Parson to Person - Healing for a fractured world

"Fractured world." What images come to mind when you hear those words? War-torn scenes of bombing in Aleppo? The pain of a broken relationship? The loss of a loved one through death? The words of an argument still ringing in your ears?

The year is 587 BC. The people of Jerusalem have watched in utter dismay as Babylon's growing influence has encroached on their city. There have been two waves of deportations already. Now the Babylonians are at the gates.

"King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem, and laid siege to it; they built siegeworks against it all around . . . the famine became so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land." 2 Kings 25:1-3.

Tiny Judah was no match for the powerful Babylonian Empire. Finally, the wall was breached by the Babylonians, and all those still remaining in the city were forcibly exiled to Babylon while Jerusalem smoldered in ashes behind them. The city was gone, the temple destroyed. It was surely a fractured world.

The poetry of the book of Lamentations vividly describes the scene of the once beautiful city, now lying in ruins:

"How lonely sits the city that once was full of people!

How like a widow she has become, she that was great among the nations!

She that was a princess among the provinces has become a vassal.

She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks;

Among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her;

All her friends have dealt treacherously with her,

They have become her enemies." Lamentations 1:1-2.

All of us know the pain of 587 BC. The loss, the grief, the sorrow. We have had our worlds fractured and wondered how we would survive.

A fractured world is often the subject of poetry, as in Lamentations, and of art. The current exhibit in the Iowa Wesleyan Art Gallery is an image of the planet, splintered in half. But the fracturing of Jerusalem was not the last word, nor is it for us. In the center of the fractured world in the art gallery is an hour glass, and from the fracture emerge branches and vines. The Babylonian exile ended. King Cyrus sent the exiles back to restore Jerusalem. "Everyone whose spirit God had stirred got ready to go to rebuild the house of the Lord in Jerusalem." Ezra 1:5.

How is the loss of 587 BC overcome? Just as the grace of God restored those exiled to Babylon, there is also grace for us.

Ted Lyddon Hatten, the artist/theologian who created the art installation in the gallery, will present the annual Manning Lecture in Religion this Sunday at 2 p.m., in the Iowa Wesleyan Chapel Auditorium. The lecture is entitled, ?Will beauty save the world this time??

The lecture is free and open to the public and the gallery is open Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Please join us.