metamorphosis
Our OT lesson this coming Sunday is from Esther, a long, fascinating story that among other things shows how ancient is the evil, racist, anti-semitic hatred of Jews. It isn't just from the Christian era with ignoramuses shouting "Christ-killer" but goes back centuries and millenia into, in human terms, ancient history, why? Grievously, with the Holocaust passing beyond the memory of living people, brutalizing the Jews is reviving across Europe. Why? Why are the Jews targeted for hatred, what are the reasons? Not justifications, but reasons, why do otherwise seemingly decent people love to hate those who are different from us?
Anyway, from our Lectionary framers, below is the plot-revealing part of the Esther story that must be read in its entirety fully to appreciate what was going on.
Below that (scroll down) a link to an online piece that this morning interested me as a WW2 contemporary.
And, below that, a piece that shows evolution in action. Metamorphosis actually, which we sometimes allude to for Jesus Transfigured on the Mountaintop (the NT Greek word is μετεμορφώθη) and also using the butterfly symbol for Jesus transitioning from Maundy Thursday, Good Friday & Holy Saturday to Easter. (The book cover is pictured above so that the first picture showing this morning will not be the WW2 bombed-out city)
Again, perhaps, apparent metamorphosis of sorts to watch, phases of the moon and a verse of my all time favorite hymn
Soon as the evening shades prevail
the moon takes up the wondrous tale,
and nightly to the listening earth
repeats the story of her birth;
whilst all the stars that round her burn,
and all the planets in their turn,
confirm the tidings, as they roll,
and spread the truth from pole to pole.
T
Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22
The king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. On the second day, as they were drinking wine, the king again said to Esther, “What is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.” Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have won your favor, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me-- that is my petition-- and the lives of my people-- that is my request. For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. If we had been sold merely as slaves, men and women, I would have held my peace; but no enemy can compensate for this damage to the king.” Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther, “Who is he, and where is he, who has presumed to do this?” Esther said, “A foe and enemy, this wicked Haman!” Then Haman was terrified before the king and the queen.
Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, “Look, the very gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, stands at Haman's house, fifty cubits high.” And the king said, “Hang him on that.” So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the anger of the king abated.
Mordecai recorded these things, and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, enjoining them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same month, year by year, as the days on which the Jews gained relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/25/world/wwii-bomb-raids-ionosphere-space/index.html?utm_source=CNN+Five+Things&utm_campaign=1110f5eeb3-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_09_26_02_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6da287d761-1110f5eeb3-81726613
CATERPILLARS TURN INTO BUTTERFLIES -- 09-26-18
Today's selection -- from The Life Cycles of Butterflies by Judy Burris & Wayne Richards. Caterpillars turn into butterflies:
"Once a caterpillar has reached maturity, it begins to look for a good place to pupate, or enter the chrysalis phase. It stops eating and may empty the undigested contents of its gut. Sometimes it changes color. Generally, the caterpillar leaves its host plant and wanders away to find a safe place from which to hang. All sorts of locations may be suitable: A pile of wood offers good protection; the underside of a large leaf provides shelter from rain; a tree branch is an easy place to blend in. Sometimes the caterpillar spends several hours crawling around to find the perfect spot.
"After the caterpillar has chosen a place, it begins to spin a patch of silk that will be the anchoring point for the chrysalis. The caterpillar has a gland called a spinneret below its mouth that produces silk. By moving its head back and forth, the caterpillar can weave a mat out of silk threads. Using special clasping hooks on its rear end, the caterpillar then backs up and grabs the silk patch and holds on tight.
"In fact, its life may depend on the strength of its grip. If the soon-to-be chrysalis can't hang on through wind and rain, it will probably die when it hits the ground, bursting like a water balloon. If it survives the fall, a predator may eat it.
"We've discovered chrysalises hanging as low as a few inches from the ground on a plant stem and as high as six feet up on the side of a building. And when you have a garden full of host plants, you're bound to find chrysalises in some strange places. Last summer we found one hanging from the underside of a rocking chair on Wayne's deck.
"We couldn't let anyone sit in it until the butterfly emerged. We've found chrysalises hanging from deck rails and garden statues, as well as on sliding glass patio doors. We're now in the habit of checking everywhere for these surprise packages.
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"After the caterpillar gets a good grip, it may hang upside down, as Monarchs do, or spin a silk thread and use it as a harness to support itself upright, as swallowtails do. Up to now, juvenile hormone has kept the insect in the caterpillar stage through each molt. Now that it is fully grown, production of this hormone has stopped, and the caterpillar sheds its skin for the last time, to reveal a chrysalis. The old skin splits first at the head, and the pupa wiggles and squirms its way out. When the skin has peeled all the way down to the rear end, the pupa must twitch violently to break the small ligament attached to the skin. Then the skin falls away like a stretched-out old sock.
"Once the chrysalis dries and hardens a bit, it gains some protection from the weather and small predators. Its dull coloration, usually shades of green or brown, helps it blend in among leaves and twigs. If this phase of its life cycle occurs during the warm summer months, the butterfly should be fully developed and ready for eclosion, or emergence from its chrysalis, in about two weeks. If the insect enters its chrysalis phase during the cooler months of autumn, then it may wait out the winter by going into diapause, hibernating until warmer spring weather arrives. Sometimes butterflies that emerge in the spring are smaller than the ones that emerge during the summer months.
"During the chrysalis phase, the caterpillar liquefies inside the chrysalis and reorganizes, almost magically transforming into a butterfly. Even after decades of research, all the details of this metamorphosis are not completely understood."