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Podcast Episode: Sermon: Proper 10 RCL A – “Soil”

Pip: Candle in a Cave โ€” where the sermon opens with a statistical case against chocolate mint ice cream, and somehow that is exactly the right move.

Mara: Fr. John's recent writing takes the Parable of the Sower as its anchor โ€” what it means to have good soil in your heart, and what quietly erodes it. Let's start with the sermon itself.

Sermon: Tending the Soil of the Heart

Mara: The Parable of the Sower is usually read as a sorting mechanism โ€” which type of person are you? But this sermon pushes past that framing and asks a harder question: even if the seed landed in good soil, what happens to that soil over time?

Pip: The setup is a statistics lesson. Before getting to Jesus, the sermon walks through a set of perfectly true, perfectly misleading correlations โ€” nearly everyone who dies from cancer has eaten chocolate mint ice cream โ€” to make a point about how easily we bend evidence to say what we want, including scripture. Then comes the turn: "However, today Jesus said, 'Not so fast,' and, in a rare instance, told us what he meant."

Mara: That's the hinge. Because Jesus actually interprets the parable himself, there's less room to spin it. The soil is the heart. The birds are the devil snatching the Word before it takes root. Rocky ground is shallow faith that withers. Thorns are the overwhelming noise of the world choking off what grew.

Pip: And then comes the move that makes this more than a conversion story. The sermon turns directly to people who already believe โ€” the ones who think the parable isn't about them.

Mara: Right, because the soil doesn't stay fixed. The sermon uses a Montana farming image to explain it: rocks don't sink in soil, they rise. You pick them out in spring, and if you don't, they're back. The sermon puts it plainly โ€” "if you do nothing to tend the soil, over time the rocks will work their way to the surface, and the once-fertile soil becomes rocky."

Pip: The washing machine flood, the "Insufficient Funds" stamp on the mortgage โ€” those aren't hypotheticals, they're the actual mechanism. The bird doesn't wait for crisis; it works with whatever's already loose.

Mara: St. Paul and St. Josemaria Escriva both get quoted here. Escriva's image is striking โ€” the world, the devil, and the flesh as adventurers trading you "the poor bauble of pleasure" for "the pure gold and the pearls, the diamonds and the rubies, drenched in the living and redeeming blood of your God."

Pip: That is not a subtle metaphor.

Mara: It isn't. And the sermon lands on a practical response: pray, cooperate with grace, and stop shooting yourself in the foot while asking God why your foot hurts. Paul's line from Philippians frames it โ€” "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" โ€” meaning tend the gift, don't just receive it and walk away.

Pip: Soil maintenance as spiritual discipline. Which, given how the sermon started, is a long way from chocolate mint ice cream โ€” but the logic held the whole way through.

Mara: The through-line is vigilance โ€” not anxious striving, but the steady, daily work of keeping the ground clear.

Pip: Guard the soil. Tend it. And maybe don't let the mail lady open your letters first.

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Oklahoma City Museum of Art: “Flaming June”

Exhibit: The Sense of Beauty: Six Centuries of Painting from Museo De Arte De Ponce. Flaming June is a painting I have loved since I first saw it… probably in my 20s. It made its way to the top of the things to do when I heard it would be showing in OKC. It was worth the wait!

