Sunday, February 23, 2014

Sunday, February 23, 2014

2 Corinthians 5:11-21

The music playing in the background while I write today is “The Ground: Pleni sunt caeli et terra Gloria tua,” by Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo. Based on a chorale from his Sunrise Mass, Gjeilo developed an anthem for piano, strings, and choir. The music is both grandiose, and joyful. It puts me in mind of a panoramic scan of the earth while the sun rises, the kind of music that might accompany the finale scene at the end of a movie, as the credits begin to roll. I encourage you to take a listen.

This image of the rising sun, pushing back the dark of night, is, for me, an important metaphor of reconciliation. It is the herald of the new day, pushing back the night, but not forgetting what has come before. The rising sun invites us into the new moment. “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” What a message of joy! And what a challenge: to let the past slip away from being the only thing occupying our mind. This rising sun, this figure of Jesus, is an image that beckons us out of our self-centredness and into the new day. It is a call beyond ourselves; we do not leave ourselves behind, but we are walking ever forward, with others, toward the rising sun.

- Joshua Zentner-Barrett