Words 1.10

 Words Twice a Week           1.10

If you are more into listening than reading, Words Twice a Week is available, along with other good stuff, as a podcast from St Paul’s Episcopal Church.  Click here.

Last week’s challenge – write a short (280 characters or less!) fiction.  (Following the book A Short Fiction by James Mark Miller).

Here’s what I got -

   He put the plate of leftovers on the table on the deck to cool.

   When he went to retrieve it, it was empty.

   All around on the railing, the squirrels were bobbing and twitching.

   And licking their lips.

   Snowflakes fell gently. 

   They smoothly covered the sidewalk, the lawn, the driveway.

   And the car keys where he had dropped them.

   Midsummer’s Day - June 24.

   Half way from one Christmas to the next.

   “Is it really worth taking down the tree now?”, he wondered.

A Prayer for the Week   -   Wake Me Up Lord

Wake me up Lord, 

  so that the evil of racism finds no home within me.

Keep watch over my heart Lord,

  and remove from me any barriers to your grace,

  that may oppress and offend my brothers and sisters.

Fill my spirit Lord, 

  so that I may give services of justice and peace.

Clear my mind Lord, 

  and use it for your glory.

And finally, remind us Lord that you said,

  "blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God."  Amen.

This prayer is from For The Love of One Another (1989), a special message from the Bishops' Committee on Black Catholics of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops on the Occasion of the Tenth Anniversary of the Pastoral Letter, Brothers and Sisters to Us, the U.S. Catholic Bishops' Pastoral Letter on Racism (1979).

 https://www.usccb.org/resources/prayer-service-racial-healing-our-land.

A few days from the Church calendar – (and just to be clear, this week these are days observed “by some of Western Christianity”, not necessarily by the Episcopal Church)

Jan 15  Paul of Thebes (aka Paul the First Hermit)    (226-341)  and  

Jan 17   St Anthony the Great  (aka Saint Anthony, Anthony of Egypt, Anthony the Abbot, Anthony of the Desert, Anthony the Anchorite, Anthony the Hermit, and Anthony of Thebes)  (251-356)  These guys were the first of the “Desert Fathers”, individuals (mostly men, but some women) who sought escape from the distractions of the world by living either alone or in small groups in the desert of Egypt.  They practiced an austere asceticism, living simple lives devoted to “praying, singing psalms, fasting, giving alms to the needy, and preserving love and harmony with one another”.  These two are kind of linked in that Anthony would visit Paul and in fact buried him when he died (at age 125!).  When it was no longer that dangerous to be Christian, Anthony understood the solitude, austerity, and sacrifice of the desert to be almost a form of martyrdom.  There are a variety of stories about these two and others of the Desert Fathers, one collection is The Wisdom of the Desert edited by Thomas Merton.  Here’s one of my favorites - 

To one of the brethren appeared a devil, transformed into an angel of light, who said to him: I am the Angel Gabriel, and I have been sent to thee. But the brother said: Think again—you must have been sent to somebody else. I haven’t done anything to deserve an angel. Immediately the devil ceased to appear.  (308 characters – could almost be a “Short Fiction”!)

And some days from the earth/world calendar -

Jan 11

+ First use of insulin for diabetes – 1922  A timely remembrance!

Jan 12

+ All time best selling fiction writer Agatha Christie died in 1976.  Those with Peter White Public Library cards can watch this piece about her with David Suchet.  Or find a movie on some other streaming service.  Or – read one of her books!

+ James Bedford died in 1967 and was the first person to be cryogenicly frozen, hoping to be revived at some future date.  Stay tuned!

Jan 13

+ George Fox died in 1691.   He separated from the Church of England and founded the Society of Friends, also known as The Quakers.  “His charisma, patient selflessness, deep spirituality, tireless missionary travels, and talent for organization made him a remarkable person.  Above all, he bequeathed to the Quakers a profound dedication to the work of peace.” (W Paul Jones)  Fox wrote “I saw also that there was an ocean of darkness and death, but an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness.”

+ Wyatt Earp died in 1929.  He took part in the Shoot-out at the OK Coral in 1881, but was not injured and died about 50 years later in Los Angeles.

