creation of eve and stuff

[an addition from the codex beaze, a palimpsest in a margin, underneath the text, aside a rubric and a cartoon of a donkey riding a rickshaw]
"And not just wars and rumors of wars but peace and rumors of peace
and price hikes as well as discounts
and there'll be adjustments for inflation
and people will lose money
and people will make money
people will be getting together for lunch and dinner and eating too much and laughing too much
and many people will not have enough to eat but will still find ways to laugh
and enjoy human relationships.
Basically things will be predicatable
Even moreso, to the point of cliche
and veneration of kitsch and the wrailings against them in all high-minded quarters.
And there'll be plenty of stupidity to go around: two blind men will fall in a ditch, for example, and one will be taken to an infirmary and the other will be left behind
because he was unseen and unheard by the blind rescuers -
oddly enough, he'll be the one to survive. So there'll be lots of irony
And some will get it and others won't,
and some will confuse irony with coincidence
and others will take it or leave it.
As it was in the days of Noah
When the whole earth was flooded and all life destroyed, except for the sea creatures and microorganisms, especially those things that have been living in arctic glaciers all this time,
So it will be in those days.
And pray that your flight isn't delayed
and you have to make a connection at DFW
cause then you're SOL.
The thing is, I said, "no one knows the day or the hour," so quit trying to pin down a day or describe a scenario that means it's just got to happen.
Remember the ending of the book of Jonah: God changed his mind and Jonah was left hanging.
Let that be a sign to you: God talks about fire and cataclysm and armageddon, but She lilkes reconciliation, rebirth and slavation a whole lot more --
a lot more than you probably do.
In fact if you're in this because you want a front-row seat to witness the wholesale destruction of what you hate - you'll be disappointed."

In Luke's gospel for instance, when the disciples think it would be a good idea to rain down fire from heaven to consume unrepentant villages, Jesus thinks otherwise. God doesn't get caught up in projections and countertransference like we do. Whether stuck in rush hour traffic with nothing on the radio and late for an appointment or putting back a cold one at the local pub, God's pretty much the same even-kelned, unflappable Guy/Gal, trinitarian perichoresic being, simple and one and three and complex. Of course that's just one of the ways we're different.

Apocalypso chapter eins

I was in the middle of nowhere on the Lord's day, because of the testimony and because of the witness. The sky above me contained a single cloud and the land around me was all waist high grass bisected by an empty draw. All around me was silence but for the sound of distant thunder. And I thought I would lie down and sleep. And a voice spoke to me saying, "mortal, can you see beyond the sky?" and I answered that I did not know. Startled I looked around and could see no one speaking to me, but the wind picked up across the grass and formed a path, and the voice said, "walk here." And I walked. As I was walking I became aware that the grass contained many living creatures: insects, lizards, birds, rabbits, snakes and suddenly, as I reached the empty draw, there was a deer. The deer had two massive antlers with fifteen points each. It's coat was gold and silver. It's eyes were emeralds and its hoofs were teakwood. It smelled of incense. I stood in awe of it. It looked at me and spoke with a human voice, "Son of man, pay attention to what you are seeing here for it is a vision of what must certainly happen." And as soon as the magnificent deer spoke, the grass separated and water gushed down the draw and it would have swept me away but I was snatched up into the air and brought to the shore of a lake. The lake was solid ice but all around it was a verdant forest alive with sounds and fecund with growth. When I put my foot on the ice I saw that frozen within its sheet was a city of men and women, each was frozen in the business of buying and selling. And as I looked at them my heart was heavy with sorrow.