Tuesday about &c
"What is life?" continues to eat at me this morning, Tuesday, September 22, 2026, 2:48 AM. The question is more basic at this hour and age, when I feel life centered here in 7H, and responsibility to a specific handful of people and no one else under the sun.
Responsibility to continue looking after myself as best I can, that is; to take my meds, exercise a bit, mind my weight, get some rest, eat & drink mindfully, keep my leg elevated.
Life Itself, though: now that I've surrendered all former responsibilities of life into the void, life is down to awareness: continue to take notice, respond when I DWP.
That's pretty much it. Respond or simply Abide, Be - - as in: I Am, kindly leave me alone see vou play.
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Last evening I was exhausted, lay down and turned out my light too early, so early as to be up first at eleven-something, back to bed fitfully with a hurting, raised leg nastily flavoring a repetitive, psychotic dream about my flu shot, finally giving it up and rising for good at 2:48 AM.
magic mug of Club hot & black and right leg dutifully elevated.
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The Collect for Sunday, 27 September
O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The Epistle Philippians 2:1-13
If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death--
even death on a cross.
Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
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The collect for Proper 21: I see by my notes in the margin that I've commented on this before, Hatchett (Commentary on the American Prayer Book, page 192), dates the prayer to the 7th century. Its theology is clear, that God shows divine power mainly in showing mercy and pity. That's a sweet, lovely but obsequious, pious sentiment of the Dark Ages, on the theodicy scale it's certainly not taken from observation and experience of human life, but from hope, and perhaps fear. In Times such as we live in, the Church needs to cling less to ancient tradition and be more realistic and relevant in worship.
Here's from Steven Shakespeare's little book, "Prayers for an Inclusive Church," that General Convention has authorized for use, with the bishop's consent. Relevant and a bit whimsical for the upcoming Sunday:
O God of strange authority,
whose questions challenge
the powers of the world:
teach us to look beyond appearance,
to see your kingly rule
emptying itself
in cross-stretched arms,
through Jesus Christ, the only Lord,
the humble servant.
Amen
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Generally, I try also to get in a thought, even if someone else's, about "the Philippians hymn," which is exquisite, splendiferous. My thoughts come from a mixture of my own with those of Professor Bart Ehrman, who in my life, along with the scholars of The Jesus Seminar, has been a model and mentor as I've made my way along:
the Philippians hymn is likely not Paul's writing, but Paul's apt use of a then developing and popular hymn in the fledgling Christian churches.
Paul does not intend it as his theological assertion of Jesus' eternal pre-existence, but as Jesus' example of the humility that Paul is urging on his intended audience, members of the church in Philippi
Although Paul may mean it (the hymn) to assert that God the Father sent Jesus Christ (already a heavenly being of sorts, perhaps like an angel, or maybe just an unborn soul) to Earth on a mission of sacrifice and death, and that God the Father was so pleased with Jesus' obedience in his mission, that at Jesus' death, God the Father raised Jesus from death and elevated Jesus to the (divine?) status of Lord, Kyrios, though NOT Adonai YHVH.
Jesus as of one substance with YHVH didn't come along until later, as settled in the Nicene Creed.
That's my take on the Philippians hymn. You may have your own take on the hymn, which is just a valid as mine.
Anyway,
RSF&PTL
T91