+ James Joyce died in 1941.  After three or four attempts to make it through Ulysses, I have pretty much given up.  This would have been another book to tackle over the past 6-8 months.  I did read Dubliners and enjoyed it.

+ in 1968 Johnny Cash played a concert at Folsum Prison.

Jan 14

+ It’s the birthday of Albert Schweitzer in 1875.  He was a theologian, organist, writer, philosopher, physician.  He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952.  He was a noted Bach scholar and interpreter.  He walked away from it all and established a hospital at Lambarene in French Equatorial Africa.  I just always have liked saying “Lambarene”.

+ Lewis Carroll died in 1898, leaving  behind Alice and a variety of interesting characters – The White Rabbit, The Mad Hatter, The Queen of Hearts, The Cheshire Cat (or at least his grin) with this conversation

   ‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'

    'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.

   'I don't much care where —' said Alice.

    'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat

+ Humphery Bogart died in 1975.  “Play it, Sam” or “the black bird” or “the African Queen” – which one are you watching tonight?

Jan 15

+ Wikipedia goes online in 2001 – how would we get along without it?

+ MLK Jr was born in 1929.

Jan 16

+ The League of Nations (sounds like a Marvel Comic Book) held it’s first meeting in 1920; then “Shock and Awe” in 1991 as the US began the first war against Iraq.  So a day showcasing the wide potential of humanity.

+ Prohibition began in 1919.  Being pretty much an abstainer, I don’t know what we should do to note that.  I could maybe skip coffee for the day?  Probably not!  Have a glass of root beer.

Jan 17

+ Benjamin Franklin was born in 1706.  Well he did just about everything, didn’t he.  “A penny saved is a penny earned; Early to bed and early to rise…”  Probably foremost in our minds right now is “A republic, if you can keep it.”  Here’s a list of some of his “not so familiar” quotes, including “Hide not your Talents, they for Use were made. What’s a Sun-Dial in the shade!”

That’s what I got for now -

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Words 1.7

 Words Twice a Week           1.7

If you are more into listening than reading, Words Twice a Week is available, along with other good stuff, as a podcast from St Paul’s Episcopal Church.  Click here.

I know this is supposed to be the one where we look at the lessons, not the days, but -

Backspace to Jan 6 – Trump supporters storm the Capitol Building.  Ok – did not see that coming!

Backspace again to Jan 5 – some of Western Christianity, in particular the Roman Catholic Church, recognizes and remembers Simeon Stylites on Jan 5, and he was enough of a character that we should take note.  (Note – this is not the Simeon from last week!)  He was born about 390, and entered a monastery at age 16, but was so extreme in his austerity that the brothers judged him unsuited and asked him to leave.  Then he spent a year and a half in a small hut.  Then he found a ledge on Sheik Barakat Mountain, part of Mount Simeon, that was about 20 meters in diameter.  But people kept disturbing him, asking for prayers or counsel.  So he found a pillar, built a platform on top of it and determined to live out the rest of his life on it.  His first pillar was about 10 feet tall, later he moved to higher ones, the last was 50-60 feet, and he had a platform on top that tradition says was one square meter although some say it was a little bigger.  According to Edward Gibbon in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, “In this last and lofty station, the Syrian Anachoret resisted the heat of thirty summers, and the cold of as many winters.”  Apparently he lived to be about 68 years old, and died on Sept 2, 459.  He was buried near the pillar.  A church was built up around the pillar, but then, in the words of Wikipedia, “Unfortunately, on May 12, 2016, the pillar within the church took a hit from a missile.”  So how big is the average residence today?  I have to admit, the Tiny Houses intrigue me.

