In the lectionary readings today I was struck with the imagery of Jerusalem in the Isaiah passage. In the scriptures (both Jewish and Christian) Jerusalem is an often-repeated image representing something good (the highest good for humans on earth, perhaps).
Of course, Jerusalem as a literal, physical place, a piece of land has seen much violence through human history (ironic as the name contains the word for “peace.”) It has been fought over as a supreme holy place by Jews, Christians and Muslims. It continued to be daily in the news. When you hear “West Bank,” that is Jerusalem. Jerusalem is at the center of the West Bank controversy with the city literally divided between Israel and the Palestinians. So, the name has a great deal of pain associated with it. So much so, that I think the history of violence now associated with it can overshadow the very positive imagery of Jerusalem in the scriptures.
How to take what has become a symbol of the divisions and violence of humanity and re-think it as a symbol of goodness and hope?
A few thoughts:
First, look at the very powerful female imagery associated with Jerusalem. In this brief passage in Isaiah we are told that we may:
Rejoice with Jerusalem,
Mourn over Jerusalem,
Be nursed and satisfied at the breast of Jerusalem,
Drink deeply at the breast of Jerusalem
Be dandled on the knee of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is portrayed as our Mother.
Second, there is this little shift in the text and the very same things are predicated of God. God is not separable from Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the symbol for God. Jerusalem is God encountered in a place. The invisible God come down to earth. The place where God chooses to dwell. The place of the temple of God. The place where the presence of God is found. And so, Jerusalem becomes a symbol of spiritual well being/prosperity/eudaimonia as human beings encounter God. (In this picture, the well being of the little child is at the mother’s breast.)
Third, what is Jerusalem for us? What does it signify? Can we still use the symbol meaningfully? Or given the now association with violence and division must we reject it?
a) It cannot for us be the literal place of Jerusalem. I think that is too problematic. I think the literalism of the physical land is too deeply associated with violence to be helpful.
b) But if the symbol is of that where God comes to us, God dwells with us (we might say God incarnate) then very clearly the person of Jesus is our Jerusalem. We have in our Way of Living a couple of very beautiful canticles of mother Julian that portray Jesus as our mother.
c) Derived from that, wherever we find a place special to us, where we more readily find God, God’s presence, where we find ourselves as little children at God’s breast, then that is our Jerusalem. It may be a room in our house, a special chair. A location we are used to praying in. A place in the countryside we drive to our walk to. Wherever it is, it will be the place where for us God most clearly dwells, is most clearly present. That place is a place to rejoice in. It is also a place to mourn over when we may temporarily lose it. In God’s goodness, God will provide such a place for each of us. “You shall be comforted in Jerusalem,” says the prophet.
+Ab. Andy