Enigmatic Mirrors and the Dominion of the Air

 

Jeremiah 36:11-26

1 Corinthians 13:(1-3)4-13

Matthew 10:5-15

 

Corinthians is all about love today, but I got stuck on the mirror. Everything Paul says about love is so true that it just slides by the ear and no-one really hears it. Like old King Y’hoyakim, we cut out four lines at a time from the book, and drop them in the fire, refusing to listen to any kind of warnings.

Oh, those mirrors are everywhere, and not a single one has ever shown us anything but a tricky reflection. The Greek usage in this passage is weird. The word ‘aenigma’ has a history in the Hebrew Bible, but it’s only used in this one place in the New Testament. Best I could figure, it doesn’t really mean “obscurely” in this context, but instead means something more like “by means of” a mirror. ‘At the moment, we can only see by using a mirror as an instrument.’ Also, we can’t really look through a mirror. It’s not a window. There is no aperture, it only reflects back at us. We’re trying to use a mirror to see what’s on the other side, and it isn’t working the way we want. It’s better if it’s face to face.

Oh, and then there’s the old chestnut, “The Kingdom of Heaven.” Other translations: “The Sovereignty of the Sky.” “The Authority of the Atmosphere.” (Mounce gets all poetic and says, “in which the clouds and tempests gather, and the birds fly…”) Very simply, though, the author of Matthew was just following the Jewish tradition of avoiding the Name of God, so “Ouranos” (Heaven) is simply a euphemism for the word ‘God.’ The author meant simply “the Domain of God.” I want to stretch the translation even farther, to encompass terms like “The Realm of Beyond,” “The Warrant of the Wind,” and “The Power of the Source.”

See, all those phrases rebound out of that same old enigmatic mirror, but here’s the thing: Whether or not we are peering into the mirror, trying desperately to see past whatever reflection is in there, the Dominion of the Air is right next to us all the time.

The Wind of God tickles our skin, no matter how big a mirror we hold up to try and shield us from it. No matter which way we turn, it’s all around us. We’re surrounded.

 

So I say, “Let’s put our faces to the Wind.”