Thank you to Heather B. for your amazing work on this transcript!
Channing: [00:01:23] Welcome back, friends! We're so excited to have you for this episode. Today, we'll be covering Genesis chapter five and Moses chapter six for the dates January 17th through the 23rd. Today, we'll be discussing themes of midrash, humility, and the body. And we're so, so, so excited to dive into these incredible chapters.
Elise: [00:01:46] Yes, absolutely we are. And I think maybe, unlike the past couple of weeks, today we're spending our time really in Moses, where the last few weeks we've spent most of our time in Genesis, even though every week, there are multiple chapters in different books that we're reading from. And I think that we do this this week, particularly because in Genesis five, really what we see is a kind of lineage, like a family history line and there's just a few verses about Enoch. But then if we turn to the book of Moses and read Moses chapter six, we get this whole new story with expansion and background details about Enoch and who Enoch might have. Maybe you've heard us say a few times on the podcast or talk about what's called midrash.
[00:02:29] And just as a reminder, midrash is usually commentary on part of the Hebrew scriptures or some type of biblical interpretation by Judaic authorities. And so my question that I've been kind of grappling with this week is: is the story of Enoch an example of Mormon midrash. Like I said earlier, in Genesis five, we only read a few verses about Enoch, where we learned that he did walk with God.
[00:02:51] And then Joseph Smith shows up with his translation of the Bible and translation of some Egyptian Papyrus and creates the Pearl of Great Price. He offers all of these revelations and these translations, expansions, revisions, and interpretation on the text and story, which is where we get this whole backstory in detail about Enoch, which really is quite a story.
[00:03:11] I think, well, not to speak for both of us, but I was pleasantly surprised about the story of Enoch.
Channing: [00:03:18] Yeah, it's really exciting. I think I do want to mention just really quick that the book of Moses and the book of Abraham are the translations of this papyri that Joseph Smith obtained and then translated. There is quite a bit of debate on the accuracy of these translations, especially of the Egyptian hieroglyphs that we see in the book of Abraham.
[00:03:43] So yeah, I just wanted to share that with our readers, that The Pearl of Great Price has its own problems and its own, like, sticky things that we won't be able to get into on the podcast. But as for today, and focusing on the story in Moses five, again, we reiterate what we have said about scriptures from basically the beginning of the podcast: Stories matter and stories have liberating context, whether they're capital-T, historically, perfectly translated True or not. So we're excited to dive in.
Elise: [00:04:20] Yeah, that's really a lovely set up because like you said, we're turning to this expanded story about Enoch as more of an imaginative interaction between stories and texts and not as a story or record or any type of proof that the story of Enoch is a hundred percent capital T factual, actual, accurate truth.
[00:04:41] But in that same line, I don't think that that makes the story any less true or meaningful or beautiful.
Channing: [00:04:47] Yeah. And along these same lines, in a Mormon Stories interview, we hear Jana Riess who is a writer and editor talk about a similar thing. She says, “midrash, well, it's basically any expanded teaching. I don't know what the exact definition would be, but an expanded teaching is something where in midrasham you are taking a core text and then thinking about it cosmically; you're thinking about it theologically. And you could look at, for example, the entire Pearl of Great Price as a midrash. You have Moses as a midrash on Genesis, right? If you think about it in those terms, the literal nature of it is less important than what the book is trying to teach us about who we are as children of God.”
Elise: [00:05:32] I love that and I think that if we turn to our understanding of midrash and we're supported by these words from Jana Riess, I think this is all just a way for me to say that, like Channing said earlier, I think stories are what make life worth living.
[00:05:45] So when I see this creative re-imagining of Enoch that doesn't show up in Genesis, it doesn't make me think, “Aha, look! The Mormons have the most true and reveal doctrine in all of the lands.” No, like instead it reminds me that one powerful element of feminist theology is imaginative reinterpretations of text.
