Tuesday, April 13, 2010

GPS'ing the DRE (Damascus Road Experience)
Acts 9:1-6

Traditions stylize stuff. One way they do this is create a kind of linguistic shorthand. Take the term “Damascus Road Experience”, usually prefixed with something about "having" one. Or not. Like all such short hand, it's culture-specific. Ask somebody in a club in Seattle if they've had one and they might say: “I don't know. I'll GPS it and check it out.” GPS'ing the DRE. Now that'sintertextuality! (oops, sorry - more code from yet another world) Which is not what the questioner had in mind at all. That puts us in exactly the right situation to unstyle the DRE. Can you see it? The resurrected Jesus catching us playing Saul in exactly what we did not have in mind at our most religious moment. In fact, counter to what we had in mind. Jesus-resurrected's counter-will for us.

This is a pretty good tool to re-open that old conundrum concerning our salvation that throws free-will up against destiny. If we let the DRE be our cue - dare we? - then the big spiritual decisions of our life come as countermands from the resurrected Jesus. Conversions of such wrenching force that, in the aftermath, we have to get to the chiropractor to get our backbones sorted out. Or carry the damage the rest of our days as our “thorn in the flesh”. A little reminder that the cosmos is not necessarily lining itself up for us to have a nice trip to wherever we think we're going.

As it turns out, GPS'ing the DRE has been on the minds of historians for some time. Why are we on this road to Damascus, of all places, to begin with? That's not where the story is happening. Not even close. The high priest of Jerusalem has no authority over the policing of Damascus, an alien city with probably only a sprinkling of Jews under the authority of either Antipas or the Nabateans, depending on the moment of the setting. If the writer even knows that anymore. Or cares. Unless Saul's connections in Jerusalem had some uncommon pull on Antipas who in turn had an uncommon pull on Jews in Damascus – this line of reasoning gets thinner and thinner: Saul's dour plan for Jesus-Jews there seems rather doubtful. Or maybe “Damascus” is just more code to those early Christians for “some place out of town”. We can see by all this that the DRE adds geographical confusion to the mix: but hey! If the resurrected Jesus says "Okay, Saul. Go on to Damascus, then. But with new rules.", then, by Jove Jehovah, Damascus it is! Or even better, if Saul (or Luke or whoever) has created a bug in the system, Jesus turns the faulty destination (geographically, historically, ethically, textually) into a real destination with all the right reasons. Text is funny that way. Putty in the hands of the Spirit. It can right itself like a falling cat. 

This would not be the last time that Saul/Paul would be on a track that God countermanded. It would happen later in Asia province, pushing him on toward Macedonia. Further off the map where Jesus waited.

Let's look again at the stock question: “Have I (you, we) had a DRE?” There are times when our life in the resurrected Christ is gradual. Gently nourished in the liturgies of Mother Church. Bolstered in silence. Or perhaps, for some, in the rhythm of the cloister. Life mediated by traditional styles undoubtedly accounts for most of our religious time. But there are also times when, carrying the full courage of our convictions, fully confident of our God, we follow a road taking us to a destination, that, for any number of reasons, is just as implausible as Damascus. And then, bang! Our most fundamental commitments are countermanded. We realize in an awful moment that we are an incarnation of the darkness. An enemy of Jesus Christ, even, perhaps, while calling ourselves "Christian." In a flash it is all countermanded by the command of the risen Christ. And not gently either.

It's all in the mix. There is no such thing as having or not having a DRE. It's just a matter of having our eyes open, even if, for the moment, we can't see one single blasted thing. Trusting whatever this “Damascus” turns out to be. Trusting that one day, we will be able to see what we have heard. For we are now, beyond any quibbles, a part of the body of Christ. Thanks to the DRE, we can show you the scars to prove it.

The Spirit of the risen Christ. The premium upgrade in guidance systems.

© 2010 Andy Gay