“Where there is no VISION the people perish: but he that keepeth the LAW, happy is he.” (Prov.29:18)
This verse is profound.
The comparison or juxtaposition ofthe law (Torah)and prophetic Vision (Chazon) – i.e. The law and the prophets – the whole content of Jewish religion and cosmology – and linking them both to social cohesion & continuity / prosperity is as profound an utterance as any in the entire Old Testament.
There are realms here to be explored. Father Sherlock invoked several Light (vision) metaphors in the Jamaican anthem –i.e. ‘wisdom’, ‘knowledge’, ‘truth’, ‘justice’, ‘duty’. Both the law and the prophets together light the way to these conditions for social order.
In scripture, light and sight (vision) are synonymous. The darkness of death and ignorance is the antithesis of the Light of social and spiritual life.
If we think that the opposite of ‘walking by faith’ is ‘walking by sight’, we miss the intention of scripture. We are always living by sight. The question is “Which one?” –
· by hindsight (the majority)
· by foresight (the chosen few), or
· by insight (everyone to some degree at some point in time). The human psyche grows on insight.
Insights allow us to access wisdom from hindsight, to excavate multiple layers of foresight – and use both creatively to establish desired realities. This is the proper use of human imagination – The mental ‘muscle’ connected by the ‘sinews’ of human will with which humans construct their futures.
However, another domain of vision is circumspection. The concern of LAW.
Jesus, as epitome of both Word (greek – logos the root of ‘legal’ ‘law’ and ‘logic’) and Spirit (passion, desire, pure transcendent consciousness / divinely focused awareness and intent – the hard currency of prophecy) in balance, is declared the Light of the World. The light that lighteth every man coming into the world (in some measure) according to John’s gospel. John 1:1-12
This is where our theological interpretation must ripen. Extremes (both legalistic and fanatic) lead to heresy.
Jewish religion, and in fact all religion, harmonizes these opposites – the Law – the boundaries established by fear – i.e. our ‘do not’ list or set of taboos; and Vision – the horizons established by passion/desire – our ‘to do’ list or set of aspirational ideals.
An example of such harmonization that might resonate somewhat with today’s realities: The terse Law in [Lev 21:16-23, especially verse 20.] prescribed for *Eunuchs (alluded to as ‘men with broken stones’ or damaged testicles in the text) exclusion from leadership in the assembly of those who draw near to the Shekinah.
‘Broken’ stones (testicles) were accursed under the law as was the condition of infertility in women – barrenness was viewed as a curse. The blessing (or social norm) was on reproductivity (and the conditions that support same). Thus the understandable taboo.
But it took the compassionate prophetic vision of Isaiah (chapter 56:3-5) to determine the weight of words (justice) in that edict, completely misinterpreted by the legalists and taken to the extreme, used to bash (oppress) a community rather than create harmony / reconciliation and a vision of wholesome community.
NB the LOGOS and CHAZON (Law and the prophets) directly contradict here in letter, but not in spirit. The first establishes precept. The second recommends praxis.
The legalists in the times of Jesus likewise took the Sabbath concept, as a binding / blinding tradition of oppression and could not accept Jesus’ pragmatic approach grounded by his prophetic insight into the Father’s intentions and priorities. Mark 2:23 – 27. (Diehard Legalists always end up casting the righteous as lawless while establishing scoundrels.)
The perfection of the Sabbath is never produced by puritanical elitists, regardless of what the Law seems to say in Lev 21 about blemishes, and how God’s people have learnt the traditions taught by men and so misinterpreted His Heart/intent and misrepresented his Name/ character.
The dispensation of Yeshua is unto the blemished! Holiness and harlotry are reconciled when one looks beyond act to intent….and begins to pour out grace from that understanding.
Consider the 5 women mentioned in Jesus’ genealogy: (Matthew 1)- (they stand out as Jews are patrilineal)
·the first (Tamar) – a perpetrator of incest,
·the second (Rahab) – a prostitute.
·The third (Ruth) – in today’s world would be suspected a lesbian,
·the fourth (Bathsheba) – a known adulteress,
·and the fifth (Mary) – conceived a child out of wedlock and had the lifelong reputation as a fornicator who should have been stoned had not her boyfriend married her to cover up her shame.
Whatever the inferred meaning, (the pattern is un-mistakeably deliberate), surely there are greater abominations to such a God (who chooses to bring via ‘immaculate conception’ his son through such a polluted bloodline) than the ‘sins of the flesh’ (so scorned by the hypocritical purists, stoning women in every generation).
