Christopher Being well beyond absentminded , it’s generally best for me not to borrow books, because they never get returned; and months or years later when the owner asks to have the book back, it’s nowhere to be found. Yesterday though, during visiting time before Bible Study, a friend handed me the curious incident of the dog in the night-time . A short novel by Mark Haddon. Our Tuesday Morning Bible Study group gathers between nine-forty-five and ten o’clock to visit, have coffee and a biscotti. At ten-oh-five on-the-money we begin with open prayer then get down to business. So people can depend on it for lunch or other plans, we stop at eleven-fifteen sharp. The novel looked intriguing, so I opened it upon arriving home at eleven-thirty; put it down for lunch at twelve; picked it up again at twelve-twenty; put it down reluctantly at two-ten to leave for an appointment; upon arriving home, helped Linda assemble the Christmas tree; opened the book again at three o’clock; laid it asi...

And the Second Is Like Unto It The grimly enthusiastic election in Egypt following violent post-revolution demonstrations in Tahrir Square makes one wonder whether we need some such to stir Americans to the polls. In federal elections from 1960 to 2010, the percentage of eligible voters who actually cast a ballot ranged from a high of 63% to a low of 36%. With its protest of extreme greed,  Occupy was a move in the right direction, though timed poorly, far too early to be effective or influential. In fact, it wasn’t timed at all, was it, just erupted somehow out of Arab Spring, to be put down without gunfire, evaporate, and folks go home for a beer and mind-numbing television. One presidential aspirant said they should go home and get jobs, an incredibly stupid remark in an economy with over 9% unemployment.  On the hate side,  Illegal Immigrants is being made a campaign issue. A suggestion has been to erect an impenetrable physical barrier at the southern border and st...

Psalm 85   A psalm of the sons of Korah 1 You have been gracious to your land, O LORD, *     you have restored the good fortune of Jacob. 2 You have forgiven the iniquity of your people *     and blotted out all their sins. 3 You have withdrawn all your fury *     and turned yourself from your wrathful indignation. 4 Restore us then, O God our Savior; *     let your anger depart from us. 5 Will you be displeased with us for ever? *     will you prolong your anger from age to age? 6 Will you not give us life again, *     that your people may rejoice in you? 7 Show us your mercy, O LORD, *     and grant us your salvation. 8 I will listen to what the LORD God is saying, *     for he is speaking peace to his faithful people     and ...

        THE SECOND COMING     Turning and turning in the widening gyre     The falcon cannot hear the falconer;     Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;     Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,     The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere     The ceremony of innocence is drowned;     The best lack all conviction, while the worst     Are full of passionate intensity.     Surely some revelation is at hand;     Surely the Second Coming is at hand.     The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out     When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi     Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;     A shape with lion body and the head of a man,     A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,     Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it     Wind shadows of the indignant desert bird...

Advent: the Second Coming Clayton Sullivan is a Bible scholar and retired professor of philosophy and religion at the University of Southern Mississippi. He came to my attention about 1993 with Jesus and the Sweet Pilgrim Baptist Church -- a charming, quirky fable of divine visitation, jealousy, poverty, prejudice, wealth, murder and salvation. And yes, damnation too.  The Second Coming is at hand, and this time Jesus and Simon Peter return as Jewish women to visit a little backwoods church in the town of Clearwater, Mississippi. Dr. Sullivan’s lovely tale comes to mind again as the church heads into Advent with its personality disorder of focusing on the Second Coming while thinking of nothing but Christmas.  Not dreaming of a white Christmas though. Speaking of which, and on the mundane front, Amazon.com are offering snow shovels this morning. Of sundry designs. Our last snow shovel was joyfully left behind when we moved from Pennsylvania to Apalachicola.  That was 198...

Right after the Penn State monstrosity broke, the Bleacher Report linked to a Charles P. Pierce essay* that stirred my sympathy, causing me to look into Pierce a bit further and even order a penny used copy of his book Idiot America from Amazon.com. So far, at least from the Intro through Chapter 2, Pierce is scathingly right on and my kind of entertaining. The front cover has George Washington in the saddle on a charging tyrannosaurus rex, waving his sword. Every sermon and book needs a subtitle, and this one’s is “How Stupidity Became A Virtue In The Land Of The Free.” Although printed in the upper right hand corner of the front cover my copy says “National Bestseller,” probably not to be recommended for most folks.   In his book Pierce offers three great premises, and the second one really catches my eye. Fact is that which enough people believe. Truth is determined by how fervently they believe it .  In the Pentagon long years ago I worked with a Marine Corps major th...

