Water
There was a voice message. “I heard about the flash floods in Dallas,” it said. “I hope you’re all right.”
I was, largely because I’m able to walk a lot of the time and don’t have to get out my car. But one friend got stuck in the mud and had to be pulled out.
And walking isn’t risk-free. In some places the sidewalk gets covered with mud that has been washed down. There's so much, you have to go back, try another way. (It’s like the snow-slush in New York City: you get to a corner and can’t go anywhere without stepping in several inches of the stuff; you retreat. I say, living in Dallas is really just like living in New York City.)
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Water in the Bible is the chaotic, threatening realm that surrounds life. The firmament of Genesis 1 (the sky) is up there to hold the waters back. But sometimes they break through (as in floods). In the deep places are waters also, and sometimes they rise up and threaten in their own way. The Philistines, by the way, represent these waters. They are ever on the edge of the people of Israel, never fully defeated, always reminding of the chaos that’s beyond.
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God gives us life but life is never fully safe or secure. Sometimes we get stuck in the mud. Sometimes people drown in the waters. We wonder, like Job, why things aren’t arranged better for us. Why is human life so tenuous, so fragile, so perilously perched on the edge of non-existence?
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And then we get that voice message. Our friends come over. Neighbors bring casseroles and, with them, their selves. We sit at the table together. We replay the message: “I hope you’re all right.”
We are all right, together. We have communion.
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Out & About. Sunday, September 30, I’ll be preaching at St. David of Wales on Ector Street in Denton, Texas; the services are at 8 and 10:30 am, and 5 pm. And at about 9:30, I’ll speak to the adult class on “Love, Caregiving, Death, and God.”
October 14, the first “Good Books & Good Talk” seminar, on Murder in the Cathedral by T. S. Eliot. We’ll discuss the book (which means participants need to read it in advance) from 6 to 7:30 pm at Incarnation in Dallas. Reservations are not required, but do drop me a line if you think you’ll be coming—it will help preparations in the room.