Miguel Trelles
Puerto Rican, b. 1969
Philanthropist, 2000
Oil on canvas
Raised in an academic and literate environment, Miguel Trelles is an artist, curator, and cultural manager based in New York City’s Lower East Side, committed to increasing the visibility of the Latino community in the city’s visual and performing arts scenes. His artistic work is notable for blending elements of Chinese and Latin American cultures.
For this work, Trelles drew inspiration from figures such as American philanthropist Paul Mellon and Luis A. Ferrรฉ, founder of the Museo de Arte de Ponce, who was a key supporter of his artistic career from the beginning.
The subject of the painting appears seated on a sofa, while an early modern portrait hangs on the wall behind him. This painting within a painting serves as a nod to the philanthropist’s role as a collector, highlighting the connection between art and patronage.
William-Adolphe Bouguereau
French, 1825-1905
Far from Home, 1868
Oil on canvas
This canvas was among the first artworks acquired by Luis A. Ferrรฉ for the Museo de Arte de Ponce. It depicts two young sisters who survive by performing music and begging on the streets of Rome. William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s idealized figures, set against a classical-inspired architectural background, illustrate the theme of poverty without the harsh realism that can be unsettling. A polished finish, muted color palette, and classical poses define his work. Although Bouguereau stayed a dedicated supporter of the academic style throughout his career, this painting reveals an interest in the new themes that emerged during the second half of the nineteenth century, when increased social awareness led to the portrayal of scenes from daily life.
Lucas Cranach the Elder German, 1472-1553
Judith with the Head of Holofernes, ca. 1527-1537
Oil on panel
Lucas Cranach the Elder served as a court painter for the prince-electors of Saxony, who were based in Wittenberg. At the court, he befriended Martin Luther and supported his criticism of the Catholic Church.
In this powerful portrayal of Judith, the heroine of the Old Testament, Cranach depicts her as victorious after beheading Holofernes, the Assyrian general who was besieging her city. Juxtaposing serene beauty with gruesome triumph, she is elegantly dressed in a red velvet contemporary gown trimmed with brocaded fabric and a pearl-embroidered trunk. She holds the enemy’s head with her slashed gloves, which reveal her lavish rings. Her gentle face, with the delicate features typical of the artist, is framed by the golden halo of her hair and jewel-encrusted necklaces. Judith’s story has been interpreted as an allegory of the struggle between good and evil, and, therefore, Cranach may have envisioned this composition as a symbol of the battle between the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Church.
Domรฉnikos Theotokรณpoulos, “El Greco” l
Greek, 1541-1614
Saint Francis of Assisi in Meditation with Brother Leo, ca. 1600-
1605
Oil on canvas
Representations of Saint Francis of Assisi, especially those depicting his ascetic and contemplative life, exemplified the Christian life that the faithful were expected to follow according to the principles of the Counter-Reformation, initiated by the Council of Trent (1545-1563) to strengthen
Catholic influence in response to the Protestant Reformation. Art played a crucial role in this effort, aiming to inspire faith and devotion through the visual expression of spiritual intensity.
Building on the popularity of devotional art, El Greco created numerous depictions of the saint, with more than 30 versions of the composition showing
Saint Francis alongside Brother Leon, his secretary and confessor. To meet the growing demand for devotional paintings, El Greco relied on the help of his assistants. Contemporary sources describe the small samples he would show clients, from which they could choose their preferred composition, with the value based on the artist’s involvement. The painting’s dramatic lighting and elongated forms are characteristic of El Greco’s style.
Pedro Machuca
Spanish, ca. 1490-1550
The Descent of the Holy Ghost, ca. 1520-1530
Oil on panel
On the Christian feast of Pentecost, the Virgin Mary and the twelve apostles gathered in Jerusalem. During this gathering, they witnessed a miracle: the Holy Ghost, depicted as a dove surrounded by a large halo, descended into the room and empowered everyone to speak different languages, enabling them to preach the Gospel in foreign lands.
The Spanish painter Pedro Machuca worked in Rome, most likely in Raphael’s renowned workshop, before returning to Spain in 1520. It is believed that he created this intensely emotional piece after returning to the Iberian Peninsula.
Machuca brought with him artistic innovations that were popular in Italy at the time. The painting demonstrates the use of perspective and naturalistic figures, similar to the works of the great masters of the Italian Renaissance.
Its horizontal format suggests that it was originally used as a predella for an altarpiece that would have been placed above it. This panel was one of sixteen Italian and Spanish paintings donated to the Museo de Arte de Ponce by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in 1962.
Tim Cherry – Salmons A’Foot
Tim Cherry – Dreams of Salmon
Andrew Peters
Sandhill Cranes on the Great
Migration
Oil, gold, wood, metal | 60 ร— 60 ร— 12 in.
Scott Burdick
Transcending Time
Paul Moore
Moon Over the Pueblo
Oil on canvas | 20 x 20 in.
Frederic Leighton
English, 1830-1896
Flaming June, ca. 1895
Oil on canvas
Flaming June, an iconic work in art history, has been widely reproduced, cementing its place in our cultural consciousness. Its reproductive value was highlighted in one of its earliest reviews, a trait appreciated by its first owner, the publisher of an illustrated newspaper, who admired and promoted it by distributing free reproductions to his subscribers as a Christmas gift. The contemporary audience undoubtedly revered its creator, Frederic Leighton, who was then president of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. The work was one of six paintings Leighton displayed at the Academy’s summer exhibition in 1895, just months before he died in January 1896.
Flaming June results from an extensive creative process where the artist experimented with multiple sketches to capture the complex posture of a woman reclining before a Mediterranean seascape. The painting echoes some of the artist’s earlier works and draws inspiration from historical masterpieces, including classical Greek sculptures and Renaissance artworks, especially those by Michelangelo. The interplay of line, color, and light offers a unique interpretation of Mediterranean antiquity, captured in the slumber of a sensual female form.
Luis A. Ferrรฉ’s acquisition of the painting in 1963 for the Museo de Arte de Ponce, during a time when Victorian art was undervalued-this piece had been out of the public eye for more than three decades-reflects the philosophy of Ferrรฉ and his advisors, who aimed to acquire
“pictures of quality, irrespective of their ‘fashion’ in the market,” thus contributing to the formation of the museum’s exceptional collection.
I went with Christy and Len

