Sun god
Posted by Kent on February 5th, 2009 filed in TheologyWhere is the sun god in the simmering summer after the September before?
I search in secluded sanctuaries amongst the philosophers spouting theories
of enemies and terrors raging against the boundaries of my country ‘tis of thee.
I pound the steamy roads of brick or asphalt that lead to downtown cafes
where people pound down the elixir meant to numb the memory of the September
or tragedies since felt by deaths or divorce or dying or crying out of any
lost memories worth living for– where is the sun god in this simmering summer?
Looking I am confused and bemused at the periodical publications hailing
the misery of the age. Companies tumbling toward the market crash of yesterday’s
folklore when lines formed for soup and gangsters were the stuff of stories
still written. Where is the sun god when we need him to comfort and sooth our
splintered nerves? We would bow and pay you homage or maybe only apply
the liquid screen to filter you out. We might blast ourselves with informationless
hype from a world wide web of confusion and delusion and still we might
seek our only sun god———Maybe it’s a sun God we seek.
Toss the paper without news away. Give the vision on your widescreen
or small screen a lift down from its exalted status. Lift up only the sought after.
If you seek the fiery ball of light that warms you in summer and lights your
way in the winter of discontent, then know it’s not God’s sun that will guide you
except for you to see what has always been seen.
Look to the mountaintop. Forage through the dark to find the only truth; search your
heart to find the comfort of all seasons. Seek not sun gods. Seek God’s Son.
February 11th, 2009 at 10:28 am
When I first read Kent’s posting, I wasn’t sure how to understand the meaning of “sun god,” a seemingly antiquated pagan conception of divinity, associated with ancient civilizations, but not modern America? A deity so far removed from us? Yet, as I read through Kent’s posting, I began to see how well the term applies to our modern lives, lives that obsess over sunglasses, suntanning, and the glow of television, movies, and celebrities’ white teeth. The sun god is not an historical artifact afterall but is a thing exalted, pursued and praised even today, even as we may say otherwise once a week. Can one find the meaning to sustain onself and others from this shimmering simulacra illuminated daily by the sun? Inevitably, the sky becomes dark, the seasons change and turn cold and the suntan fades and becomes leathery, and then what? The void, always present, resurfaces, and then what? As Kent says, we need to search and explore other dimensions — the moutaintop, the dark,
the heart. When exploring these areas — areas not so visible when the sun is shimmering — how does one break through the surface and find something deeper. Paul Tillich says, That depth is what the word God means. He says, If that word (depth) has not much meaning for you, translate it, and speak of the depths of your life, of the source of your being, of your ultimate concern, of what you take seriously without reservation. Kent, thanks for pointing to this depth, residing above and below the surface.