By Dr. Lani Wilson
Good Morning, prayer and fasting warriors for AT!
Our joint prayers for our little outpost in East Oakland are being answered. We thank God for more souls who join our Thursday effort of prayer and fasting to lift up the Bride of Christ here and everywhere. However S/He sees fit to move, we will continue to pray and ask for Her presence among and between us.
May we consider another word this week that appears to be an unusual choice (or at least it sort of stumped me): “Fusion.” Yup, there it is. Fusion. My mind first jumped to “nuclear fusion.”
Fusion is the process that powers the sun and the stars.
It is the reaction in which two atoms of hydrogen combine
together, or fuse, to form an atom of helium. In the process
some of the mass of the hydrogen is converted into energy.
What is Fusion? fusioned.gat.com/what_is_fusion.html
We are familiar with nuclear energy, but did we realize that the process of fusion involves extreme heat?
1550s, "act of melting by heat," from Middle French fusion or directly from Latin fusionem (nominative fusio) "an outpouring,
effusion," noun of action from fusus, past participle of fundere " to pour, melt" (see found (v.2)). Meaning "union or blending of
different things; state of being united or blended" is by 1776; used especially in 19c, of politics, in early 20c. of psychology,
atoms, and jazz (in nuclear physics sense, first recorded 1947; in musical sense, by 1972).
Online Etymology Dictionary etymonline.com
We get the word fusion from the Latin root word, fus, which means “pour,” as in putting something into another container. Another definition is to melt by heating.
Pour Latin to melt by heating; infuse – to put into
fusion |ˈfyo͞oZHən| noun the process or result of joining two or more things together
to form a single entity: a fusion of an idea from anthropology and an idea from psychology | malformation or fusion of the
three bones in the middle ear.
• Physics short for nuclear fusion.
• the process of causing a material or object to melt with intense heat, especially so as to join with another: the fusion
of resin and glass fiber in the molding process.
• music that is a mixture of different styles, especially jazz and rock.
Dictionary.com/fusion
The root word root of fusion in English is, of course, fuse.
fuse 1 |fyo͞oz| noun
join or blend to form a single entity: intermarriage had fused the families into a large unit.• [ no obj. ] (of groups of atoms or cellular structures) join or coalesce: the two nuclei move together and fuse into one nucleus.• melt (a material or object) with intense heat, especially so as to join it with something else: powdered glass was fused to a metal base.
Dictionary.com/fuse
Fusion derived from the word for “pour” because the process of making iron usable involved heating at high temperatures and eventually liquefying it. The process of moving from bloom iron that produced small amounts of soft iron was laborious and yielded small amounts of iron that was painstakingly molded. What was needed was higher heat and safe containment for liquid iron that could be poured. And interestingly again, the seeds of the Industrial Revolution were propogated by Cistercian monks who were perfecting a new furnace, the blast furnace, that would revolutionize the process of melting ore into iron. How ironic that sequestered men and women of God would be the vanguard of a new age of secular prosperity?
The guidelines and structure for monastic life were created by Benedict of Nursia (or Norcia) and became The Rule of St. Benedict. Cistercian monks sought to maintain orthodoxy of the original mandate of the Rule and major differences in Western monastic development can be traced to interpretation and application.
Although the popular perception of monasteries is one of study, contemplation, prayer and bee-keeping, the reality of medieval Yorkshire was very different. Rievaulx had its own facilities for producing iron for the abbey's quarries and farms, and for sale to the outside world…"One of the key things is that the Cistercians had a regular meeting of abbots every year and they had the means of sharing technological advances across Europe," he said. "They effectively had a stranglehold on iron.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1397905/Henry-stamped-out-Industrial-Revolution.html
The Dissolution of the Monasteries by King Henry VIII in 1538 effectively inhibited the development of the blast furnace. This was both a political move away from the Roman Catholic Church and a grab for the wealth of the monasteries.
Philosophical concepts of the power of the king over church may have played a part in Henry's decision to suppress the monasteries, but so did greed. The monasteries were rich, and a lot of that wealth found its way directly or indirectly to the royal treasury. Some of the monastery buildings were sold to wealthy gentry for use as country estates. Many others became sources of cheap building materials for local inhabitants. One of the results of the Dissolution of the Monasteries is that those who bought the old monastic lands were inclined to support Henry in his break with Rome, purely from self interest.
http://www.britainexpress.com/History/Dissolution_of_the_Monasteries.htm
Thus, the Cistercian monks in the Rievaulx Abbey in North Yorkshire, England were effectively delayed from perfecting this process that was developed in central Europe. Monastic and cloistered life emerged from the tradition of social withdrawal to seek a contemplative path to God as exemplified by John the Baptist and Christ Himself. It is thought by some scholars that the Industrial Revolution was delayed by as much as 200 years because of the Dissolution.
