tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8215116066445385512.post1786715359896319811..comments2023-07-13T05:20:07.334-04:00Comments on Reflections from Broadneck Baptist: Scripture for Christ the King SundayAbbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04823753643734462481noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8215116066445385512.post-59137918382416899242007-11-23T09:05:00.000-05:002007-11-23T09:05:00.000-05:00These questions are very useful, I think, in relat...These questions are very useful, I think, in relating the topics you discussed last week - giving a practical way we can address the dissonance between our expectations and what is promised, or as Nancy said what is and what isn't yet. Breaking this dissonance into smaller and slightly more manageable chunks, or as you said, a clearing of the space just around us and where we can lay down, begins to enable us to focus and *do something* without feeling overwhelmed. This clearing of smaller spaces adds up, as you so wonderfully pointed out. <BR/><BR/>Another benefit of this is that it can directly lead to allowing the voiceless or silenced to speak by lowering the volume just a bit. Kind of a lowering of the noise aka Switchfoot's song "Adding to the Noise:"<BR/><BR/>What's it gonna take<BR/>to slow us down<BR/>To let the silence spin us around?<BR/>What's it gonna take<BR/>to drop this town?<BR/>We've been spinning at the speed of sound.<BR/><BR/>Stepping out of those convenience stores,<BR/>what could we want but more more more?<BR/>From the third world<BR/>to the corporate core<BR/>we are the symphony of modern humanity.<BR/><BR/>If we're adding to the noise<BR/>turn off this song.<BR/>If we're adding to the noise<BR/>turn off your stereo, radio, video...<BR/><BR/>I don't know<BR/>what they're gonna think of next<BR/>genetic enginers of the most high tech.<BR/>A couple new ways<BR/>to fall in debt.<BR/>I'm a nervous wreck but I'll bet<BR/>that that T.V. set<BR/>tells us what we wanted to hear<BR/>But none of these sound bites<BR/>are coming in clear.<BR/>From the third world to the corporate ear<BR/>we are the symphony of modern humanity<BR/><BR/><BR/>(Perhaps this is also poignant in the Black Friday insanity...but that is something else, I guess)<BR/><BR/><BR/>In a far less clear manner, the social theorist Spivak talks about the issue in her article "Can the Subaltern Speak?" from the early 1990s (I think). Her conclusion is (or seems to be...) that the oppressed *might as well* not be able to speak because they cannot be *heard* due to all the noise - in a social sense of the noise. THeir message, if heard at all, is through intermediaries and is thereby heavily mediated. In subsequent interviews, she has clarified that the exact thing Steven talked about - we need to clear the space in order to allow them to be heard.<BR/><BR/><BR/>All of which leads us back to today's passage of preparing the way - both by John the Baptist and Jesus. Ah, how I love practical applications! At the end of the day, we can do something about addressing this dissonance between how things are and what we expect, those without and those with power, and between an infinite God and a finite us. <BR/><BR/>Yet another thing to be thankful for every day and always. I hope everyone's thanksgiving was wonderful!Jeremyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03507874062503931824noreply@blogger.com