[00:06:07] One of our favorite feminist theologians, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza writes, “Our hermeneutics of creative imagination [or an approach to the texts that values creative imagination] seeks to generate utopian visions that have not yet been realized, to dream a different world of justice and wellbeing. The space of the imagination is that of freedom: a space in which boundaries are crossed, possibilities are explored, and time becomes relativized, but we cannot imagine will not take place. Retelling biblical stories and re-imagining biblical characters in creative imagination and play is a catalytic process that liberates us from the false images that we have made.”
[00:06:50] Now, obviously I love Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, I love stories and I love utopias so it's clear why I would love this passage, but even if the story of Enoch doesn't do all of this at once, right, even if it doesn't sketch out a version of utopia or move us in a clear, straightforward pathway to justice or something specific like that, I think it's still a good reminder in practice to imagine an open invitation of scripture as one that welcomes us to the text and says, “remake me, mosaic, bring more of your stories and let them collide with mine. Imagine something new and grand. Write the story of what was not said. Remake me. Let's do it together. “
Channing: [00:07:30] I really love this approach to the text and looking at it again as a story or a retelling of a story that maybe fills in the spaces or fills in the gaps, or maybe even takes a piece of something present in one version of the story and illuminates it even further. I think that this type of reading of the text can be one that offers us so much opportunity for play. And I think, at least when we’re reading the scriptures, I think oftentimes it's like this very serious thing and we take the scriptures very seriously.
[00:08:08] And I say, we, as in like the collective everyone who reads it, but also Elise and I, but I enjoy midrash as an example of what it means to creatively play with the text. And I think in its own way, that's the type of devotion and, like, faith experience too. So really, really just beautiful. AndElise, I know that you had some thoughts too about Enoch and some of the really beautiful examples in the text of humility. So I'm really excited to get into that.
Elise: [00:08:43] In Moses chapter six up until verse 31, which is where I want to start. But just a little bit of background context. We have this whole lineage from Adam that comes through in the scriptures and we also see how the people start participating in not-so-fantastic things.
[00:08:58] God is really upset at the people for their wickedness. And God actually shows themselves to Enoch and calls Enoch and says, “Enoch, you need to, like, you need to talk to these people, you need to call them to repentance.” And so God talks with Enoch and calls Enoch to this great new calling. And in verse 31, it says, “And when Enoch had heard these words [had heard the call from God], he bowed himself to the earth, before the Lord, and spake before the Lord, saying: Why is it that I have found favor in thy sight, and am but a lad, and all the people hate me; for I am slow of speech; wherefore am I thy servant?”
[00:09:28] And I love Enoch's response here because I hear an Enoch who doubts his self worth. Enoch is saying, “why me? I'm a no one. In fact, everyone hates me. Are you sure? Maybe you don't want to choose someone else?” I hear an Enoch who is hesitant and perhaps really embarrassed or ashamed by his possible disability, where he speaks a little bit more slowly.
[00:09:56] And I hear Enoch, in a sincere, heartfelt way ask, “am I thy servant? Is it really me you want?” And this question, this sincere question to God reminds me of Cain's question from last week where we tried to offer a similar reading, where what if perhaps Cain's question of, “am I my brother's keeper?” wasn't sarcastic or dismissive, but an honest one in a moment of concern.
[00:10:19] It was Cain asking God with sincerity, “is this what I'm responsible for? Is this what you want me to do God?” And so I really liked this reading of Enoch and Cain's questions being moments of sincerity, where they're trying to work out with God who they are, what their relationships are supposed to look like and what their relationship with God is supposed to look like.
[00:10:39] And I think we hear Enoch grappling, like., “Is one of the things I'm supposed to be doing in this world serving you? Am I supposed to be responding to a call that feels impossible?”
Channing: [00:10:51] Yeah, I think you pick up on some really, really beautiful themes there. We're trying to figure out, you know, what is our relationship?
