5th after Epiphany
February 5, 2023

The law is an ass

This is a line from Dickens's Oliver Twist (1838) but is also found in a play by the name Revenge for Honour which was written almost two hundred years earlier. Authorship has been credited to both Henry Glapthorne and George Chapman. I also recall these words as the first line of my high school law text. Interestingly, Dickens actually wrote “The law is a ass – a idiot” and the context makes it clear that, while the law can fail us, it is not a statement about the general value of law but of how it may operate in certain circumstances. The earlier phrasing, in Revenge for Honour is actually “The law is such an Ass” and it, too, speaks of unique failings rather than the concept of law as a whole. A better rendering would be “The law can be an ass.”

Matthew 5:18
For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, 
not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, 
will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

The quote above, in the two contexts cited, speaks of civil or common law failing to serve the greater good in all situations. When Jesus speaks of “the law,” he is talking about the Spirit which desires for our good. He speaks of law that is “finer than gold” and “sweeter than honey” (Psalm 19:10). It may well be the case that any problems with law are less about the nature of law and more about the commonness of human misinterpretations, justifications, twists and manipulations that render the law to act like an Ass.

6th after Epiphany 
February 12, 2023

One step at a time

I love The Garden Song.  “Inch by inch, row by row, gonna make this garden grow” written  by Maine based folk singer Dave Mallett. I always assumed the song was traditional and until I saw him in concert and he said "I'm the guy who wrote this song" and then played it. I also love the book Bird by Bird which Anne Lamott wrote about the writing process in which the central image is from her doing a huge ornithology project as a child.  Bird by bird she did it, just as she writes word by word. And my favourite book as a child growing up was The Big Jump about a kingdom where you could only have a dog if you were a king and you could only be a king if you could jump to the top of a castle.  When the little boy, Ben, showed up and hopped, one by one, up the steps to the top of castle and asked if he could then have a dog the town laughed at him but the king did not laugh. Instead he said everyone just assumed it had to be in one jump and only Ben was able to imagine otherwise.  These are but of few of the many lovely stories to remind us of the incremental nature of life.

1 Corinthians 3:2
I fed you with milk, not solid food, 
for you were not ready for solid food.
Even now you are still not ready,

This is not Paul's only use of the metaphor of breastfeeding for people who are young in the faith.  We grow and develop and become more able.  People who join a gym and train don't start with the hardest machines and work backwards.  When we learn an additional language we begin with rudimentary concepts.  We find our speed and our path with trial and error, one step at a time and Paul finds creative ways to assure those he cares for that this is not a criticism but just a reality to be accounted for. Such an idea that some are further along than others bristles against our fixation with democracy which wants to see us all as equal, but that does not make it untrue. 
 
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​​Year A of the Revised Common Lectionary (Click on the season you wish to see)
Advent
Christmas and Epiphany
Transfiguration and Lent
Easter
Pentecost to Proper Sixteen
Proper Seventeen to The Reign of Christ

Year B of the Revised Common Lectionary (Click on the season you wish to see)
Advent
Christmas and Epiphany
Transfiguration and Lent
Easter
​Trinity Sunday to Proper Sixteen
Proper Seventeen to The Reign of Christ

Year C of the Revised Common Lectionary (Click on the season you wish to see)
Advent​
Christmas and Epiphany
Transfiguration and Lent
Easter
Pentecost to Proper Sixteen
Proper Seventeen to Reign of Christ


For more on Glenn Morison and his book that led to this page, check out The Things We Say.

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