+Z’ev

Today’s assigned readings:
Isaiah 55:3-9, Colossians 3:1-17, John 14:6-14

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
Colossians 3:12-13

I have a conversation every once in a while where I use the line, “Christianity is the most co-dependent religion.” I realised this back when I was last writing such Bible meditations as these: over and over again our religion commands us to put responsibility for wrong on ourselves. The Sermon on the Mount starts us there: if you are offering something and remember that someone else has something against you - go be reconciled to them. Imagine: denying yourself communion until everyone loved you. Not until you were at peace everyone, but until everyone was at peace with you! Imagine the conservatives Anglicans refusing to take communion until their gay brothers and sisters forgave them. Imagine gay Anglicans refusing to take communion until their conservative brothers and sisters forgave them.

I can’t imagine it, to be honest: for I think both sides tend to be happy just saying “to Hell with ye!” (Not always, thank God, but sometimes.)

Paul asks us in another place to let those weaker in faith lead the stronger. Don’t do it at all unless everyone can do it. I wish the Episcopal Church would have waited on the weaker bretheren in the ordination of Women and Gays, but now I wish both sides could follow St Paul and “Bear with one another”.

Bearing with one another is not something we see in much of Christian history, to be honest: from Paul’s congregations up to Nicea (where Santa Claus punched out Arius); from 1054 when the Pope and the Patriarch had a pissing contest up until last year when the Patriarch of Moscow had a pissing contest with the Patriarch of Istanbul and up until the very last minute when various Anglican bishops with and without Jurisdiction are filing lawsuits against each other. We’d much rather have a public fist fight than “forgive each other just as the Lord has forgiven”.

As I was contemplating these readings a connexion came to me. For the Jews, “Jewishness” is an ethnicity. There are very few things you can do and be declared “not a Jew”. It’s not a religion, per se (as the YouTube Rebbe points out). One doesn’t “confess the faith of the Jews”. Rather one becomes a member of the tribe. It is, as Anne Rice wrote in Interview with a Vampire (albeit on another topic), a “body conversion”. One becomes a Jew - in a sense, one gets new DNA. In our better moments as Americans we model this perfectly: one becomes an American. There is no credo beyond accepting the others who are also Americans.

No matter what one does as a Jew, one is still a Jew: the genetics don’t change. One can be a lapsed, non-observant Jew. One can be a secular Jew. One can be an heretical Jew. One can be an apostate Jew. But, no matter what one’s religious status, one is still of the Jewish People. But this can not be true of Christianity.

In creating Christianity, the Apostles were founding something entirely new: a religion without a people. Old tensions had to be done away with: You can not transcend the systems, politics and races of this world when you are trapped thinking in those terms. As Paul writes, “In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free.” He is pushing us beyond our human, ethnic, religious and political divisions towards a new concept: a “peoplehood” based on a religion rather than the other way around. The early Church had to develop exclusionary doctrines in order to be a people without borders. And, in order for Christians to just get along together the Church had to lay down some strong rules about our shared social life. But the first of those rules is not judging others for breaking those same rules.

In other words: we should be acting as if we have created a new race of beings here. This is what the Apostle means in calling Jesus “The New Adam.” We are the children of “The New Adam” and we have totally new DNA. The worse we can do is lapse or be apostate. It’s between God and “the other”.

One of the cool things I was told prior to converting to Orthodox Christianity was that - in the area of the “Food Disciplines” - “we all do it together.” Everyone abstains from meat, eggs, fish, oil, wine and dairy on every Wednesday and Friday as well as during Lent, Advent and a couple of other places during the year. Roughly speaking, about half the year all Orthodox are vegans who don’t drink. The cool thing is that we all do it together. This is one of the things that makes us Orthodox. Doing it together binds us all together.

Of course, that only lasts until you get on the internet and discover the disagreements over what can and can not be eaten, what does “oil” and “wine” mean, when does the fasting start (Sunset or Midnight)? What calendar should we use (Gregorian or Julian)? What should laity be responsible for? And then, of course, there are those who don’t even use these rules as their own. Most of certain jurisdictions don’t even fast any more. The entire Western Rite has a different fasting rule.

