Andrew and the Ringwraiths

Some are real, some less so. Some favorite scenes, that is. Life scenes and not life. The pursued hobbits arrive on a rainy night, dark and stormy. To their banging, the gatekeeper opens the latch hole, peers out, swings the gate wide and they enter in the driving rain. The town has a frightening feel, medieval, scary, people darting about huddled against the cold rain. Frodo and company make their way to the pub, not knowing the Black Riders, Ringwraiths who are neither living nor dead, are not far behind. Gothic and terrifying, the arrival in Bree is my favorite scene in the entire series.

But it’s the invention of the scriptwriters, not the work of Tolkien whose arrival scene in Bree is very different: not raining, an evening walk in the town. Which is real and which is less so? I’ve watched the movie scene many times and prefer it to the book, is it life or not life?

In the red Gospel book on our Altar, the gospel for last Sunday, John 1:29-42, begins, “On the day after Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan, ...”. But it’s a false gospel, that’s not what gospel John says, he specifically as part of his agenda refrains from saying Jesus was baptized by John. As I read it aloud in the early service I was startled to notice the editor’s liberty with John’s text, and substantial error, and so omitted it when I read it in 10:30 worship. But unlike John, the synoptic gospels do have John the Baptist baptizing Jesus: which is real and which is less so? And did John the Baptist really say Ἴδε ὁ Ἀμνὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ or not? Why does John the Baptist say, “Behold the Lamb of God” only in the Gospel according to John but not in Mark, Matthew and Luke, and baptize Jesus in the synoptics but not in John? Which is real life and which is the scriptwriters’ -- I hesitate to say -- invention? And what of the -- “scholar” -- who took such a glaring liberty as he edited the red Gospel book on our Altar? Which do I trust, what I read or what I see or the pictures in my mind, which is real and which is less so? Which is life, which not life?

On a spring morning in 1995, after nearly two weeks in England, Linda and I arrive in Atlanta on an overnight flight from London. Instead of driving home to Apalachicola, I drive almost as fast as the car will go, straight from Atlanta Airport to St. Andrew Baptist Church to pick up Kristen at the Childcare Center. We arrive at nap time and she is asleep. I wait just inside the door of the dark room. The teacher goes to her, wakes her gently saying, “Kristen, Papa’s here.” She jumps up, looks round and sees me, and comes running frantically, flying into my arms for one of those never-let-you-go clinging hugs. Two years old, she who did it has long forgotten, but for me it’s one of my favorite scenes, recorded in my mind. Is it life, or not life? I can see it, experience it again right now, it’s as clear in my mind as that night of Frodo’s arrival in Bree, is it real, or less than, life or not life? But then, that scene in The Fellowship of the Ring movie wasn’t real, wasn’t how it really was, was not how Tolkien wrote it. And some gospel writers wrote this, some wrote that, which is real?

“As of old, Saint Andrew heard it ...” which scene was real, did Jesus encounter Andrew with Simon Peter at the boat by the Sea of Galilee as Mark wrote it and I have it clear in my mind? Or did Andrew meet Jesus at Bethany, the other side of the Jordan where John was baptizing, follow Jesus to where he was staying, and later tell his brother “we have found the Christ” and bring Simon to Jesus, as John’s gospel tells it? They are all my favorite scenes, but which is real and which less so? Or is it the scriptwriter?

And what about this, these blog posts? My last child is all grown up and gone and what I have left are scenes, favorite scenes of all four of them. The same hug from Malinda when I arrived home in Panama City from Ann Arbor. The same leaping, clinging hug from Joe when my ship arrived home in San Diego from WestPac. Meeting Tass at Atlanta Airport as she walked off the plane from Gatwick. Late evening, in my pajamas running down the hospital corridor in Apalachicola to grab her after that car accident, blood on her face, holding her as she said, "I'm OK, Daddy," but I was not. St. Andrew: apostle or child care center? both are gone but real as ever right here in my mind scenes. London. Atlanta airport. Clinging hugs that won’t let go. A fishing boat by the Galilean Sea and someone taking leave of their father, to follow Jesus and never to return. Taking leave of the father? tell me about it. St. Andrew mixed up in all of it. Annie & Jennie, St. Andrew, Florida. Behold the Lamb of God. Imagination or life? My scenes: real, or the ravings of a madman? It’s no longer clear to me.

TW+