Morning. Up. Close porch door. Downstairs. Check WiFi relay. Kettle or brewer on. Milk in mug. Coffee or tea. Light on. Open MacBook. Read email, weirdo comics. xkcd. the Perry Bible Fellowship . Anglican Communion News Service. Michigan Today. Episcopal News Service. NYTimes.com. Bleacher Report . The Institute for Creation Research. Automotive News. Washington Post. Open Lectionary B, scroll down to November 27, 2011, 1st Sunday of Advent, Psalm 80, Isaiah 64, 1 Corinthians 1, Mark 13. Nothing ignites. Motor Trend magazine, subscription from James at HNES magazine sale. 2012 SUV of the Year. Land Rover Range Rover Evoque. Getoutta here. Ever needed a Land Rover serviced under warranty? You have to go to the dark side of the moon to find a dealer. In my first issue of Motor Trend , the car to covet was the 1950 Chrysler New Yorker sedan, tested by Walt Woron.  Open Mac Pages document and start typing. Gingrich? Yuck. Sandusky? Barf. Here’s one -- Federal crackdown on state-author...

Isaiah 63:7 - 64:12 (NRSV) 7 I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord,    the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, because of all that the Lord has done for us,    and the great favour to the house of Israel that he has shown them according to his mercy,    according to the abundance of his steadfast love. 8 For he said, ‘Surely they are my people,    children who will not deal falsely’; and he became their saviour 9    in all their distress. It was no messenger * or angel    but his presence that saved them; * in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;    he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.  10 But they rebelled    and grieved his holy spirit; therefore he became their enemy;    he himself fought against them. 11 Then they * remembered the days of old,    of Moses his servant. * Wh...

Since about age thirteen my life has centered on children, babies, baby girls in my case. Growing up I always wanted a baby sister. Parker had a baby sister, Philip had a baby sister, life should allot me a baby sister. We did very well actually with my mother’s two sisters having baby girls who from time to time were brought over from Pensacola to stay with us for a weekend, or a week, or even two to three weeks. My part in their care included doing everything for them, even proprietarily so, a cherished part of growing up years. Before Linda and I married, we were agreed on four children, and the sooner the better for me. To my lifelong joy, Malinda arrived the week of our first anniversary, and life has been blessed ever since. Malinda, Joe, Tassy. As life goes on of course, one finds out that sons and grandsons are beloved just as daughters and granddaughters, and this has been one of my wondrous lessons of life. So, Nicholas, Ray. Not looked forward to, was always the day and stag...

Advent looms with its dualism, eclipsed by the Black Friday to Christmas Eve shopping frenzy and the December 26 return and exchange (save your receipt). But Advent is Christmas v. Cosmology. Genesis v. Revelation. Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. When? How? Historically or metaphorically? Scientifically or spiritually? Will the Eschaton come on clouds of glory with the holy angels, with the breaking of the Seventh Seal, with a bang or a whimper? When? Paul thought imminent; in the generations after him the Church backed off, organized, and started making permanent arrangements. Now only Harold Camping climbs a mountain to gaze at the sky. Camping, and those who take LeHaye and Jenkins as something other than lucrative, sensationalist fiction.  Nevertheless, Advent proclaims both the Manger of Bethlehem and the Second Coming. So does the Eucharist in the mystery of faith:   Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. We remember his de...

For those of us who live in houses, hardly anything is more soothing and peaceful than waking to the sound of rain. In some houses the sound is too muted to appreciate; but ours is a style called American Foursquare. A large box with a hip roof and a center attic dormer, it was popular from the 1890s into the 1930s.  Rain drips or pours off the dormer onto the roof directly over our bed, a magical design for happy drowsing. When the weather is right we have the upstairs porch door open and the bay breeze wafts in. All in all, Life Is Good at 2308. Our adult Sunday school lesson this wet and rainy morning will be from the Book of Judges. Last Sunday we read and lightly discussed about the first half of the book, because in the Lectionary our First Reading was from Judges. For this morning we agreed to finish up Judges. Besides the cyclical theme of creation, sin, judgement, repentance and redemption and the list of the major and minor Judges of Israel, the book has quite a few inter...

Figurehead Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or “There it is!” For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.’ (Luke 17:20-21, NRSV) Jesus said "It will not come by watching for it. It will not be said, 'Look, here!' or 'Look, there!' Rather, the Father's kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people don't see it." (GThomas, logia 113). A friend in a church we served was death on the notion of king, kingdom, lord -- denouncing the terms as not only blatant male chauvinism, but subtle or not so subtle, conscious or unconscious, willful or witless continuation of patriarchalism, and of authoritarianism in general. Use of king, kingdom, lord has been eased in liturgical revision. And sensitive Bible translations use the term “reign of God” or “realm of God.” On that basis, instead of Christ ...

