brimful and broke
Standing stealthy and motionless six inches to a foot deep seven levels below 7H, two white wading birds and a gray wading bird stare intently at silver flashes in water just beyond them. They seem to feed mainly on minnows, but wildlife videos online show them also eating frogs, snatching up and, with head and long beak tilted up, gulping down and swallowing ducklings and little burrowing mammals.
Everything is not as innocent as it appears.
Rattling nuclear weapons, Putin warns the West about sending main battle tanks to Ukraine. He has gotten away with bullying destruction of neighboring states before - - how close he is willing to push before the sky lights up over Moscow and the Kremlin may be the rhetorical question. What will he do? This is a creeping and testing sort of international relations in warfare.
When I heard lectures on and studied war gaming at the U S Naval War College, the premise was that we planned based on the enemy's capabilities, not on his intentions. How to counter and defeat the enemy?
At a heaviest and most frustrating Time of the Vietnam War, I was there as a packed auditorium of U S and allied military officers erupted in a standing ovation when our CNO outlined how he would use tactical nuclear weapons against the North. Pausing before responding to the question from the audience, he looked around, asked the college president, "Is there any press here?" then, assured not, turned to the map with his pointer. That was fifty-five years ago, am I telling secrets out of school? Middle grade and senior officers, we were all in our mid-thirties to early forties, I was among the youngest, possibly everybody in the class is dead but me.
What next? It isn't as simple as vaporizing Moscow and the Kremlin, part of it will be what I sometimes visualize as I stand on 7H porch, a blinding flash and deafening roar as the shock wave rushes toward me from Tyndall just across St Andrews Bay. Is TAFB that close? I see the control tower from here.
It's a small world after all, and on a clear day you can see forever.
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Anyway, our gospel for Sunday is Matthew's version of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-12):
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his
disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
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Luke's version is as scary as it is assuring, but we won't be reading that again until year after next. Meantime the thing to worry about is the answer to prayer, where wisdom says Be careful what you pray for, lest you get it. Our prayer of the day for the upcoming Sunday:
Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
"in our Time grant us your peace"? IDK, it reminds me of St Paul eagerly and with fair certainty, anticipating the Second Coming and End of Days in his Time. The trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised, and living and dead will meet the Lord in the air: Paul fully expected to be among the living. Do we want the peace of God in our Time? William Alexander Percy, in his poem "His Peace" - - the last four verses of which have been made a superlative hymn that we sing now and then - - puts it this way:
I like to think of them at dawn
beneath the pale pink sky,
casting their nets in Galilee
and fish hawks circling by.
They cast their nets in Galilee
beneath the hills of brown,
such happy, simple fisherfolk
until the Lord came down.
Contented, peaceful fishermen
before they ever knew
the peace of God that filled their hearts
brimful, and broke them too.
Young John who trimmed the flapping sail
homeless in Patmos died
Peter, who hauled the teeming net
head-down was crucified.
The peace of God, it is no peace,
but strife closed in the sod.
Yet let us pray for but one thing:
the marvelous peace of God.
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The kingdom of God is where God's peace is, and it is not beside some future river lined with fruit trees and flowing through a city paved with streets of gold. The kingdom of God is given to each of us for a Time, where our preacher warns us, "My friends, life is short, and we haven't much Time". We are in the Kingdom of God now, this is it. Jesus said (Gospel of Thomas) "Do not say, 'Look, here' or 'Look, there', for the kingdom of the Father is spread upon the earth and you do not see it."
This is what you get, and life IS short, and this is the kingdom of God. The peace of God is not a pastoral scene or a calm seascape, the peace of God is a life (life is short) spent striving to make everything right for everybody.
And, as Percy says, it's closed in the sod: you, baptized Christian, only escape from the peace of God when the last shovelful of sod is tossed on your grave.