when chaos reigned
Really, today is Holy Saturday, when theologically, on that day after Good Friday two thousand years ago, the Universe was in chaos because God was dead, we had killed Him. The 9/11 image flashes that stunning shocker more vividly than anything I've personally experienced in life.
In trinitarian theological thinking there is One God, Three in One and One in Three, three Persons, one God; and it's all or none, therefore if one Person of the Trinity does not exist (has died, been killed), there is no Trinity and no God. I'm not sure our theological discourse binds God, but theologically on that first Holy Saturday the Universe was on its own.
Then early Sunday morning, while it was yet dark, the Father stepped into Jesus' tomb, said, "Get up, Son," and they went home to color Easter eggs. That's the delightful way author and priest Martin Bell put it in one of his writings.
Theologically, then, at that Sunday morning Resurrection moment, the Trinity would have resumed its Being and restored order to the Universe; and, in that God has control of space, Time and eternity, they would even have restored order retroactively such that the chaos never happened at all.
To acknowledge and honor Holy Saturday, maybe I'll put this +Time blogpost online for a few hours before taking it down from public access.
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Meantime everybody has to be somewhere, hopefully doing something besides taking a nap all day every day, and I'm indulging my new work of sous vide cooking: a leg of lamb is in the water bath cooking at 134°F for six hours. Following the recipe, I'll take it out, give it the ice bath for an hour, and refrigerate it overnight. Tomorrow I'll reheat it at 130°F for an hour, sear it on all sides in a blazing hot cast iron skillet, slice and serve it as part of our Easter dinner. It should be perfect, just beyond medium rare, on the pink side of medium.
We (I) love beef very red rare, but lamb we prefer cooked a bit longer, Linda prefers lamb cooked well done, I cook it medium rare to medium and then cook her slices longer in the skillet if she wishes. At our house, I'm the chef when we're having roast beef, leg of lamb, and some kinds of fish.
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Speaking of rare beef. For about six years half a century ago, I taught as adjunct professor of political science at the University of West Florida, two courses in defense systems acquisition. Three times each semester, the university flew me down from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to teach them. All of that was part of my life as a newly retired U S Navy officer, before I was ordained Episcopal priest and we relocated to Apalachicola, Florida - - it was down one of my many roads in the yellow wood that Robert Frost reminisces about in his poem "The Road Not Taken," and it entirely facilitated my transition from being a priest at a parish in Central Pennsylvania to our wonderful years at Trinity Episcopal Church, Apalachicola.
Wandering again, Mister Bubba, but with Robert Frost I can still today stand at precisely that place where the road diverged for me in the yellow wood - - it was my mother telling me on the telephone that the pulpit was vacant in Apalachicola. ZIP! ZOT! BAM! BANG! SHAZAM!
Anyway, where was I going? Oh, yes, the rare beef. On one of my visits (I've told this story here before), my UWF division head took me to lunch at the Irish Pub in Pensacola. As we walked in, the maitre de welcomed him, "Good afternoon, Professor Witt," headed for his favorite table, and took his personal beer mug from the shelf and set it down in front of him. Clearly I was in his territory, and it turned out that we were there so he could show, impress, and probably stun me, using as his weapon his macho tastes in food!
When the waiter brought the menu, Dr Witt told me, "I'm having the steak tartare, what'll you have?" I said, "I'll have the same." Obviously surprised, he asked, "Do you know what steak tartare is?" I said, "Sure: very lean raw beef chopped fine, I have it now and then." We got along amazingly well. But, unknown to anyone I worked with, either in my business or at UWF, I was going to theological seminary and heading for ordination. My final semester at UWF was Spring 1984, when my father blew my cover by telling one of my students whom he worked with here at Gulf Coast College, that I was an Episcopal priest and soon moving to Apalachicola. I was going to stop teaching at UWF anyway, and my father's spilling my "secret" made a sure thing of my resignation: UWF did not want a priest teaching their course in how the US Department of Defense buys warplanes, bombs, and warships.
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Anyway, as I noted, today is Holy Saturday. This I've also written here before, on this day, the "day when God was dead" was a topic of spirited conversation every spring my years at Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettysburg. Some of my courses, maybe theology, I studied in the building on the Civil War battlefield that served during the days of that horrendous, bloody battle, as hospital and as rotating headquarters rotating back and forth, for both General Lee and General Meade.
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Still on war. Two USAF planes shot down, an F15 Eagle and an A10 Warthog. The F15 surfaces a special friend for me. The A10 surfaces the day I took my Australian defence industries client into an aircraft manufacturer's headquarters in California: we were there because the Australian DOD were deciding whether to purchase American F18 fighter jets. Someone in the room mentioned the A10 Warthog, and I opined aloud, "That's the ugliest airplane that's ever been put in the sky." The room went instantly silent. Unrealized by me until then, when I was "corrected," I was in company with the team who had designed the A10.
But anyway, the Iran defense team has shot down two of our warplanes. Clearly they didn't hear our Leader announce to the world over television that we have complete control of Iranian airspace "and there's nothing they can do about it."
We live in a world where humans are bitterly divided by intense hatred of each other. It makes no sense
The gospel of Jesus Christ is not about bombing a nation back to the Stone Age. Someone needs to put Pope Leo XIV in charge. I could go for that.
RSF&PTL
T90