[00:10:59] What does it mean? And I also think a similar theme that we see, you know, throughout text, but we also see show up quite remarkably here is that God always seems to be calling on the weak. God calls the humble, the lowly and the mild. God calls those who don't think much of themselves, or don't think that they could really make a change, even though it might… you know, we often see in the text, and even in the case of Enoch, it kind of says like, “oh, I don't know, are you sure?”
[00:11:28] But we also see if Enoch or any of these characters respond to God's call with openness, God really does magnify them.
Elise: [00:11:39] I love that line. And that's something that I've been thinking about too, is why I am caught up with this idea of God turning to the humble and the meek and the lowly, and then showing them all that they are capable of doing.
[00:11:51] And I don't know if it's simply because we're working through the Hebrew Bible, but it feels less, like, Fundamentalist Mormon to say, “oh, respond to God with faith and God will magnify your calling.” I think we hear that and I have kind of a, I don't know, innate repulsion to that, to that phrase, like, “let God magnify your calling.”
[00:12:12] But for some reason this week, I actually feel more open to that reading because that is what God does here with Enoch. And so I don't know if it was maybe Enoch's honest and sincere self-doubt that illuminated the fact that God still wanted and that God can do great things with us, even when we don't think we're that good.
[00:12:33] I don't know what it is, but it feels less, yeah, kitschy Mormon this week than it has in the past to say that God magnifies us.
In this small, humble snapshot of Enoch some of the questions that have come up for me this week have been, “When God shows up and calls me in my weakness, do I talk myself out of a really good thing?” Or, “When God shows up in a surprising way for me, am I open enough to respond?”
[00:13:00] And finally, “How can I practice leaning into the bigness of God when I feel so small?”
Channing: [00:13:07] Hmm. I love those questions and they really are so beautiful. And remind us here too… that phrase I'm reminded again of “liken the scriptures unto ourselves.” And I think that you did that really beautifully and encourage, you know, more of a closer and personal reading with the text of, like, “oh, how do I show up here in Enoch?” I really, really love that.
Elise: [00:13:29] Well, thank you for that. And the other verse that we've been totally enamored with this week comes a little bit later. So God calls Enoch, Enoch responds by bowing down to the earth and saying, “I'm not… are you sure? Are you sure it's me that you want God? I'm really no one. Are you sure that it's me?”
[00:13:48] And in verse 35 we read, “And the Lord spake unto Enoch and said unto him, “Anoint thine eyes with clay and wash them and thou shalt see.” And he did so.”
Channing: [00:13:58] And then in the following verse, verse 36, it reads, “And he beheld the spirits that God had created and he beheld also things which were not visible to the natural eye. And from thenceforth came the saying abroad in the land, a seer hath the Lord raised up unto his people.” And so one of the questions that I had approaching this first is, “What does it mean to see?” And traditionally, both in, like, the Hebrew tradition and in the LDS tradition we understand a seer to be a person, usually a man, who speaks for God.
[00:14:34] It's direct definition, one of its direct definitions, is actually prophet. So not only are the words interchangeable, well, yeah, the words are interchangeable, but in this case, in the case of Enoch, I think we get a really different feel of seership, one that specifically relates to sight. Something that we talked about last week in our episode where we discuss the story of Eve was this idea of a motif or a circumstance or an event that happens in a story and the motif of covering the eyes with clay is one that we also see played out in the miracles of Jesus with specific references to sight. The Cambridge dictionary defines the seer as, “someone who says they can see what happens in the future.” But again, we don't really get the sense in the text that that's what's happening here.
[00:15:27] Instead in verse 36, we read, “and he beheld the spirits that God had created and he beheld also things which were not visible to the natural eye.” And so again, what I'm really trying to illuminate here is this connection between seership and sight. And I'm trying to maybe parse out between what we've traditionally understood a seer to be in the LDS tradition and what is actually showing up here, or what I think is actually showing up here in the verse.
