Wow!! 92 years!

Sunday, March 2, was my 92nd birthday. Amazing! Since we had a BIG party at the church a year ago for my 91st, we had a small party on Saturday at the house this year: John and Cynthia, Katie and Brendon, Andy and Robin, Ellen and myself. We had a lovely supper , a beautiful birthday cake (a carrot cake), Katie had written a MadLibs about me, and we took turns filling in the blanks, and then we played Salad Bowl, very familiar to Katie and Brendon, Ellen and me, but not to the others, It was fun. We laughed a lot. A very satisfactory party.

Birthday photos.

A very nice day at home.

Today was a "blank day" - i.e., no appointments. I slept well, got up late, came out to my chair, had my "fave" breakfast, did the spelling bee puzzle, checked email, just enjoyed "futzing around" on the net. I did my exercises while Ellen went to the store, Andy came by to check out the shower measurements. Now it's time for the PBS Newshour and supper. An enjoyable day.

My usual breakfast.

The big day approaches!

i can't quite wrap my head around the fact that almost a full year has gone by since my big 91st birthday party at the Guilford Church. I'll be 92 in just 3 days! No big party this year. A small gathering here at the house on Saturday. That's fine. Will there be a 93? We'll see! Not impossible! Meanwhile, it's River Singers, Hallowell Rehearsal, Retired Clergy, a Deacon's Dinner at the Dummerston Church, TarHeels on the radio, looking out at falling snow, listening to Ellen read Huck Finn, PBS Newshour, Peter Falion and Andy Davis staying with me on Wednesdays, exploring making the upstairs shower safer, etc. I'm reading about the early history of the Syrian church after learning that Cynthia has ancestral roots in Syria. It's a chaotic history that is not familiar to me. Which makes for interesting reading.

At a Hallowell rehearsal; Mike Mayer standing. *********

Town Meeting is next Tuesday. Sugaring should start soon. Spring is only 22 days away!

Dr. Amy-Jill Levine

Ellen and I are doing Bible Study together. Many readers of this blog will remember that last year I led at the Guilford Church a Bible Study on the Parables of Jesus. I am continuing this with Ellen here at home, but the lecturer is not me, it is Dr. Amy Jill Levine, who is a Jewish scholar who has specialized in New Testament studies, and especially the figure and teachings of Jesus. She has encountered a lot of implicit anti-Semitism in Christian New Testament scholarship, and she seeks to overcome that in her work. She Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace, and has also taught at Vanderbilt Theological Seminary and Swarthmore College. She has developed a course on the internet, through Bart Ehrmann. Here is an overview: "Hello and welcome to "The Parables of Jesus: Jewish Insights into Gospel Ethics, Humor, and Provocation," by Dr. Amy-Jill Levine This course consists of four lessons with Dr. Levine as your instructor. Each lesson spans from 50 to 60 minutes, accompanied by two extensive Q&A sessions. Parables have lost their punch: they have become axioms about aiding ("Good Samaritan"), assurances of forgiveness ("Prodigal Son"), promises of grace (“Vineyard Laborers”), and exhortations to pray (“Widow and Judge”). While these are credible readings, they often promote complacency and rarely prompt ethics. Worse, stripped of historical context, they become hosts for antisemitic interpretation. First-century Jews knew that parables were not platitudes: they challenged, provoked, and engaged the mind as well as the heart. In this course, Dr. Amy-Jill Levine will cover the following pertinent topics: The parable of the man with two sons (the 'Prodigal Son') The parable of the man attacked by robbers (the 'Good Samaritan') The parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard (Equal Pay for Unequal Work) The parable of the widow and the Judge An introduction to the study of parables. Insights into the parables of the Pearl of Great Price, the Sower, the Leaven, the Mustard Seed, the Dishonest Steward, and others that depict enslaved individuals. Dr. Levine will examine these parables within their Jewish contexts, review previous scholarship, and address ethical and pastoral questions they raise, highlighting both their humor and their depth. She will address questions such as: (1) How might the first hearers of the parables, who had no knowledge of Jesus's death, have understood them? (2) How did the Evangelists initially interpret the parables, and what were the benefits and drawbacks of their interpretations? (3) How did antisemitic interpretations of the parables develop, and how can they be corrected? (4) While many see the parables as focusing on salvation or Christology, what insights do they offer about economics, ethics, insiders and outsiders, and the roles of the enslaved and the enslavers? (5) How do the parables help us understand the social roles of first-century Jewish women?"

Dr. Amy-Jill Levine. ******************* Dr. Levine talks pretty fast, and it can be had to follow all her humerous little asides, of which there are many. Fortunately, when you play the video of her lecture, you can slow down her speech without changing the pitch of her voice. Amazing! We are both enjoying hearing her lectures and talking about them.

Valentine’s Day treat

Yesterday was sunny but cold: a good day to get out and drive up to Grandma Miller's bakery. I did not plan to get out of the car, so I dressed casually and comfortably. They still had chocolate eclairs and that was our special treat for the day, plus morninglory muffins for the future. Yum!

Ellen coming out of GMB with eclairs, muffins and coffee. ******

This evening I listened to the Heels play Syracuse. it was a must-win game if the Heels have any hope of getting into the NCAA tournament. They pulled out a 6-point win, 88-82. The game was tied with just a couple of minutes of play remaining. Whew! Fingers crossed!

More snow coming!

There is a forecast of up to two feet of snow this weekend. I've been worrying about the weight of snow on the deck. We havn't been shoveling it, and we already had over 18 inches. 3 1/2 feet of wet snow would weigh a lot. A deck collapse would be catastrophic! So I asked Zach to come up and shovel it. He came, but he brought his snowblower! That made quick work of the job! He brought Riley too. Riley is getting big! So that is a weight not only off the deck, but off my mind!

Zach snowblowing the deck with Riley. We usually put away deck chairs and tables for the winter, but not this year. Zach had to clear them out of the way of the bloŵer. Same for the Christmas tree, which we put out on the deck only about a week ago.

Zach with the Honda blower. It seems to work very well. It has caterpillar tracks and seems to be able to crawl through just about anything.

Riley. Zach has taken Riley with him on jobs since he was a baby. He would plow with Riley curled up in his lap. Pretty neat!******************************* The storm will carry into Sunday morning, so no in-person church this Sunday. They are doing a zoom church service in Guilford, but all from people's homes. They will probably use videos of virtual choirs for hymns and anthems. The church has quite an archive of them on YouTube from the COVID pandemic era.

We’ve got snow!

This winter is proving to be much colder and snowier than last winter. Yesterday, both Dummerston and Guilford called off church because of snow. We did not go to either the Bergh's or Katie's for the Super Bowl for the same reason. We're just staying at home. But it's snowing so often we're home a lot. Especially me. Which is fine in a way, but it is confining. I have two doctor's appointments this week, plus other things. We'll see!

Our snowy deck. We don't usually leave tables and chairs on the deck over the winter, but this year we did. There are sort of cute cones of snow piled up on the tables.