’s sun dial.[4] What broke forth
upon the world in those first centuries
has slipped back and declined, so that the light
of the New Day a stalled and postponed dawn
has now become. And we continue our
pursuit of everything but unity,
the oneness Jesus taught us to desire
and the apostles worked so hard to keep.
A oneness, not of institutions or
mere creeds, not written down on paper, but
inscribed within the heart of every true
believer; oneness in our reigning Lord
and in His peace and pleasure; oneness which
partakes of true Divinity[5] and shines
in hope and generosity and love.
This is the oneness Jesus seeks and which
the world should see in those who name
His Name.[6] But we His vision do not share,
nor have we His expressed desire made our
priority. The oneness Jesus seeks
has no place on our docket. None at all.
Thus, year by year, for generations now,
we who declare the mission of the Lord
to be our purpose and His ways to be
our ways, continue building on the sands
of vain dissimilarity, and scorn
the strong foundation Jesus laid for us.
And our absimilation from the Lord’s
design has made a broad space for the world
of wrong belief to make itself anew,
year-in, year-out, in something other than
the image of our God. What vanity
to celebrate our feeble works as though
these were the main objective of
our Savior’s sacrifice! He said that He
would build His Church, but we have chosen to
build churches and denominations—by
the thousands!—and refuse to work hard[7] (or
at all) to gain and keep the unity
which Jesus taught, and which can only by
the Holy Spirit’s power be realized.
Our blatant disobedience provokes
God’s wrath; we must admit our sin, repent,
and seek new paths until all paths converge
in One.[8] For we have compromised and scorned
our precious heritage by vanity,
hypocrisy, and flimsy boasts; so we
must see the damage we have done before
we can—in some soon generation hence,
as we might hope—take up the calling to
resume the dawn, pursuing the New Day
and working side-by-side to enter it.
For reflection or discussion
- How would you describe the influence and impact your church has on its local community?
- What efforts does your church make to realize more oneness with other like-minded churches?
Our goal in The InVerse Theology Podcast is to bring poetry and theology together in ways that make reading both an enjoyable and instructive experience. Listeners will have noted the steady duh-DUH iambic drumbeat of today’s reading, but without rhyme. This form is called blank verse, and it is a most appropriate form for setting forth important matters. Share today’s podcast with a friend, then get together to discuss it. For more insight to the theme of our series on Absimilation, order a copy of our book, The Church Captive from The Ailbe Bookstore, either in book form or as a free PDF for your e-reader.
[1]An archaic but useful word which can perhaps best be understood when compared to its opposite, assimilation. With respect to believers and God, absimilation is the opposite of what Evelyn Underhill describes as assimilation: “We know a thing only by uniting with it; by assimilating it; by an interpenetration of it and ourselves. It gives itself to us, just in so far as we give ourselves to it; and it is because our outflow towards things is usually so perfunctory and so languid, that our comprehension of things is so perfunctory and languid too.” Evelyn Underhill. Practical Mysticism: A Little Book for Normal People (Kindle Edition), Locations 143-145.
[2] Revelation 12.15
[3] John 17.21
[4] Isaiah 38.8
[5] 2 Peter 1.2-4
[6] John 13.35
[7] Ephesians 4.3
[8] John 14.6