Most Americans, finding out that things are different than advertised, seem to retreat into an adopted Ethnicity. As if “real” Orthodoxy is Russian or Greek or Serbian or whatever. Most of the American converts I know, however, stay away from the actual Ethnic types - because that’s where the liberals are! The Americans become more Antiochian Orthodox than the Arabs, more Greek Orthodox than the Greeks, more Russian than the Russians. In other words they treat their new found ethnicity as a sort of “Jewish People” and try to have a body conversion. This gets typified in the conversation that follows the question, “Can Americans (or Westerners) really be Orthodox?” For a while my answer was “no” and I tried really hard to be someone other than the person God graced me with being.

Another cool thing I was told was that “we all believe the same thing”. No, sorry. I won’t even begin to unload that. (Mostly because what we all believe is rather nebulous.) In other words we failed to create this pseudo-race of our own. But Paul and Jesus insist that the things that make us a people are exactly not the rules that we follow or the things we believe. Rather it is our willingness to “bear with one another” or, to put up with each other.

I put up with my family because I have to - no matter who gets drunk at Thanksgiving or who brings yet another trashy (new) husband to Christmas dinner. But I’ll walk right out of my church if I don’t like the sermon preached last Sunday or the colour of candles that were chosen for the Advent Wreath.

One is stuck being a Jew no matter how one fails to live up to the rules, customs or regulations, but those people ordained women, so they can’t be Christian any more.

Yup, we done good in this whole bear with one onother thing.

Much love,

Huw

Commemoration of Julia Chester Emery

Today’s assigned readings:
Isaiah 45:14-19, Colossians 1:24-2:7, John 8:12-19

Today is the Feast of Title for the hospitality room on the 8th Floor of the Episcopal Church Center in NYC. It was donated in honour of today’s saint, Julia Chester Emery. I’m thankful for the many hours of rest and fellowship spend in that room, remembering especially the daily lunch meetings of the GenX Fellowship, most of which took place in that room. I also remember a nap I took one afternoon, with my alarm clock on my chest. I was exhausted. And I remember that my then boss (standing in while my regular boss was on Sabbatical) was horrified to find someone using the rest area for actual rest: he forbad naps after that. I can’t remember his name, but I remember the incident. Sad, really.

Anyway, thanks Julia!

Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.
Isaiah 45:15 (Jewish Publications Society Tanakh)

The first half of this chapter of Isaiah is a message to King Cyrus, whom Isaiah calls “the Lord’s Messiah” or “YHVH’s Messiah” in Isaiah 45:1. First God points out that Cyrus doesn’t know God - yet God called Cyrus to do some work. Then God says the entire world might be confused about that, but, tough: God is God and he can do what he wants - good or evil (in Men’s eyes) it’s God’s plan.

Then, seemingly in his own voice, Isaiah writes this one line (Verse 15) before launching into some Praise of God before Israel - God made everything and even if it looks confusing, it’s still God’s way. YHVH is Israel’s glory and in God shall all Israel be justified.

The entire chapter is beautiful, containing some of the more wonderful passages of Isaiah, especially in verse 8. “Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness; let the earth open, that they may bring forth salvation, and let her cause righteousness to spring up together; I the LORD have created it.” (Which forms the text of an anthem that we used to sing at St Gregory of Nyssa parish.)

But that one line intrigues me - Thou art a God that hidest Thyself.

After declaring all the wonderful things God does, is this a line in the Prophet’s own voice? Is this supposed to be a comment from Cyrus? Is this a later emendation from some post-exilic redactor? This might be a sort of liturgical exclamation, intended to be Gasped piously by the congregation as the implication sinks in:

Cyrus is God’s Messiah! (Stage Whisper: Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.)
George Bush is president? Again?!?!? (Stage Whisper: Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.)
The State of Israel still survives despite the hatred of everyone? (Stage Whisper: Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.)

The line also reminded me of the Jewish mystical teaching (echoed also in the Stoics, Gnostics and Patristic writers) that we all contain divine sparks - God hiding himself.