Elise: [00:15:57] And not only do we have this idea of seership and from the etymology of the word, it reminds us that a seer might be one to whom divine revelations are made. And so not only are we working with seership here, but we're also working with this messy, tangible, tactile experience that God invites Enoch into.
[00:16:16] God doesn't just say, “okay, like, no, you'll be fine. Come along. We can do it.” God works with the earth and works with Enoch’s body to transform Enoch into a seer. And this tactileness, this kind of touch or physical experience of the body and divinity, and this idea reminded both Channing and I of something that's called carnal hermeneutics, which is an idea or a phenomenon from Richard Kearney who's a philosopher and it's this notion that carnality or the body, the body is the way in which we interpret the world, which is what hermeneutics means. It's the art of interpretation. And so there's something both divine and fundamental about what it means to be human, because we are embodied beings. We cannot experience our world, experience ourselves, or experience others or divinity without first having a body to do that in.
Channing:[00:17:09] So as Elise and I are reading the story of Enoch and thinking about carnal hermeneutics and thinking about how the body is a necessary part of what it means to experience God and the world, I was reminded of something that I had read recently in a book about Celtic spirituality and the following quote comes from a book titled “The Mist-Filled Path” by author Frank MacEowen, and he writes, “The Celts of old believed that the world was upheld and sustained by a single all-embracing melody: the Òran Mór, they called it, The Great Music, and all creation was a part of it.” And one way to kind of understand or think about the great song is actually some language that we've used on the podcast before.
[00:17:57] One way that we've understood this for a long time is this idea that the world is a tapestry of interwoven beings; everyone and everything is connected. There is not such thing as a single person or a single of being. A good example of this is what I like to call meeting places and they are meeting places in the world like beaches and mountains.
[00:18:21] Where does the mountain stop? And the valley begin? At what point exactly does the shore become the sea? In a poetic sense, the separation between the sea and the shore is an illusion. At some point somewhere they collide and they become one. And so do we. And so the idea that there's no, like, finite or totally solid one individual being basically anywhere in the world is really fascinating to me. This idea that it's really hard to distinguish oftentimes where one thing in nature begins and something else ends. And I think this also is a good metaphor or a framework for understanding our relationship to other people, to community, to The Divine, and to the earth.
[00:19:16] At what point does my body end and the world begin? At what point does God-in-me end and the earthliness begin? And so it's just this really complex idea of like meeting places, but it's so compelling. And it reminded us again, of something that philosopher Richard Kearney had written about. And he talks about this idea of double sensation.
Elise: [00:19:40] And this idea of double sensation comes from an earlier philosopher named Edmund Husserl. And it's this idea that when we touch something, we are also simultaneously being touched by it. We cannot touch something without also being touched or influenced by it. Kearney writes, “to touch and be touched simultaneously is to be connected with others in a way that opens us up. Flesh is open hearted. It is where we experience our greatest vulnerability. It is the site where we are most keenly attentive to wounds and scars, to pre-conscious memories and traumas as even our navel reminds us. With this comes a deep sense of fragility and insecurity.” And so you have this incredibly… our bodies are open to others and with that comes vulnerability and trust and compassion and empathy in all of the best ways.
Channing: [00:20:34] Mmhm yeah. So talking about these meeting places and touching and being touched by, and this idea of things being interwoven and connected with one another, I wonder if this is what Enoch saw in that verse 36. Remember verse 36 reads, “And he beheld the spirits that God had created. And he beheld also things which are not visible to the natural eye.”
[00:21:00] And so I wonder, perhaps he saw the interconnection of the world. Maybe he saw the tapestry, the web of life that holds us all. Perhaps he heard The Great Song, the song of the world and how every voice was an essential part of it.
