The Souls That Hunger, Feed Thou

 this past sunday, the sermon scripture at church was from the sixth chapter of john's gospel, in which jesus turns "five small barley loaves and two small fish" that a boy had brought with him into enough to feed a huge crowd gathered around jesus.  (the gospel says the crowd numbered "about five thousand men.")  these folk were attracted to jesus because of his healing miracles.  the passage implies that jesus wanted to further demonstrate his power over the physical world by feeding such a gathering with meager resources.  so much food was produced from the boy's offering that there were twelve baskets of bread and fish left over after all had eaten.

as i read through the scripture, several thoughts came to mind.  the first thing that struck me was that the crowd was numbered according to the men who had come.  apparently, the women and children who were there were not important enough to be counted.  i wondered how many in the congregation believed that this story was true.  many christians have no problem accepting that stories in the old testament are not literally true.  the universe couldn't have been created in six days, noah didn't build an ark to save himself, his family, and thousands of pairs of animals from a flood that covered the entire earth, there was no ruth or esther, and david was a mythic king about whom many tales were told much like king arthur.  we learn from these folk tales but they are not factual.   why is it, then, that many christians accept the miracles of jesus as being actual events?

we know that none of the authors of the gospels witnessed jesus' life personally and that all of the gospels were written decades after jesus' death.  surely, exaggerated stories about his life had developed in the retelling of his life in the oral tradition.  there were other gospels purporting to be accounts of jesus' life that were rejected because the church fathers doubted their accuracy but the four that have come down to us as part of canon scripture are accepted as the most truthful.  this faith in unreasonable events in the life of jesus do great harm.  it is this sort of denial of science that has led to the situation in which we now find ourselves, when thousands of people refuse to take a life-saving vaccine despite all the evidence of its benefits.  it is no coincidence that the largest number of unvaccinated people and increasing infections are found in the most "christian" states in the country.  we watch as people are needlessly infected and die because they believe those who repeat lies for political gain rather than heeding the testimonies of medical experts.

belief in the impossible does great damage to the real meaning of jesus' life.  God is a god of love, not a god of vengeance and pettiness.  we are to love and care for one another.  the perversion of religion for one's own advantage is evil.  we are to be quick to forgive one another's wrongs.  all of us are connected beyond ties of blood and race.  we can learn from the stories of jesus' miracles, and in that deepest sense they are true, but we must not take them as evidence that supernatural intervention in our lives will protect us from calamity and disease.  when we ignore science and adopt the stance that God will protect us from a deadly virus even when we refuse to do our part to escape it and that when we catch the virus it must be because God wills it, it is not God in whom we believe, rather we have faith in our own foolishness.

may we read the gospels with a critical eye, learning their deepest truths without rejecting the operations of the natural order.  may we keep learning throughout our lives.  may we do our part to keep ourselves and those we love safe.  may we not allow politics to blind us to the truth.  may we accept that we have been given the gift of reason for a purpose.  shalom.

And the Weather Is Sizzling Hot

 so far, in our area of the country we have had a pretty mild summer.  the temperature has reached into the 90s (farenheit), but most days the high has been in the mid-80s.  we came home last friday after running some errands to find the interior  of our home to be somewhat warm.  when we checked the thermostat, we discovered that the inside temperature was 80º, though the central air had been set to keep the house at 77º.  i fiddled with the control a bit to no avail.  our cooling system just wasn't working.  i immediately called the repairman and asked him if he could come on monday.  since it was already late friday afternoon, i figured we could get by over the weekend, rather than pay an exorbitant price for an emergency repair.  after all, it wasn't predicted to be that warm for saturday, sunday, and into monday.  we have ceiling fans, and the house could use a good airing out.  for me, the house temperature was quite agreeable with just the fans and open windows, but my wife is more sensitive to the heat so it was a little unpleasant for her.  i brought extra fans out of storage and plugged them in to make her more comfortable.

i remembered a home we had lived in thirty-five years ago.  it had been built in the early 20th century, and had twelve foot ceilings, abundant windows, and was long and narrow.  the narrow ends of the house faced east and west, while the long sides were shaded by large trees.  down the center of the house was a long hall, and all the rooms of the house opened onto this hall.  there was a large attic fan in the hallway.  during the evening hours, we opened all the windows and turned on the attic fan.  in the bedrooms, we also put small box fans in one of the windows to pull in more of the cool night air.  often, we slept under blankets because the bedrooms were so cool, even when we were in the hottest part of the summer.  during the day, we turned off the attic fan and closed the windows.  the rooms we used most had ceiling fans that ran twenty-four hours a day.  though we had window air conditioners in the west-facing den, the kitchen, and one of the bedrooms, we seldom needed them.  the one in the den was used for a few hours in the early evenings on the hottest days because the den was warmed by the afternoon sun, and, if we cooked a lot in the afternoon, we might run the kitchen air conditioner until we finished eating supper.

this house was built to be comfortable in the warm, humid summers in the southern part of the state during a period when air conditioning was non-existent.  the design of the home did its job remarkably well.  i miss the summers in that house because the home was filled with fresh air while keeping the summer heat at bay.  having our current home open to the outside and fans in front of the windows pulling in the cool evening air has been a wonderful reminder of our years in that home of many years ago.  i've been so comfortable that i haven't cared if the central cooling system is fixed or not.  my wife would disagree with me, i'm sure, because the heat bothers her much more than it does me.

