Dead Sea Scrolls

My mother's 80th birthday celebration included a museum expedition to see the Dead Sea Scrolls - I believe the exhibit is only being shown in two places in the U.S. It was an amazing experience! Only the Holy Spirit could have created, preserved, uncovered and given patience to those who restored them. Of course there were only a few fragments on display, so much of the exhibit focussed on the history of the Essenes at Qumran, the controversies over the true nature of the site and how the scrolls came to be there. At the time they were discovered, cello-tape had just been invented (what we now call Scotch tape) and it seemed ideal for taping the scroll fragments to glass plates. Fifty years on it became obvious that both tape and glass were damaging, so the preservation has had to be done over with modern techniques - another painstaking endeavor. The exhibited scroll fragments were shown in a carefully climate-controlled room and the dim light enhanced their sacred aura. The last room of the exhibit displayed some beautiful codex Bibles created over the centuries. The most recent was the King James Bible designed and illustrated by Barry Moser, published in 1999. You can read a wonderful article about this Bible at http://www.crosscurrents.org/madsenmoser.htm. Moser wanted his engravings to show people we can relate to in the present day, so there are no halos or other elements typical of many past religious artworks. The engravings are stark and beautiful.
Just one more comment on stewardship: a few weeks ago Fr Dan came to see The Cornerstone, the supportive housing residence I'm involved with in Newburgh. I'm pretty lax about putting money in the parking meters there - I'm usually rushing and, besides, haven't we done an amazing job of renovating the building and cleaning up the area? But Fr Dan put a coin in both his meter and mine and I have been careful to follow his example since. It's kind of like the broken window syndrome - the city needs our respect if its going to become what we want and believe it can be.

An Instructed Eucharist

This Sunday's God Talk will be a discussion of the instructed Eucharist we will have. I will be giving you commentary throughout the service about why we are doing what we are doing. And the sermon will deal with how we humans are liturgical people inside and outside of church. See you at 9am. Everyone is welcome.