You live with a group of people and the main thing you argue over is house cleaning. Some people feel anxious when there is mess - others feel the comfort of a lived- in home. Some people feel anxious when forced to clean, others feel peace when invested in a simple afternoon of folding laundry.
There is a lot of potential for harmony. Potentially, we could rely on each other's strength and we could 'see' what causes anxiety and what causes peace and feed off of each other's positive energy. Rather, we often feed off of each other's anxiety and in one moment the house turns to total chaos. One person can't clean because she's overwhelmed - the other feels content with the current state of the house and so rejects the idea of being forced to do meaningless work. Someone else feels silently responsible for the entire thing and so slaves away. No one talks - chaos takes over our home, our hearts, our identity.
Chaos - the opposite of harmony.
I feel like my job is chaos sometimes and my schedule. There are also the deeper things; my marriage, my family, my emotions. I look on a global scale and I see only Chaos - hurricanes, famine, humans being sold for a pair of shoes.
It says in Genesis that in the beginning, the earth was formless and void: i.e. total chaos. In the beginning there was Chaos. I don't think it much matters the details of the process in which God dealt with the chaos, the point is simply that in the Creation Narrative - God is the hero, and Chaos is the enemy. When God is finished, everything is in a perfect state of harmony. We can hardly grasp the harmony required for us to be able to inhale oxygen - to fight disease - to reproduce. Everything on earth was in a perfect state of balance and everything worked together. The people and their garden - their God and their lover.
It seems to me, this is the story of God's people. Chaos has been the enemy and God has been the hero - triumphing with harmony. Sin causes chaos. Self-centerdness can throw off the balance and send everything into a downward spiral of chaos.
My favorite part of the Genesis is how at the end of the Creation - God takes a Sabbath. It's like it isn't enough for God to put everything into perfect order and harmony - God also takes a day to enjoy it.
As a community we strive for Sabbath. That after overcoming the chaos of sin in our lives by relying on God's example of selfless love - we would live in a state of Sabbath.
We strive to glimpse the Kingdom of Heaven - where Chaos is silenced and harmony is everything; where justice flows like a river.
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