On the Bookshelf by Nancee Cline
As Christians we know that we are to look for Jesus in the faces of those we meet. It is a lofty goal that often seems both impossible and abstract. Just how do we love our neighbors? What does it look like when our neighbor is rather nasty? Two books I have read recently offer role models. One title is old, one new. The old is “The Dean’s Watch” by Elizabeth Goudge. The new is Anne Rice’s“Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana.”
In the normal everyday conflicts in the world of these novels, love is offered where it is least expected. When the reader wants justice, instead he is humbled by witnessing the gift of mercy. For every act of cruelty, hatred, and pettiness, love is returned. In these“kingdom of heaven” encounters, we forget the rules for getting by-- things like maintaining our self esteem, asserting ourselves, clarifying our boundaries. The gracefilled role models do these things, but in a completely different way from the twenty first century, popular psychology way.
“The Dean’s Watch” is an old fashioned story of a city in England, the life of its cathedral, and generations of those who live and die in its shadow. A powerful and learned dean and a humble, gifted watchmaker form an unlikely friendship that transforms them both. The main theme? Love is a creative force and hate is a destructive one.
In “The Road to Cana,” we spend the year with Jesus before his public ministry begins. We see him as a young idealist with wisdom beyond his age. We see family squabbles and neighborhood conflicts, doubt, jealously, and intolerance within the highly interdependent Jewish community. Jesus does not always treat people the way the law (or we) might think they deserve. On the contrary, we see compassion and love offered again and again.
Both of these faith affirming novels offer glimpses of holiness and moments of quiet joy. I know I will return to them when I need help seeing the face of Jesus in others who hurt, or hate, or destroy.
CLICK HERE FOR MAY 2008 BOOK REVIEW: The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks / My Name is Asher Lev by Rabbi Chaim Potok
CLICK HERE FOR APRIL 2008 BOOK REVIEW: The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks & My Name is Asher Lev by Rabbi Chaim Potok
CLICK HERE FOR MARCH 2008 BOOK REVIEW: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
CLICK HERE FOR FEBRUARY 2008 BOOK REVIEW: The Desire of the Everlasting Hills: by Thomas Cahil
CLICK HERE FOR AUGUST 2007 BOOK REVIEW: Christ the Lord, Out of Egypt, by Anne Rice
CLICK HERE FOR JULY 2007 BOOK REVIEW: The Personal Reflections of Joan of Arc, by Mark Twain
CLICK HERE FOR JUNE 2007 BOOK REVIEW: Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace by Maxine Hong Kingston
CLICK HERE FOR MAY 2007 BOOK REVIEW: WHY I AM A missional + evangelical + post/protestant + liberal/conservative + mystical/poetic + biblical + charismatic/contemplative + fundamentalist/calvinist + anabaptist/anglican + methodist + catholic + green + incarnational + depressedyet-hopeful + emergent + unfinished CHRISTIAN by Brian McLaren
CLICK HERE FOR APRIL 2007 BOOK REVIEW: The Colonyesus by John Tayman
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