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Podcast Episode: Sermon: Proper 9 RCL A – “In God We Trust”

Pip: If you've ever wondered what pesto, the Cold War, and the Book of Isaiah have in common, Fr. John has done the research, and the answer is more coherent than it has any right to be.

Mara: This episode follows a single sermon that moves from the origins of a national motto to the harder question underneath it โ€” the difference between believing in God and actually trusting God. Let's start with that journey from Virgil's kitchen to the gates of Jerusalem.

Sermon: Trusting God or Just Saying So

Pip: The sermon opens with a question about national identity, but it's really asking something more uncomfortable โ€” whether "In God We Trust" is a conviction or just text printed on currency.

Mara: The setup begins in an unexpected place. Virgil, writing a pesto recipe around 50 BC, produced the phrase that became America's first de facto motto. As the sermon puts it: "out of many, a single color โ€” color est e pluribus unus โ€” and if we shorten that and add proper grammar, we have the phrase e pluribus unum, which the founding fathers added to the Great Seal of the United States in 1782."

Pip: So the founding motto was essentially a salad metaphor. And it held for over 170 years until the Cold War made atheism the enemy and "In God We Trust" became the official counter-move in 1956.

Mara: That shift sets up the sermon's real question. The motto changed, but the sermon asks whether the trust behind it changed with it. And the answer comes through Hezekiah, king of Judah around 700 BC.

Pip: Hezekiah is a useful case study because he's not a villain. He kept the religious observances, ran the temple, did the visible things โ€” and yet Isaiah records God saying, essentially, I've had enough of your burnt offerings.

Mara: The problem was that Hezekiah believed in God but didn't trust him. When Assyria threatened, he sought an alliance with Egypt instead. The sermon quotes Isaiah directly: "Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many โ€” but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the Lord."

Pip: It took the Assyrian army standing outside Jerusalem's gates before Hezekiah actually prayed. Which is a very human timeline for getting serious about trust.

Mara: And the sermon draws that line straight to the gospel. Jesus's invitation to "take my yoke" gets read not as shared labor with a partner, but as a replacement โ€” setting down the yoke of sin, self, and fear, and picking up the yoke of discipleship instead.

Pip: The question the sermon lands on is precise: not "do you believe?" โ€” the congregation already answered that by showing up โ€” but "do you trust him enough to remove all those yokes and put on his?"

Mara: It closes with Thomas Merton's prayer, which holds the tension honestly: "I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me." Trust, the sermon argues, doesn't require certainty. It requires the desire to follow, and Merton's prayer suggests that desire itself is already a form of faithfulness.

Pip: In God We Trust โ€” lip service or a way of life. That's the question left sitting in the pew.

Mara: The thread running through all of this is the gap between profession and practice โ€” saying the words and living the weight of them.

Pip: Belief is the easy part, apparently. Trust is where it gets costly. We'll see what Candle in a Cave brings next time.

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Podcast Episode: Sermon: Proper 8 RCL A – “Empowered Servants of God”

Pip: There's a Peanuts cartoon that opens a sermon, and somehow it leads directly to eternal life โ€” which is either a bold homiletical move or proof that Lucy van Pelt has always been theologically underrated.

Mara: This episode covers one sermon from Fr. John, working through what it means to be part of a body where every gift counts โ€” not just the ones delivered from a pulpit.

Pip: Let's start with the sermon itself, and the question of who actually does the work of the church.

