Christmas
December 25, 2022
All cats are grey in the dark
While this phrase has been used in several places by various speakers and writers, it generally refers to the fact that in the dark, all sexual partners look, effectively, the same. It can be used in broader terms, well beyond cats and women, to say that the "dark" equalizes all things. And if you extend "dark" to be understood in metaphorical terms, the phrase becomes even broader.
John 1:5
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
The prologue of John is one of many portions of scripture that use Light as a way to identify Christ. If the proverb of the grey cats is used in any way to say that things are easier or you can get away with things in the dark, then it would be completely opposed by John 1:5 and other like verses. If it is used as a warning, to say, in the dark you don't know what you are seeing then it becomes a call for Light and therefore completely consistent with scripture.
1st after Christmas
January 1, 2023
Hate the sin but love the sinner
This is at the heart of words written by St. Augustine in 423 CE. He was writing a letter to a monastery where his sister was a nun. His purpose was to educate the nuns on how to instruct, correct and direct. As the words imply, the call was to compassion and love. The challenge for us all is that acting from love is easier said than done. A friend once told me that, in the private school he attended as a child, a teacher who decided a child should be physically punished with a strap was never the teacher who would deliver the punishment. Instead, the child was sent out to another teacher with a note. In this way the punishment was delivered with “indifference,” as the teacher who did the striking had no sense of what the offence had been and no immediate personal attachment to the event. It appears this was an attempt to separate the child from the behaviour, or the sinner from the sin.
Matthew 2:16
When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi,
he was furious, and he gave orders to kill
all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity
who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time
he had learned from the Magi.
This is one of the more troubling stories in scripture, and I have come across some whopper sermons that try to explain it. One preacher went to great lengths to point out that there may have been only twenty or so male children of that age in a place the size of Bethlehem so “it wasn't as bad as it sounds.” The only way I can cope with this story is to see it as pointing to the love of God which sets us free, having the downside that people do awful things with that freedom. In this case, Herod went to extreme lengths to ensure that the newborn king would never be a threat. From a literary viewpoint, this foreshadows all the opposition that Jesus would face, and helps us better understand The Passion when we get to it. Do we read this story and respond by hating Herod? If so, we deny that Herod is our brother. If so, we deny what we have in common with Herod. If so, we deny every time we have protected our own interests. To use the Bible as a mirror is to look for what we have in common with all the characters, not just the ones we like.
2nd after Christmas
January 8, 2023
God is everywhere
A lot of people say these words as if they are undeniably true. As if to say, if God is not everywhere then there is no God. I remember trying to tell a joke to a guy I had just met on a train once and he stopped me mid-sentence. It was a “heaven and hell” joke and he did not want to hear it because, in his words, “God is always watching us.” Later on in our conversation he explained to me he was moving east because “My damn wife got pregnant.” While I didn't know all the details, it appeared he was involved in her becoming pregnant and I wondered if the same God who didn't want him listening to jokes had any opinion on his choice to jump on a train leaving his pregnant wife behind. Certainly, picturing God as being everywhere fits with the idea that God is omniscient, seeing and hearing all things. It is also an image or understanding of God that does not readily lend itself to thinking of God in intimate terms. While our imagination can likely fathom a God in all places who is both far and distant in the same moment, it asks us to overcome a very abstract image.
John 1:1-2
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
Matthew introduces Jesus with a genealogy that traces back to David. It is important for Matthew that Jesus, the Messiah, is understood as a child of Israel. Luke offers a genealogy that that goes all the way back to Adam. It is important for Luke that Jesus both was human and would save humanity. Mark offers no genealogy. And John's prologue, unlike those of Matthew and Luke, offers a cosmic genealogy where Jesus is described as everpresent. John 1:1-8 has Christ present from “the beginning” and to say Christ is present at all times is not all that far from saying he is present in all places particularly if you understand space and time in unity. If we say the simple words “God is with us,” can we solve this dilemma?