Elise: [00:21:17] But if we back up into verse 27, which reads, “and he [Enoch] heard a voice from heaven saying: Enoch, my son, prophesy unto this people, and say unto them—Repent, for thus saith the Lord: I am angry with this people, and my fierce anger is kindled against them; for their hearts have waxed hard, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes cannot see afar off;” So if we think about this verse and then ask the question, “okay, how does sin, which God is calling Enoch to, kind of, call these people to repentance for, how does sin relate to Enoch's new gift of seership?”
[00:21:50] And author Frank MacEowen writes, “Celtic theologians thought that sin is forgetting The Great Song, forgetting the beauty of life, forgetting the holy thread running through our own lives thereby forgetting the divine wisdom within all of creation.”
Rosemary Radford Ruether shows up! And she also writes in relation to this idea. “Sin, as in that sort of evil for which we must hold ourselves accountable lies in distortion of relationship. It is the misuse of freedom to exploit other humans and the earth and in so doing violate the basic relations which sustain life. When one part of the community exalts itself at the expense of the others, life is diminished for the exploited.”
[00:22:37] And so perhaps Enoch's call to repentance was a call to remember The Great Song or to remember ourselves back into the interdependency of the world. How do we care for the world, care for ourselves, and care for others?
Channing: [00:22:51] yeah. And so, in preparation for this episode, Elise and I discussed, kind of, this, like, same three-fold theme that really strongly shows up here in the text. And that theme- we haven't, like, come up with a name for it yet, because it doesn't feel that official- but the three interconnected parts almost as if it's a triangle, seems to be at each point: earth, body, and The Divine, at least that was like our current working theory.
[00:23:18] And we see this connection with earth and God through the body reaffirmed in the text in verse 59, it reads, “You were born into the world by water and blood and the spirit which I have made. And so became of dust a living soul.” In the same verse, we also see that this interconnection is essential to be born again into the kingdom of heaven.
[00:23:42] It reads, “Even so you must be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water and the spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of the only begotten.” So again, we see that same theme that earth, that body, that divine, and it really appears from the text that the closer we become to one, the closer we become to all of them, we experience God and the earth through the body.
[00:24:06] The closer we pay attention, the more we see, the more we see the interconnection of the body and the earth: from the air in our lungs, to the dirt, under our nails, the organisms in our blood, the viruses and bacteria that make us sick and the fungi and plants and herbs that heal us, even the water in our body that is also in the ocean.
[00:24:27] The more we see this idea of the individual is an illusion. The individual is always a part of a community, seen and unseen. And later on in this story of Enoch, which those chapters are assigned for next week, we see another important element kind of end up in this trio and that's the element of community.
[00:24:48] And I actually think, like, this is just kind of like a working idea, but I'm really excited about it. If we were to envision that same triangle concept at each point would be: earth, community, and divine. And at the center of this triangle is the body because we experience all of these things through the body, but earth, community, and the divine is also what the body is made from.
[00:25:12] So perhaps we see in the text, Enoch is a teacher of seership, of embodiment, of sensuality and the way that he is able to see the web of life, to hear the song of the world and share it with others.
Elise: [00:25:26] I love this idea of the body being the meeting place, the intersection, the borderland, whatever we're calling it, of earth, community and divinity.
[00:25:35] And I think maybe not only is Enoch strange because he's a seer and he's been transformed, but I think the people are also picking up on his full body transformation. It's not just that he's been able to see in, I don't know, this third eye type of way things that everyday people can't see, but he perhaps he's also like you're suggesting, he's also reminding us of what it means to be in right relationship with the earth, with community and with the divine.
[00:26:05] But I think that the people right now, they are so unaccustomed to this right relationship between each other and with the land that of course Enoch seems strange. In fact, in verse 38, they say, “There is a strange thing in the land. A wild man hath come among us.” And so we see these kind of surprising or shocking, or just the strangeness, about Enoch. But I don't think it's only because of his seership. I think it's because of his full body transformation and his remembrance of what it means to be in right relationship.
