SGM

Sunday mornings, or any morning when my plan of the day requires stamina or the use of my diminishing brainpower, my breakfast focuses on protein. Salmon, chicken, beef or pork, often my Sunday breakfast is an omelet that combines two eggs with one of those other proteins and maybe a bit of forbidden cheese. This morning's omelet, eggs, chicken, cheese, shake of parmesan, half cup of GiaDa's marinara tomato sauce with artichokes, yum. And Dr. Oz or somebody said Sribacha hot sauce kicks up the metabolism, so a teaspoon of that so I don't fall asleep during my "lecture" (or sermon) a la the shaggy professor on Rowan and Martin's Laugh In a generation or two ago. Who was it? Didn't he also play the stupid Nazi soldier?

Late this morning. Up early today, my time was used not dreaming up and writing my usual Nonsense, but checking on a parishioner who had surgery last night into the wee hours, then preparing for our Bible Seminar this morning and again tomorrow afternoon. We will be discovering and discussing the Secret Gospel of Mark, evidence of it first discovered in 1958 by a scholar named Morton Smith, in archives that he was exploring, of a monastery in the middle east, a letter fragment attributed to Clement of Alexandria. In it Clement talks about SGM and quotes two sections that apparently were, perhaps originally, included in the Gospel according to Mark but later were taken out for whatever reasons, some obvious according to what one infers, some far more subtle. If we were doing astronomy instead of historical criticism we might say, "Oh, so that's why the star is wobbling," but we aren't doing astronomy; but we can speculate with SGM about the three strange young men in Mark -- the rich man who went away sorrowful, the young man in Gethsemane who ran off naked, the young man in Jesus' tomb wearing a linen cloth; and about why canonical Mark has Jesus rushing through Jericho so quickly and apparently meaninglessly, and also introduces Salome; and even raises a gnostic issue. Plus, similarities in John's gospel about -- Lazarus, the disciple Jesus loved, and perhaps the "other disciple" who went into the courtyard with Peter before Peter's denial, who was known by the high priest.

It should be an interesting discussion this morning and tomorrow afternoon. If it's interesting enough but doesn't stir up too much controversy, I may take it to the folks in my Sunday school class this week. Or maybe not.

Tom+