Empowered for the Mission โ€” Every Gift Counts

Mara: The sermon is built around a deceptively simple question: if not everyone is called to preach or heal or cast out demons, what exactly is everyone else doing in the mission of God?

Pip: The answer comes from the tail end of Matthew 10, Jesus wrapping up his instructions to the twelve before sending them out. The setup is that hardship is guaranteed โ€” and so is help from unexpected quarters.

Mara: The sermon lands the key line directly from that passage: "Whoever receives you, receives me, and whoever receives me, receives the Father." The argument is that welcoming and supporting those who carry the mission makes you a participant in it.

Pip: Which is a genuinely generous theological claim โ€” you don't have to be the one casting out demons to get credit for the demon-casting.

Mara: Two Old Testament figures anchor that claim. Elijah and the widow of Zarephath: she shares her last flour and oil, and the jar never empties. Later, her son dies and Elijah raises him. Elisha and the Shunammite woman: she feeds him whenever he passes through, and Elisha promises her a son she had stopped hoping for.

Pip: Both women receive what the sermon calls the prophet's reward โ€” not because they prophesied, but because they made the prophet's work possible.

Mara: Paul's letter to the Corinthians supplies the structural argument: "There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good."

Mara: The upshot is that no single gift runs the whole operation. The apostles need the widow's flour. The prophet needs the Shunammite's hospitality. The body needs every member.

Pip: And the sermon loops back to Lucy at this point โ€” those five fingers, individually nothing, curled together into something formidable. It is, against all odds, the correct analogy.

Mara: Archbishop Michael Ramsey gets the closing description of what that body looks like across centuries: "Human lives united to Jesus, receiving his presence, and showing his goodness, his love, his sacrifice, his humility and his compassion. Living stones."

Pip: The sermon closes by naming the stakes beyond the prophet's reward โ€” Christ's reward, forgiveness and resurrection, the food that does not perish. The call is direct: find where your gift fits, and get to work.

Mara: The harvest line from Luke lands as the final push: "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few." Every laborer counts, regardless of what kind of laboring they do.

Pip: One sermon, but the argument keeps widening โ€” from twelve apostles to a widow's jar to every person sitting in a pew wondering if they have anything to offer.

Mara: The answer the sermon gives is yes, unambiguously. The body needs what you have. More on that territory next time.

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Podcast Episode: Sermon: Proper 7 RCL A – โ€œื—ึตืกึตื“ / Hesedโ€

Pip: There's a word in Hebrew that English can't quite hold โ€” and a bear in Aesop's fables that apparently had something to say about it.

Mara: This episode covers one sermon from Fr. John, working through the Hebrew word hesed โ€” covenant loyalty, steadfast love, mercy โ€” and what it asks of us in return. Let's start with that word and what it actually means.

Sermon: Proper 7 RCL A โ€” The Weight of Hesed

Mara: The sermon opens with an Aesop's fable about two travelers and a bear โ€” one climbs a tree, one plays dead โ€” and uses it to frame a question about loyalty. That question leads straight into the Hebrew word hesed, which the sermon argues is the hallmark of God's covenantal character.

Pip: And the definition comes from Strong's Concordance, which pulls no punches: "chesed saturates the Hebrew Scriptures as the hallmark of God's covenantal character and the standard for covenantal response among His peopleโ€ฆ Of its approximately 247 occurrences, over half lie in the Psalms, yet it shapes every major section of the Old Testament, from the Torah to the Post-Exilic books."

Mara: The practical upshot is that no single English word carries it. The sermon lists steadfast love, loving kindness, mercy, faithfulness, and loyalty โ€” all of them partial translations of the same Hebrew root.

Pip: Which explains why Psalm 23:6 keeps getting read as a gentle reassurance when it's actually something closer to a covenant guarantee. The sermon unpacks it that way โ€” goodness and mercy become goodness and God's steadfast, faithful, loyal love. That's a different weight.

Mara: And the covenant dimension matters here. Hesed isn't just a quality God has in the abstract โ€” it's specifically tied to relationship. Deuteronomy 7:9 is cited: "the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations."

Pip: So it's not sentiment. It's a binding commitment with a track record. The sermon puts it plainly: God doesn't just say "I am faithful" โ€” he shows it. The proof is John 3:16.

Mara: That's where the sermon turns the question around. God's hesed is costly, freely given, unearned. But the Matthew 10 passage โ€” "whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me" โ€” makes clear that covenant runs both directions.

