I remember as we moved to Gillingham I went to a charity shop. It is called Age Uk. A nice one. You could find anything there. I found this old book of poetry there. I was absolutely staggered. I knew those words were written and performed in May 1934, yet they felt so fresh, as if the author was with us there in the 21st century.
Betrayed in the mazes of your ingenuities, evokes for me the image of Neo running away from cubicle to cubicle from three Agents. The sense of ingenuity, of engineering mind that did its utmost to get the last drop from a person’s time/minute gets lost there and without the timely call from Morpheus — eventually dies.
I have given you hands which you turn from worship, a clear reference to Romans 1, where Apostle Paul tells the Roman church one of the reasons of rampant idolatry in their days. As we are reading close to zero Scriptures, here is a long quote:
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,[g] in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. (Romans 1:18-25)
I have given you speech, for endless palaver, — I do remeber when I heard this word I have given you speech, for endless palAver in the convo. It was similar to rubbish. I wouldn’t like God to find me talking rubbish. At least not all the time.
I have given you my Law, and you set up commissions, — I do not know the meaning of the word commissions, the only time I heard a similar word was komyssionka, which was a place where they sold some stuff from abroad.
Google helps us explianing that commissions in that context is human committees, bureaucracy, politics, and institutions. Commissions in that poem are designed to study, debate, delay, and compromise. So that is some stark contrast — God’s immutable Law and man’s bureaucracy. Man’s contraptions to be on par with God.
As he was writing this as a play to be performed for the building of the 45 new churches in London diocese, the later verses are sounding as if they are from 2026, not 1934:
Much is your reading, but not the Word of God,
Much is your building, but not the House of God.
Yes, Bible is still printed more than other books, yet is it in the hands and minds of People? Yes, there are many churches around the UK, but how many people eagerlty desire to be there? Further still how many people desire to look after them (cleaning inside, doing the gutters, gardening etc) even among the most diligent Church people? Not many. I pray that Eliot’s words would set our hearts ablaze to go and do something good for God — in or outside of your church.