Another Glory for the Moon

Another Glory of the Moon.  The Native American practice of naming the full moons—always twelve, but every two or three years thirteen per year—is fun. As their legend goes, the thirteen scales (e.g., scutes) on a turtle’s shell (e.g., carapace) form a lunar calendar. Each moon is named for an observable characteristic in the loop of seasons that the mythic turtle carries slowly in his march through the year. This morning the Sturgeon Moon presented its orange-yellow face in the wee hours before dawn. In four weeks from today, a thirteenth moon for 2023 will appear, or Blue Moon. Harvest Moon (September), Hunter Moon (October), Snow Moon (November), Cold Moon (December) finish out the year. Wolf Moon (January), Ice Moon (February), Worm Moon (March), Pink Moon (April), Flower Moon (May), Strawberry Moon (June), and Buck Moon (July) bring us back to Sturgeon Moon (August).

The take-away is not the myth, which is somewhat understandable whenever special revelation from God is absent from a culture still waiting for the gospel to reach its creative center, but the relative glory that belongs to the moon. Paul harnesses the pattern that is observable in the natural world in his explanation of resurrection. “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory” (1 Cor. 15:41). His point is that we can’t guess at the final form by merely observing its beginning. The way that the moon moves and shines is different from the way that the sun moves and shines, which is different from the ways that the stars move and shine. As with so many other issues, the Corinthians were backward; importing their culture into their understanding of doctrine instead of using doctrine to understand their culture. (Such is not merely a Corinthian malady since we all do the same unless the Spirit halts and inverts the natural process of understanding.) They assumed that the physical world was only evil and therefore had no part to play in God’s ultimate resurrection. Paul, however, argued that our resurrection must be physical, too, merged with the spiritual—that we can’t import the way things look now into our understanding of the way things will be then. But rather, “God gives [each] a body as he has chosen” (1 Cor. 15:38). What is most important is not the beginning but the ending. God breaks observable patterns. It is his prerogative and his glory to do so.

The moon’s glory is not intrinsic; it does not “shine” from within itself. The moon’s glory is extrinsic; it “shines” only by reflecting the light from another source, the sun. Yet within its own designed purpose as a reflector, the moon has a glorious role to fill. It governs the night (Gen. 1:16). The larger the angle relative to the sun, and the closer the orbit, the brighter the moon becomes, waxing gibbous until it is finally, fully aligned. When it is at its zenith, it grabs the attention of every person in the night. The moon, though not the light, becomes a light in a dark place. The moon enlightens the night of the presence and the approach of the Day.