The keynote of Cistercian life was a return to literal observance of the Rule of St Benedict. Rejecting the developments the Benedictines had undergone, the monks tried to replicate monastic life exactly as it had been in Saint Benedict's time; indeed in various points they went beyond it in austerity. The most striking feature in the reform was the return to manual labour, especially field-work, a special characteristic of Cistercian life. Cistercian architecture is considered one of the most beautiful styles of medieval architecture.[3] Additionally, in relation to fields such as agriculture, hydraulic engineering and metallurgy, the Cistercians became the main force of technological diffusion in medieval Europe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cistercians
From common parlance one would think that the opposite of fusion would be dissolution.
dissolution |ˌdisəˈlo͞oSHən| noun
the closing down or dismissal of an assembly, partnership, or official body: the dissolution of their marriage | Henry VIII declared the abbey's dissolution in 1540.• technical the action or process of dissolving or being dissolved: minerals susceptible to dissolution.
Dictionary.com/dissolution
But if we look at the definition of the root of the word “dissolve” from its Middle English origins, we might find an interesting point of contention.
dissolve |diˈzälv verb
(with reference to a solid) become or cause to become incorporated into a liquid so as to form a solution: [ no obj. ] : glucose dissolves easily in water | [ with obj. ] : dissolve a bouillon cube in a pint of hot water…ORIGIN late Middle English (also
in the sense ‘break down into component parts’): from Latin dissolvere, from dis- ‘apart’ + solvere ‘loosen or solve.’
Dictionary.com/dissolve
Using the two definitions noted above, when you “dissolve” something, you are breaking it into its basic “component parts.” The original definition and use of the word fusion referred to melting in order to “pour” something; its root word, fuse, means “to join or blend to form a single entity.” When you fuse something you melt it at extreme temperatures in order for it “to join with another.” And the original definition and use of the word dissolution was to loosen parts “so as to form a solution.” A single entity? A solution? Pour? Blend? Well…you might say, “so?”
Forgiveness is a central component of Judaism and Christianity, for obvious reasons. Human beings’ capacity for cruelty is bound only by our capacity for imagination. Every civilization has rules and laws to constrain our behavior so that we may exist together and when we cannot, there is punishment. A higher order of individual functioning would be to individually self-govern, but since the beginning, that hasn’t seemed to work very well; thus, the need for atonement. In Judaism, atonement or kapparah (Hebrew) was needed to fix the damaged relationship with God. Involved was both external sacrifice and internal purification. (www.encyclopedia.com/topic/atonement).
He shall take the two goats and set them before the LORD at the entrance of the tent of meeting;
and Aaron shall cast lots on the two goats, one lot for the LORD and the other lot for Azazel.* Aaron
shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the LORD, and offer it as a sin offering; but the goat
on which the lot fell for Azazel* shall be presented alive before the LORD to make atonement over it,
that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.* (*Traditionally rendered a scapegoat).
Leviticus 16:7-10 (NRSV)
Azazel has been interpreted as both a place and the Devil, although there is no historical evidence to confirm either.
This word has given rise to many different views. Some Jewish interpreters regard it as the name of
a place some 12 miles east of Jerusalem, in the wilderness. Others take it to be the name of an evil spirit, or even of Satan.
But when we remember that the two goats together form a type of Christ, on whom the Lord "laid the iniquity of us all,"
and examine into the root meaning of this word (viz., "separation"), the interpretation of those who regard the one goat as representing the atonement made, and the other, that "for Azazel," as representing the effect of the great work of atonement (viz., the complete removal of sin), is certainly to be preferred.
Biblestudytools.com/Azazel
Thus, one goat represented a sacrificial offering (the goat’s life was sacrificed) to God and the other goat being sent away (the goat was sent away) represented the visible disappearance of the sin or damaged relationship between wo/man and God that was committed.
The one goat which was "for Jehovah" was offered as a sin-
offering, by which atonement was made. But the sins must
also be visibly banished, and therefore they were symbolically
laid by confession on the other goat, which was then "sent away
for Azazel" into the wilderness.
Biblestudytools.com/Azazel
However, the second goat - alive - could not clarify the removal of sin unless the first goat - dead - was sacrificed. The two goats represented two sides of the same thing, simultaneously dead and alive at the same time.
Both goats are indeed (Lev. xvi. 5 ) said to be לְחַמֶאת,but this only denotes in a general manner the purpose
for which the two are together brought forward, while in vers. 9 and 15 the first goat which is slain is specially
called חַטֶאת, but not the second. The latter, on whom the result of the atonement just offered is fulfilled, takes the
place of the slain goat, and is, as it were, and as it is often designated, the hircus redivivus. Jewish tradition also recognized this relation between the two goats, by prescribing (Joma, vi. 1) that they should be alike in coulour, size, and value.