Epiphany
January 1, 2023
If you can't beat them, join them
Although commonly spoken in political contexts, these words are hard to apply in some settings. You can't really put on the other team's uniform during halftime at a football game. A superstar athlete can, however, forgo the best contract available to sign for less money with the team he thinks can win a championship. This idea of joining the opposition can describe a wide range of choices from minor compromise to total submission. In any form, these words speak directly in opposition to the thinking that “winners are winners and losers are losers.” As a correctional chaplain, it was within my mandate to provide pastoral care to staff. Very few reached out, as it would be seen as a sign of weakness. In fact, it seemed just as likely that officers would follow the phrase above by engaging in criminal behaviour such as bringing drugs in for the inmates. All staff were required to take a course called “anatomy of a set up” which warned of the dangers of sliding into the “if you can’t beat them, join them” camp.
1 Corinthians 1:9-10
We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did,
and were destroyed by serpents.
And do not complain as some of them did,
and were destroyed by the destroyer.
The “join ‘em if you can't beat ‘em” philosophy depends on the particular circumstances and the answers to a number of questions. The chief ones are: “Are you sure you can't beat them?” and “Is it even possible to join them?” A common biblical theme is that those called by God usually resist that calling. In giving this history lesson of Israel to the Corinthians, Paul is bringing this theme to mind. You will never defeat God with your idolatry, so you would do better to join with God in worship and prayer. Although Paul does not answer the two questions explicitly his answer is implicit: You are not going to beat God, and you can join by saying a simple “yes” to God's invitation.
Baptism of Our Lord
January 8, 2023
The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun
This is the most contemporary proverb in this book. It was spoken by Wayne LaPierre on Friday, December 21, 2012 in order to encourage American congress to put armed guards in all American schools. I would be willing to nominate it as the least biblical of all 366 quotations of this book.
Isaiah 42:1-4
Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.
He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street;
a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
He will not grow faint or be crushed
until he has established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his teaching.
Jesus is the "Prince of Peace." (Isaiah 9:6). He is not one that promotes the good killing the bad but rather, as it states above, one for whom justice is absent of raised voices and bruised reeds let alone gunfire.
2nd after Epiphany
January 15, 2020
Love conquers all
This is another saying that runs the risk of being self-defining. If one says that, "love conquers all" they create two categories: Either love has conquered or love will conquer. If an effort fails to succeed, then it defined as not being love. There is no room left for love’s failure and the phrase, in that it is self-defining, ceases to have any real meaning. Love conquers all sounds impressive when written in Latin as either omnia vincit amor or amor vincit omnia. Quoting it in Latin is one way in which people boost its authority and distract us from its logical problems with self-definition or tautology. A similar phrase is "love will find a way." Both phrases ask us to yield to love's power and believe in its power in all situations. H.L Mencken, Oscar Wilde and others receive credit for the similar phrase, “love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.”
John 1:29
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared,
"Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
We can understand "the Lamb of God" as an offering of love and "the sin of the world" as all that needs to be conquered. By doing so we see that this verse makes the very point - love conquers all. Critiques of military imagery would want to substitute another word for conquer when describing the life that Jesus offers. Resolution and compromise can be found in accepting John 1:29 as contributing to, rather than limiting, the ways we can describe the work of Jesus Christ.
3rd after Epiphany
January 22, 2023
Paddle your own canoe
These words are known from a popular 19th Century Celtic song. The song cautions against trust and risk ending with the couplet: "And I have no wife to bother me life, no lover to prove untrue, the whole day long I laugh with the song and paddle me own canoe." Such wisdom is commonly contradicted. A common example is "nothing ventured, nothing gained."
Matthew 4:19
And [Jesus] said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.
An interesting way to read scripture is to take the perspective of the different characters in a given story. For instance, in the call of the apostles you can put yourself in the place of the parents of the fishermen. As reported by Matthew, we see very quick decisions made by Peter and Andrew, followed by James and John. Presumably, fishing was a family business and the parents watched a stranger come and steal their labour. Their children were their only security for the future of their family business. What did they imagine as their boys walked away with a stranger after one line of conversation? This is an absurd scenario when pictured in your mind’s eye. What kind of parents would embrace such a moment! Jesus seemed very intent not to "paddle his own canoe" and chose instead to compel twelve intimate companions to join his journey.
