It's what's for lunch!
It's my blog afterall, not some theological or spiritual enlightenment for mankind, so if the first thing that stirs me mornings is nature, all well and good, it's my blog, for me. Clear and cool, 64F and a gentle pleasant breeze, this is the clearest morning since we arrived here at our home just under the clouds. But there aren't any: the sky is as velvet black as my Bay, and full of stars. Two shrimpboats are moving in my sight, but far enough across to be silent, and they are. They must find the shrimp in the shipping channels. Across to the southeast are the lights of what I take to be the Tyndall bridge, though I haven't been able to settle that with binoculars in the daytime.
The inky blackness of the firmament brings to mind a piece I found on Vox last night, "11 images that capture the incredible vastness of space." My unsettling habit is to stir such things into my theological mixing bowl, only to be caught up short when the cupcakes aren't plain vanilla: they're licorice. Or, like one of Harry Potter's jellybean flavors, earwax. Looking at this is so faithboggling that I have to keep rearranging my apprehension of Deity. Faith is not certainty but confidence in things unseen, and the Vox presentation shows me yet one more time again that what is unseen is beyond incomprehensible. "And yet," as the quinque vult says, "they are not three incomprehensibles but one incomprehensible." And here I am in a petty world where conservatives and liberals on this side of the planet hate each other more and more viciously like unto the shia and sunni on the other side as we speed through space on our way to oblivion. We could have done and been so much for each other, but here we are, fighting ants, oblivious to both seen and unseen.
http://www.vox.com/2015/4/17/8432733/space-maps
The inky blackness of the firmament brings to mind a piece I found on Vox last night, "11 images that capture the incredible vastness of space." My unsettling habit is to stir such things into my theological mixing bowl, only to be caught up short when the cupcakes aren't plain vanilla: they're licorice. Or, like one of Harry Potter's jellybean flavors, earwax. Looking at this is so faithboggling that I have to keep rearranging my apprehension of Deity. Faith is not certainty but confidence in things unseen, and the Vox presentation shows me yet one more time again that what is unseen is beyond incomprehensible. "And yet," as the quinque vult says, "they are not three incomprehensibles but one incomprehensible." And here I am in a petty world where conservatives and liberals on this side of the planet hate each other more and more viciously like unto the shia and sunni on the other side as we speed through space on our way to oblivion. We could have done and been so much for each other, but here we are, fighting ants, oblivious to both seen and unseen.
http://www.vox.com/2015/4/17/8432733/space-maps
Last week I went to Sam's to buy beef tenderloin steaks. In a whiff of conscience I noticed the streaks of fat and bought eye of round instead, half the price, heart-healthier, and so lean that tenderizer doesn't help. But it was beefsteak, which generates an occasional craving. I'll have a thin slice on my 40 calorie whole wheat bread for breakfast.
There’s an art to it, and even Giada doesn’t have it, my grandson Ray knows better than anyone how to quarter-turn a steak on a grill so it has perfect grill marks. When cooking my steak even Chef Ray needs me standing there sipping a couple glasses of red to scream “take it off” before it turns pink inside.
Back in the news from wherever he has been working out, our beloved star Gator quarterback Tim Tebow is a witnessing Christian, but he’s so obsessed with his own self that he seems to have no notion whatsoever of what we in this vocation term a “call” from God, listening for God. I think that's a missing ingredient in his Xnty. Tim has been out improving his discipline, movement, control and throw, and now the Eagles are giving him another chance in the NFL. If it weren’t for Manning he might still be a Bronco, but that’s not where life has taken him, and after Denver it was a humiliating debacle. With any sense of “call” he would have known to go into college coaching as his ministry to help youngsters, instead of being so obsessed with getting rich making a name for himself. I’m losing patience. I pray Philadelphia turns out well for Tim, but it’s too late, it’s not going to happen and at some point he’s going to be selling insurance door to door and asking Why did you forsake me. The answer will be I didn’t, you didn’t listen, but he won’t hear that either. Nevertheless, God bless, TimBo.
Having begun by reading the end of the story because it’s Easter, today we’re continuing with the Beginning of the Gospel according to John. I love this! We’ve recently finished Mark and, gospelwise, John’s as far from Mark as it’s possible to get. Except if we put Secret Mark back in Mark chapter 10 where it belongs, an unquestionable similarity to John creaks out of the closet like an old family skeleton.
For anyone interested, Tuesday Bible Seminar, Holy Nativity Episcopal Church MSP Library across from the church office building at 1011 E. 3rd Street. All invited, all welcome, poodles included. Gather at convenience anytime after 9:30 for chat, coffee, and a crispy thing. After 9:30 but before ten, because we sit down at 10:00 and convene with prayer at 10:05 sharp. I’m not the teacher and no scholar, but I am simply the convener. twellerpc@gmail.com. We adjourn at 11:15, you can plan your lunch date by it.
Speaking of, today we're broiling Spanish mackerel for lunch. Like they used to have at Morrisons Cafeteria.
TomW+