The Institute Volume 9, Autumn 1999
GOD, NOAH, JOB and JESUS
by Gloria Askin
Ms. Gloria Askin, an artist and writer, is an enthusiastic sup-porter the ICJS. Gloria also participated in both the Fall and Spring Mini-Courses. Her poem, printed below, is her reflection on the Spring Mini-Course.
an idea warming his heart
he strolled comfortably
quite friendly like
Noah walked with God
The stars sang to him of moonlit midnights
the sun swam lazily through the ocean blue sky
his heart was warm
Then came that moment
an ice dark silence
at mid-day
when every living thing ceased to breathe
as God regretted
as God was sorry
God had cast humans in God's own image
Noah, "righteous in his generation"
looked then into the heart of darkness
as God and Noah stared each into the heart of the
other and
Noah knew nothing would ever be the same again
God softened and destroyed not all
but the waters rose
and Noah drank deeply of his own pain
and cursed his sons
* * *
What should be said of Job
whose innocent piety and days
fat with the goodness of life
had been cruelly turned to the darkness
of cold starvation and loneliness
Until screaming into the wind
he threw his challenge
his insistence to God
Why?
Cold comfort gave the Voice that came
from the four corners of the earth and all the heavens
out of the whirlwind came an answer
wilder more mysterious than the question
Not the whispered condolences of simple friends
what Job heard was the sound of awe
the challenge was flung back at him
and Job saw that his vision had been wrong
that he had not seen
God was as God would be
not
as Job wanted God to be
God was not Job
nor Job God
and in time Job's eyes were opened
* * *
We come at last to Jesus
gentle, learned, Torah observant Jew
innocent
we watched through the eyes of Mark
the terrible story unfold
but knew the reason it had to be told
we were not alone
One by one in an ever widening circle
abandonment
the friends, the disciples
still Jesus believed
until that moment
near the last
when
alone on that cross on the hill
even He cried out
"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"
to his God, the God of Judgment
And God's heart broke as
He mourned and
He ripped the curtain in the Temple
His tears fell into the cup of Tikkun Olam
but one missed and fell to the earth below
With an oozing sucking sound
the creature once again and even again
pushes itself upright from the slime
la dor va dor in every generation
Seeking air gulping deep
breath rasping into lungs
the mud black figure rises
face scarred from tears
cries out
"Lord!"
Despair
hurt
anger
evil
then
hope
understanding
"We are still with you."
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