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Deus Ex Machina


         This is what the Lord says to me: “As a lion growls, a great lion over its prey— and though a whole band of shepherds is called together against it, it is not frightened by their shouts or disturbed by their clamor— so the Lord Almighty will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights. (Isaiah 31:4)
          Today’s passage is similar to yesterday’s. It can be seen in two ways. Some folks may read it and decide that God is a bully, coming to wage war against mankind. Others read it and decide that God is coming to wage war against the enemies of mankind, even if that includes mankind.
          A trope (overused idea) in westerns was the poor, honest settlers being attacked by the bloodthirsty Indians, and when all seemed lost, they would hear the blast of the cavalry’s bugler, and they would know help was on the way. A Star Trek trope was the Enterprise, beaming people up or down or otherwise providing the mechanical solution to the episode’s problem. The TARDIS and the sonic screwdriver are obvious examples from Dr. Who.
          Originally, it was used in theatre as the entrance of a god within some theatrical contraption. And because it’s been “done before” – at least in fiction or drama, the supposition is that anything that even hints at something similar must be fiction. It’s like Indiana Jones said:
Archaeology is the search for fact, not truth. If it's truth you're interested in, Dr. Tyree's philosophy class is right down the hall. So forget any ideas you've got about lost cities, exotic travel, and digging up the world. We do not follow maps to buried treasure, and X never, ever marks the spot.
            Until it did. There are reasons that tropes become tropes. One is that they speak to something within is. Another is because they are sometimes true. One of the reasons that He would come was to as Deus Ex Machina. Trope or not.

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