Unvieled

"The genuinely spiritual life cannot remain suburban. It is always frontier, and we who live in it must accept and rejoice that it remains untamed". Howard Macey.

The opening section of Genesis 2 is one of those passages that is often shied away from. We're fine with the initial opening narrative of the book of God making us Male and Female, in His image (Genesis 1:26), and even of Eve being made bone and flesh from the side of her husband (Genesis 2:22,23), but the description of the world pre-Eden (Genesis 2:4-14) from which God took Adam to tend and nurture the garden of the Lord's making leaves us shocked or highly disturbed - what do we do with that? Yet it was here, amidst a land arid of vegetation and moisture that God forms man of earth of the wilderness. It is here, in a place of such apparent void that Adam is given breath (2:7), and in the first drama played out in Eden itself (2:19), Adam is shown to be inextricably tied to such a place. 

The Lord may have situated humanity in a garden, with vast potential for what was to follow, but it was a haven amidst a realm that would need taming (2:15) and genuine understanding (2:19) if we were to become what was truly intended by the one whose image we were to express (2:25).

The fall (Genesis chapters 3,6 and 11) has comprehensively disfigured and maligned this intent and design, so we so often find ourselves part of a cosmos where what is meant for good and splendour is savagely twisted and then used for ill-will against God's cherished purpose, especially today in regard to those who trust in His saving care because of the giving of His beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

This year has been one of just such violence. The maelstrom we have entered is just beginning to spit and spin - the 'requirements' made for snatches of what was normal are now becoming more laborious, more fixed, more comprehensive, with the illusive "promise" of the better hung always just beyond reach... beyond yet another set of "necessities". As one commentator noted in respect to new legislation this week, "everything not expressly permitted by law will be forbidden".

The church which continues to comply with such constraints is now woefully stifled. It will not revert to another course, of standing against such limits, because it has bound itself to a full compliance, even as liberties are ended, and therefore cannot see the peril ahead amidst the white noise of such "obedience". 

Thankfully, this is not the only truth. Churches that have stood firm elsewhere have won cases to keep their liberties in courts, seen ministers imprisoned for their boldness set for release (just this week), and are flourishing amidst the troubles. As the rest of world continues in the night of unwarranted imprisonment, these lights grant us an encouragement to stand fast and pray that others across the 'free' world will take up this fight afresh, often in spite of the official line of their arrested denominations, and boldly proclaim the good news without fear to these dark days.

The world is clearly buried in its chains to misery and death - the power of God to change us by the death and resurrection of His Son needs to ring out this easter.