Our gospel for this morning! Here we are with Jesus in Bethany, on the outskirts of Jerusalem. He is in the elegant home of Lazarus, a beloved friend and prominent, even wealthy, local resident who has invited Jesus and his traveling companions to dinner. It is a special evening, Martha has prepared a wonderful meal of roast lamb with vegetables and thick gravy and loaves of homemade bread. The house is fragrant with delicious smells. Mary does something gracious and extraordinary. Instead of the usual custom of offering the guests fresh water to wash their feet after their trip, she breaks open a large jar of expensive ointment and rubs Jesus‘ feet with it. In an instant everything changes, and the stage is set, not only for Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, but changes for all time forever. Just outside the door and over Calvary’s Hill, waits the Cross in the shadows of the evening.        John 12:1-8 The Voice (VOICE) 1 Six days before the Pas...

Giant planet may explain evolution of solar system, increase chances of discovering life screams a headline from The Space Reporter this morning. Five to ten times the mass of Jupiter, the monster planet HR8799c is 130 light years from earth. Naturally curious, we want to know about these things, but there are practical implications as well.  In C. S. Lewis’ theological fantasy The Great Divorce an unnamed first person narrator finds himself wandering a bleak and grim “grey town” of unchanging half-light that reminds me of an evening years ago when I was in Los Angeles alone. After supper in a Japanese restaurant near the Pacific Ocean, I faced time with nothing to do and a Budget rental car to do it in. Staying off the freeways as I started back toward my hotel in Beverly Hills, I found myself in an industrial district, and had the brainless thought of driving east until I came to the edge of Los Angeles just to see how big the city is. Because there is no such end or edge,...

In the News this Morning Early four-winged creatures found. Dinosaurs, bypassed by evolution, but why not, eh? Isaiah saw seraphim, beings with six wings, two wings to cover the face, two wings to fly, and two wings to cover the -- feet ;-)  .   Documentary on Dick Cheney, abomination’s abomination, war criminal extraordinaire. Why were Tojo, Goering, et al condemned for crimes against humanity? Losers to the gallows, winners to the book stores.  GOP’s Portman, Saying Son Is Gay, Now Backs Same-Sex Marriage. Nothing could be more humanizing than having your heart reveal to your head that you were wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong, then having courage to admit and face it publicly. Portman's epiphany.  Portman was a sponsor of DOMA. If the Supreme Court upholds DOMA, perhaps Portman will have the common decency, not to say male body parts, to sponsor its repeal.   Trisagion: Holy, Holy, Holy.  TW

A windchime on the upstairs front porch is tinnient with hints of "Amazing Grace." The electronic age is a marvel, isn’t it, a marvel and a wonder. It amazes me, would astonish George Washington. Throughout each day news arrives, causing the device in my pocket to tingle tinniently. NewYorkTimes, WashingtonPost, comic strips that're not in PCNewsHerald: Pooch Cafe, Calvin & Hobbes, Doonesbury. Several times a week I go online to catch up on Rudy Park, Cul de Sac, Get Fuzzy, Candorville. Candorville surfaced when Theron Heir took sabbatical and left Darrin Bell in charge of Rudy and the cybercafe. During election season Ted Rall, Pat Oliphant and deliciously vicious Doonesbury satire. BleacherReport focuses on college football, PennState Nittany Lions. Lions because our eight years in Pennsylvania 1976 to '84, Joe Paterno was the best known and most popular face in the state. Joe’s fall from grace was horrific inside and out; not guilty , the man was na...

Linda said make it brief this morning, so OK.  NKorea. A spoiled, self-important cretin with the maturity of Moe, the prepubertal bully on Calvin & Hobbes. Which makes him dangerous. Looks like they both use the same barber too. Pope. Ages ago one of these Conclaves lasted several years. If it goes beyond a few days the black smoke watch outside the Sistine Chapel is going to get boring even for CNN. Tonight at HNEC. Best thing about Lent: Wednesday evening soup suppers. Linda is planning to take oyster stew tonight. Busy Wednesday. Private service this morning. This afternoon Bible Seminar at the beach, our penultimate (!) in Acts, Paul’s 3rd missionary journey . Soup, evening worship, program this evening.  Brief enough? Pax TW+ 

Venerable The best part of life is being alive unless a man has sons and daughters, in which case the best part of life is loving them. We just had a birthday weekend, all six of my girls were here. Ray and Jeremy too, for Tassy’s forty-first birthday celebration. All my girls. Joe called, and all my girls were here. Linda, Malinda, Tass, Kristen, Caroline, Charlotte To work up appetite for Sunday dinner of an enormous baked red snapper and pan broiled grouper with lump crab, purchased at the fish market at Tarpon Dock Bridge, we cut broken branches from the Ven. Mr. Hideous Grotesque, the cedar tree that shades My Laughing Place down by the Bay.   Another best part of life is having grown up on St. Andrews Bay and being able to look back on it. And reading Sheila’s “Coming Home” reminiscence in the PCNewsHerald Sunday mornings. Sheila Leto Scott was in my brother Walt’s class at Bay High, and grew up with us at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, she at home here in St. A...

Restoration of Joy Cast poetically in the joyful feast of the autumnal harvest, next Sunday's psalm is of hope, expectation of salvation in time of adversity. The psalmist remembers the joy of those returning to Zion from the Babylonian exile and offers comfort, encouragement and confidence to anyone in hard times or sorrow. From ancient Israel, it’s a community psalm, but it may turn on a light in anyone’s darkness.  126   In convertendo 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 t...