Hilary and I sing one of my songs together. The chorus goes:
“This is the greatest love story ever…………toward which all other stories laid claim.”
One of the world’s greatest ever storytellers was William Shakespeare. His plays remain popular because we identify with the timeless portrayal of The Human Experience.
One of his most famous speeches by Jaques in As You Like it begins:
“All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players.”
I suppose the ‘All’ would then include Shakespeare himself?
Through spending time in Stratford-on-Avon and London (and reading a children’s storybook : – ) Hilary and I became more familiar with his life and got glimpses into how he too was indeed a player in The Divine Play – a comedy and tragedy…… but ultimately a love story.
In Stratford we wandered in different directions before meeting again at the clock tower. While waiting I began reading on it an inscription from a play I was unfamiliar with, Henry VIII.
We then set off for London where we visited The Globe theatre. It was circular with a canopy over the stage depicting a sun and stars…..“like a whole world…..which is why it was named The Globe.”
There I discovered Henry VIII was in fact Shakespeare’s last play and that it was during a performance of it that some sparks from a cannon had set fire to the straw roof…… and the original Globe was consumed by fire!
William’s fellows were eager for him in the light of his success to begin again. His response was, “No thanks I’m going back home to spend the rest of my days with my beloved wife, Anne.”
I believe all of us on This Globe share the same fate, for in 1 Peter 3:7-10 we read,
The present heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire……..But the day of the Lord will will come like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements [Greek: stoicheion, “first or primary principles] will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
Col.2:8 says, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles [stoicheion] of the world, rather than according to Christ.”
I believe therefore what this fire of God will destroy is the world’s philosophies such as atheism and materialism, not the physical creation. On the contrary God has promised that the whole of creation which was declared ‘very good’ will in the end be filled with his glory as the waters cover the sea. (See for example Num.14:21)
In As You Like It, Jaques continues his speech describing “The Seven Ages of Man”
The seventh age is “Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything!”
It is when we like Shakespeare are “sans everything” – when there is nothing left for us to take pride in, when our ‘ego’ is reduced to ‘absolute zero’, that God can then fill us and the whole of creation with his glory and become “all in all”. (Incidentally I am writing this blog in Belfast where Lord Kelvin the discoverer of ‘absolute zero’ was born. That is the point (273.15 Celsius) where molecules come to complete ‘rest’).
I believe this is the purpose of God’s fire, not to punish but to purify so that we rest from our own works in order to enter fully into ‘his rest’ ….and be united as the bride of grace (Anne) with our bridegroom (Jesus)…..” the author and finisher of our faith” – play : – ) (Hebrews chapters 4 and 12)
We are now 6,000 years from Adam. Barnabas writes in his epistle, (13:4,5)
4 Consider, my children, what that signifies, “he finished them in six days.” The meaning of it is this, that in six thousand years the Lord God will bring all things to an end. 5 For with Him one day is a thousand years; as Himself testifieth, saying, “Behold, this day shall be as a thousand years.” Therefore, children, in six days, that is, in six thousand years, shall all things be accomplished.
I think Father had purpose that it was at the clock tower that I should read these final words of Shakespeare, echoing the old testament prophets such as Zechariah describing the immanent Sabbath Millennium, for I believe ‘the day of the Lord’ is indeed ‘at hand’
“In her days, every man shall eat in safety under his own vine, what he plants:and sing the merry songs of peace to all his neighbors. God shall be truly known: and those about her from her shall read the perfect ways of honor and by those claim their greatness, not by blood.” (Henry VIII. Act 5 Scene 5)
(At The Globe Theatre in London. Hilary, crowned by St Paul’s on the Millennial bridge : – )