thoughts, random and otherwise

There are about 5 posts I could make today....further analysis of the sexual violence report, commentary about the Census data showing half of the US are 'poor', discussion on the reading, my concerns about the uncertainties of employment or even my personal life (or lack thereof). There's a lot there, but I think I want to focus on other things for a moment.

As I may have mentioned before, our parish shares space with an old ELCA church filled with genuinely nice people who seem to honestly understand the thought of ecumenicism. We each worship in our own way and, thanks to working and worshiping together, have come to understand and respect our similarities and differences.

It's funny, but there are little things which I see, I notice, and they sink in and have a certain meaning or symbolism which niggles down into my subconscious. As I mentioned before, we are doing 'catchphrases' for Advent, short phrases which encapsulate the reading's meaning.

The second sunday was 'make ready' and there is a gold/brass latin cross which hangs by wires over the altar such that it appears to float in mid-air.  I recall this because as the homily went on about John giving the old pharisees an ear-ful, I looked up and noticed an errant sunbeam.

There, spotlighted by a shaft of light, was a small cobweb growing on this golden, shiny cross.  The more I gazed at it, the more it made me think of the priests in Jerusalem and Rome and all over.  It made me think about how organized faith enshrines things and laws as inviolate and eternal and how holding those old things in such reverence subverts their purpose and turns us away from God.  Someone during the week must have noticed them too, because the cobwebs weren't there next week...when we talked about 'make straight the way'.  *whistles innocently*