On to this week’s lessons -

Ps 29 

+ Ok, I don’t really like Psalm 29.  I used to, I used to think it was really cool.  We read it adding one more group of people with each verse so it got louder and louder and ended with a great crash.  I always wanted to get a couple of tympani (kettle drums, we used to call them) to end with.  But then I read this article (Rescuing Earth from a Storm God, Ps 29 and 96-97, by Norman C Habel – he was one of the moving forces behind the “Season of Creation” that many churches observe towards the end of the Season after Pentecost – and Geraldine Avent) about how Ps 29 portrays God as (ecologically, environmentally) violent and destructive, and how Ps 96.7 – Ps 97.6 has a similar theme and structure, but presents God as “creating, nurturing, restoring”.  “In Ps 29 Earth is reduced to a battered object; in the second hymn (Ps 96, 97) Earth becomes a subject, a “thou” who rejoices and celebrates...In terms of the ecojustice principles reflected in our approach, Psalm 29 devalues Earth by treating it as a domain for divine power plays, while Psalms 96-97 acclaim the participation of – and consequent valuing of – the entire Earth community in a rich response to YHWH’s advent.  It is especially obvious that the first psalm negates and silences the voice of Earth while the second makes the voices of Earth and the wider Earth community (a community that includes everything from the fish of the sea and the trees of the forest to the skies above and all peoples below) central to its call to celebrate.”  So ever since I’ve had issues with Ps 29.  

Gen 1.1-5

+ this (from A Small Fiction) is for all you “dog people” -

   And God said, “Let there be dog”.  And there was dog.

   God saw that dog was good, and said 

   “Who’s a good dog?”

   And it was dog.  Yes it was.

+ and then I am always glad to look at Gen 1 because it gives me an excuse to return to my favorite book on The Creation – The Splendor of Creation by Ellen Bernstein.  On Gen 1.1 she notes “The idea that a God exists who created heaven and earth is truly profound.  It means that the earth we walk upon, the air that we breathe, the food that we eat, are all signs that the world is filled with mystery.”  All this stuff isn’t just randomly here (for us to do with as we wish!) but it is here because God intended and intends for it to be here.  

+ and still from Bernstein, God called the light “Day” and the darkness “Night”, but then Genesis says there was evening and there was morning, and apparently in Hebrew the word we translate as “evening” carries connotations of chaos and the word we translate as “morning” has connotations of order.  “So every day the world goes through another round of chaos and order.  Every day we are reminded of the essential cycle of creation.  Both light and darkness, order and chaos, are critical to the fabric of life.”  Where do you encounter chaos?  Order?  Or here’s an interesting question from a United Methodist – where in the life of the congregation, even in our worship, does chaos reside?  Where does order reside? How comfortable are we with each?  And how is God’s Spirit involved in this?

Mark 1.4-11   Jesus gets baptized

+ Have you been baptized?  When? How? Is it something you remember or have been told about?  United Methodists typically baptize infants so I don’t have any memory of it.  I have been told (by my mother) that I screamed all through it!

+ John the Forerunner, The messenger, in particular here, the Baptizer.  Note that according to Mark John preaches a “baptism for the repentance for the forgiveness of sin”.  In Matthew John said, Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  Is that a significant difference? (Ok, yes, later on he gets to “I baptize you with water for repentance”.)

+ “Everybody” went out to be baptized by him.  Kind of like a Billy Graham crusade?  Would you have gone?

+ Jesus comes and gets baptized.  Note there is no hesitation on John’s part here, I suppose because Jesus didn’t look any different from all the rest.  And in fact when the dove and the voice come Mark says “he” (Jesus) saw and heard (“You are my beloved son”).  Not clear if anyone else did.  As Matthew tells the story, John recognized Jesus, as he did even in the womb in Lk 1, and has to be convinced to baptize Jesus.  So thinking about all that, does it encourage us to see Jesus in those around us?  In some of those around us or all of them? In those who are sinners coming to be baptized?

+ John ate bugs.  They say it’s a good source of protein and better for the environment than eating beef!  I once ate some cookies made with “grasshopper flour” or something like that. About as far as I go.  I could be vegetarian, but eating bugs – (to take a line from Lindsey Graham) “Count me out.”

+ And John dressed in natural clothing.  What clothing issues do we encounter today?  For example, I like 100% cotton, but apparently it’s hard on the soil.  And the whole “fast fashion” thing where we need new shirts each year or even each season is something to consider.

+ How is Jesus mightier than John?  Would it have been helpful for Jesus to have John describe him thus or not?  What adjectives would you use to describe the difference between John and Jesus?  (Front man; main act?)

