[minsocal]

Knowledge and Wisdom are different things.

The following is Wisdom:

They say it was a time of tension and despair
Fear like epidemic smog
choked peoples' souls
Then Godness, through a virgin,
entered history as a child, the story says.

It happened where 'twas needed most -
and yet where least expected:
a place where travelers shared a
space with cows and a ba-a-ing sheep.

Like sunshine piercing clouded sky he came.

Today despair can smother peoples' hope.
Yet some are open even now to Godness.
And though war, disease and fear
may spread a dark mantle o'er the world
some keep clear an openness to the Eternal,
trusting God's redeeming power is still at work

Again the saving Godness will be born!

Quoted from the Rev. Ernie Fowler, with the deepest respect,
he is 96 and still moving ahead.

[billmc]

minsocal, on Dec 6 2008, 12:20 PM, said:

Knowledge and Wisdom are different things.

Okay, I admit that I am a pretty immature person. I tend to prefer prose over poetry. Poetry reminds me of having to read through The Illiad or Julius Ceasar in high school. For some people, this kind of literal really gets their juices flowing. Images, metaphors, word-pictures. I'm not too big on them. Yes, I am more "knowledge" oriented with facts and figures than with the wisdom of images, symbols, and concepts of the ineffable.

But...

But I like the image of the incarnation continuing in every generation. Some Christians would exclaim that the incarnation happened once...and for all. While I know conceptually what they are saying, I think they miss something about God's "revelation" to us as humans -- we need incarnation for EVERY generation. If we don't have it, then our faith is based upon hearsay -- the faith of past generations. Though I disagree (theologically speaking) with the notion of God invading humanity from outside ("entering history", so-to-speak), I like the idea that God always here...if only we would look for Godness (new ambigous words, don't you love 'em?).

So thanks for the poem. Despite my rationalistic bent, it does speak to me. Some proponents of progressive Christianity insist that God-language only works when it is embedded into symbolism, poetry, metaphor. Maybe so.