Monday July 22, 2024, a waning Moon

3:58 A.M. - - looking out and up, the moon is south and slightly west at about one o'clock from the meridian, 98% illumination and waning gibbous, a nice start to Monday,

small boats racing across the Bay in the dark. 

Had we been at home I'd have used the potassium product NoSalt, and I need to start carrying some when we eat out, but grinding salt on my eggs and catfish yesterday after church put four pounds back on me since yesterday morning's victorious weigh-in, now the right foot ankle leg is almost double-size and it's another FuroEighty day.

Which limits today's POD, nomesane? 

With my magic mug of hot & black, once again and always, +Time is not and never a food blog, but I've been tasting strawberry preserves, and've confirmed my favorite: not the German product we get at TAFB Commissary, but Trappist. Before ordering Trappist from EWTN my favorite might've been the French jar of Bonne Maman. Matter of fact, in the kitchen cabinet with water glasses we have several of their jars, which, with the lids that I keep, make perfectly good, tight martini shakers that you can then sip from if you like yours on the rocks.

Owing to the apparently changing effect of alcohol on my aging self, as I try to sort that out, I've not had a martini, or any drink at all, in weeks, but before this my best martini was an ounce of Polish potato vodka, an ounce of a botanical gin, a splash of dry vermouth, a pour of olive brine, over ice cubes; close and seal tight, shake the living daylights out of it, open and either pour into a martini glass or sip as on ice, and add several green olives. My favorite olives may be stuffed with anchovy; but I also like enormous green olives stuffed with pimiento because then I can share one with Linda. She views with disgust my anchovy olives but will accept one large green martini-blessed olive stuffed with pimiento, which is as close to a martini as she'll get.

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From our lectionary, here are the Proper readings for the upcoming Sunday, July 28th. Now using Track 2, we'll miss the Track 1 story of David and Bathsheba, but it's probably just as well. 

Say what you will, and it does not absolve David's egregious sin of murder, but ultimately it turns out to be a Bible story of a child, Solomon, who grew up to become one of Israel's wisest and most respected kings, albeit enough of a tyrant that after his death Greater Israel split up to become two kingdoms, Judea and Israel. You may see that Uriah is a paragon of integrity. You may see that David's sin, which he double-compounds with treacherous first degree capital murder, is reflected in the responsive psalm for the 2 Samuel reading. 

The Collect

O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Track 1 Old Testament 2 Samuel 11:1-15

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. David sent someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported, “This is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” So David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to her house. The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.” 

So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the people fared, and how the war was going. Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. But Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “You have just come from a journey. Why did you not go down to your house?” Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah remain in booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing.” 

Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. On the next day, David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die.”

The Psalm for Track 1

Psalm 14

1 The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." *All are corrupt and commit abominable acts; there is none who does any good.

2 The Lord looks down from heaven upon us all, * to see if there is any who is wise, if there is one who seeks after God.

3 Every one has proved faithless; all alike have turned bad; * there is none who does good; no, not one.

4 Have they no knowledge, all those evildoers * who eat up my people like bread and do not call upon the Lord?

5 See how they tremble with fear, * because God is in the company of the righteous.

6 Their aim is to confound the plans of the afflicted, * but the Lord is their refuge.

7 Oh, that Israel's deliverance would come out of Zion! * when the Lord restores the fortunes of his people, Jacob will rejoice and Israel be glad.

or

Track 2 Old Testament 2 Kings 4:42-44

A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing food from the first fruits to the man of God: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give it to the people and let them eat.” But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred people?” So he repeated, “Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’” He set it before them, they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.

The Psalm for Track 2

Psalm 145:10-19

10 All your works praise you, O Lord, * and your faithful servants bless you.

11 They make known the glory of your kingdom * and speak of your power;

12 That the peoples may know of your power * and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; * your dominion endures throughout all ages.

14 The Lord is faithful in all his words * and merciful in all his deeds.

15 The Lord upholds all those who fall; * he lifts up those who are bowed down.

16 The eyes of all wait upon you, O Lord, * and you give them their food in due season.

17 You open wide your hand * and satisfy the needs of every living creature.

18 The Lord is righteous in all his ways * and loving in all his works.

19 The Lord is near to those who call upon him, * to all who call upon him faithfully.

The Epistle Ephesians 3:14-21

I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

The Gospel John 6:1-21

Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. 

Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” 

Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”

When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.

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In Track 2, we are meant to see a relationship between the OT lesson & responsive Psalm, with the gospel; and indeed it's there, many eat from not much, and there is some left, and Jesus is even greater than Elisha. As you read the gospels, be observant and don't overlook that one of the purposes is to prove to the gospel writers' audiences that Jesus is greater than the prophets of old. 

Somewhat unlike the Synoptic Gospels' accounts of the Feeding of the Five Thousand, all three of which are Both compassionate "miracles," dynamis, acts of power, And eucharistic feedings (take, bless, break, give the bread), in Gospel John the event is a "sign" - - one of the deliberate signs, semeia - - of who and what Jesus is -> the Logos, the Word of God. And Gospel John has no clear sense of eucharistic actions in his feeding accounts. I somewhat regret that the lectionary framers leave out Mark's story of the Feeding of the Five Thousand, because it's first, basic, and most simple; but then Gospel John's account is vivid and full of action, and it gives extra attention to Andrew, who, in Gospel John, is the one who leads his brother Peter to Christ. 

An aside is to wander off into common speculation - - that while Peter, James, and John were Jesus' favorite and most trusted disciples, the three whom he takes to the most important events, and who are likely somewhere in age from nineteen to less-than-thirty, Andrew, who adores his older brother, is probably twelve, thirteen or fourteen?, the kid brother. Bible study uncovers many rumors and stories that are likely or unlikely; one is that Andrew, which is not a Jewish name, is Peter's (his real name is Simon) half-brother by a Gentile who took up with Peter's (then widowed) mother - - a story made more plausible by the fact that, while we know James and John are the sons of Zebedee, and we hear about Peter's mother because she was sick and Jesus healed her; we never hear a word about Peter and Andrew's father, which indeed leaves the door open for speculation. 

So yes, maybe. True or not we'll never know, but that story is out there. I've mentioned it here before, but it's been years.

Monday: RSF&PTL

T88&c

pic: Linda at 7H porch rail, 8:07 PM, last Friday.