Pip: The Luke version is even starker. "Hate" your father, mother, wife, children. The sermon reads that as deliberate exaggeration: not literal hatred, but the kind of total priority that makes real love of others possible in the first place.

Mara: And then comes the honest admission โ€” we don't hold up our end. Adam, David, Peter, us. The sermon doesn't soften it. But hesed circles back: "His hesed endures forever," from Psalm 136. Covenant mercy covers covenant failure.

Pip: The bear gets the last word, really. Deserting a friend in danger is unwise โ€” and the sermon asks whether we'd be that kind of friend to Jesus, or the other kind.

Mara: The closing prayer frames it as reliance: strength, wisdom, protection, grace โ€” all asked from the same God whose hesed the sermon just spent a thousand words unpacking.

Pip: A word that takes five English words to translate, and still loses something in the transfer.

Mara: And a covenant that asks the same thing back from us that it promises. That tension doesn't resolve โ€” it just keeps asking the question.

Pip: More from Candle in a Cave next time.

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Podcast Episode: Sermon: Proper 6 RCL A – “Baptisms”

Pip: There's a sermon out there that opens with Henry Ford, pivots through a Ridley Scott film, and lands at a baptismal font โ€” and somehow the logic holds the whole way through.

Mara: That's Fr. John's recent work at Candle in a Cave โ€” a sermon on what baptism actually does to a person, and why the answer is more than symbolic.

Pip: Let's start with the knights of Jerusalem and what they have to do with a sacrament.

What Baptism Actually Does

Mara: The sermon opens with a question that sounds almost dismissive โ€” does water make someone a child of God any more than a sword makes someone a knight?

Pip: And the film Kingdom of Heaven is doing real theological work here. Balian of Ibelin knights common farmers and blacksmiths before a siege, and the bishop asks whether the ceremony changes anything. Balian's answer is one word.

Mara: The sermon quotes it directly: "Does making a man a knight make him a better fighter?" โ€” and Balian looks the bishop square in the eye and says, "Yes."

Pip: That yes carries weight because medieval knighthood wasn't ceremonial decoration. It conferred land, status, religious standing, and โ€” crucially โ€” a new interior sense of self.

Mara: Exactly the point. The sermon draws the parallel plainly: baptism isn't merely about water, just as knighthood isn't merely about a sword. Both are about, in the sermon's own words, "a new allegiance, a new identity, and a new life."

Pip: The Ford story at the opening earns its place here โ€” a machinist returns stolen tools the morning after his baptism. Something actually shifted.

Mara: The sermon lists what that shift includes: forgiveness of sins, participation in Christ's death and resurrection, renunciation of evil, and entry into the community of faith. Then it names the seal โ€” chrismation with oil blessed by the bishop, and the words spoken at the sign of the cross.

Pip: "You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ's own for ever." That's the line that closes the ceremony, and the sermon treats it as the thing that makes the rest of it stick.

Mara: Nine baptisms on the day this sermon was preached. The closing line echoes Ford: dam up the Cimarron and baptize everyone.

Pip: A bishop, a machinist, and Balian of Ibelin walk into a font โ€” and the sermon makes the case that all three are asking the same question.

Mara: What holds this together is a single claim โ€” that identity conferred by ritual is real identity, not performance.

Pip: Which means the next time someone asks what water does, the answer is still yes.

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Podcast Episode: Sermon: Pentecost RCL A – “The Gift”

Pip: There are days when only a strong moral principle stands between you and knocking someone’s hat off in the street. Fr. John opens with Melville, and somehow ends up at the Holy Trinity.

Mara: This episode follows that journey โ€” from Moby Dick to Pentecost, from the veil between Heaven and Earth to what the Holy Spirit actually does inside a human soul. Let’s start with the gift itself.

Sermon: Pentecost and the Gift of the Holy Spirit

Mara: The central question here is one most people quietly carry: if the Kingdom of Heaven is real but unreachable, how do we actually touch it? That’s the tension this sermon sets out to resolve.

Pip: The setup is a Venn diagram โ€” God and the Kingdom in one circle, us in the other โ€” and the sermon asks what lives in the overlap. The anchor quote comes from Richard of St. Victor’s De Trinitate: “Love not only tends to another person, but also tends to sharing love. When two persons mutually love each other, they can love and be loved and communicate their riches, but they cannot share their love. For that, still another person is required, a companion of love. Thus, love can be realized by a duality of persons, but it can only be completed by a trinity of persons.”