all this goes to show, that as our technology has advanced to keep us more comfortable in our homes, we've forgotten some design principles that our forebears used to make their homes pleasant during the hot summers.  it is amazing what giving space for the hot air to rise well above our heads, shading our homes with large trees, providing many operable windows, and positioning our homes to minimize heat gain will do.  our energy consuming comfort machines are warming the earth as we sit in mechanically chilled air.  maybe our planet would be better off if all our air conditioners broke down, so long as we remember how to build homes that don't need them.

may we look at how people used to endure what we now consider unbearable summers in the southern part of our country.  may we build homes that are smarter and better able to function in our climate.   may we find ways to reduce our consumption of energy generated by fossil fuels, realizing that the old ways are not always inferior ways.  shalom.

To Fight for the Right

 i live in one of the five areas of the usa that has the highest rates of new infections from the covid-19 virus.  the delta variant has become the dominant strain that causes these infections.  our hospitals are being overwhelmed by young, unvaccinated patients who require extraordinary care, many of them needing to be placed on ventilators.  the supply of ventilators is dangerously low.  the amazing thing is that this surge in new cases is unnecessary.  we have the means to prevent new infections at our disposal.  vaccine availability is high, and local health authorities sponsor frequent mass immunization events at convenient locations.  yet most of the unvaccinated have refused to avail themselves of the opportunity to prevent their infection, so far.  the governor of our state is traveling around the state meeting with any groups that will have him to urge people to be vaccinated.

one wonders why so many have chosen to refuse something that is in their own best interest.  as they ignore the advice of health officials, friends, and relatives, they become breeding grounds for further mutation of the virus into more and more virulent strains.  their failure insures that covid will be with us for a long time.  the winter months are approaching, and people will be forced to spend more time indoors.  with indoor venues and offices fully open once more and mask-wearing less prevalent, the chances of the virus spreading even more rapidly are great.  

we are seeing more people who have been vaccinated developing the virus.  while their illness is less severe, they can spread the virus to those who are not vaccinated.  often those infected do not realize that they have caught covid despite their vaccinations because they are asymptomatic, thanks to the vaccines.  one event that i had planned to attend this week has had to be cancelled because the vaccinated organizer of the event has been forced to quarantine.  it seems that his daughter has tested positive for covid and he was exposed.  a close relative and his family have had to quarantine, despite having been vaccinated, because he was exposed when he took a friend, who had also been vaccinated, to the hospital for a radiation treatment, and the friend tested positive for covid.  we hear of more and more such instances.  some of this may be caused by false positives in the test results, but with covid one can't be too careful.

i can't help but feel anger towards those who refuse to be vaccinated.  for a few, there are good reasons for declining the vaccine, but most have no reason not to take advantage of a cost-free opportunity to stop the spread of the covid-19 virus.  a friend recently told me of one woman who said that she refused to be vaccinated because president biden has recommended it, and she, an ardent trump devotee, won't do anything that biden suggests.  i suspect that many in our area share her sentiment, but there are others who believe that vaccines of any kind are unhealthy.  no amount of scientific evidence will sway them from their position.

may our citizenry wake up to the danger in which they place themselves, those they love, and all of us by their failure to act in their own best interests.  may we each do our part to encourage others to vaccinate.  may we take whatever precautions we can to protect ourselves and those around us.  shalom.

With Ever Joyful Hearts

 there are so many disturbing things going on in the world that make it difficult to find peace in our hearts.  in the pacific northwest, a region of our country that normally has one of the mildest climates that can be imagined, an unprecedented heat wave has taken hold.  people are dying, roads are buckling, and many are suffering.  as our troops withdraw from afghanistan, many of those who live there are fearful of what will happen as the taliban takes over more of the country.  many of those who can are fleeing towards an uncertain future in other lands.  our country is more divided than it has been since the years leading up to the civil war.  we see many parallels between the behavior of our political parties now and during the last half of the 19th century.  voting rights of the poor and people of color are being suppressed, just as they were during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.  leaders of a party that represents a minority of the population are taking drastic actions to hold onto power, despite recognizing that the steps they are taking are not in the country's best interest.  democracy is in peril in many parts of the world.  the covid-19 virus remains a threat to much of the world's population.

in the face of all these problems, we cry out for an end to the worries they cause us.  we long to know how to confront and overcome them.  we are aware that there is little any one of us can do by ourselves.  how do we maintain a calm mind and peaceful heart in the midst of the chaos?  how do we find joy while so many are suffering?  how do we deal with our own suffering?  for me, meditation is one solution.  i can let go of my anxieties and reassure others.  i can look around at all the blessings i enjoy, knowing that others don't have such easy lives.  i can recognize that my obligation is to share my blessings with others as much as i can.  i can live a life of gratitude.  i can comfort others as i have opportunity.  i can defend the powerless.  i can vote for candidates who will try to address the inequities in our society and in the world.  as i think about it, there is a great deal that i can do if my heart is open and if i am willing to take on some of the suffering in the world.

may we not turn our backs on the suffering around us.  may we not ignore those who are racked with pain and anxiety.  may we see the good in the midst of the chaos.  may we be grateful for what we have.  may our gratitude lead us to share our abundance with others.  shalom.