(Howell Creek Radio address for December 14, 2012 -- ) # The Summons As I write this we have just made it through the blizzard of the decade here in Minnesota -- 17 inches of snow in high winds, the -eighth- fifth largest snowfall ever recorded in the Twin Cities -- and that is being followed up by windchills in the range of -20° to -30° F. The great thing about winter, and the most terrible thing, is that it kills things. We generally do not, for example, have bugs in Minnesota that are biggger than your shoe, or poisonous snakes breeding in the grass. They would all die here in November. But winter also selects many of the noble, warm-blooded creatures to die as well: deer, wolves, birds. Many of them will lay down tonight and die in the midnight hour of this midnight month. Winter brings everything down to a simple matter of resources. Christmas, of course, brings the gap between 'enough' and 'not enough' into sharp relief. Those with enough relax and enjoy the festivities of being warm and cheery in the darkest coldest hour of the year; those without must find a way to survive and be content, or give in to despair. I'm heartily in favour of festivities; also of helping as many people as possible survive and be free to enjoy them. It all comes home to you, though, when it may be you who do not survive. I've been thinking about this quite a lot, looking out the window of my counting-house, where things are not going well; where they look, quite frankly, very bleak indeed. For the first time I contemplate not having enough or being enough. I had received a summons to the Clearing for midnight that night. > _As I went out one day, one day I met an old man by the way His head was bare and his beard was gray His clothing made of the cold earth and clay, His clothing made of the cold earth and clay._ > _I said, Old man, what man are you? What country do you belong to? He said, I'm Death, hast heard of me? All kings and princes bow down unto me, All kings and princes bow down unto me._ One night months ago, while I was driving home in the dark, Robert called from Ohio with a parable. He never says "Hi Joel how are you" when he calls with a parable; I just pick up the phone and there he is on the other end telling _me_ the story, as though I had dialed him just in time to hear him tell it. > A man had a son and a horse, and one night a storm knocked down a tree, and broke a fence. The horse escaped in the night. The next day the neighbor said "That's bad!" The man replied, "How do you know that's bad?" > > The next day the horse found its way home, accompanied by some wild horses, and the neighbor congratulated him saying "That's good!" and again the man responded "How do you know that's good?" > > A week later, the man's son was taming one of the horses. The horse threw him and he broke an arm and a leg. The neighbor again said "That's bad!" and the man simply asked "How do you know that's bad?" > > Three days later a war was declared, and the king's men came to town conscripting all able-bodied young men to serve as soldiers. The man's son was spared because of his injuries. "The lesson is: stay away from the tree of knowledge of good and evil!" I've thought a lot about this story lately, and of the deer that die in the woods in the winter. We have a tradition that the human race went wrong by eating at the tree of knowledge of good and evil -- by trying to figure out what is good and what is bad, and taking it upon ourselves to worry about and fear and avoid the "bad" things, when it's simply not possible to have that kind of knowledge. How can I know whether it really is "bad" for me to, in spite of all my best efforts, lose my situation, my house, my self-respect? What if I am among those that winter separates unto Pluto rather than to Jupiter this year? This question is what the summons to the Clearing made very real for me. * * * The parable Robert told me might be rephrased in more traditional terms. A poor woman in labour was forced to give birth in a barn in the middle of winter. __"How do you know that's bad?"__ It seems that when God chose to enter and experience humanity, He chose also to refute our notions of good and evil circumstances by the way in which He did it. I don't know about you, but if I agreed to become a spider and to enter the world of spiders, I would at least want to end up as a spider that had a fighting chance - not so with the God of the Incarnation. From that wet infant landed in the straw, he was vulnerable and unlikely to survive, due to malice, due to lack of money, lack of food, lack of protection and basic clean living conditions. We can say he loved the whole world from the poor to the great, but we have lost sight of what Divine Love means: it means being vulnerable; it means accepting vulnerability. The more vulnerable you are, the closer you approach to the Divine. > _Captain, Captain, tell me true Does my sweet Willy sail with you? No my dear, he is not here For he is drowned in this ocean dear_ This "summons" -- I've mentioned it twice now. I've always dreaded getting one. I've dreaded being that vulnerable. The appointed time was midnight, the place was a clearing in a very wooded, very overgrown ravine between two rocky bluffs. That night it was snowing hard, which was itself an added disappointment. I thought at least it would be nice to be able to see the stars. Trixie came with me of course. The summons was really for both of us, our fates having been irreversibly fused some time ago. We drove as far as we could, and parked the truck, and sat inside it with the heat on as long as we could, and held each other quietly. Eventually we stepped down into the snow and left the truck behind, wading and trudging on foot through the woods towards the Clearing. We didn't say anything. We weren't sad, or happy, just quiet. I had imagined, I guess, that the Clearing would be empty, and that Trixie and I would have to build the fire ourselves; but as we drew near, we heard the fire crackling, and even some voices talking. And who should come to us out of the clearing but Robert, the breath pluming out of his mouth as he laughed and gave us a big hug. Robert and I have nothing in common -- not lifestyle, not background, not age, not appearance -- nothing at all except that we had both apparently received the same summons. Others were there too -- many which I did not expect. There was Daniel and his wife, there was my Liberian friend Henry, there was Erik and his wife and daughter. Some had only been acquaintances -- but now we looked in each others' eyes and realized we had more in common than we could have hoped, and were glad. There were even several deer standing at a distance from the fire. There we left everything behind - our wealth, our families, our reputations, our warm breath. Was this a bad thing? We had asked ourselves this question a hundred times before, but we were not asking it now. We stood around the fire facing each other, and raised our hands and looked up into the falling snow, and in raised voices, asked for the last thing there was to ask for, as the sparks flew upwards. > _I want a sober mind An all-sustaining eye To see my God above And to the heavens fly_ > _I want a Godly fear A quick discerning eye That looks to Thee my God And sees the tempter fly._ > _I'd soar away above the sky I'd fly to see my God above._ * * * Synopsis: --------- What if I am among those that winter separates unto Pluto rather than to Jupiter this year? The summons was to the clearing at midnight, and I had always dreaded it. Music cues are [_Acoustic Sketch 8_][1] by my friend Benji Flaming; _O Come, O Come Emmanuel_ from [_Charles Dickens Christmas_][2], [_Death and the Lady_][3] by Pentangle, [_Captain Captain_][4] by Crooked Still, and [_Soar Away_][5] performed by Chanticleer. [1]: http://benjiflaming.com/2010/12/07/weekly-acoustic-sketch-8/ [2]: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000QQW65U?ie=UTF8&tag=joelsimprpers-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000QQW65U [3]: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003GIQ16K?ie=UTF8&tag=joelsimprpers-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B003GIQ16K [4]: :http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004FBHZBW?ie=UTF8&tag=joelsimprpers-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004FBHZBW [5]: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006K11A?ie=UTF8&tag=joelsimprpers-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00006K11A