Reading Luke in Spanish in Baja |
It seemed logical to me to take a Spanish gospel to Baja.
That’s the Mexican language.
It seemed logical to choose to read the Gospel of Luke, since the point
of Baja is named after him - Cabo San Lucas.
The big words in Spanish are: Díos - God
El Señor - The Lord
Hijo de Díos - Son of God
Cristo - Christ or Messiah
|
The Easter text sounds something
like this: |
Así está escrito, que el Cristo tenía morir,
y que al tercer día que
resucitar de la muerte. |
(This is what is written, that the Messiah must suffer, and rise from
the dead on the third day). |
Of course, I cheat.
My Spanish book has English beside it. Nevertheless I read in Spanish until
I needed help figuring out a word. Knowing the story ahead of time
helps. |
Luke is a story-teller.
Not a historian. Not a biographer. A story-teller. He
weaves a story, invents conversation, makes it interesting. Luke
gave us the story of the Angel coming to Mary to tell her she was to become
a mother, and the story of the birth outside the inn, the story of the
shepherds and angel choirs, the story of the dove coming at baptism, the
story of the lost sheep, the story of the prodigal son, the story of the
arrest and trial and persecution of Jesus, the story of his dying, the
story of the women finding angels at the tomb, but not Jesus, the story
of mysterious experiences of the presence of Jesus after he died, the story
of his ascending into heaven. |
Vivid stories, so vivid
that many in the west see them as literal events that actually happened. |
Sitting on the sea-wall
in front of our bungalow on the Sea of Cortez, I saw through these stories
a faith in a life that was real to Luke, no matter what. A life that
continued—forget about the body—no matter what. |
|
Reading Steinbeck’s Sea of Cortez on
the Sea of Cortez |
Linda sent along this book
I first read many years ago. Strange to read it while looking out
on the very land and water Steinbeck was on 57 years ago to the day, March
19. |
He was studying marine life,
but commenting on real life. I mean, Life! The
Sea of Cortez is full of life. We saw whale spouts, dolphin, skipjacks,
roosterfish, sardines with pelicans dive-bombing them. We saw vultures
circling, a sign of death among life. Steinbeck comments:
The true biologist deals with life, with teem boisterous
life, and learns something from it, learns that the first rule of life
is living. (p. 29)
|
Of course, everything must
die…except life. Even Jesus |
El Cristo tenía
que morir. |
Jesus is no more immune
from death than those sardines speared out of the water by diving pelicans.
Those sardines that some poets describe as dancing on the water, skimming
over the waves, are not dancing, but trying to keep from dying. The
skipjacks are after them and the roosterfish are after the skipjacks and
the buzzards are waiting for all of them. |
Steinbeck concludes that
all of life is a whole. Death sustains life. Even the
end of a species is not the end of life. No matter what, life goes on. |
|
Coming Home |
We flew home, up the Sea
of Cortez, across the border, right over Rancho Santa Fe where wealth has
its mansions and 39 men were preparing for suicide. We drove past
farmlands, recently flooded, now cultivated, planted and vegetables coming
up, we saw recently trimmed vineyards which a few weeks ago looked like
dead sticks, now sprouting green leaves. Fruit trees were showing
blossoms. |
No matter what, life goes on... |
We stopped to visit the
widowed wife of our friend. Barely one month into her terrible aloneness.
She is trimming and planting in her garden. Blooms are everywhere.
She is making plans for a convention trip with friends. She is preparing
for the visit of a daughter. She is making cookies for her grandchildren.
Her words tell me that for her, life is ended, but her action tells me
that no matter what, life goes on. |
|
Conclusion |
And this is what Luke started
out to say in his poetic way. There is life in Jesus that will never,
never die. His friends cannot imagine it. We celebrate the
fact today. The message is bigger than Jesus, it is as big as life.
No matter what, life goes on. |
We are here at Inavale Farms
where only a few short years ago I sat in this room with a bunch of grieving
young people and adults, talking through feelings about the deaths of their
horses in a terrible barn and stable fire. It seemed like the end.
We went out to where the horses were buried, one day, and everyone planted
a daffodil bulb. What a symbol. Paul, in the Bible, saw it
clearly: |
When you plant a seed into the ground it does not sprout to
life unless it dies.
|
We were a sober bunch, but the next day the rebuilding process began.
Now there are new and better stables, a larger arena, more horses than
before. |