Thanksgiving

 

New Testament scholars are like other people, searching and reflecting and revising. Some of them write poetry. Richard Bauckham, whose work 'Jesus and the Eyewitnesses' is an important revisionist view of the Gospel narratives, has just published a book of poems called 'Tumbling into Light'. He tries different forms, including the perennially popular haiku. Steeped in scriptural understanding, his poems join in on the subject of today's readings about Faith and Thanksgiving.

 

Genesis 12 tells of the call of Abram, God’s promise to make of him a great nation and to bless him abundantly. At each step of the way into Canaan, he sets up an altar, an act of thanksgiving for all that has been provided.

After paradise

not even Lot’s wife looks back.

Memory turns round

is how Bauckham encapsulates Genesis, saying of God

God is the endlessly unexplored

garden

of the house where I belong. 

 

Psalm 50 declares a God of might who speaks with strength to his people. Righteousness is with the Lord. Although sacrifices are acknowledged, the people are reminded that every living thing is his, and that their sacrifice, or gift, should be one of thanksgiving and paying of vows. To do so assures them of his care in the day of trouble. The poet finds ways of giving thanks through words, as when he describes creation

Here among the trees

green

is a whole rainbow of colours

even asking of the Psalms themselves

If there were glory

only, praise like the last psalms,

would that be the end? 

 

Romans 4 reiterates these passages, emphasising that like us, Abraham “grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God.” Paul says that “his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness,” the same message being sent to us who attend to his Word. Bauckham says in another haiku:

Posing as righteous

even to myself I lie.

You are Otherwise.  

 

Meanwhile, Matthew 9 gives different expressions of faith through story. Matthew the tax collector simply gets up and follows Jesus when called, a moment that segues into accounts of Jesus hanging out with others of Matthew’s ilk, sinners and who knows what. In this case, mercy is the teaching, as distinct from simply making sacrifices. Similarly, it is faith, whether expressed in words or silence, that leads to cure for the women in need of restoration.   

Truly to face God

without looking at oneself

facing God – Jesus!

 

Too clever by half

are the foolish. The wise know

the folly of God.

 

[Pew note reflections by Philip Harvey on the readings for second Sunday after Pentecost, St Peter’s Eastern Hill, Melbourne.]