But it is curious that this reading should turn up in Epiphany when we are supposed to be celebrating the revelation of God, the manifestation of God in very visible, very easy to grasp ways - albeit surprising:

God is born a baby in the midst of blood and waist? (Stage Whisper: Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.)
God is an unlettered carpenter from Podunk, Palestine? (Stage Whisper: Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.)
God is a Jewish Rabbi? (Stage Whisper: Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.)
God comes to us in our homeless neighbours, our coworkers who frustrate us, our lover who needs us, our children who weep for lack of an XBox360 for Christmas? (Stage Whisper: Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.)
God feeds us himself in bread and wine and fellowship? (Stage Whisper: Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.)

How can we participate in this finding of God? What are the sacraments of the presence of God that we overlook? How often can we find something new and, laughing like Isaiah, suddely exclaim “Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.”

Much love,

Huw

Today’s assigned readings
Isaiah 49:1-7, Revelation 21:22-27, Matthew 12:14-21

And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
Isaiah 49:3

Today is the feast of the Epiphany or, as it is called in the Eastern Traditions, the Theophany. S’praznikum! Russian for “Joy of the Feast!” It’s quite useful for any holiday! (Purists will tell you it transliterates, more correctly, to “S Prazdnikom” but in use, it’s more of a jovial shout, and it comes out “S’praznikum!” at least from my favourite native Russians.)

Theophany is a very cool word for, unlike our “Epiphany” which simply means “manifestation”, theophany means quite clearly “manifestation of God.” Which is what Christians celebrate today.

In the West this is the celebration of the arrival of the Magi to Bethlehem, where they worshipped Jesus. Unlike the shepherds on Christmas night, and unlike Mary and Joseph - and everyone else involved in the story so far - the Magi are Gentiles. While we know nothing of how many of them there were, or what their names are, or even where they came from - in fact everything we tell about them is simply legend - the legends we tell about them are terribly important. Not because they are necessarily true in an historic sense, but because they are True in a mythological sense.

At its fullest, the Myth of the Magi speaks of wise men from three differnt parts of the world (although those parts vary, depending on who’s doing the telling). Thus, in the adoration of the Magi we see the entire world coming to the feet of Messiah in prayer.

In the Byzantine East, this feast goes even further, for it is seen as a celebration not of the Magi but of the Baptism of Christ. The theological image normally offered for this is that Christ-God enters the waters where everyone else has been entering for the washing away of their sins. God’s glory in Jesus passes into the waters and he takes on himself all the sins there as his own mystical robe. Leaving for us - who enter the water of Baptism - his own robe of glory to take up as we come out of the font. It’s a very powerful image.

Every Theophany in Orthodox churches around the world, the priest blesses water with a cross. Ideally this is “living water” in a lake or river or ocean, such as here, on the San Lorenzo River. But sometimes location and space require just a small font of water, symbolic of the whole world.

When the rite is over the water is considered to have been restored to the purity it enjoyed in creation - it is considered more than “Holy Water”: it is really water now, as God intended it to be. This water gets passed around in cups and golden ladles, stored in water bottle and sprinkled on everything: people, cars, houses. In most Orthodox communities this water is carried into every home in the parish and used for annual rites of House Blessing. (Last year, my community had a progressive luncheon after Liturgy, and went from house to house blessing and feasting. It was a wonderful day.)

This feast, on January 6th, was the original winter feast: Christmas and, later the Purification on 2 February, and the Circumcision on 1 January, all evolved out of this one. In the Armenian and Syrian traditions (Coptic and Ethiopian, too?) this day is Christmas. The Nativity, the Magi, the Baptism are all celebrated on this one feast - although they all do it on their own calendars and it’s not necessarily, on our (Gregorian) 6 January.

In all the churches this day is a celebration of the Incarnation without equal. Christmas makes a point, this day embellishes it to its Baroque fulness. Christmas is the statement of a theme but this day is the fugue in full form. The nativity is a theological point. Epiphany is a theological treatise.

It’s not enough that God has become one of us. We must know what it means.

You can already see - in the Byzantine water rites - the development of the problem I spoke of last week:

[A]t times [Byzantine Theology gets] so focused on Christ-God that it seemed like Jesus-the-Guy who went through a voice-change and puberty and acne and probably tried to figure out why he suddenly had back hair… This guy gets lost in all the Gold Icons and hymnography.

