Reaching for cornbread
Hen helped me make cornbread tonight, our first to make together.
She stood on a chair and pushed batter around, declaring the oven “hawt, haht.”
The heart knows what it needs, y’all.
Read Moreadventures in faith, home, & keeping the earth
Musings in making and finding Home in this wild and wonderful world.
Hen helped me make cornbread tonight, our first to make together.
She stood on a chair and pushed batter around, declaring the oven “hawt, haht.”
The heart knows what it needs, y’all.
Read More“I think of you through the watches of the night. Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. I cling to you; your right hand upholds me” (Psalm 62:6-8).
Last night Dallas saw a storm. We lost power at bedtime, scaring Henlee and taking away AC.
So many decisions to make at once. Where and how will we sleep? Does the noise machine have batteries? Should we keep our shoes on? Are we safe?
Read MoreSnuck out to the garden last night. To the yard, really, and how unimaginative a term for such wonder.
It’s another world — no, it is the world, living things twining and spinning life out of what we cannot see (oh but we feel!).
The ground holds all, bears all…
Read MoreZechariah, the husband of Elizabeth and the father of John the Baptist, was a priest. He was kind of a big deal, really. Only descendants of Levi could be priests and he was one of them.
We do not know very much about his economic status or learning, but we do know that he had responsibilities in the Temple—a turn to touch the holy.
That is always a big deal.
The lectionary tells the story this week of John the Baptist. Starting with Malachi we learn that God is sending a messenger to prepare the way; “The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight--indeed, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts” (Malachi 3:1b). But this will not necessarily be an easy coming. It will be something to be endured like a “refiner’s fire” and “fullers’ soap” (Malachi 3:2). The messenger’s coming will require transformation of us all, but especially, Malachi says, of the descendants of Levi.
How interesting that John the Baptist’s own father was one such person.
Malachi believed that the all-male religious leadership he knew would especially feel the effects of the messenger’s coming—and that the well-being of the entire people would depend upon their heeding that transformation.
Fast forward a few hundred years and we see Zechariah tending his duties in the Temple. Along comes the angel Gabriel with good, good news. The messenger is coming, he says, and through your partnership with your wife!
Zechariah’s response, Say what? How will I know that this is so?
And the angel promptly strikes him mute.
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