4th after Epiphany
January 29, 2023
I am blessed
These words are ubiquitous. They can refer to something good from God or to something good from any source. It seems to be language that can unite, as if to say- it is good, let's not argue about where it comes from. On the other hand, one can use the phrase “I am blessed” territorially, as if to say, by using the word blessed, we are claiming God as a source. To some, this difference means the world, and to others, it means nothing. If your mother is cured of cancer, it is a great blessing. To some, how or who or why or any other question is irrelevant, it is enough just to be thankful. To others, unless this one understands the curing as the healing work of God through Christ, it is of little or no meaning or value. In fact, it is to be mistrusted. I imagine many of us go with the flow of the company we are in when the words are used. Arguments are rarely invited or requested.
Matthew 5:3
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
This is the first line of the “Beatitudes” – blessings found in Matthew 5:3-12 as well as in Luke. Contrary to the way Matthew relates the beatitudes, Luke alternates blessings and woes, implying that they are opposites. The point appears to be that God sends both joy and distress. Matthew allows the blessings to stand on their own. Rabbi Eric Yoffie and others have been attributed with responding to the 20th century Jewish experience, by speaking to God with words to the effect of "If this is the way you show us your love we'd like a little less love and a little more respect." While some might criticize this as an arrogant instruction to God, they fail to realize the playful way in which the rabbinical tradition can cope with contradiction and paradox. The holocaust did not feel very loving; what do you do with that? This is a reasonable question. Clearly, the biblical use of the word blessed is much broader than a simple synonym for the word "good" or "happy" as it is translated in the Good News Version of the beatitudes. The word "blessed" is more subtle, nuanced, textured and rich and invites us into a place of wonder about just how blessings appear and how they manifest in our lives.
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.
December 25, 2022
All cats are grey in the dark
While this phrase has been used in several places by various speakers and writers, it generally refers to the fact that in the dark, all sexual partners look, effectively, the same. It can be used in broader terms, well beyond cats and women, to say that the "dark" equalizes all things. And if you extend "dark" to be understood in metaphorical terms, the phrase becomes even broader.
John 1:5
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
The prologue of John is one of many portions of scripture that use Light as a way to identify Christ. If the proverb of the grey cats is used in any way to say that things are easier or you can get away with things in the dark, then it would be completely opposed by John 1:5 and other like verses. If it is used as a warning, to say, in the dark you don't know what you are seeing then it becomes a call for Light and therefore completely consistent with scripture.
1st after Christmas
January 1, 2023
Hate the sin but love the sinner
This is at the heart of words written by St. Augustine in 423 CE. He was writing a letter to a monastery where his sister was a nun. His purpose was to educate the nuns on how to instruct, correct and direct. As the words imply, the call was to compassion and love. The challenge for us all is that acting from love is easier said than done. A friend once told me that, in the private school he attended as a child, a teacher who decided a child should be physically punished with a strap was never the teacher who would deliver the punishment. Instead, the child was sent out to another teacher with a note. In this way the punishment was delivered with “indifference,” as the teacher who did the striking had no sense of what the offence had been and no immediate personal attachment to the event. It appears this was an attempt to separate the child from the behaviour, or the sinner from the sin.
Matthew 2:16
When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi,
he was furious, and he gave orders to kill
all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity
who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time
he had learned from the Magi.
This is one of the more troubling stories in scripture, and I have come across some whopper sermons that try to explain it. One preacher went to great lengths to point out that there may have been only twenty or so male children of that age in a place the size of Bethlehem so “it wasn't as bad as it sounds.” The only way I can cope with this story is to see it as pointing to the love of God which sets us free, having the downside that people do awful things with that freedom. In this case, Herod went to extreme lengths to ensure that the newborn king would never be a threat. From a literary viewpoint, this foreshadows all the opposition that Jesus would face, and helps us better understand The Passion when we get to it. Do we read this story and respond by hating Herod? If so, we deny that Herod is our brother. If so, we deny what we have in common with Herod. If so, we deny every time we have protected our own interests. To use the Bible as a mirror is to look for what we have in common with all the characters, not just the ones we like.
