Thursday's ramble

 

Frugal, I'm being frugal with my Coffee Club coffees, the bag for March just arrived, so I'm having a cup of hot & black in my magic mug that keeps it hot, every sip is an ongoing surprise that it's not going off cold. 

For frugality, I'm making two cups: 8 ounces water and two scoops coffee, making one mug-full a day to make it last. I did that with the February bag and it lasted half again as long as my prior habit of making three cups, a mug and a half.

The Coffee Club coffee is different every month, and noticeably tastier than the ordinary label bags of coffee we get at Bill's or Publix or the Commissary. Aldi's 500g packages of German coffees were an exception, but we've only been there a couple of Times.  Anyway, first mug of "Equator" blend coffees from Colombia, Sumatra, Kenya as my Coffee Club treat this morning - - sip'n hot.

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For, it was 13 years last October, this blog has seen a daily or almost daily blogpost, which I also link on Facebook, the only social media site I'm on, and I don't even browse FB, I just log on, post my link, check for comments, and depart for the day. So, I have no idea what FB friends are posting or doing or saying. It's not that I'm not interested or concerned, just that I do other things (my friends, life is short, and we haven't much Time). But lately I've been receiving a lot of FB friend requests, most of which I check out, and all or almost all of which turn out to be scam attempts, so I ignore them and eventually delete them. I've never asked anyone to be my FB friend (because I can't imagine anyone wanting to be friends with me), and I've always accepted all FB friend requests that check out legitimate. There's such a rush and rash of phony FB friend requests now, that if anyone who's real wants to be FB friends with me, kindly email or text me separately and say so!

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It's still Lent 2024, you know. Fifth week of Lent, and one of my lenten disciplines is checking the Lectionary for the day's "Propers" - - the collect and Bible readings. Sometimes I've been commenting on them on this, my +Time blog. Just so with today's Propers, which I love. The three readings go together, in Genesis 17, God gifting the land of Canaan to Abram/Abraham; in Psalm 105 the psalmist rejoices in the gift of Canaan; in the gospel reading, Gospel John having Jesus and his detractors in an encounter involving Abraham.

Just a couple of comments. 

First, Abram is 99 years old, and this is God's umpteenth covenanting conversation since poor Abram was 75 years old, God, now grandly calling himself El Shaddai, promising Abram land, descendants, and fame; and Abram, by now highly skeptical, has come to regard it as a joke, a laughing matter with his old drinking buddy God who appears here and there, now and then, to this one and that one as he will; bringing to my mind the story and film "Harvey" with Jimmy Stewart and his pooka, the great white rabbit. 

Abram Abraham is always faithful, always obedient, and God does finally keep his side of the covenant after dragging it out for a quarter century; and the Holy Spirit coming on to what my seminary OT professor called Abraham's beautiful, sexy 90-year-old wife Sarai Sarah who was hiding just inside the tent, giggling and giddy with anticipation. If you don't like that, my Lutheran version of the story, tell it your own way, I don't care; it still stands that the Holy Spirit, who "visited" Sarai Sarah, and Samuel's mother Hannah, and John Baptist's mother Elizabeth, and Jesus' mother the BVM. All of which proves, for you skeptics, that the Holy Spirit is a real man, as Peter Paul Reubens imagined:

My second comment is about the Hebrew bible's divine promise, gifting the land of Canaan to Abraham and his descendants, a non-negotiable faith item for Israel, a non-negotiable issue with the Canaanites, today's Palestinians - - Arabs, Muslims, Christians, Bedouins, for whom the Jewish claim is outrageous nonsense, encroachment on their land. Nobody accepts the offensive promises of somebody else's God as legitimate: it's the foundation of all that is going on in the Holy Land today. Which side is God on? What an absurd question! It can hardly be answered without prejudice. 

Anyway, here are today's readings: 

Genesis 17:1–8

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.” Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.”

Psalm 105:4–11

4 Search for the Lord and his strength; *continually seek his face.

5 Remember the marvels he has done, *his wonders and the judgments of his mouth,

6 O offspring of Abraham his servant, *O children of Jacob his chosen.

7 He is the Lord our God; *his judgments prevail in all the world.

8 He has always been mindful of his covenant, *the promise he made for a thousand generations:

9 The covenant he made with Abraham, *the oath that he swore to Isaac,

10 Which he established as a statute for Jacob, *an everlasting covenant for Israel,

11 Saying, "To you will I give the land of Canaan *to be your allotted inheritance."

The Gospel John 8:51–59

Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.” The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets; yet you say, ‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets also died. Who do you claim to be?” Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, he of whom you say, ‘He is our God,’ though you do not know him. But I know him; if I would say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and I keep his word. Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.” Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

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Why do they pick up stones to throw at Jesus? Because in their view, he blasphemed: in their hearing, Jesus committed capital blasphemy: Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” I AM is the unutterable Name of God, and Jesus has linked himself to the Name - - which is a key theme of Gospel John.

Enough, well more than enough rambling for today.

RSF&PTL

T88&c

pics: art, Reubens, 1577-1640

other one, from online current events, the volcano eruption in Iceland.