History is a Poet

Hearing the rhyme scheme in salvation history

12/23/2019

Luke 1:57-66 When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her, and they rejoiced with her. When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child, they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother said in reply, "No. He will be called John." But they answered her, "There is no one among your relatives who has this name." So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called. He asked for a tablet and wrote, "John is his name," and all were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke blessing God. Then fear came upon all their neighbors, and all these matters were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea. All who heard these things took them to heart, saying, "What, then, will this child be? For surely the hand of the Lord was with him."

Mark Twain once famously said, “History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” Here in the South, we might say a little less eloquently, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Have you noticed this cyclical nature of history – how it tends to repeat itself, and even to suggest a subtle rhyme and rhythm? Nature undergoes annual cycles of birth, growth, decay and death, which we call spring, summer, fall and winter. Human civilizations undergo cycles of birth, growth, decay and death, too. Each human generation undergoes cycles of birth, growth, decay and death.

Twain’s point, however, was that the cycles are not simply circles like the orbits of the planets around the sun, where every year we end up exactly where we began. Rather, history is more like a spiral going around and around a mountain, slowly ascending to the top. That’s the rhyme scheme of reality. Every year we get a little higher and hopefully a little holier as we ascend to heaven. In other words, history is a poet and he didn’t even know it.

Today’s scriptures help us see this rhyme scheme of reality not only in secular history but also in salvation history. In the Old Testament, Malachi predicts the return of Elijah. The last Old Testament prophet wrote: “Lo, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the great day of the Lord comes.” And in Luke we hear the birth of John the Baptist is fulfilled with great anticipation that maybe this is the moment of Malachi’s prophecy’s unfolding. We read: “All who heard these things took them to heart, saying, ‘What, then, will this child be? For surely the hand of the Lord was with him’.” Can you catch the rhyme scheme of revelation? Listen more carefully.

In the Old Testament the Jewish people were making wide concentric circles around the mountain of reality, slowly ascending its slopes. But with the coming of John the Baptist, suddenly, we find ourselves getting closer to the top, that is, to Christ. That’s why it’s sometimes hard to read the bible. It is more like reading poetry than prose, more about faith than facts, more concerned with love than logic. When we read the bible, and we are aware of this rhyme scheme of revelation, we see that history is a poet and he didn’t even know it.

My friends, do you feel like your life is just going around in circles, like a dog chasing his tail? (No offense to dogs.) Or, can you catch a deeper rhythm and rhyme, that is, as if the circle were really spirals going up a mountain, till you reach the peak, where Jesus is waiting for you? Sometimes we repeat the same old sins and feel we’re in a rut and making no progress. We confess the same sins again and again. Some couples fight over the same problems over and over again, and despair of ever finding peace in their partnership. We see our children and grandchildren making the same mistakes from lack of maturity that we made at their age, and we feel powerless to stop them. All we can say in frustration is: “Wait till you have children of your own, and then you’ll understand!” That is, when you make it around the mountain and stand in my shoes. But that’s what our parents told us and what our grandparents told our parents.

But history – both individual and corporate history – does not merely repeat itself; instead, it betrays a recognizable rhyme. And we discover that deeper rhyme scheme in scriptures. The spirals of life are really concentric circles slowly ascending the mountain of reality, with Jesus at the top, the “alpha and omega of our all history.” The birth, growth, decay and death that is the pattern of earthly life is slowly being replaced by the rhyme of revelation, based on the pattern of Jesus’ life conveyed through the sacraments. Earthly life is replaced by the rhyme scheme of eternal life, which we recognize through the scriptures and receive through the sacraments.

History is a poet and he didn’t even know it. Maybe we didn’t know it either.

Praised be Jesus Christ!