+ finally, we’ve considered it before, but if our sins are washed away, where do they go?  Do the folks who live downstream from us, geographically or temporally, have to deal with them?

+ How are baptism with water and baptism with the Spirit related?  How has that worked out in your life?

Here’s a prayer for today -

Eternal God,

you smiled and the light broke upon our world,

and your presence throughout creation

brings healing and beauty and wonder.

We stand at the start of a new year,

but one which already carries the burden left to it by last year.

Give us the wisdom, the vision, and the determination

to see that this year reduces that burden rather than adding to it.

Help us do things that will have you smiling again.

That’s what I got -

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Words. 1.3

Words Twice a Week            1.3

If you are more into listening than reading, Words Twice a Week is available, along with other good stuff, as a podcast from St Paul’s Episcopal Church.  Click here.

So the line from the song that I have used looking back for the past 10-15 years is from Circle Dance by Bonnie Raitt -

  Can’t go back and make things right, (though I) wish I’d understood;

  Time has made things clearer now – we did the best we could.

Probably lets myself off the hook, but that’s what I do.  Then a line from a song, poem, or play that I would keep in mind looking forward – on the one hand there are all kinds of psalms or hymns, but that seems a little too easy.  Here’s what I’m picking for this year - 

From Nobel prize recipient Mr Dylan (as in “Bob”, not “Matt”!) -

  Take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind, 

  down the foggy ruins of time, 

  far past the frozen leaves, 

  the frightened, haunted trees, 

  out to the windy beach, 

  far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow,

  Yes to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand wavin’ free, 

  silhouetted by the sea, 

  circled by the circus sand,

  let me forget about today until tomorrow…

Ok – I don’t know what it all means either, but I really like the line about “dancing (on the beach) beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free.”  I would like to picture myself doing that.  I don’t really, but I would like to!

Then here’s your bonus for this week – two stories from A Small Fiction, by James mark Miller.  I bought it with my Snowbound Card.  (They are stories in 280 characters or less -)  And I had trouble picking just two, we’ll probably get a few more next time.

   Adults had a hard time seeing the robots as alive.

   Children didn’t.  They had stuffed animals.

   They knew.  Loving something makes it real.

And

   “Describe destination,” the time machine said.

   “Take me to a time when I can make a difference,” she said.

   A brief hum.

   “You are here.” 

That was me – what did you come up with?

Some days from the Church calendar

Jan 4    Elizabeth Ann Seton       She was the first person born (August 28, 1774) in what would become the United States to be canonized by the Catholic Church.  She was actually Episcopalian for the first 30 years of her life.  After her husband died, Elizabeth and Anna Maria went to Italy to stay with the families of her late husband's business partners, Filippo and Antonio Filicchi, who introduced her to Catholicism.  When she returned to New York she joined the Catholic Church in 1805 and was active in founding schools and the Sisters of Charity, the first congregation of religious sisters in the United States.  She became known as “Mother Seton”.  She was made a saint in 1975.

Jan 6  The Epiphany  It means “The Revealing” or “Disclosing” of God in Jesus to all the world, in particular to the Wise Men who came from afar.  Some cultures take down Christmas decorations.  Some cultures have a “Three Kings Cake” to celebrate, others (think New Orleans!) have such a cake on Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, the end of the season after Epiphany.  I say, let’s do both!

Jan 8  Harriet Bedell  Born in 1875, she was a missionary for 10 years to the Cheyenne in Oklahoma, (who adopted her into the tribe, giving her the name Vicsehia – Bird Woman), then for 15 years to the native Alaskans, 40 miles south of the Arctic Circle, then for the rest of her life (she lived to be 94!) with the Seminole in Florida.  In Florida Bedell encouraged the tribe's women to revive the doll-making and basket-weaving skills. She also encouraged them to incorporate their brilliant patchwork designs into clothing for both men and women. She also helped them sell their work to the tourist trade—both through an arrangement with the Collier Company and by negotiating with northern department stores, as well as by fighting the sale of mislabeled import goods in local tourist outlets.  In 1947 she gave the invocation when Pres Truman dedicated the Everglades National Park.