…The God I meet in Jesus-the-Rabbi is more like the earthy, Semitic deity I’d expect in Judaism. This God is *not* the God I ran into in Eastern Orthodoxy. That deity was so far above all humanity that proper theology had to make some near-gnostic statements about Jesus’s death. “Well, the Body died… but God the Son didn’t. He was still on the Throne with God the Father… where he always was and always will be…” Argh. No…
God died.
Felt Pain.
Went through puberty. Wet Dreams. Burped. Passed Gas after too much hummus.
Or this isn’t working.
And that Dead, Farting God introduced me to the warm, loving, Semitic deity

Where is Jesus, the Infant, in all of this theological fugue? At the point where the Magi got there, when Jesus was roughly two years old, was Jesus potty trained? Or was he, as so many third world children do, even today, still running around naked, without any long robes at all, so he could use the bathroom without messing up his clothes?

Did he know he was God? Was he at all? Or was he just a Jewish kid, that later knew something about God he had to tell the rest of us?

The gospel passage today from St Matthew cites a passage from Isaiah using the Greek version, the Septuagint, rather than the Hebrew one. The Greek version of this passage mentions Gentiles twice. The Hebrew not at all. The Church sees “my servant” as a prophetic shadow of Jesus. The Jews see “my servant” as Israel - which is a more literal reading of all the “Servant” passages in Isaiah.

But at one point I think everyone can agree: LXX, Masoretic text, Eastern and Western Christians, Byzantine, Syrian, Nestorian, Catholic and Protestant, Jews and Gentiles.

That one point is this: The God of Israel has home to all of us.

Even before I became a Wiccan in the 1980s, this one problem stumped me: how did the tribal deity of one, out-of-the-way people in the fertile crescent trick the entire world into worshipping him? You see movies like this all the time: an explorer arrives on some island tribe, or some hidden jungle village, and there, in the midst of that little place, is one shrine to one deity with a name no one has ever heard outside of that one village or off that one island. How does that one deity in that one temple in that one out-of-the way place get to be the God of the Whole World? How do we get from specifics to universality?

Today, theologically, we get a lot of answers from the Christian side. There are more answers in the Qur’an, if you ask me. As other writers have shown, there are more answers in the Tao te Ching. And as Martin Palmer and others have shown, you can find answers in many parts of the East

The Hebrew text of Isaiah says that the “islands” and the “coastlands” (both rendered as “Gentiles” in the Greek) wait for the teachings of God’s servant, Israel.

The corners of the world await the revelation of the deepest meaning available to us: Epiphany, Theophany.

We can get lost in the specific theologies and myths that we have developed over centuries, but I think we miss the point. That one temple in that one corner of the world, that one Tribal deity is, somehow, the God of the whole world. In his light (no matter what name we use) we are to establish Justice, Salvation/Healing/Wholeness and Hope.

Much love,

Huw

Today’s assigned readings:
Isaiah 62:1-5,10-12, Revelation 19:11-16, Matthew 1:18-25

For Tziyon’s sake I will not be silent, for Yerushalayim’s sake I will not rest, until her vindication shines out brightly and her salvation like a blazing torch. The nations will see your vindication and all kings your glory. Then you will be called by a new name which ADONAI himself will pronounce. You will be a glorious crown in the hand of ADONAI, a royal diadem held by your God. You will no longer be spoken of as ‘Azuvah [Abandoned] or your land be spoken of as ‘Sh’mamah [Desolate]; rather, you will be called Heftzi-Vah [My-Delight-Is-In-Her] and your land Be’ulah [Married]. For ADONAI delights in you, and your land will be married as a young man marries a young woman, your sons will marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over the bride, your God will rejoice over you.
Isaiah 62:1-5

I got a phone call one day at the desk in the bookstore of the Episcopal Church Center (back when I worked there - circa 1990). I used to get all such phone calls when the caller had no idea where to go. They would bounce callers around “you’ve reached the wrong desk, let me transfer you.” This could happen several times until the caller gave up or got angry. I usually tried to find the answer to the question instead of transfer the call. This gave me something to do: plus I had some 40,000 theological titles sitting in front of me. I should be able to answer most things.

