Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 1, 2023
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Long story about a short day
Brothers and sisters: If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing.
My upstairs bed in Illinois was so COMFORTABLE Friday night. I slept like a rock. I felt ready to get up when the alarm rang. The shower was hot. My friends came for counseling, and then Jim and I had lunch at the Chinatown Buffet. Better than usual, and their usual is really good. When we talk ideas bounce around like ping pong balls. Hard to catch, always moving in different directions. I trust him, and he trusts me. We talk about everything, and challenge each other. The thought-fires kindle, catch and burst into flame.
Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but also for those of others. Have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus.
Another friend came for counseling. I renewed a cool new artsy library card at The Urbana Public Library. Gay Pride Day was in full swing in downtown Urbana, and I walked through it. I especially liked watching kids and moms swinging giant bubble makers through the air. They left beautiful bubbles suspended for just a few seconds before they fell on the pavement of the Busey Bank parking lot. Those bubbles made me think of the ideas Jim and I blew around today. Colorful, and lasting just long enough to fascinate us before the next one flew in.
Next weekend the Champaign-Urbana Folk and Arts Festival will take up the same public square space, and music rather than bubbles will be flying in every venue the folky folks can find in the twin cities. Zydeco! Hot club! Blues and jazz and old time folk! Gospel!
Just last weekend another music and arts festival Pygmalion, created twenty or so years ago by our friend Seth Fein, filled the same spots for three plus days. Seth – very Irish, very friendly, very spontaneous, unconventional and entreprenuerian, still going strong. I would love to tell him how proud we are of him.
So there’s plenty to do in C-U. See you in C-U. Such a small city compared to Austin or Columbus., just a tenth of their size. I like it here.
Big bang
With the right instruments they say they can hear
echoes of the big bang resonating through the universe,
the low hum of light, the thrum of mass and gravity,
the music of attraction and expansion
in everything, the steady noise of being.
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If you listen, quiet as an octopus,
you can hear echoes of the whisper
calling forth light from imagination,
worlds that have never been silent since,
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and if you listen stone-deep, moon-still,
in everything, solid as iron in everything,
holy and given, you can hear the silence
that came before it. And in that silence
the pure hope of God.
 Jim and I talked about being Christian in a churchy environment, surrounded with Christian language that nobody else understands or takes seriously. We talked about the difference between explanations (answers that are quick and shallow and definite) and “understandings” (which are more nuanced, open-ended and sometimes a bit defiant). We talked about the tendency of different folks to choose one or the other, and how important listening is in conversation, and how we might want to spend more time with the “understanding” crowd of Christians rather than the “explanation crowd.” And how that kind of judgment might be biased, but it helps us survive.
We ate Chinese vegetables and entrees and American desserts, and I had some Japanese sushi and Korean green grass salad (I have no idea what that’s called) and kimchi. Plenty of hot tea. Jim brought his big wolf-dog Maddie with him, and she waited in the truck while we ate. An amazing dog. She loves her master Jim. They seem to be very very good friends. Maddie licked my fingers and face. All that Chinese food tastes sweet to me, and maybe it tastes sweet to her, too. Jim told me when a dog licks your face, her endorphins get a boost.
A man had two sons. He came to the first and said, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’ He said in reply, ‘I will not,’ but afterwards changed his mind and went. The man came to the other son and gave the same order. He said in reply, ‘Yes, sir, ‘but did not go. Which of the two did his father’s will?
And then last night at the last minute our US Congress passed a money bill that keeps the airlines running, and the national parks open, and millions of families with a paycheck instead of without one for at least a few weeks, 45 days, to be exact. Thumbs up, Senate and House leaders smiled, three hoursbefore the deadline. How do you spell exhausted?
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me; teach me your paths.
The story of the deal competed for headline space with a note about Jamaal Bowman, congressman since 2021, who pulled a fire alarm earlier in the day, trying to get through a door so he could vote.
This suspicious move is being investigated.
Jesus loves us, this I know.
(Ezra 18, Psalm 25, Philippians 2, John 10, Matthew 21)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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