One would never have guessed the power of just zooming the camera back.
In late spring, as I’ve written, our beloved local priest, Father Mark, died of esophageal cancer at age 49. The grief-stricken congregation was oddly denied admission to the parish church for his funeral. The church ended up being half empty; the service was to be streamed for those who cared to watch.
I am provoked by an internet presence that goes by “Redeemed Zoomer,” presumably a 20-something young man holding theologically conservative views, and similar views on Christian ethics, who is Reformed.
When one of my sisters phoned the other day, we got to talking about the church in which we grew up.
We were raised high-church Episcopalian. When you went to church there was no other place it could possibly be and nothing but worship could have possibly been going on. As the priest consecrated the body and blood for communion, he — yes, he — faced the altar and crucifix. We received communion on the tongue while we knelt at the communion rail. The lay readers — those who read the Epistle at each service — were enrobed, as were we acolytes.
“Don’t Be Evil.” If you’ve followed the tech industry long enough, you know that used to be Google’s motto. Whatever happened to that Google? We could ask that of our attempts at mere avoidance of evil, too.
Father Mark spoke matter-of-factly, perhaps with just a touch of resignation. “Oh, I’ll probably die young,” he said. “My father died when he was 43. Cardiac.”
An important distinction exists between suffering and consequences. The Fall has brought suffering into the human experience and also the human tendency to want to do what is wrong. Remembering the distinction is important, because we often choose to do what’s wrong.
Pastor Tim has already written about this in light of another assassination attempt on either President Trump or other members of the administration.
Many people are unhealthily and dangerously angry, and it seems like it’s getting worse.
Tonight, I can’t stop thinking, this isn’t the way. A third assassination attempt against President Trump was all too narrowly thwarted mere months after the actual assassination of another national political figure. We need to treat the illness these evil acts are the symptoms of.
Don’t you just love spring flowers? Here we are, coming up to Easter and spring flowers are blooming outside. But the process of planting spring bulbs is really kind of strange if you think about it.
Ken Burns and Lynn Novick once again give us compelling entry into one of the makers of the American century in the documentary Hemingway. The writer Ernest Hemingway lived alongside the avatar of the same, through some of the most consequential times in history.