One day we got a call from a man who was very upset about the daily office lectionary. It seems that one of the passages in Romans is cut out of the cycle. He accused the Church Center of harbouring homosexuals in the liturgy office. I calmly indicated that the lectionary had been developed over time in the mid70s - not the early 90s (as it then was) and that it was done by General Convention. If he needed to complain he should contact the deputies of his diocese and ask them to put forward a liturgy resolution at the next convention.

This didn’t satisfy him and he rang off. Logic never really helps someone who would rather be complaining, I know. But the point he wanted to make was that by leaving out a few verses here and there, the Lectionary created a bias in the readings that wasn’t there in the text.

For these verses, I switched translations to the CJB, for two reasons: 1) it includes both the Hebrew and English of the various titles of Israel; and 2) it has a more-direct translation from Hebrew in a couple of places. For a direct translation from the Masoretic text, you can see it here. It’s pretty close to the CJB.

This is important because today is the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, about which we learn:

On January 1st, we celebrate the Circumcision of Christ. Since we are more squeamish than our ancestors, modern calendars often list it as the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, but the other emphasis is the older. Every Jewish boy was circumcised (and formally named) on the eighth day of his life, and so, one week after Christmas, we celebrate the occasion when Our Lord first shed His blood for us. It is a fit close for a week of martyrs, and reminds us that to suffer for Christ is to suffer with Him.

Back when this was called the Feast of the Circumcision, as it is still called in the Orthodox Church, the Holy Name was celebrated on another day. Contra the idea that “we are more squeamish than our ancestors”, today’s feast among Anglicans is named following the Roman Catholic’s Vatican 2. The Romans changed the name because they didn’t want to seem too pharisaical. Is the important action of this day Circumcision, or the Giving of the Name?

Following hard on the idea that the Church’s calendar is an Ikon, all the early celebrations of Jesus life (from Christmas until Holy Week) take place according to the Hebrew Calendar. Jesus was Circumcised, Mary was Purified - as per the Jewish Law. We can edit that out, like so many v erse of scripture, however. To edit these feasts to the “Holy Name” and the “Presentation” literally edits the Holy Family right out of their Jewish context. Admittedly, 2000 years along, they are nearly entirely removed from that context anyway.

I love this passage of Isaiah! In fact, I love the entire chapter. It’s very beautiful. Truth be told the second part of our quote, verses 10-12, makes no sense without the part that was skipped over. If you read it as quoted, Verses 1-5, 10-12 it sounds like “Rejoice Jerusalem, you shall not be desolate any longer: you salvation is coming to you with his reward!” The passage says “Pester God until he saves us… lo, he saves us! In the first way you might focus on the Holy Name. In fact, the Hebrew word “yeshua”, meaning “salvation” or “health” or “wealth”, shows up twice in the passage. Its inclusion is sometimes complicated when some translations render “salvation” with an upper-case S as if it were a person. The pronouns “him” and “he” then seemingly refer to “Salvation” instead of to “God”.

But if you edit the passage, leaving out verses 6-9, then clearly the reading points to God’s Salvation… rather than to the pestering of God to send salvation. Like the caller in the story we discover the meaning is more in the reading rather than in the writing.

In his book, Born to Kvetch, author Michael Wex is discussing the Jewish Oral Tradition (Talmud, Mishna, etc) that provides meaning for the writen text of the Tanakh. Without the Jewish oral tradition to guide our understanding, we’re not reading the same Bible - at all - as the Jews. As Wex puts it, reading Hebrew Bible without the Oral Tradition will lead “to Jesus on the Cross just as easily as to me at my Bar Mitzvah.”

We see why in today’s reading from Isaiah: edit out a few verses and capitalise an English word and suddenly, its about Jesus; but we also see why in the reading from Matthew where one line from Isaiah is quoted out of context.

I think the passage in today’s reading sounds lovely as it is. It needn’t be edited so that it makes “Christian” sense, does it?

Much Love,

Huw

Today’s assigned readings:
AM: 1 Kings 3:5-14, James 4:13-17,5:7-11, John 5:1-15
PM (Eve of Holy Name): Isaiah 65:15b-25, Revelation 21:1-6

Jesus is painted in the Gospel of John, as God: but that God is more Jewish, I think, than many of us see. John’s community (in Ephesus) was still observing the Passover in the 2nd Century. The Gospel is littered with images of Judaism-as-Metaphor for Jesus and the Messiah’s kingdom. Jewish festivals show up with new meanings woven in or laid over. Jewish customs are commented on not to discard them, but to weave in new meanings.