Theology of the Old Testament, 1884. (tr. By E.D. Smith) by Gustav Friedrich von Oehler, page 59.
Shrödinger’s Cat is a “thought experiment” created in 1935 by Nobel Physicist (1933) Ervin Shrödinger to demonstrate his quantum theory of superposition. Basically, it says that we do not know the exact state of any object; in theory all objects can exist in all states simultaneously. Only when we try to measure it does it seem to exist in one state.
We place a living cat into a steel chamber, along with a device containing a vial of hydrocyanic acid. There is,
in the chamber, a very small amount of a radioactive substance. If even a single atom of the substance decays
during the test period, a relay mechanism will trip a hammer, which will, in turn, break the vial and kill the cat. The observer cannot know whether or not an atom of the substance has decayed, and consequently, cannot know whether the vial has been broken, the hydrocyanic acid released, and the cat killed. Since we cannot know, the cat is both dead and alive according to quantum law, in a superposition of states. It is only when we break open the box and learn the condition of the cat that the superposition is lost, and the cat becomes one or the other (dead or alive).
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/superposition
In other words, the cat is dead or alive only when we attempt to look into the box to see if it is dead or alive (the observer’s paradox) and until we do that, it can be both dead and alive; both possibilities exist simultaneously. See? You didn’t think you could “do” theoretical Physics, huh? But you just did.
In our binary, black-or-white, yes-or-no, this-or-that, increasingly extremist world, there is no room for coexistence, simultaneity, new understanding. Fusion means to put things together, but in order for that to happen, things must be broken down, liquified and “poured.” The end goal of fusion is to separate into elements to make something new and usable. Dissolution means breaking something down into its basic parts in order for it to become a solution, to be mixable with other components. The end goal of dissolution is to combine, and not separate, elements into something new and usable. Azazel could be a place (the wilderness) or a persona (the Devil) and one might proffer that it was both when Jesus met the Devil in the Judean wilderness for forty days and nights. The two goats represented the complete ritual of forgiveness because the first goat (a sin-offering, the atonement) had to die but its sacrifice was not real to the Israelites unless they saw the second goat (the separation of the sin from the sinners, the work of the atonement) sent away into the wilderness: hircus (goat: wordnik.com) redivivus (brought back to life; reborn: merriam-dictionary.com), i.e., hircus redivivus, the reborn goat.
commons.wikimedia.org
Mythology through the ages turned the goat into a symbol for the devil, but it was originally, for the Israelites and their cosmology, a symbol of hope, of a repaired relationship with God. But if the first goat died and the second goat was sent away, how is the goat reborn? For the Israelites two goats are required for atonement, the sacrifice and physical removal of the sin.
As the goat "for Jehovah" was to witness to the demerit of sin and the need of the blood of atonement, so the goat
"for Azazel" was to witness to the efficacy of the sacrifice and the result of the shedding of blood in the taking away
of sin.
Biblstudytools.online/Azazel
For Christians, it is The Christ in the Person of Jesus.
The Messiah has made things up between us so that we're now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish
insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. He repealed the law code that had become
so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with
two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody. Christ brought us together through his death on the Cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility.
Ephesians 2:14-16 (TMB)
Jesus Christ became the atonement, the external sacrifice and the internal purification, the sin-offering and the scapegoat, the punishment and the forgiveness, all at the same time, existing in all states at the same time and becoming specific to one state, us as individuals, only when we are measured by God for our actions: Shrödinger’s Cat and hircus redivivus, all for us, for all time, just for you and just for me.
O God of all that is, has been, and will be, thank You for revealing Yourself to us at the same time, across time, splitting time in half. Thank You, Jesus, for being One with God, regardless of how many times we reject Your complexity because we don’t understand it. Thank You for not giving up on us when we insist that You, Your world, and Your people can only be one thing, one way, one type, one worship. Make us grow up to live comfortably in complexity and yet find you simply in prayer, in petition, in worship. Thank You for simplifying the entire problem of separation, failure, hurt, cruelty by giving us Jesus the Christ who understood it all for all of us and who stands here now knocking at the door waiting for us to open it so that we can walk through. You knock, we open, and then we walk through: Mystery of the faith. You already made Your walk to the cross. It is now and forever our turn to walk to You, even as you stand right next to us on this side of the door as You wait for us on the other side. We can handle it because we can experience You, even if we don’t fully understand You in all Your different states and complexity. That is the mystery of the faith.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
And help us appreciate the complete atonement Who is Jesus the Christ, The Nazarene, The Messiah, our All-in-All. No longer two goats of the same for sin but one Love for all…one God, one Son, one Holy Spirit, one rebirth, fused and dissolved into One for each one of us.
How amazing. How amazing. How amazing. Hallelujah!
Amen.
