Reflections of an Urban Priest

Early in winter, I bought a small packet of Caprese tomato seeds from a supplier I found at Amazon. I planted the seeds, which in theory I would raise aquaponicly in my basement garden, referred to as the lower 40. I killed the fish so had to shift to hydroponic gardening; I just could not bear the thought of killing anything, except squirrels, but that is a story for another day, so I made the shift to a hydroponic set-up. I started the seeds and now 50 days later, have 50 fruits ripening on the vines, not one of which even remotely resembles the distinctive size and color of the Caprese. I am curious what the tomatoes will taste like. I do not think that there will be a chance that these tomatoes will have that beautiful sweetness, without the high acidic taste of breeds popular long ago, but I’m okay. I await the ripening of the fruit with the love and concern that only that first tomato brings. When ripe, I will pick the first tomato off the vine in the heat of the day, b

This Week, the Holy Spirit is offering us an invitation to hear the word of God in a way that we have never heard the word before. My prayer was that the Holy Spirit would open the Bible for me in a way that I could understand the message that God has for me, and for us all. The message of the Bible can be difficult to grasp. The language, at times, seems to come from days long gone by; the context, first living as free people and then united by a monarchy, and then finally overrun by and dominated by an Imperial Army is difficult to say the least. Think for example the life, judgement, punishment, and execution that Jesus suffered at the hands of Imperial authority. Capital punishment was a foreign concept to the Hebrew people, it was something that the Greeks and then Romans did. In Hebrew culture for a capital offender the highest punishment was to banish one from the community and condemning the convicted to live in a sanctuary city, alone, and without any support from their f