2nd after Christmas
January 8, 2023
God is everywhere
A lot of people say these words as if they are undeniably true. As if to say, if God is not everywhere then there is no God. I remember trying to tell a joke to a guy I had just met on a train once and he stopped me mid-sentence. It was a “heaven and hell” joke and he did not want to hear it because, in his words, “God is always watching us.” Later on in our conversation he explained to me he was moving east because “My damn wife got pregnant.” While I didn't know all the details, it appeared he was involved in her becoming pregnant and I wondered if the same God who didn't want him listening to jokes had any opinion on his choice to jump on a train leaving his pregnant wife behind. Certainly, picturing God as being everywhere fits with the idea that God is omniscient, seeing and hearing all things. It is also an image or understanding of God that does not readily lend itself to thinking of God in intimate terms. While our imagination can likely fathom a God in all places who is both far and distant in the same moment, it asks us to overcome a very abstract image.
John 1:1-2
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
Matthew introduces Jesus with a genealogy that traces back to David. It is important for Matthew that Jesus, the Messiah, is understood as a child of Israel. Luke offers a genealogy that that goes all the way back to Adam. It is important for Luke that Jesus both was human and would save humanity. Mark offers no genealogy. And John's prologue, unlike those of Matthew and Luke, offers a cosmic genealogy where Jesus is described as everpresent. John 1:1-8 has Christ present from “the beginning” and to say Christ is present at all times is not all that far from saying he is present in all places particularly if you understand space and time in unity. If we say the simple words “God is with us,” can we solve this dilemma?
Epiphany
January 1, 2023
If you can't beat them, join them
Although commonly spoken in political contexts, these words are hard to apply in some settings. You can't really put on the other team's uniform during halftime at a football game. A superstar athlete can, however, forgo the best contract available to sign for less money with the team he thinks can win a championship. This idea of joining the opposition can describe a wide range of choices from minor compromise to total submission. In any form, these words speak directly in opposition to the thinking that “winners are winners and losers are losers.” As a correctional chaplain, it was within my mandate to provide pastoral care to staff. Very few reached out, as it would be seen as a sign of weakness. In fact, it seemed just as likely that officers would follow the phrase above by engaging in criminal behaviour such as bringing drugs in for the inmates. All staff were required to take a course called “anatomy of a set up” which warned of the dangers of sliding into the “if you can’t beat them, join them” camp.
1 Corinthians 1:9-10
We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did,
and were destroyed by serpents.
And do not complain as some of them did,
and were destroyed by the destroyer.
The “join ‘em if you can't beat ‘em” philosophy depends on the particular circumstances and the answers to a number of questions. The chief ones are: “Are you sure you can't beat them?” and “Is it even possible to join them?” A common biblical theme is that those called by God usually resist that calling. In giving this history lesson of Israel to the Corinthians, Paul is bringing this theme to mind. You will never defeat God with your idolatry, so you would do better to join with God in worship and prayer. Although Paul does not answer the two questions explicitly his answer is implicit: You are not going to beat God, and you can join by saying a simple “yes” to God's invitation.
Baptism of Our Lord
January 8, 2023
The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun
This is the most contemporary proverb in this book. It was spoken by Wayne LaPierre on Friday, December 21, 2012 in order to encourage American congress to put armed guards in all American schools. I would be willing to nominate it as the least biblical of all 366 quotations of this book.
Isaiah 42:1-4
Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.
He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street;
a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
He will not grow faint or be crushed
until he has established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his teaching.
Jesus is the "Prince of Peace." (Isaiah 9:6). He is not one that promotes the good killing the bad but rather, as it states above, one for whom justice is absent of raised voices and bruised reeds let alone gunfire.
