The Beginning at the End

...a poem from my friend John (you can find books of his poetry on Amazon.com):

Standing in the Middle of My Life

By John Graber

Down this road above my Mississippi,
along Lake Pepin, I have often walked
but never seen what I have seen today.
Down the steep bank through sumac reds
and past the ash and willow yellows,
impossibly swimming in cold October water,
were all the people I can’t forgive
and all I fear who can’t forgive me.

And they all were happy, wet with forgiveness,
all glad to be wearing the same robe of water.
They were all one and all was forgiven.

But how could I trust their faces
calling me into the same water they swam in?
How could I let their water flow over me?
How can forgiving and being forgiven be the same?
How can both cover me as it covers them,
as is the nature of water?

How could I have stood and just watched?

Texts:

Psalm 52

Jeremiah 21:11-14

Revelation 21:22-22:5

I must confess: Revelation has been a tough book for me to swallow.  It is not so much that what it says bothers me, necessarily.  What bothers me about this book is that it has been used to predict the unpredictable, to threaten punishment and destruction, and the beauty of the book has been traded for brute force.

"And the city has no need of son or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the lamb," (Revelation 21:23).

This same theme repeats in 22:5 "And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever."

The end of the story seems to repeat the beginning.  We find ourselves taken back to the Garden of Eden, given a glimpse of life everlasting, of forgiveness overflowing, and of love abounding.  It speaks to a reality so other, so alien, so far from where we live, that we want to focus on that which we can understand rather than standing in awe at that which we cannot.  "Nothing accursed will be found there any more," (Revelation 22:3) because the Curse could not hold those who were named Beloved.

The Old Adam and the Old Eve have not been drowned in our baptisms (they are good underwater swimmers!); but I am not sure their destination is eradication.  I think their destination is more likely the waters of the River of Life, in which they are made new... but I'm not sure they are so much made new as they are restored to their Original Selves.  And so the end is the beginning, and the beginning is the end.  The waters of Chaos and the waters of baptism give way to the River of Life, sweeping us up into the Love which has held us since before time began.