Thursday, July 21, 2005
Imaginative Reading 3: Silence
“In the end, what can be said about Silence?” Hulitt Gloer began the discussion of Shusako Endo’s thought-provoking novel about a 17th Century Portuguese priest in Japan at a time when Christians were being persecuted. The conversation was structured mainly around questions and comparisons.
We began by bringing up biblical passages that address human or divine silence – the examples included a range of types of silence – silence before suffering like in Job, silence before the glory of God in the psalms and revelation, but also psalmists and prophets asking God to break silence and stop suffering. Gloer brought up 1 Kings 19 as an important passage in this context:
(God) said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. (1 Kings 19:11-12 NRSV)
Elijah hears God’s voice in the silence, which brings us to a paradox: how do we hear God in silence? Gloer suggested that “the silence of God is not silence at all but the presence of God when all else has fallen away.” With this idea in the background, discussion continued to the story of Father Rodrigues and the Japanese Christians, and some of the central questions in the book.
Questions that were raised included: “what is real love and what is pity?” “who are the real faithful?” “what shape does faithfulness take?” “can faithfulness come through betrayal?” “Can there be a good apostasy?”
These questions brought up other questions about the meaning of the cross, with phrases like “the scandal of the cross” and “the shame of the cross” put in a new context. Gloer articulated the issues well when he asked “is this book suggesting that our understanding of faithfulness in the way Christ Jesus was faithful… may be manifested in an unexpected form, even an unheard-of form?” and when he said “I think the book is asking something more radical than “is there a good apostasy?.” It’s possible that our faithfulness is apostasy? What are we willing to give up to be truly faithful?… That’s what this book asks me. Am I willing to seek out those things and give them up?”
7/14
Earlier: Imaginative Reading 2: The Grapes of Wrath
Interdisciplinary Application • Preaching • Reading • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink