Saturday: turnips & Jeremiah
Good, but exhausting for the aged, exercise this morning, walk over to Oaks by the Bay to shop the Marianna folks' booth for vegetables: tomatoes, corn on the cob, turnips - - greens with roots attached.
Later I'll see if there's a good tomato sandwich there, white bread, ripe red tomato, mayonnaise, and easy on the salt as today is already a furoSaturday, furoSixty I think I made it. Bubba already bought new shoes, graduating from the 11 1/2 wide shoe size I wore for untold decades, now size 13 double-wide like some kind of house trailer. Have to watch the foot, ankle, leg, right side first.
Linda's gone to rest and I can smell the turnips cooking. It's a Southern thing to love fresh turnip greens and the white roots cut up and cooked along with, and deed I do. Pot boiled, seasoned with bacon grease and a handful of salt, IDK maybe garlic salt. On the table to plate steaming hot, I like a pat of butter on mine, hold the vinegar and pass the cornbread.
Something's going on over in front of Captain's Table, large crowd gathered; from here it looks like some kind of large booth and people buying something, but IDK and am not going down there to check it out. Seeing from here is good enough. Maybe it's a late OctoberFest? What do I like about OctoberFest? Beer and a sausage on a hot dog bun, mustard, maybe mayo but don't tell anyone you saw Uncle Bubba add mayonnaise.
Got fun reading going, two things in two different issues of The New Yorker magazine, fiction piece in one that's not gripping can't put down, but fair enough to pick it up again when I want to finish it, maybe before or after my nap. The other is a typically long, thorough, and excellent article about book dealer specialist Glenn Horowitz: haven't finished the piece, but he's quite the profit-oriented conscienceless con artist for anyone he thinks is wealthy enough to be sold that s/he needs the sophistication of an outrageously expensive book collection. Someone wrote that Glenn has never been constrained by any notion of Truth!
A zillion dollars for a book or collection of papers? What's anything worth? There's nothing intrinsic about worth, any thing Is worth the highest price a seller can convince anyone to pay for it.
And then there's the rest of our lectionary stuff for tomorrow:
Jeremiah 31:7-9
Thus says the Lord:
Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say,
“Save, O Lord, your people, the remnant of Israel.”
See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth,
among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together;
a great company, they shall return here.
With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back, I will let them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble;for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
The Psalm: Psalm 126
1 When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, * then were we like those who dream.
2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter, * and our tongue with shouts of joy.
3 Then they said among the nations, * "The Lord has done great things for them."
4 The Lord has done great things for us, * and we are glad indeed.
5 Restore our fortunes, O Lord, * like the watercourses of the Negev.
6 Those who sowed with tears * will reap with songs of joy.
7 Those who go out weeping, carrying the seed, * will come again with joy, shouldering their sheaves.
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So, Jeremiah a seventh century (BC) prophet, and the psalm, looks like the Lord is no longer angry with his people, and is bringing the remnant, what's left of them, home.
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The Epistle: Hebrews 7:23-28
The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office; but Jesus holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he has no need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for those of the people; this he did once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests those who are subject to weakness, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.
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The Hebrews reading - - we are reading through the book of Hebrews this fall. Anyone who hopes to follow it needs to be in church every Sunday to get the snippet; or, far, far better, read the NT book "Hebrews" in its entirety start to finish. Jesus the ultimate high priest who has paid for all sin with his blood. It's fundamental Christian theology, the most basic. What can take away my sin? nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? nothing but the blood of Jesus.
That's an essence of the Christian faith, but my own Christian faith is that Jesus came, not to take away my sin, but to show me how to live into the image of God in which I am created. Is it Good News? I dunno, it depends on how much of a burden it is to change FROM what I naturally am, TO one who lives to love God specifically by loving neighbor - - where my neighbor is the scum of the earth in my sight. Is there a reward? IDK, the question is irrelevant: the idea of the Christian life is NOT to do it for some sort of reward like eternal life after death, but simply because it's the right thing to do.
Genesis 1:27, but the experiment is not going well so far.
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Saturday, then Sunday. I like to switch back and forth between the 10:30 service and the eight o'clock service, but majority rules here in 7H, and I only get one vote.
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OMG the turnips smell good.
RSF&PTL
T89&c
image pinched online from an article about the prophet Jeremiah.