A few days from the earth/world calendar -

Jan 4

+ T.S. Eliot died in 1965.  He wrote Murder in the Cathedral, as we noted last week.  And The Waste Land.  

+ The National Negro League was founded in 1920.  It gave talented Black ball players a place to play baseball in the years before integration.  So now the question is should MLB just merge the statistics from those years or keep them separate.

+ Erwin Schrodinger died in 1961.  He was an Austrian physicist, involved in the development of quantum theory.  He also wrote on philosophy, ethics and religion.  He is perhaps best known for his “Schrodinger’s Cat” thought experiment.

Jan 5

+ Ernest Shackleton died in 1922.  He led three expeditions to Antarctica and astonishingly did not die on any of them.  The story of his Endurance expedition has captivated me ever since I was a child.  Not that I would have wanted to go along!  In his 1956 address to the British Science Association, Sir Raymond Priestley, one of his contemporaries, said "Scott for scientific method, Amundsen for speed and efficiency but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton", paraphrasing what Apsley Cherry-Garrard had written in a preface to his 1922 memoir The Worst Journey in the World. 

+ Twelfth Night – “Epiphany Eve” (see above!) and also a play by William Shakespeare.  The day/night was a time of festivity, master/servant reversals, gender reversals, and such.

Jan 7

+ Transatlantic telephone service begins in 1927.  W Paul Jones comments “we have figured out how to have instant communication between nations and continents, but we have not learned much about understanding one another.”

+ in 1785 Jean-Pierre Blanchard, a French inventor, crossed the English Channel in a hot-air balloon.  “Up, up and away...”

Jan 8 

+ in 1790 George Washington gave the first State of the Union address.

+ birthday (1935) of Elvis, one of those people who we can identify with just one name.   For example, it’s also the birthday in 1942 of Stephen Hawking, but we don’t say “the birthday of Stephen.”  So besides Elvis and Cher, how many other “one namers” or “first namers” can you think of?

+ Arcangelo Corelli died on this day in 1713.  If you are going to have two names, having the first one be “Arcangel” would be  - well, interesting.  He composed music that influenced Vivaldi and Bach.  And speaking of names singular or double, Galileo Galilei died on this day in 1642.

Jan 9

+ 1861 – first shots of the Civil War fired.

Jan 10

+ first General Assembly of the United Nations in 1946.

+ Thomas Paine published Common Sense in 1776.  It helped spark the American Revolution.  He also wrote a book called Agrarian Justice in which he describes two kinds of property.  (This comes from Peter Barnes’ book With Liberty and Dividends for All.)  “Firstly, natural property, or that which comes to us from the Creator of the universe – such as the earth, air, water.  Secondly, artificial or acquired property – the invention of men”  The latter kind of property must necessarily be distributed unequally, but the first kind rightfully belonged to everyone equally, Paine thought.  It was the “legitimate birthright “of every man and woman, “not charity, but a right.”  Paine suggested a “National Fund” to pay every man and woman fifteen pounds at age 21 and ten pounds a year after age 55.  ($17,500 and $11,667) It would be funded by “ground rent” from landowners and other privatizers of natural wealth, ie, those who use the natural world, or the constructs of the community, in one way or another to make money for themselves.  Interestingly, Barnes’ point is not just to give everybody money, but rather to rescue, save, the middle class.  Studies show that cultures without a robust middle class are not very stable or sustainable.  Well, ok, moving on…..

Well, not quite – here’s a comment from Lou Dobbs on Fox News about oil – “The oil that we’re talking about belongs to us...We should have, let’s call it the American Trust.  Have the oil companies put their fees into that Trust, not to be touched by the Treasury Department or any other agency, but for investment on behalf of the American people.  A couple of things then happen.  One, it reminds everyone whose oil this is.  And it even puts a little money, a little dollar sign, on what it’s worth to be a citizen.”  Of course, there might be a little question of just who the “us” is that the oil belongs to.  But it would be a start.  The last chapter in Barne’s book is From Here to the Adjacent Possible.  I like that idea.  Now, moving on, really...

