Ring them bells, ye heathen
From the city that dreams
Ring them bells from the sanctuaries
’Cross the valleys and streams
For they’re deep and they’re wide
And the world’s on its side
And time is running backwards
And so is the bride
Ring them bells St. Peter
Bob Dylan, from “Ring Them Bells” / “Oh Mercy” / 1989
Where the four winds blow
Ring them bells with an iron hand
So the people will know
Oh, it’s rush hour now
On the wheel and the plow
And the sun is going down
Upon the sacred cow
Look at your calendar – or better yet, look at mine… you might have moved on to another date.
Today’s date is a palindrome. A chiasm – a thing the Bible is full of because God designed scripture and history that way. What goes up – comes down. What is divided is reunited. This is a great mystery sometimes. But a beautiful one. Bad things come undone. The arrogant are abased, and the poor are lifted up.
Every valley shall be exalted. And every hill made low.
Supreme courts court the idea of supremely reversing themselves. The White Witch is destroyed and Father Christmas starts passing out presents again as the shortest days of the year struggle to reverse themselves into longer light.
Chiasms are patterns that go up and down – out and in, like today’s date: 1 – 2 – 3 – 2 – 1 (If you’re an American). Sorry guys, it doesn’t work on all calendars at once! (But you can imagine it, right?)
And the Bible really IS full of them. FULL of them.
The Bible starts and ends in a garden with a tree of fruit. Really. Go read the first and last chapters. I’ll wait.
The Bible begins with heaven and earth divided from each other by the seas (the one in heaven matched by the reflected one on earth). And the Bible ends with the sea taken away, and the city of heaven resting on the earth. Divided to be reunited.
Man was divided into male and female, only to be reunited in marriage. Bone of my bone – flesh of my flesh, back home again where my other half should be … next to me.
Ephesians tells us that these divisions were mysteries, whose endings are now obvious. Man and wife united? That’s the gospel. Jews and Gentiles were separated too. But now it is obvious, they should be one flesh again. One man. That’s the gospel. Man was separated from God because of sin. But Jesus has been the husband that the bride of humanity needed. He washed us with his cross. And man and God can be one again. That’s the gospel.
But chiasms don’t force us into making silly backward movements just so endings can perfectly match beginnings. Adam and Eve were made naked. The saints of Revelation are clothed in brightest white garments. Thanks be to God. We don’t wish to go back to nakedness. We want glory! Maturity is better than going backwards.
Take the Nice Bridge over the Potomac – it feels really steep – steep up, and steep down. Just like a chiasm. But even though you go up, and come back down, you aren’t where you started. You are in a different state. God likes the images of rising up and lying down, of going out and coming in. God likes chiasms. But he doesn’t lead us back to our old states. He leads us on to maturity and glory.
Unlike the evidence of 10 million proclamations on television – the “Universe” isn’t helping us out. We don’t have a universe fixing things with dumb karma. (As if an amoral entity would know how to right wrongs! ) What goes around may indeed come around – but when it does, it is passed around by a brilliant, good, pattern weaving God. And the sinners don’t always get judgment. Sometimes Jesus gets the cross in their place.
In the stock market, things go up and down. But in the long run, basically they go up. Like the gospel. Of the increase of his government there shall be no end! So we may see ups and downs in human history. But in the end, the Son of man receives the ends of the earth as his inheritance, and puts his feet up on old Satan and his pals.
We may not win every court case we pray for this year. We may not save every soul we know this year. But we can rely on this: God is not mocked. The judge of all the earth will do what is right. Greater is he who is in you than he that is in the world. The glory of God will cover the earth as the water covers the sea.
So when things don’t go the way of Jesus – pray and wait. Wrong will come undone.
