Pillars of the earth

Hey cut that out!!

When my boys were small, my wife and I acted out the Good Samaritan for them. Paula played the victim whilst I narrated and played the other roles. The boys watched, wide eyed and delighted, until I said “and bandits rose up and attacked the traveler” – then I “pretended” to attack Paula. Little eyes widened further … they shouted “stop -hitting - mom”. Then, as one man, they attacked me. In their innocence, they had taken a stand for something precious to them … and the Good Samaritan had taken on a whole new meaning.

We will also need to take a stand for those things that are most precious to our world.

The twin towers

3000 years ago, Samson tore down the two key pillars of a Philistine temple – I can’t imagine a whole building so critically dependent on two pillars, but Samson really brought down the house. On 11 September 2001, the twin towers of the WTC fell. In both cases, a lot depended on just two key pillars, but they were only made of stone. More substantial social pillars define our culture – and that’s what we need to defend.

The pillars of the earth

The Totem pole was the cultural pillar of North American Indians – under starlit skies, they danced to their drums and chants, their shadows mixed with flames to evoke images that would burn long and bright in their memories. Each Totem told its own story to the generations that followed, preserving their culture.

The Cavemen before them sheltered in caves from marauding beasts and hostile climates, clinging to the fragile hopes that would lead them out of darkness into the dawn of human history. Rock paintings were their totems, that told the stories of long forgotten conquests, of fire and ice and life and death.

The Jews carried their sacred symbols across scorching deserts, symbols that recalled their past and assured their future. After AD44, though dispossessed of all that defined them, the Diaspora preserved their festivals, invested their children and cast their symbols in pillars of heart and mind, to ensure the most durable culture of history.

Bette Midler sang “from a distance, God is watching us” and indeed 2000 years ago, a small distance above the ground, a seed fell to bring life to many. In his novel “Pillars of the Earth”, Ken Follet wrote how stonemasons committed their life work to build the great stone churches of mediaeval Europe, but those towering structures could never define or preserve the Christian faith, as did a simple, wooden cross or the word engraved in the hearts of believers.

Pillars of stone

It will take comparable pillars to sustain us. In 1776, at the birth of the US Republic, John Adams said, “Fear is the foundation of most governments”. George Washington on the other hand said that our social pillars are “Virtue, Morality and Religion”. These are all somewhat contrived and can neither sustain nor define us.

Yet there remains a cry for the kind of timeless values that go to the heart of our culture. 1964 presidential nominee, Barry Goldwater, confirmed our need to “return to proven ways, not because they are old, but because they are true”.

So, in keeping with the theme, I searched for two pillars of timeless relevance and opted for “Truth and Grace”. They are biblically based, which gives them authority. But they are also relevant to all cultures, creeds and nations.

What is truth? To set us free, truth must define us and be a high, fixed point of reference - it is a constitution greater than the whim or expedience of men. But truth without grace, or love for our fellow man is crude, without soul, devoid of justice. Yet now truth stumbles in the streets and the love of many grows cold, devaluing men, women, children, nations and the world itself, both socially and environmentally.

Pillars of God

When they attacked my interpretation of the Good Samaritan, my sons stood for values, for truth - and they were right. But the story they were meant to understand was about grace or compassion - which is equally right. The Samaritan was defined by his culture and values, but that only had significance when he crossed the line and used the vehicle at hand, his donkey, to serve his fellow man.

Christian values are sustained by what the bible refers to as the "pillars of the house of God". By implication those are the ministries given to the church, which function through two channels, the spoken and written word. They are the custodians of the faith, for by such means have the truths and traditions of our spiritual fathers been faithfully preserved and passed onto this generation.

As pillars we are equipped with the ministry of reconciliation. We have a message, a voice, the tools of communication and various platforms. As Roman roads and a universal language (Greek) enabled the dissemination of the gospel to the early world, we have electronic highways that can reach the whole earth, instantaneously. With these, we can not only help to restore and defend the values that define us, but we can also help to build bridges, bring healing and be a light in the darkness, a voice of reason in an age of unreason.

This brings the role of writers into striking relief. As great authors articulated our faith through the recorded scriptures, so it now falls to writers to preserve those, interpret and transfer them to current and future generations. Our calling is noble, for we support the pillars of our faith, truth and grace.

(c) Peter Eleazar at www.bethelstone.com