Themes

 What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. (II Timothy 1:13-14)

 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

Dum dum diddum dum diddum dum diddum. Recognize it? It’s the number one motif from a movie theme and if you don’t recognize it, try reading it aloud. Motifs and themes give emotional strength to movie and TV show scenes. I once watched a program about the movie Jaws in which they removed the music from one of scenes. There was a lot of moving around on the boat, a lot of looking at the water with concern, fear and/or anger, but without the long bass notes in the background, one could almost yawn.

The problem is, history and life don’t have motifs that play in the background of our lives, and that’s probably a good thing. Can you imagine? Drawing on a scene from Star Trek: The Next Generation, it would be like walking into Data’s quarters while he listened to a multitude of symphonies.

As I think of my own life, I believe I’d have a hard time living with motifs that played in the background. As I see it, most of the time would be without music, or very soft, boring music to reflect a quiet, unexciting life. There’d be quiet a bit of somber music, as I face failures, setbacks, disappointments, frustrations and  other negatives, punctuated by the world’s shortest victory marches. This last would be little more than a musical cough or burp to go with the “Yay!” followed by a return to status quo.

What does all of this have to do with today’s passages? Only this little bit: when dealing with literature, lives, and history, there is no musical motif. The motifs in life, literature, and history involve the way we (or the historical or fictional characters) act and react. I believe some of these are the patterns to which Paul refers in II Timothy.

Today, the motif to consider is God’s Theme. There are times, as with today’s second passage, when His theme must be a majestic and joyous anthem. There are other times when the theme must be just as majestic, but ominous, as when He judged the world with the flood, or Sodom and Gomorrah with the fire and brimstone, or Egypt with the plagues. Both of those require the full orchestra with a huge drum section. Then there are the quieter moments, and even some that are filled with humor. But not matter what goes on around the motif, the notes of God’s theme remain the same. In fact, God’s Theme may be a passacaglia. That kind of music has the same baseline motif playing no matter what the rest of the music does.

One of the things about this motif is that there are patterns beyond the emotional ones mentioned above: majestic, joyous, ominous, and peaceful, and humorous. Part of the passacaglia theme that plays beneath and within all of those is the approach and withdrawal.

According to Scripture, there was a time when the universe didn’t exist. God did, but nothing else. In a sense, He had to withdraw to “make room” for something that was not Him. And then He drew near, and brooded over what He created. It’s like He used a universe sized brush to color wash the whole universe, then got out His “one fiber” brush to add all the details. Then, as a painter must, He stepped back to see the larger picture.

He steps back in each day of creation, ending with the creation of man. He withdraws during the days but apparently walks with them in the garden in the evening. After they sin, He withdraws and later approaches Cain at least twice. He withdraws and approaches Enoch, Noah, Abram, Hagar, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses… It’s not quite regular breathing or heartbeat that we could time them, not a rhythm, but a pattern.