+ The Treaty of Versailles took effect in 1920.  It demanded reparations from Germany and ceded a significant amount of land.  Didn’t really work all that well.

A prayer for the week - 

  God of all Creation, 

  let the peach which is in your heart

  flow into your world.

  And may all who share your world 

  live together in justice, kindness, and humility.

  We ask in the name of Jesus, Prince of Peace.

A challenge for the week?  How about writing a story with 280 characters or less.  Kind of like writing a haiku but with more of a narrative sense to it.

That’s it for now….

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Words 12.31

 Words Twice a Week            12.31

If you are more into listening than reading, Words Twice a Week is available, along with other good stuff, as a podcast from St Paul’s Episcopal Church.  Click here.

Well there are a slew of scripture lessons we could run into over the next 7 days.  There are lessons for -

Holy Name  (Jan 1)  and in fact the tradition of remembering and observing the circumcision and naming of Jesus on the eighth day goes way back.  The tradition of starting a new year on Jan 1 is not all that clear.  In England, March 25 was considered the beginning of the year until 1752.  Just after the equinox?  Start of the planting season?  

New Year’s Day (despite the above, there are lessons for the day.)

The Second Sunday of Christmas

Epiphany  (Jan 6) The arrival of the Wise Men.

We will look at one or two lesson from each set.

Holy Name - 

Numbers 6.22-27   The Blessing

+ God tells Moses that one of the jobs of the priests is to bless the people.  Just what does it mean to bless someone?  If we remember Isaac, Jacob, and Esau, it was/is a pretty big deal, and there is a certain “uncontrolled” or “magical” quality about it.  Or, has it just become the close of worship?

+ “The Lord bless you and keep you, make his face to shine upon you…”  it has to do with being protected, being treated with grace and kindness, with being at peace.  Thinking about it that way, who has the power to bless you?  Who do you have the power to bless?

+ Has there been a time in your life when you have felt particularly blessed?  How about now?

Luke 2.15-21   The shepherds come and leave; Jesus is circumcised and named Jesus.

+ Jesus is named in obedience to what the angel said.  Mary and Joseph didn’t get to pick a name.  Where did you get your name?  If you could change it, would you?  And to what?  If you have a child, what went into choosing a name for him/her?

+ we note three different sets of people in this story.  The shepherds – they came and told everyone and then went back to the flocks and fields and are not heard from again.  All who heard – they marveled and then went back home and were not heard from again.  Mary -  she heard the words of the shepherds (it would have been nice if Gabriel had shown up) and pondered them and kept them in her heart.  She is the only one who reappears in the story of Jesus’ ministry.  What do you suppose she heard in the message of the shepherds – affirmation? Uncertainty about the future? Fear?  (See the note on the arrival of the wise men below!)

New Year’s Day

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:

“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”

And he replied:

“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.

That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”

   -  The opening lines from a poem by Louise Gates Haskell – you can read the rest of it here.

Ecclesiastes 3.1-13

+ To everything, turn, turn, turn….What does it say that there are seasons for killing, destroying, throwing stones, tearing apart or down, hate, war?  Does it mean these things will always be with us?  Is life always a mixture?  Would this be good news or not?  What are you most feeling now?

+ according to vs 12-13, the best thing is to find enjoyment in life, food, work.  So a positive view of work.  And we are certainly enjoying food these days!

+ if we read on to vs 15, it says “everything that happens has happened before, all that will be has already been”.  I’ve been reading the Thursday Next series of mysteries where the timeline of history is set for all time and it is the job of the ChronoGuard to keep reality from veering too far from it.  It’s interesting, and confusing!  How do you feel about reality – how much ability do we have to alter it?  In particular, is the human experience/experiment open ended?  How does this fit in with the idea that God is bringing all to an adequate conclusion?

Ps 8  “O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is your name in all the earth…”  This is just such a nice psalm.

+ Praise from children gets made into a fortress.  A piece from Meister Eckhart – “If I were alone in a desert and feeling afraid, I would want a child to be with me.  For then my fear would disappear and I would be made strong.  This is what life in itself can do because it is so noble, so full of pleasure and so powerful”  Would Mary have felt something like that when Jesus was born, or would that have come later?