Mara: So the Trinity isn’t an abstract theological puzzle โ€” it’s the structural requirement for love to be complete. The Father and Son need the Spirit the way a shared joy needs someone to share it with.

Pip: And that architecture has a practical consequence. God didn’t create us because He needed a hobby. The sermon is clear: He created us to love us with the same love that moves within the Trinity, which means a conduit had to be built โ€” something that runs both directions, Heaven to Earth and back.

Mara: That conduit arrives in two steps. First, the Son. Then, as the Eucharistic Prayer puts it, “he sent the Holy Spirit, his own first gift for those who believe, to complete his work in the world, and to bring to fulfillment the sanctification of all.”

Pip: The phrase “first gift” does a lot of work there. Not a consolation prize for the ascension โ€” the intended completion of it.

Mara: Saint Cyril of Alexandria makes that explicit: the Spirit doesn’t substitute for Christ’s presence, it is his presence, dwelling inwardly where the incarnate Christ could only stand alongside. The sermon calls this ongoing โ€” not a single Pentecost flame but a continuous exchange between the soul and God.

Pip: Which loops back to Melville. The Holy Spirit is, among its many offices, what keeps a person from methodically knocking people’s hats off. Useful work.

Mara: The sermon closes on Romans 8 โ€” nothing in creation can separate us from the love of God โ€” and frames Pentecost not as anniversary but as present tense. That inward, unbreakable connection is the gift being celebrated.

Pip: And if the Spirit is the conduit that holds Heaven and Earth together, the next question is what that looks like when we try to live it outward.

Mara: The thread running through all of this is proximity โ€” the Kingdom closer than it looks, the Spirit already inside the veil.

Pip: The soul of God’s children, each one of us, is the address where the gift, the Holy Spirit, gets delivered.

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Travel: Luxembourg (Vacation Day)

It was a rather noisy beginning todayโ€”the renovation of the room above me started. I said, to myself, โ€œSelf, you need to do penance, so just endure,โ€ but then my selfish self said, โ€œNope. Not while on vacation!โ€ So, I did something very much unlike me, I asked for a new room. The staff was kind and understanding and understood that I can do penance when I return home, and gave me a new room. Very nice.

Once settled, I did something unusual for someone who is about 5,000 miles from home, I spent the day writing. The mind took an amazing journey and I put down many words (even ran out of ink in my pen and had to go in search of a new one!)

I do believe the next vaca will be a writing retreat. We shall see. The story (have I already mentioned this) is Execution Day. It will be a part of a collection of short storiesโ€”nothing like Iโ€™ve written/published beforeโ€”titled Seven Deadly. At this point, they are all a bit weird, but too much fun to write. Iโ€™m always killinโ€™ off somebody!

At about 7:30 p.m., I realized that I had only a light breakfast to eat and went in search of ramen. The ones near by were closed, but I found โ€œAsian Soulโ€ and had some delicious Thai food and beerโ€ฆ I think the second beer was actually from China.

Fried shrimp cakes with an onion, garlic, and pepper pickled for dipping.
Shrimp in green curry, toned down for me. Perfect amount of spice and so very good.

During and afterward, I stopped to take a few pictures. This first one is called โ€œThe Ordinary in Lightโ€ (doesnโ€™t he think he is the artiste giving his pictures names!)

On the way back to the hotel, I saw the light playing off the buildings andโ€ฆ

And from the balcony of the new room (sorry, brother, no more garden)โ€ฆ

Tomorrow will be a bit busier. Following breakfast, I will make my way to Adikt Ink where Matteo will give my new adult โ€œsticker.โ€ Something to remember this journey by and inspired by Joan, my hero in Rouen, France. Afterward, I will visit a local bookstore where I can find a Stephen King in some language other than English (I wonโ€™t be able to read it, but other than the new โ€œstickerโ€ it will be one of my few souvenirs. FYI: the exchange rate is miserable, so Iโ€™ve done little to no shopping.

During my occasional scroll today, I came across this from Fyodor Dostoevsky: โ€œFrom the outside, you seem mature with a philosopher’s mind. But inside, you’re just a child lost in a sweet delusion.โ€ Donโ€™t be afraid to be a child. They are always curious and poking their little noses in all sorts of interesting places. Along the way, someone is bound to tell you โ€œNo!โ€ or โ€œItโ€™s not possible!โ€ Donโ€™t you believe it. Even a sixty-one year old child is finding out those sweet delusions can, in fact, be reality.