This reading begins “After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.” What feast?

To answer that we have to wonder how chronological John’s gospel is. Jesus goes “up to Jerusalem”. There are only three “Pilgrimage Festivals” in Judaism: Passover, Pentecost and the Feast of Booths. Passover is noted as “being near” in the next chapter (6:4). The Feast of Booths is in the Fall but we are told in chapter 4 that “the fields are ripe for harvesting.” The feast of Pentecost is a harvest festival. But it comes after Passover. Is John so Chronological that there is a years time between Chapter 5 and Chapter 6?

Many commentators decide that this “Feast of the Jews” is all the same Passover as in 6:4. But that makes no sense because Jesus leaves Jerusalem for that… And the Feast of Booths (Autumn) shows up in Chapter 7.

So one possible reading is that Chapter 7 has a Booth (Sukkoth), Chapter 6 has a Passover (Pesach) and Chapter 5 has a Pentecost (Shavuot).

There’s two reasons why this possible reading is important:

1) Shavuot (שבועות) is the feast of “First Fruits”. The Harvest begins and offerings are brought to the temple.
2) Shavuot falls on the 6th day of the month of Sivan. According to Jewish Oral Tradition, the first of Sivan is the day that waters of Noah’s flood begin to recede. And 1 Sivan is also the day that the Tradition teaches that the Jews began their encampment at Sinai - in preparation for the reception of the Torah.

All of these images tie together, I think, in the Greek words used to describe this healing of the man at the pool: this is the only healing in the Gospel of John that is described with the words hugies gegonas υγιης γεγονας “become (or made) whole”. This is different from the normal word of a healing, “Sozo” which can also be a word meaning “Saved” as well as “Healed”. This one means, literally, “Made Whole” or “Made Sound”. (I think the word is “hoo-gi-ace” but saying “Hugies” make me giggle.)

The “flood waters” recede - The healing pool retreats into the background - and the earth is restored (made whole/made sound) - the man-of-earth (In Hebrew, one word for man is “Adam” from earth) is restored to his proper function.

It’s interesting to see this reading show up on the eve of the secular new year. In the modern world we’re used to living outside of cycles. Most of our culture sees things as moving forward on a chronological line rather than moving around an annual cycle. Judaism is not moving in a straight line: the annual festivals cycle on an entirely agricultural basis. Christianity does this as well in the liturgical cycle, but much (all?) of our secular world is built by mostly non-liturgical Protestants. The story arc for Protestantism is Salvation-to-Apocalypse. For Catholics (and catholics) and Jews, the pattern is Day-to-Day, leading forward to eternity. “L’olam v’ed” is the Hebrew, “Unto ages of ages” is the Eastern Orthodox form, “et in secula seculorum” is the Latin, and “world without end” is Anglican. The seasonal festivals lead forward.

Most of us expect to see New Year as a New Thing.

But no: it’s really the same old thing come back to us. We stress over it. We make resolutions. We get all hyped up. We get drunk. We wake up tomorrow and nothing has changed. We even spend several days crossing off the wrong year on our checks - all over again. (For some odd reason, unless I think very specifically I usually start writing 1979 in this period of the year.)

The year cycles. It doesn’t move forward. This is not the time of year that I normally feel the pressure of the story arc. That hits me at my birthday. But I know a lot of people who draw near to the end of the year with the same sort of dread that I experience in August. We find ourselves behind, indebted, stranded in the same old crap all over again. “The holidays” end and normal, secular time returns. Kids go back to school. Work comes back to normal. It’s dark at 5PM when we leave work. It’s dark at 7AM when we leave home. Pretty much everything sucks by 2 January.

When looked at in our secular context, the reading invites us to bring our first fruits of harvest and to have them “Made Whole” again. And, indeed, if we are honest, they are broken. The harvest is not 100%. It’s not exactly what we wanted. It’s a little surprising in some ways. Feh.

Offer it to God anyway. It will be made whole.

Much love,

Huw