Channing: [00:26:38] Yes. Yes. I like- from me, it's like a full-throated, like full-bodied agreement. Absolutely. So as we have this conversation about strangeness and seership and interconnection, I really want to move just a little bit further into the text and notice that one of the other really strong themes that we see is atonement. We see a lot of atonement theory showing up here, especially in the later part of Moses chapter six. And for me at first, when I came up against this, I was like, “oh, here comes the atonement, like throwing a total wrench into all of my plans,” but I actually found, as I went through and read the text more that rather than contradicting these themes of interconnection of embodiment and seership, I actually think the atonement fits super beautifully here.
[00:27:30] And it's probably not surprising for a lot of our listeners, but for me, I'm way less interested in understanding the atonement as this blood payment of Jesus in full for all of our sins. But I like thinking about the atonement as a process of reconciliation and eventual “at-one”-ment or unity. And thinking about this “at-one”-ment, I really like what Frank MacEowenwrites in his book, he says, “Atonement, if we really look at the word means to return to a state of “at-one”-ment, to remember what we have forgotten. It is to have our ancient citizenship in the sacred world restored. Jesus's trust in God and the great song was gained through his practice of sacred listening. Never at any point did Jesus shrink from the task of sacred listening. In this way, we are shown that our renewal, our resurrection within our own lives comes through slowing down and surrendering ourselves to the act of sacred listening.”
[00:28:29] So we see here that “at-one”-ment or atonement is kind of this concept of slowing down, of seeing this woven fabric of life and our place in it, of our simultaneously belonging to the world and to the divine. And this shows up so, so beautifully in the text. In verse 61, it reads, “Therefore through the atonement, it is given to abide in you the record of heaven, the comforter, the peaceable things of immortal glory, the truth of all things, that which quickeneth all things, that which maketh alive all things, that which knoweth all things and hath all power according to wisdom, mercy, truth, justice, and judgment.” And these things make so much sense to me when I see them in the context of the great song.
[00:29:20] The great song, maketh alive all things. It quickens them. It knows them. It has power according to right relationship, which consists of things like wisdom, mercy, truth, justice, and judgment. In verse 63, it reads, “And behold all things have their likeness and all things are created and made to bear record of me, both things which are temporal and things which are spiritual, things which are in the heavens above and things which are on the earth and things which are in the earth and things which are under the earth, both above and below. All things, bear record of me.” And so I like thinking about God in the context of the great song. God as a great Weaver of everything above and below, the seen and the unseen, the heard, and the unheard, as kind of this heartbeat of creation of which humans are a part of.
Elise: [00:30:14] We also see the elements coming into play in this story really beautifully too. We see water, blood, dust, which we've mentioned. We see air. In verse 64 in the vision Enoch has of Adam's baptism it says, “And it came to pass that when the Lord had spoken with Adam, he was caught away by the spirit of the Lord,” which should remind us about what we talked about last week, ruach, the wind or the spirit, “and Adam was carried down into the water.”
[00:30:41] In verse 66 it says, “and he [Adam] heard a voice out of heaven saying thou art baptized with fire and with the holy ghost.” So throughout the story of Enoch, we see this really beautiful inclusion of the elements. We've got them all. We have fire, water, air, earth, and spirit. They're associated with traditionally very Christian things like baptism, holy ghost, spirit of God, of course, but what we think is really evident here is again, the relationship between earth, body, and divinity.
Channing: [00:31:11] Understanding all of the interconnected elements of this story that are playing together, the body as the meeting place of earth and divine, all of the elements showing up here, this concept of touching and being touched by, this concept of interconnection and the great song, like, well, there's so much here. The text is really, really so rich. And so when we think about this theory of atonement or this idea of “at-one”-ment, it comes in so strong at the end of the chapter. And as a writer, I always really appreciate the concept of the last line. In some of my courses that I've taken on writing there's a lot of emphasis on the last line being like a really important part of the piece because it kind of wraps everything up. And I think this chapter follows that really beautifully. In verse 68, which is the last one, it says, “Behold; thou art one in me, a child of God.” And so we kind of see here again in the chapter, like, it's through this ritual that Adam does. He's baptized, in his body, by the elements, which all symbolize the divine and Adam experiences “at-one”-ment. And Enoch, too! He also experiences his own kind of “at-one”-ment, even in this chapter. In verse 34, it says, “Again, behold, my spirit is upon you and now shall abide in me and I in you. Therefore walk with me.” And it appears from this first that being with God is an active thing that must be done in the body. “Walk with me.”
