Easter 3 2010

Get Up!

TS Eliot wrote a series of long poems called “The Four Quartets”

The last stanza of the last poem reads thus:

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always—
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.

Now poetry might not be for everyone I realize. I am just using this as an example that words convey more meaning than just definition – they convey emotion, understanding, and even ambition.

So, anyone want to hazard a guess at what Eliot was talking about? Okay, I want to change the background, and have you look at the picture again, so to speak: I will tell you what Eliot has in his mind when he wrote the poem, and then read it again:

The title of this fourth quartet is “Little Gidding”; it is a small town in England that is home to a monastery founded in the 1600’s... This is really a poem about religion. As he goes through the work he meditates on the meaning of our actions, and the many instances when we realize that what we called an end was just the beginning of another move, of something else, and vice versa. Birth and dying are moments of equal importance, we are born and we die, and in each is contained the seed of the other. Now, you should also know that Water is a symbol for God, Fire means the Holy Spirit and that the Rose is a symbol for Jesus, and that Eliot believes in the Trinity.

So the poem is about life and faith; it says our lives have meaning, but mostly, Eliot is arguing that we see that meaning most clearly in beginnings and endings. It is as we move from one thig to another that we find new meaning and move on. And while we keep that in mind, we have to also remember that for Eliot, God is constantly present; but he wants to express that in poetry, so water is the creative force of God the Father, and fire symbolizes the Holy Spirit and the Rose is Jesus...

Now, listen again:

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always—
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.

Did it mean something different because of the little bit of explanation that I gave you? Is it not much deeper, much more meaningful, when we see not only the emotions conveyed, but the thoughts behind them?

Here is a story of Easter:

“Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"

He asked, "Who are you, Lord?" The reply came, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do."

So; You all might know this from Sunday School, but let me do the same thing I did with Eliot and give you just a glimmer of history behind the words.

Early Christianity was not persecuted by the Romans; that came quite a few decades after Jesus died, early Christianity was a revival movement within the Jewish church; and not a popular one. The traditional folks said that the way to gain God’s favour was to follow the rules, exactly – if you do everything God expects, God will love you. These people were called the Pharisees; and everyone went to their churches because it was a simple and neat solution. Wear cotton, pray five times, wash your hands a certain way, give 10%, don’t eat pork, and God loves you. (this is a stereotype, by the way, there are over 1000 rules in the Bible that the Pharisees thought you should follow to the letter of the law, and it was tough.)

Jesus, you may remember, said something different. He said you could boil it all down to a sentence; love God, Love everyone else, love yourself. If you pull that off, God loves you. Call it the spiritual approach rather than the practical approach.

Now Paul was such a good Pharisee that he wanted to stop this nonsense once and for all, arrest everyone who would not follow the rules, kick them out of the churches, straighten this mess all out. And he was good at it; he was the most feared Pharisee in the Holy Land because he was perfect, and did not tolerate one iota of deviation.

Now the one other thing you should know is that there is no word “Get up” in this passage in Greek; the word is “resurrect”

Now listen: “...suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"

"He asked, "Who are you, Lord?" The reply came, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do."

Now here is Easter, as understood by Eliot, explaining Paul:

Everything in life ends; and in that moment we see more clearly the choice that lays before us; and it is a choice. The end is not an ending; it is simply the place where we see quite clearly what has to change. You could be searching your whole life for this; or you could stumble upon it some idle Tuesday on the road to somewhere else; and get knocked off your horse.

In that moment – in the moment of ending; of whatever ending; be it naiveté, be it youth, be it a relationship, or be it life itself, God speaks – and what God says is this: Come back to life – move on – it will become clear what you are to do next.

And as Eliot has God say, “...And all shall be well and All manner of thing shall be well...”