I never thought I would...

 ...but I find myself agreeing with Sen. Mitt Romney!

Romney announced he wouldn't run for re-election and said, "time for the next generation to step in."

He also said the former President and current President should step back and 'make room for the next generation'.

I'm a die-hard Democrat and 76 years old, but I think two men in their 80's running for President is a bit much.

I'd like to see new blood and a new face in the White House--a Democrat new face, of course!

Agreeing with Mitt Romney is a new experience for me....

This week's sermon

 

Which God is yours?

        Today, I want to contrast the lesson from Exodus and the lesson from Matthew.

        They couldn’t be more different.

        Oh, I know Moses and Yahweh wanted to bring the people of Israel back to their homeland. They had to get away from the Egyptian army—but the pillar of cloud had been doing a good job of that, night, and day.

        And when God made the sea part and the Israelites had passed through, the text tells us the Egyptians were going to turn back. Listen: “He clogged their chariot wheels so they turned with difficulty. The Egyptians said, “let us flee from the Israelites, for the Lord is fighting for them against Egypt’.”

        They were turning back. So why did God tell Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the water may come back on the Egyptians, upon their chariots and chariot drivers.”

        If they were turning back, why drown the Egyptian army and their innocent horses?

        It seems like ‘over-kill’ to me, if you’ll excuse my choice of words….

        Now let’s look at God in Matthew’s gospel today.

        Jesus tells Peter to forgive sins against him 77 times.

        Can you forgive that many times?

        He then tells his disciples a parable about a King who forgives a debt of 10,000 talents and then that slave seized a man by the throat that owed him a hundred denarii.

        10,000 talents would be over 226 million dollars and a hundred denarii would be $1000.

        Just forgiven a fortune, the slave wanted his thousand dollars!

        Quite a difference.

        So the master turns the evil slave over to be tortured.

        And Jesus says his heavenly Father will do the same to every one of you  if “you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

        So, which God is yours?

        The one who drowns Egyptians—and their horses too, I can’t get over that--who were turning back or the one who says to forgive and forgive and forgive?

        I think I know your answer.

        And I agree.

        Forgive and Forgive and Forgive.

        Always. Always. Always.

Shalom and Amen.

Where the name of my blog comes from

I've reprinted my first blog several times.

The name "Under the Castor Oil Tree"  comes from the Old Testament book of Jonah.

Jonah was called by God to go to Nineveh to save the people there.

He refuses go and gets swallowed by a whale and spit up on the shore of Nineveh. He preaches to the people and God saves them.

Jonah is unset and tells God, "You brought me all this way just to save these people!"

God puts Jonah under a Castor Oil tree to calm him down but then sends a bug to destroy the tree and leave Jonah in the hot sun.

It's a book of the Bible that has no resolution.

Jonah is in the sun complaining.

And the book ends.

I often feel like Jonah--carried by a whale to be an Episcopal priest and having no idea why.

Jonah and me sit under the castor oil tree together.

And with you, I hope....

 

And a third day

 Lovely, lots of sun and blue skies until late afternoon.

Then thunder, lightening and probably two inches of rain.

Three days in a row.

Then there is the former President (I never write his name!) and his legal problems.

How can he not go to jail!

And the 14th Amendment to the Constitution--passed during the civil war--prohibits anyone who rebels against the United States can never hold elected office.

Some folks are trying to bring the former President before the Supreme Court for his role in the January 6th insurrection, to be judged under that amendment.

And he should be.

God help his blond headed soul.

(Not really....)

More of the same

More thunder, lightening and rain. Lots of each of them.

I took Brigit out at 9 p.m.--first in the front yard, but she wouldn't pee there and then in the back where she did.

I had an umbrella but got soaked. Brigit really got soaked!

Bern dried her off for 10 minutes while she had her big 'dental bone' an even after.

The weather says more is coming.

Remember my metaphors from the last post.

The division in our country in raining down on us.

How can we correct it?

How?

How?

Let me know if you know....

 

Thunder and Lightening!

This afternoon we had thunder storms for over an hour and a half.

Lightening lit the world and thunder shook our house.

And it rained like crazy.

Seems to be over now around 7 P.M.

Sort of a reflection of how our country is doing.

Lightening in the deep divides in our nation.

Thunder in the former President's indictments.

Rain in how confusing things are nationally in politics.

Hope the sun comes out tomorrow in Cheshire and in the United States soon.

Hope and pray.

 

Getting old is no cup of tea....

 On Sunday evening, I tripped in our TV room and hit my head of the door jam.

It was dark in the room and I have two bad knees that affect my balance in terrible ways.

I put a gash just above my forehead that bled like crazy. It wasn't deep enough to need stitches, so Bern doctored it. Still the blood ruined my favorite shirt....

She changes the bandages twice a day because it is high enough that I couldn't do it right.

I told her, 'getting old is no cup of tea' and complained about my balance and my arrogance about not using my cane.

She blamed to glasses of wine I'd had that night.

That certainly contributed.

I see my doctor for a wellness visit (whatever that means!) on Thursday and I'll show it to her.

Today it hardly hurts at all but isn't healed. I have tomorrow and Sunday off at Trinity, Milton, so I should be fine soon.

To rephrase my title to this blog: (don't read if you are adverse to bad language)--'getting old is a damn bitch!'