+ What are humans, compared to the heavens?  William Anders, one of the Apollo 8 astronauts who first orbited the moon in 1968, later said that although the astronauts went on their mission to explore the moon, what they really discovered was the planet Earth. He added: “I think it’s important for people to understand they are just going around on one of the smaller grains of sand on one of the spiral arms of this kind of puny galaxy…. Earth is insignificant, but it’s the only one we’ve got.”

+ What does it mean to be given dominion? - Authority? Ability to have an affect on something? What was God thinking?

Second Sunday of Christmas

Jeremiah 31.7-14

+ vs7 is a request – “Come and save what’s left of Israel!” How does that resonate with you today?

+ and then God promises that there will be a grand return.  That sounds good, although the days we would like to return to were not always as good for all as they were for us!  Note that all kinds of people of varying abilities and ages and situations will return.  What would be some of the things that would need to happen for such a return?

+ there will be more food than they need.  Well, we are still trying to eat up holiday desserts before they get to stale!

Epiphany  Jan 6 - 

Matthew 2.1-12     The Wise Men arrive and depart

+ and note that this is a different story from Luke’s.  It doesn’t always work too well to try to mush them together.  Luke has a shepherds, a stable, poverty, angels.  Matthew has wise men, a palace, wealth, dreams.

+ the Wise Men go home by a different road.  I always used to go home from church by a different way after the service on Epiphany, or on Christmas Eve.

+ it’s always a problem when there are two kings mentioned.

+ note Christ is for all people.  What does that mean – that all people should be Christians, or that God loves all people, or something else?

+ this from Fred Craddock -

Stories of old rulers being threatened by the birth of heirs to the throne were common in Matthew’s day, but clearly the direct antecedent was the Moses story.  This image of a tyrant, jealous and intimidated, screaming death warrants and releasing the sword of government against the innocent to preserve entrenched power, stabs awake the reader and abruptly ends a quiet Lukan Christmas.  But Matthew must speak the truth: good news has its enemies.  One has but to love to arouse hatred, but to speak the truth to strengthen the network of lies and deception.  It is no mystery One who gave himself to loving the poor and neglected of the earth would be killed; there are institutions and persons who have other plans for the poor and neglected.  Of course, no one wants a hassle, much less a clash, but what shall Jesus’ followers say and do?  The fearful whisper, “Tell the Wise Men to be quiet about the Child.”  Wow.

Ok – here’s a piece I wrote a number of years ago – a little lighter take on the Wise Men.

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold wise men came from the east to Jerusalem…

    “WISE men?”

That’s right.  They saw the star and followed it and found the baby.

    “And you call them ‘wise’?  I’ll bet that’s not how their families saw it…

In the evening…

“Pack my bags, mother.  I’m off in the morning.”

    “What do you mean, ‘Off in the morning’?  Where are you going?”

“The star was there.  We’re going west to find the baby.”

    “Are you nuts? How do you know it was a star and not one of those satellite things?”

“It was a star; it was THE star.  We’re going to find the child, to worship and adore, and then we’ll be back.”

    “We?”

“Melchoir and Balthesar are going, too.”

    “They’re as loopy as you are.  How will you know where to go?”

“We’ll just head west.  There’s sure to be signs when we get there.”

And in the morning…

    “Well, I packed you some sandwiches, they’ll last a few days, then you’ll just have to hope 

    something is open, which I doubt, this being the holidays and all.”

And she watched from the open door until he was just a dot on the horizon, and then she closed the door and knelt down and prayed -

“Dear God, whoever you are, watch over my loopy husband.  Grant him traveling mercies.  Help him find this child to worship and adore.  Keep him out of trouble.  One way or another, bring him safely back.”

The star still shines brightly over the manger of Bethlehem.  Just over the hills on the western horizon, you can see it if you close your eyes and look with your heart.  It’s just after Christmas, a good time to shy away from the “Wise” men.  Keep an eye out instead for those who are slightly “loopy with the season”.  As you come from wherever it is you are, to worship at the manger, and adore, may God grant you traveling mercies – safely there, and one way or another, safely back.

That’s it for now – Happy New Year!

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