Likewise modern family values have been twisted to demonize rather than reconcile the outcasts (The Gay community being the Eunuch tradition transposed into a modern space). Where is the God that ‘sets the solitary in families’?
If Jewish fundamentalism, however chaste, can only produce the ugly hostility we see now in Jerusalem; I promise you, to play her part, Jamaica will have to grow beyond the reactionary blindness of the hypocritical bible thumping televangelists – whom I love and appreciate, but also see their undergarments exposed yet again as they now anoint the casino mogul (Trump) as their Cyrus of convenience portraying his opponent as a Jezebel of corruption.
(Barabbas over Jesus was also a perceived political expediency rather than a moral call. O how the moralists consistently fail the consistency test – The standard for all morality is LOVE Himself.)
God’s family is diverse. Our love nets must be wide and strong. Give us vision. Let us identify the true enemy and fight the just fight of faith through love.
“LET THERE BE LIGHT”.
Vision Part 2
My good friend Michael Barnett director of The New Horizons Christian Ministries (what an appropriately prophetic name) tells a great story of how his mentor used the analogy of a painting to inspire in him the capacity to ‘live by faith’ – i.e. by intention (proactively) and design (creatively).
The word “Hero” is connected to the heavenly body /deity that allows us both light and vision, as well as the measurement of time in years and hours – i.e. The sun represented in ancient Egypt by ‘Heru’s eye’)
This ancient Egyptian principle of VISION (Light) was invoked in the mythical character of Horus/Heru – the same ‘god’ or principle depicted as having the ‘all seeing eye’ inscribed on the US dollar bill and represented by the animals of eagle (vision) and lion (courage) in Egyptian mythology. That by way of reference, we are alluding to sharply conflicting epistemological orientations and thought streams from distinct cultural value systems (ancient Egyptian and Judeo-Christian), this brings sharply into focus the truth that we, who are always seeing through a glass darkly, depend on the Light (eye) of Jesus to illuminate history because we never ‘paint’ on a blank page.
The mythic parchment upon which we seek to paint and express our cherished ideals and noble visions is at best palimpsest, when not already a fully printed page. Though from time to time throughout history, some revolutions have sought to achieve a totally clean slate….(usually by extreme iconoclasm and bibliocide – the burning of libraries and cultural artifacts) they were never completely successful.
So for example, what in ancient Egypt was quite literally a ‘sacred cow’ – called Het Heru (Hathor by the Greeks) translated ‘House of divine vision’, was for the Israelites an idolatrous golden calf, called ‘the Baal of Peor’ transliteration: ‘Lord of the house of human Imagination’ ……the exact same divinity….. diametrically identified – Sacred sex or debauchery its characteristic rituals, depending on the axioms of the chronicler.
This was (both then and now) a recipe for holy war. Two conflicting systems of value and meaning clash. How, the question is asked, should the two conflicting systems be viewed?
The insightful answers that Jesus, Prince of Peace and Light of the World would point us toward in our little island crucible (what an appropriate word!), will shed such a brilliant light upon a world about to implode by virtue of its own inherent, very volatile, arguably obsolescent, more accurately anachronistic contradictions; that we may yet see clearly, at last, the basic truths of both Jewish and Jamaican heritage :-
Hear O Israel,
The Lord Thy God is ONE.
And from all nations on the earth,
made in His likeness and reflection,
from every background and cultural context,
The people are also “Out of many, ONE.”
We are obliged to leave our brush strokes on landscape already bearing the landmarks of those who came before us and while some landmarks can be removed or erased, this, as scripture points out (Prov 22:28), is always fraught with more danger than utility. (Ancient errors can be as necessary signposts as are ancient achievements. Truth is always a double edged sword.)
How much historical revisionism is necessary to unshackle the spirit of Jamaican creativity may not be a matter of consensus – yet. This is the dynamic now calling for the inauguration of new vision communities from uncommon and diverse places in Jamaican society.
Complex realities are deconstructed by nuanced vocabulary befitting the task. We all pray “Give us Vision lest we perish.” This is enough. i.e. The law can only be twisted and perverted when both legislators and the people they serve are blind.
(Yes! Damn the lie! The law is servant….not master of the people)
(Yes! Damn the lie! The law is servant….not master of the people)
YeKengalé 
2 thoughts on “VISION”