May you have a blessed day, may your Grand Marnier always be a long pour, and may Our Lord and God bless you immensely. He does love all His silly children.

For those curious about The Queen, she apparently has a new favorite game at The Cat Resortโ€ฆ

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Sermon: Dorothy Sayers

Dorothy Sayers is not one of those capital โ€œSโ€ saints, but she is on the Episcopal/Anglican Church calendar for her contributions to writing. 

Her father was an Anglican priest, so she knew the church arena well, and she had a talent for conveying the Christian message in ways that made it more understandable for the general public. One of these writings was the radio play The Man Born to be King.

In one scene, she has a family driving out to see this new prophet in the land, John Baptist. Thereโ€™s quite a bit of interaction from the crowd, but Iโ€™ll mostly share with you the words of John.

JOHN BAPTIST: Men and women of Israel! Once more, once more I call you to repent. And quickly. For God’s Kingdom is coming as the Prophets foretold. Not in some distant future. Not a year or a week hence. Not tomorrow. But nowโ€ฆ Are you ready for it? You know very well you are not. For years, you have been saying, “Some day, some day the tide will turn. Someday, someday Messiah will come, and all will be well with Israel.” But your hour is upon you-Messiah is at your very gateโ€”and what will he find when he comes? I see a worldly priesthood, a worldly ruler, a worldly peopleโ€”a nation of shopkeepers and petty bureaucrats, their hearts fixed on cash and credit, and deaf and blind to righteousness. Sackcloth and ashes! Sackcloth and ashes! The Kingdom is at hand, and you are not prepared. Now, now repent of your sins and the sins of the whole nation. Now let God wash away your guilt in the clear waters of Jordan. Wash and be clean, that you may be fit for the task that is laid upon you, for the great and terrible day of the Lord is at hand.

The Religous leaders show up. 

JOHN BAPTIST: Some of you, I see, are Pharisees. Religious men, keepers of the Law, patterns of respectable piety, what are you doing here? (with sudden violence) Hypocrites, humbugs, brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the vengeance to come?

CROWD (indignant murmurs): โ€œWell, I never.. insolence. Upon my word,โ€ etc. (mingled with) โ€œThat’s right! Give it to โ€˜em hot… confounded lot of prigs.โ€

JOHN BAPTIST: Yes, I know what you will say: โ€œWe need no repentance. We keep the Law. We are the privileged children of Abraham. God will look after us, whatever happens.โ€ Don’t flatter yourselves. God doesn’t depend on you. He can find His children everywhere. He could raise them out of these desert stones, which are no harder than your hearts. You too will be lost if you don’t repent and do better. Messiah is coming like a woodman with his axe, and all the rotten trees, all the barren trees, will be cut down at the roots and thrown into the fire. All of them.

When the crowd asks what they must do to be saved, JOHN BAPTIST says,

Be generous. Do more than the Law demands. You, there, with the good coatโ€”you don’t need a cloak as well. Give it to the naked beggar beside you. And you with the picnic basket, how about sharing it with some of these poor children! (his voice rising harshly again) Renounce the worldโ€”weep, wail, and beat your breastsโ€”and await the Kingdom in fear and trembling.

When the religious leader asked who he was, JOHN BAPTIST says,

JOHN BAPTIST: I am the herald of God’s Kingdom. I baptise, but only with the water of repentance. There is a far greater man coming soon. I shan’t be worthy so much as to tie his shoe-laces. He will baptise you with spirit and with fire.

CROWD: Where is he? Show us the Messiah! Show us the Christ!

JOHN BAPTIST: Christ will come among you like a man thrashing corn. He will gather the grain and burn the chaff. There will be a great purging of Israelโ€ฆ Make ready to meet him. Draw near, confess your sins, and be baptised in Jordan. (Source)

When it first aired, the atheist got all bent out of shape because the BBC was promoting Christianity on the radio, and the conservative Christians got all bent out of shape because she hadn’t used the traditional King James Bible version. However, the general public loved it, with students being let out of school early to catch the latest installment. And, for added credibility, if needed, C.S. Lewis told Sayers that every year, he used the print version of the play for his Lenten Devotional. Thatโ€™s good enough for me.

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