I am currently in a doctoral program, studying semiotics—cultural symbols—which requires a great deal of reading. Probably the greatest benefit of an education is the wise guide (teacher) who can give a curated tour of the best there is in any given subject, and such is the case with this program. Dr. Leonard Sweet has opened the door to an entire world of scholars and theologians who look beneath the surface of things and reveal mysteries. Now I would like to open that world to you.
At a certain point in the second half, it felt as though I were reading an autobiography in the form of a devotional diary. It felt like sitting with Len Sweet early in the morning (or maybe late at night), when time slows down and we are in that mystical place between heaven and earth where inspiration and revelation fill us to overflowing.
This course is an intellectual hothouse of sorts, reading Polanyi’s life work and Sweet’s life work in a matter of two short weeks a piece. The heat brings the flowers to bloom much quicker than out there in the wild, and there is a bouquet to share each week.
However, going much slower, reading Jesus Imagination as a devotional, interspersing the music with the readings, doing the discussion questions, the whole brain integration, trying one of the activities at a time would be a really beneficial way to take in this book. Some of the activities in the back lend themselves to day retreats, spiritual workshops, or even weekend retreats.
I smiled reading page 487. Professor Sweet is also a prophet, knowing before I knew what I would be meditating on.
Shafts of Light
There were many delightful moments, and happily surprising quotes, in this second half. I will pick my favorites for this post.
From Fringe to Family
I thought about Jesus making the fringe family on one big street party (p 273). That is a phenomenon humans are well-acquainted with. As a culture shifts this way or that, what was in the middle appears to shift as well (though it is, in actuality, stationary). But it is more than that, is it not. Transfiguration transforms fringe into family. Recentering the world around Jesus’s table changes the way value is understood (p 285).
If all are cancerously sick with sin, then those who choose wholeness, even dressed in rags, have infinitely more than those dying in their costly raiment.
Fruit of the Vine
Thinking about Jesus as the gardener and also the vine brought to mind the fruit of the vine, and Paul’s exhortation to be filled with the Spirit rather drunk on wine (p 279–283). I realized the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of the vine, and the filling of the soul, so much sweeter and more intoxicating than wine, finds its metaphor in Jesus’s seven pure jars of wedding wine. All of these thoughts flowed into thinking about Jesus as the bridegroom, feasting with his bride, who is also his daughter, born from the wound in his side, and of course that recalled the first man, who birthed his woman from his side. All these motifs would emerge as I read on (p 329).
Flash of Power
Jesus sending the swine into the sea as a metaphor of sending the Roman legion with the boar flag into the sea reminded me of God sending Pharoah’s army into the Re(e)d Sea, of Sisera’s army of iron chariots being overcome in the wadi by a flash flood (302). What a God moment that must have been for Jesus’s followers as these same stories flooded their own minds.
Flights of Fancy
There were some amazing insights on page 314. If you get this book (and I hope you do) there is another really good one on page 404, and on 408, which ties in quite well with Primal Intelligence.
I was stopped dead in my tracks by the quote from W.H. Auden (p 323). I’ve long said we need to spend quality time in the second and third realms—the spiritual realm and the realm of imagination.
Flesh of Christ
Josephus wrote that the temple curtain was blue, white, scarlet, and purple, and was a Babylonian tapestry (incredibly fine). It depicted a panorama of the heavens and had flowers as well. The Essenes described animated cherubim on the curtain (also Exodus 21:31).
The tearing of the curtain, which was the tearing of Jesus’s body, would have revealed not the ark, but a depression in Zion’s peak where the ark would have rested, had it still existed (p 328). But that ancient, hollowed (and hallowed) place, empty of its ark, is the perfect metaphor of Jesus’s empty tomb, also empty, for the Christ the living Lord is arisen, hallelujah. The seat of mercy and the very presence of God, guarded for millennia by angels with the flaming swords, is at last open to all to come near.
Passive to Force-Filled
Listening to music does not make us human, making music does (p 350). More broadly, it is not receiving the breath of God that made us human, but rather what the breath of God did to our minds, hearts, and spirits as we breathed in and out, as we spoke in symbols, and sang in symbols, as God’s breath animated us to live and move and have our being.
That is what makes us human.
Being created with the ability, the capacity, to receive aligns us with all soulish creatures. But soulful is having the capacity to create and share.
Fiery Swords
I am still exploring all the connections Sweet makes in this section—it all began with the golden lampstand (p 420). From the man and woman’s point of view, the Tree of Life stood between two giant shafts of perpetual flame. All that had been their innocence, their intimacy with God, their knowledge of the wisdom of God, their access to God and God’s words, was now captured in that fire-framed picture, a way guarded so that they should not, would not, could not come too near.
The next time that image arises is on Mount Horeb, as Moses hurriedly removed his sandals, for he was standing on sacred ground before a perpetually burning bush.
That holy fire, the shekinah of God, would travel with the Israelites for forty years, and rest above the mercy seat of the ark, once the tabernacle was assembled. The wings of two golden cherubim flashed like fire over the atonement seat, and more golden cherubimwoven into the Holy of Holies’ curtain, constantly flickering in the flames of the menorah, guarded the way to that sacred place.
Before the curtain stood the menorah, a perpetually flaming almond tree in full bud, bloom, and fruit. For what, 1,500 years, a flaming almond tree stood before the flashing swords of cherubim who guarded the seat of mercy, throne of God, life-giving atonement, again guarded by two more solid gold cherubim.
And then … Pentecost! When the living temple was lit up by the living God with the perpetual flame of the Living Spirit over the heads of all those who formed the living menorah.
I could see it all in my mind’s eye, a vision of of revelation as these things changed shape, one leading to the next. Man, doncha just love when that happens?
Final Thoughts
When I Was a Child
I found one of my childhood mottos on page 385. One day, as I was reading (I was eight years old), I got it into my mind that whatever we love, whatever we’re grateful for and appreciate, whatever we take in, we should also produce. I loved reading, art, and music, so I wrote a book, I illustrated it, and I made some songs to go with it. I have kept that motto ever since.
And Now That I Am Old
I take to heart “… you’re not late. You’re right on time” (p 455). Amen, may it be so, Lord Jesus.
Where did you go in your imagination this week?