[00:32:45] Who else does a ton of walking and eating and fishing and healing? Jesus does. And so we see in the text that walking with God, seeing, hearing God, all of this happens in the body. Hildegard of Bingen, who is a German Abbess and Saint once wrote, “holy persons draw themselves to all that is earthy.” And quote, and we also see from the biology and the cosmology of its makeup, that the body points to being intimately connected with the earth.
[00:33:19] And this podcast would not be this podcast if we didn't share, at every moment that we felt it was appropriate, some of our favorite poems and works of art and words. And this is a poem that I feel like not only illustrates this really beautiful connection between the body and the earth and divinity, but also is like one of our all-time favorite poems, ever. And this is “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver and Elise will read it for us.
Elise: [00:33:49] And what I also love about this poem is that it also ties into your notion of atonement, but I think Mary Oliver pushes back and says, “hello, you don't have to, like, repent for everything your entire life.”
Channing: [00:34:02] It's so beautiful. And yeah, just, neither Elise or I could really do this poem justice. So I really highly recommend looking up the episode that Mary Oliver did with Krista Tippett on the “On Being” podcast. And she reads this poem. And honestly, when I'm feeling, like, really sad, I will, like, go find this podcast. It's like two minutes long and just listen to Mary Oliver read it. And it is like, this is a great song for me. So yeah, we're really excited to share it.
Elise: [00:34:33] You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
Channing: [00:35:19] And I think that it illustrates again, just really well, that same, that inner connection, that “at-one”-ment, this understanding that everything belongs to all of us and we are touched by all of it just by being here, by being present in the body. And so in this light, we really see that Moses chapter six is a story of a man who is re-introduced to his own presence in the world through his body. Clay is placed over his eyes and he walks with God. Enoch, as the embodied meeting place of earth and divine, moves through the world as a strange thing in the land, a wild man who is foreign to those who have forgotten and can no longer hear the great song of the world for their ears are “dull of hearing.”
[00:36:07] They cannot see the web of life for their eyes, “cannot see a far off.” Who cannot come into “at-one”-ment with the Weaver, with the heartbeat of the world for their “hearts have waxed hard”. And our wish for you and for us and for Enoch's story is that his wildness inspires us to connect with our own, to walk among and walk with God in every place at every moment on this good green earth.
Elise: [00:36:48] Friends, thank you so much for joining us today for another episode of The Faithful Feminists Ppodcast. We know your time and space is sacred and we are so grateful to have spent ours with you. If you enjoyed this episode, we'd be so happy if you left us a loving rating on iTunes and Spotify so other seekers can find us.
Channing: [00:37:07] Financial donations support the many hours of research, work, and devotion to each episode, as well as the everyday cost of creating and publishing the podcast. You can support us on Patreon or through a simple Venmo donation and help us create a world where creators, artists, activists, and beauty makers are valued and paid for their labor. Find us on those platforms and on Instagram as The Faithful Feminists. We're deeply grateful for your kindness and encouragement. We love you so much, and we hope to spend more time with you again soon. Bye friends.
Works Cited:
- Jana Riess on Mormon Stories Podcast
- Wisdom Ways by Elisabeth Shussler Fiorenza
- Carnal Hermeneutics by Richard Kearney
- The Mist-Filled Path by Frank MacEowen
- Wild Geese by Mary Oliver
