Which Came First?

 

The more I know, the more I know I don’t know. Or...which came first, the chicken or the egg?

A paradox is “a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth”.

Born in Canada, Sylvia Dustan’s love for music was nurtured by her grandparents, and her musical education started with the Sisters at the local convent. After ordination in the United Church of Canada, she served as a parish minister and prison chaplain, and edited a church music journal. Several of her hymns are included in our purple hymnal.

On the bus ride home after a really hard day of prison ministry, she was contemplating the many ways we know Jesus: He is a sheep as well as the Good Shepherd, and other examples.

She titled the poem she wrote that day “Christus Paradox”because so many attributes of Jesus are at tension with each other. The poem is powerful when sung to the tune we associate with “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” (Hymnal #274).

The poem can also be read expressively:

You, Lord, are both Lamb and Shepherd.

You, Lord, are both prince and slave.

You, peace-maker and sword-bringer

of the way you took and gave.

You, the everlasting instant;

you, whom we both scorn and crave.

 

2 Clothed in light upon the mountain,

stripped of might upon the cross,

shining in eternal glory,

beggared by a soldier’s toss,

you, the everlasting instant;

you who are both gift and cost.

 

3 You, who walk each day beside us,

sit in power at God’s side.

You, who preach a way that’s narrow,

have a love that reaches wide.

You, the everlasting instant;

you, who are our pilgrim guide.

 

4 Worthy is our earthly Jesus!

Worthy is our cosmic Christ!

Worthy your defeat and victory;

worthy still your peace and strife.

You, the everlasting instant;

you, who are our death and life.

 

Have you ever heard someone say they know “a different side” when talking about a person? It has always fascinated me that we sing contrasting songs like “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” and “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” - a bulwark never failing”.

But since Jesus does have different sides, He can always meet us where we are, and is just what we need at that time.

 

Joy Christian