2nd after Epiphany
January 15, 2020
Love conquers all
This is another saying that runs the risk of being self-defining. If one says that, "love conquers all" they create two categories: Either love has conquered or love will conquer. If an effort fails to succeed, then it defined as not being love. There is no room left for love’s failure and the phrase, in that it is self-defining, ceases to have any real meaning. Love conquers all sounds impressive when written in Latin as either omnia vincit amor or amor vincit omnia. Quoting it in Latin is one way in which people boost its authority and distract us from its logical problems with self-definition or tautology. A similar phrase is "love will find a way." Both phrases ask us to yield to love's power and believe in its power in all situations. H.L Mencken, Oscar Wilde and others receive credit for the similar phrase, “love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.”
John 1:29
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared,
"Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
We can understand "the Lamb of God" as an offering of love and "the sin of the world" as all that needs to be conquered. By doing so we see that this verse makes the very point - love conquers all. Critiques of military imagery would want to substitute another word for conquer when describing the life that Jesus offers. Resolution and compromise can be found in accepting John 1:29 as contributing to, rather than limiting, the ways we can describe the work of Jesus Christ.
3rd after Epiphany
January 22, 2023
Paddle your own canoe
These words are known from a popular 19th Century Celtic song. The song cautions against trust and risk ending with the couplet: "And I have no wife to bother me life, no lover to prove untrue, the whole day long I laugh with the song and paddle me own canoe." Such wisdom is commonly contradicted. A common example is "nothing ventured, nothing gained."
Matthew 4:19
And [Jesus] said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.
An interesting way to read scripture is to take the perspective of the different characters in a given story. For instance, in the call of the apostles you can put yourself in the place of the parents of the fishermen. As reported by Matthew, we see very quick decisions made by Peter and Andrew, followed by James and John. Presumably, fishing was a family business and the parents watched a stranger come and steal their labour. Their children were their only security for the future of their family business. What did they imagine as their boys walked away with a stranger after one line of conversation? This is an absurd scenario when pictured in your mind’s eye. What kind of parents would embrace such a moment! Jesus seemed very intent not to "paddle his own canoe" and chose instead to compel twelve intimate companions to join his journey.
4th after Epiphany
January 29, 2023
I am blessed
These words are ubiquitous. They can refer to something good from God or to something good from any source. It seems to be language that can unite, as if to say- it is good, let's not argue about where it comes from. On the other hand, one can use the phrase “I am blessed” territorially, as if to say, by using the word blessed, we are claiming God as a source. To some, this difference means the world, and to others, it means nothing. If your mother is cured of cancer, it is a great blessing. To some, how or who or why or any other question is irrelevant, it is enough just to be thankful. To others, unless this one understands the curing as the healing work of God through Christ, it is of little or no meaning or value. In fact, it is to be mistrusted. I imagine many of us go with the flow of the company we are in when the words are used. Arguments are rarely invited or requested.
Matthew 5:3
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
This is the first line of the “Beatitudes” – blessings found in Matthew 5:3-12 as well as in Luke. Contrary to the way Matthew relates the beatitudes, Luke alternates blessings and woes, implying that they are opposites. The point appears to be that God sends both joy and distress. Matthew allows the blessings to stand on their own. Rabbi Eric Yoffie and others have been attributed with responding to the 20th century Jewish experience, by speaking to God with words to the effect of "If this is the way you show us your love we'd like a little less love and a little more respect." While some might criticize this as an arrogant instruction to God, they fail to realize the playful way in which the rabbinical tradition can cope with contradiction and paradox. The holocaust did not feel very loving; what do you do with that? This is a reasonable question. Clearly, the biblical use of the word blessed is much broader than a simple synonym for the word "good" or "happy" as it is translated in the Good News Version of the beatitudes. The word "blessed" is more subtle, nuanced, textured and rich and invites us into a place of wonder about just how blessings appear and how they manifest in our lives.
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.