And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind… and shalt return unto the LORD thy God… thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; and the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed… and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers… for the LORD will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers: (Deuteronomy 30:1, 2, 5, 9)
What can you do to fix a broken sword? You’ll need more than super glue, solder, or even duct tape.
If you’re a Lord of the Rings fan, you know what to do. A broken sword must be reforged, as the elves reforged the shards of the broken relic Narsil to produce Andúril, a sword fit for the return of the king.
There are lively discussions in the nerdsphere about the actual practicalities of reforging swords. Dive in as you wish.
You’ll see there are metallurgical reasons why reforging a sundered blade is not recommended. Forge-welding pieces together is extremely tricky. Even when successful it leaves weak spots along fracture lines. A complete meltdown-recast-reforge is less bad, but still microstructurally inferior to the original. It will also be considerably smaller, after filing. If you want a blade that really measures up to the original, you’re better off starting completely over with a fresh piece of steel.
Of course, that’s practically speaking, not dramatically speaking. And the contemporary discussion assumes the limitations of human smiths, without access to elven technology, or magic. If Tolkien knew how the elves did it, he wasn’t telling. But maybe it’s not a bad thing to get clear that reforging the blade that was broken implies more-than-human ability.
If you read the Old Testament for the big themes that overarch individual stories, one of the biggest themes is the kingdom promised, established, corrupted, lost and … restored?
Certainly there was hope and prophetic promise of restoration, but there were serious obstacles, geopolitically and spiritually. The world had moved on, and the Jewish people had moved on. As the kingdom receded further into the past, it was getting harder to believe that future history would ever deliver on what Moses and the prophets said: that the LORD would again rejoice over them for good. That the blessings of a way of life that was now barely remembered could be experienced again. That they would be, to the LORD, a kingdom.
Read, for example, the prophet Malachi at the end of Old Testament and you can get a feeling for the atmosphere of weariness and cynicism into which he was speaking the word of the LORD. People needed to be reminded, “I have loved you,” “I am the LORD, I change not,” “Return unto me, and I will return unto you” (1:2; 3:6, 7). You get a sense of how many people who had known God were on the brink of giving up.
Reforging implies more than human ability. If you want to be part of reforging a faith community from shards, it’s OK to know that. If something you want to is going to take a miracle, you may as well be aware of your situation.
Because from our standpoint today, we can read the New Testament and church history and follow another powerful and heartbreaking story of the gospel of the kingdom promised, established, corrupted, lost and (isn’t it time?) restored.
It shall come to pass. In the meantime, it’s understandable to feel weariness and cynicism. And it’s important not to give up.
Not all those who wander are lost.
Watch the corresponding video at https://youtu.be/NhlsoXmly5A
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