On this mountain the Lord
Almighty will prepare
a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
the best of meats and the finest of wines.
On this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.
a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
the best of meats and the finest of wines.
On this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.
-Isaiah 25.6-8 (NIV)
I recently watched a good portion
of Oliver Stone’s ‘10 film Wall Street:
Money Never Sleeps. It’s the only
film I can think of in memory where the credits struck me more than the
movie. The tone of the credits just seemed
to strike a dissonant chord in relation to all that had preceded it. The movie is a kind of morality tale,
dramatically rendering the relational cost of greed. I won’t get to into the details. It will suffice to say (as with any story I
suppose) poor choices are made, people are betrayed, and relationships are torn,
frayed and severed. The credits though
reveal a happy reunion of family and friends built around a baby’s first
birthday party. A father is reunited
with his daughter. Business associates who were at odds are reconciled. Couples who had split are smiling and holding
each other affectionately. Then it
struck me, yes this is a birthday party, but this isn’t a birthday party. Ok, that may have you saying “huh?” It seems to me Stone was shooting for
something more all encompassing. The
tone of these reconciliations seemed full and final, meant to be juxtaposed
against the greed and betrayals that typified these character’s actions in the
film. What we were witnessing wasn’t
just a birthday party it was “home”.
Then I was struck by the sheer
transcendence underpinning that concept, and I realized “home” is at its core
an inherently eschatological concept. I
realize there’s a lot packed in there, so I will briefly unpack that sentence
with the thoughts that have been floating around my head. I will say the ideas are still freshly
forming, but it might be a chance to share how the conceptual sausage gets
made… so to speak.
First I will suggest that home is
different from house or shelter. The use
of the word house tends to simply signify a building where people live; nothing
special, just a place of residence.
Granted, home can have the same meaning, simply a place of residence,
but there is a secondary meaning inherent in home that is absent in house. Home tends to be used to signify a place of
residence where one’s affections are centered.
It intimates a place of refuge or asylum, perhaps even a place of safety
and love. The tone Stone strikes in his
credits is the latter. It’s home, though
not the nostalgic longing for the home of our youth. He pictured a present and future home, a current
and future place of asylum, safety and love.
I would suggest the longing for that type of home is something we all
share, and perhaps reveals something of the transcendence inside each of us.
One of the core dogmas of historic
Christianity is that everyone will exist forever. We all have a beginning, but no end. We are all made in the image of the Triune
God, and as such are more than just flesh and bone. We harbor unseen and un-seeable
components. We are made for a life in a
world where the seen and unseen intertwined into one whole reality. According to Genesis, Adam and Eve walked and
talked with God. We live in a world
where the relationship of seen and unseen is torn and frayed. We were made for life in a world that doesn’t
exist. It’s this tension, and the many
promises in scripture that this tension will one day be relieved that creates
the foundation for our longing for home I think. We see the world as it is, and conclude that
this is not as it was designed, and read the promises of its repair, and look
forward to that time when that eschatological home is reality.
So when we speak of home in the
here and now we speak of that temporary place of affection, refuge and love,
but I think we also hint at that something that’s coming. When we think of and speak about home we hint
at the concepts that underpin the core of God’s reconciling plans for humanity,
and our longing to be reconciled, and safe and loved. Like I said, very fresh and new ideas to me,
and ones I need to expand on, but ideas that encourage me, and perhaps may
encourage you as well...