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The Angels came to the shepherds. It all came to me one Christmas Carol Service. They were in the fields, abiding. And then…
In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours!” (Luke 2:8-14)
Where did it all go wrong? Where is this peace which was spoken of by the angels? Where is the peace that we speak of each Sunday? Why does this carol cut to the quick (the story of the carol can be found here)?
It came upon the midnight clear, That glorious song of old, From angels bending near the earth To touch their harps of gold; "Peace on the earth, good will to men From heaven's all-gracious King" – The world in solemn stillness lay To hear the angels sing.
Still through the cloven skies they come With peaceful wings unfurled, And still their heavenly music floats O'er all the weary world; Above its sad and lowly plains They bend on hovering wing, And ever o'er its Babel sounds The blessed angels sing.
But with the woes of sin and strife The world has suffered long; Beneath the angel-strain have rolled Two thousand years of wrong; And man, at war with man, hears not The love-song which they bring; – Oh hush the noise, ye men of strife, And hear the angels sing!
And ye, beneath life's crushing load, Whose forms are bending low, Who toil along the climbing way With painful steps and slow, Look now! for glad and golden hours Come swiftly on the wing; – Oh, rest beside the weary road And hear the angels sing!
For lo! the days are hastening on By prophet bards foretold, When with the ever circling years Comes round the age of gold; When Peace shall over all the earth Its ancient splendours fling, And the whole world give back the song Which now the angels sing.
It is simply(?) a single example of how the issues set out by the Gospels still run around between our legs today, like infuriating dogs or children. The problems they represent, of peace, forgiveness and hope, remain prevalent and some might say even more pressing than they were in the time of Jesus’s birth. This stanza haunts in particular:
But with the woes of sin and strife The world has suffered long; Beneath the angel-strain have rolled Two thousand years of wrong; And man, at war with man, hears not The love-song which they bring; – Oh hush the noise, ye men of strife, And hear the angels sing!
I hear it as a challenge and a complaint. Humanity fails day by say to hear the song of the Angels, and we day by day bewail the continuing prevalence of conflict and strife across the universe.
Into this celestial conversation (”declaration” is probably a better description of the Angels’ song), and just as the celestial spheres may have sounded in the mind of God, we can view the world as a perfect sphere. We walk that sphere. Eternal and infinite in extent. No up. No down. Only the moment and the place. These are spectral spheres. The Angels sang from them. We have them to help us in our world.
Considering spectral spheres, and taking into account the horror of Scare City, where the gloom and sorrow of the world coalesces, perhaps we need either to ask different questions concerning peace or admit defeat? Perhaps the point isn’t about fighting against hatred (that is a fabulously ironic approach anyway) but rather an acceptance that we can’t do anything about the conflict anyway. Perhaps the violence is inherent in the human condition to such an extent that Christianity has been barking up a wrong tree for so many centuries.
Or perhaps there is a different approach that combines the human condition with a paradigm shift: not to binarise but to sphericalise the problems of civilisation.
We perpetuate the warfare of difference and exclusion when we don’t manage to get beyond the binary. Even coalitions are ultimately only a side of the exchange. Sidedness is what leads to conflict. Spheres preclude sidedness. “Somewhere” v. “Anywhere” (itself a binary) leads to conflict, indeed, is an implicit aspect of conflict. But can we divest ourselves of conflict by using the spherical metaphor? Does it require far too much fluidity for anything ever to be resolvable into life, or is the true peace only attainable at the heat death of the universe?
So,
The basics (if you’re lost somewhere on the sphere)
The Linear distraction
The surface of a sphere
Combing a hairy ball