“King of kings and Lord of lords” Sunday is upon us, but it may be a couple weeks before flash mobs spring up singing it to the astonishment and delight of ... whoever happens to be there and is blessed enough to be caught up in it. Regardless how splendid a presentation of Messiah in a concert hall, “Hallelujah Chorus” is best when it surprises, the reign of God suddenly breaking into human life. The reign of God is not a future eternity, it’s here and now and now and then, a sudden shower on a summer afternoon, a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day, someone laughing, the eye of a storm, a child home safely, a family gathered.  That is the kingdom. Jesus said * "It will not come by watching for it. It will not be said, 'Look, here!' or 'Look, there!' Rather, the Father's kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people don't see it." May you see it, may you happen to be there and be caught up in it today.  TW+  * Gospel of Thomas, logia 113  

Christ the King Sunday was established by Pope Pius XI in 1925 as a way of countering what the Church saw as growing secularism in the world, so that we finish up the old liturgical year with a grand acclamation of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. Since being implemented in the Roman Catholic Church, the observance has spread to Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Moravian, United Church of Christ, and perhaps other churches. In at least one Scandinavian Lutheran Church it’s still called the Sunday of Doom because the old lectionary was centered on the day of final judgment. The psalm choices for the day are from Psalm 100, which old-line Episcopalians call the Jubilate , and Psalm 95, the Venite . In the age when we had Morning Prayer every Sunday we alternated between the two as the Invitatory Hymn from Sunday to Sunday, always singing them in the incomparable harmony of Anglican Chant. My hope, not to say expectation, is that in Heaven the liturgical renewal ha...

Late afternoon and early evening TV for me usually are given over to study and seminar prep during soup operas and Ghost Hunters. But Third Reich: The Rise and Third Reich: The Fall aired on History Channel last evening. What these things document is vital to see and know for generations and ages to come, because no society of human beings is exempt including our own. Power creates bullies. And leaves indelible shame. The personal side of the documentary is darker to me than just viewing history. In my growing up years, the English origins and heritage of my family name were a source of peace and pride, deepened by the generations-long family tradition of Episcopal clergy. Last year came the stunner: the “English origins and heritage” were a fancy, apparently of my grandfather’s brother, an Anglophile -- from whom we had a faux “family tree” going back to emigration from England before the Revolutionary War. It was a source of pride in heritage and also an assurance of innocence durin...

In our Tuesday Morning Bible Study today we will read and talk about Second Thessalonians. The group is in control of their own destiny and this is what they chose. Our focus for the Fall Season has been the letters of Paul -- that is, those letters that are short enough for two sessions -- to be read in one session and discussed at least a bit; then to finish the discussion the next session if need be. Among the undisputed Pauline letters, that limited us to First Thessalonians, Philippians, Galatians and Philemon. Well, actually, Philemon is not entirely undisputed; but the opposing rationale, while interesting and intriguing, is somewhat off the wall, though not to say lunatic fringe scholarship. We also have taken on the three disputed letters Ephesians, Colossians, and today Second Thessalonians.  What we are doing, as well as the joy of reading this wonderful correspondence and discussing the situation going on in the first century, is looking at the eschatology and Christolo...

Monday morning begins earlier for some than for others. Today it began for me with rising at three a.m. for you know what, then inability to get back to sleep. This does not bother TW, who loves getting up before the chickens and coming down for tea or coffee (PG Tips this morning) and to contemplate the day before it pounces on me. When we lived in Apalachicola, if my day started this early it would literally be in time to hear the roosters start crowing. But then Apalach is Apalach.  Upon opening my email something showed up from Kristen asking for family history information, a timeline, to help with a Sociology project that's due Thursday. Having just done a personal history timeline for our EfM personal spiritual autobiography, this caught my imagination immediately and occupied the mind until this very moment when a friend emailed me, "No blog this morning. Everything alright?" So that's it for today. Unless anyone is interested in my personal and family ti...

We returned from Japan in 1966 to a Navy assignment in Washington, DC. Along with my first ship, a destroyer, and Naval Station, Mayport, Florida, it was easily my most enjoyable tour of duty, in part because of the work and in larger measure because my commanding officer was in every way the best man I ever worked for in my Navy years. We lived just outside the Beltway in Annandale, Virginia, across from a huge empty field, a long ago farm, where we used to walk. About this time of year, or maybe a bit earlier, we would hear geese honking and look up to see their V-forms in flight headed south. It was probably always the same flock of geese on an instinctive route.  My office was in the Navy Annex just west of the Pentagon. Downtown across the Potomac River was Main Navy, a huge old building, long gone now. And my memory is no doubt faulty, but behind Main Navy and to the west was an enormous park. In 1968 the park became the center of a huge protest movement against poverty....