Mutts and Manx Gaelic

I have this ongoing delusional fantasy. It might be cute for a 13 year old, but it's kind of pathetic if one is supposedly well past delusions. The delusion is this, if I was born in another time I would be a warrior. It's really funny because I've never been in a physical fight in my life. Yet, I have this misty eyed vision: In another place. In another time, the warrior doth rise... [enter lute music] Maybe it's the kind of thing all boys think, some chromosomal malfunction, or maybe it's just me. Either way, here I sit, sedentary as a lamp, 41 years old, 40 pounds over weight, sloshing back my fifth coffee today. Still, that stupid warrior thing won't die.

Like a lot of Canadians I am a mutt. My family heritage is Austrian, Polish, English and Manx (The Isle of Man). I've always identified most strongly with my Manx heritage. I used to feel bad about it, like it was favoritism or something, but recently I've just come to accept it as it is, I feel more Manx than anything. (My siblings may well feel a different component of our heritage helps define who they are; as mutts we can pick and choose what part of us helps define us. It's kind of a cool Canadian thing.)

The Isle of Man is a weird place. It is an internally self-governing dependent territory of the British Crown. It isn't part of the UK or the EU. Tynwald, the Island's 1000 year old parliament, is the oldest continuous running parliament in the world. The Isle of Man has it's own currency and it's own language, Manx Gaelic. The film "Waking Ned Divine" was shot there [mild ripple of recognition rolls through the audience, replacing, heretofore, blank stares]. The Isle of Man is a cold inhospitible rock in the middle of one of the coldest most inhospitible seas in the world, and yet the Manx people continue to thrive there. Not only do they thrive, they remain hospitable within this sea of inhospitality. The Manx people are hearty people. The Manx people decended from Vikings. I descended from Vikings. Vikings are warriors. Hmmm... something to give one pause.

I've come to realize something I've always known, but nobody in the churches I went to really acknowledged it, so I didn't really acknowledge it either. It made me uncomfortable because I was suppose to be nice, but it's sitting right there plain as day; if God is who he say's he is, we wake up to a world at war. Paul makes it pretty plain:

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Ephesians 6:12 NIV)

Jeremiah was at war all his life. Who was he at war with? Not Jerusalem, the people. He loved the people, they were his people. That's why he dedicated his entire life toward trying to get them to change their ways. The battle isn't against sinners, God died for sinners. The battle is against powers that would keep God's creation in sin. It is a battle against powers who wish to see the people God loves not receive their inheritance as children of God. Jeremiah fought along side God, relentlessly breaking away things that would leave God's people in delusion, that wold leave them blinded to Him. Jeremiah didn't fight Jerusalem. Jeremiah fought "Jerusalem." "Jerusalem" was Israel's security, it's power, it's wealth, it's religious order, it's entitlement, it's ways-of-doing-things, it's systems, it's techniques, it's structures. All good stuff, but "Jerusalem" had become Israel's inamorata. "Jerusalem" was something other than God. The spiritual forces of evil loved "Jerusalem," it did all their work for them.

Jeremiah saw the way things were. He saw the anguish and the pain headed toward the people he loved and lived among. If they didn't turn from their God-ignoring ways, "Jerusalem" would be ripped away. It would be torn away for their own sake, to break them free of their God-ignoring structures. This ripping away was their only chance. God wouldn't leave them lost in their own structures. He was relentless about saving them from themselves. For those who refused to let go of the structures, they would fall to destruction clinging to the wrong thing.

We don't fight against sinners. Jeremiah didn't fight Israel, he loved Israel. He fought their self-delusion. He fought their self-delusion as already-children-of-God. He fought the ways of seeing the world that upheld the delusion. He fought the spiritual powers who upheld the delusion. He fought Israel's blindness. He fought the powers that would keep them blind. Jeremiah fought for new eyes. Eyes to see. Eyes to see things as they really were.

When I was studying for my fine arts degree I had a professor who gave young painters a very good piece of advice. He said if you're having trouble with a painting, if you're stuck and you're not sure where to go next, turn the painting upside down. When you turn it upside down, you see it with new eyes. You see it for the first time again, you see it as it really is.

This is what Jeremiah did. He spoke Jerusalem's world upside down, so they could see it fresh, so they could see things as they really were. Jeremiah fought for new eyes. Some time after Jeremiah, in a much different world, someone else spoke an upside down world. But He didn't stop at just speaking an upside down world, he really turned the world upside down. The first are last and the last are first. The rich are poor and the poor are rich. You have to die to live, you gain what you let go of. Jesus created one freaky weird upside down world.

And here's the exciting thing, Jesus turned the painting upside down, and then told us to do more painting. He said fight blindness by helping me paint this upside down world. He didn't turn it upside down and then put it in a frame and stick it on the wall. He also didn't suddenly make it a paint by number world. You get to create. You get to use your image-after-God as it was meant to be used. You are co-creators with Christ, bringing shape to his now upside down world. You get to paint like a warrior in this marvelous upside down world that you now see with fresh eyes, as it really is. Like Jeremiah, you get to join God in an epic struggle against right-side-up thinking. More specifically, against the powers of this world that promote, propogate, create, uphold right-side-up thinking. You fight against the powers that keep sinners sinners, instead of the already-children-of-God they have a right to be. If God is who he says he is, and Jesus made the world as upside down as He said He did, we are in a world at war. We are fighting self-delusion on an epic scale. We are fighting for new eyes. We are fighting blindness and we are fighting the spiritual powers of evil that love blindness. We co-create this upside down world with Christ and declare it true. Warrior-Kings, warrior-poets, warrior-sons and warrior-daughters fight along side Christ, co-creating His upside down world, declaring it true.

Fight the spiritual powers of evil who say, "The first are first, the poor are poor, you get to keep what you grab, and everything is still right side up." Go into all the world and tell them I turned the world upside down, and then help them to live as though it were true.

That seems like a task worthy of warriors, maybe even Vikings. Hmmm... something to give one pause.