In
which the exiles see eternity in the ordinariness of life
Genesis
9:12-15
And
God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I set between Me and you and every
living creature that is with you, for everlasting generations: My bow I have
set in the clouds to be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth, and
so, when I send clouds over the earth, the bow will appear in the cloud. Then I
will remember My covenant, between Me and you and every living creature of all
flesh, and the waters will no more become a Flood to destroy all flesh…”
Qohelet 3:10-14
I
have seen the business that God has given to the sons of man with which to busy
themselves. Everything He has done aptly in its time. Eternity, too, He has put
in their heart, without man’s grasping at all what it is God has done from
beginning to end. I know that there is nothing good in it but to be merry and
to partake of good things in his life. And also every man who eats and drinks
and enjoys good things in all his toil—this is a gift from God. I know that
what God does will be forever. One cannot add to it and one cannot take away from
it. And God has acted also that they should fear Him.
It
is not surprising that the festivals of the Jewish people include celebrations
of God’s deliverance out of times of great trouble: Passover, recalling the
exodus from Egypt; Purim, recalling Queen Esther thwarting a genocidal plot to
kill part of the Jewish community that chose not to return to Jerusalem but
establish a diaspora; Hanukkah, remembering God’s miraculous intervention in
the events of the desecration and reconsecration of the rebuilt Temple.
Rainbows in times of rain. Hope for the rainy days in our own times. If we are
to see God in our daily bread and wine, as we can learn to do, we also need the
feast days and festivals, the great celebrations. As we prepare for the great,
twelve-day-long feast of Christmas, may we see and know God with us in the more
simple fare of Advent.
Biblical
texts: Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary
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