partsofspeaking

This is my 762nd post on this blog over about five years.  I have decided to take a hiatus, a sabbath rest, from this blog, for a number of reasons.  Number 1 is to devote time to my other writing; number 2 is that I'm not getting the attention from it that I would like, and feel that I am screaming into the void of cyberspace; number 3 is that I may just be posting without really thinking through and really editing my work.  So I will from time to time post but not on a daily, or even weekly, basis.  I still hope people leave comments, which come to my email box at work. Happy New Year.

 He is coming, he came, he is here.  Emmanuel:  God with us. 

Before I start, rum really adds something to fruitcake. I have become aware in this last year that the living of Christ's life is more than an inward, self-focused spiritual experience.  Without it becoming political, because politics is about government power, living the Christ life is about community and a larger impact in the world; and yet God is big enough to let those who are introverts, and more gifted at the small, serve that way.  Anna and Simeon were serving in quiet ways but not for their own sakes, and they saw the Jesus the Messiah was for everyone, not for themselves or their group alone.  The two intersect.  I was just reading about the waste of money we spend in mission trips for kids and adults to do work that locals could be hired to do for much less and that would provide dignity and income.  There are the helpless, and then there are the poor who are not helpless and should not be so encouraged.  It makes the middle class feel good, ...

God made us to be human beings, not human doers.

I seem to be ahead of myself on these! One of the most neglected parts of the Christmas story is the visit to the temple forty days after the birth.  There are two very old people, the woman at least 84, who served in the temple as good Jews but who recognized the Messiah when he came.  Why?  Perhaps becasue their hearts and minds were ready to receive what is to be revealed.  I thik we do not recieve a word from the Lord, or gifts of his grace, because we are not ready, and these two were ready. Simeon prophesies.  He approaches Mary and Joseph by the Holy Spirit; they do not appraoch him.  He makes it clear Jesus is for everybody, but that he will be divisive.  Joseph and Mary marvel. I can see Luke interviewing Mary about this episode.  She might have thought it was as amazing as the three wise me (who, incidentally, came later than this scene).  Simeon says that his coming is so that "the thoughts of many will be revealed."  Th...

I just finished Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry.  It is a book I would recommend, with caveats.  The caveats have more to do with the potential readers than the book itself, which I found lovely. My past experience with Berry is reading What are People For? , hearing him speak at the Southern writer's conference that is held every two years in Chattanooga (it has a more proper name, which I am ignoring), and being aware of his viewpoints.  My take on his viewpoints is irrelevant.  He is anti-war, anti-big  farm, anti-nuclear power, anti- a lot of things, which sort of makes him on the verge of being a curmudgeon.  He is also anti-computer, and raised a lot of ire a few years back by saying he refuses to use a computer to write and that he uses an old typewriter (that's a technology).  Knowing these things about Berry makes me a little too aware in the novel of when he is "preaching," letting his main character Hannah be a mouthpiece for his views....

If you are wondering what happened to #26, I realized that I have two number 13s, so this straightens out my list.  I have no idea if anyone is reading these posts, but they serve as drafts for me for future writing, if nothing else.  I am shouting into cyberspace. This morning I finished Wendell Berry's Hannah Coulter , a elegiac memoir, and will quote one of its sweet passages.  This is from a chapter in which the voice of the main character, Hannah Coulter, is speaking about her husband's experience in Okinawa in World War II, something he never spoke to her about and which she had to research in books after he died. "To read of that battle when you love a man who was in it, that is hard going.  I read in wonder, believing and sickened.  I read weeping.  Because I didn't know exactly what had happened to Nathan, it all seemed to have happened to him. You can't give yourself over to love for somebody without giving yourself over to suffering.  ...