Friday in the Second Week of Lent: Bread and salt

I got up this morning and before coffee began to make bread in the bread machine so we would have some bread by mid morning.  I was putting in the last ingredient when suddenly I thought perhaps I put in a tablespoon of salt rather than a teaspoon.  The first effort was to remove some but since I had created the well for the yeast already the salt was not distinct.  Do I toss the whole thing and drink some coffee and regather my wits or do I simply hope the ingredient is either right or will not ruin the loaf?  Do I potentially waste time or ingredients? I am letting the bread machine run its course as I drink coffee.

Lent has a lot to do with moral ingredient in our lives.  I suppose there may be some right proportion we are to seek so we live clearer lives. Certainly we who practice faith under the Christian umbrella learn to strive for “right living.”  And yet we also trip and fall, or at least stumble from time to time. 

I am doing taxes right now, the gathering and sorting phase which I hate.  There are all these little temptations to ‘modify’ a fact or two in my favor. I hate those temptations largely because I will pay for my choice one way or the other, either in tax dollars or a potential audit.  The later sounds like judgment day to me, while the former is all about greed.

I sometimes observe mid-life families with multiple children in restaurants who look prosperous and calm and wonder how they got to seem so perfect.  When they are home is it all so certain?  Are they as together as they seem to me?  How do you get to be that way?  And then another question follows.  What am I not seeing?

Lent reminds us that there is an unseen aspect of all our lives.  It is the inner arena of moral choice and whether or how we value what is called ‘right living.’  What happens to us when we fail in choice or this right living, as I sometimes do?

Today’s readings from Romans 2:25-3:18 and from John 5:30-47 are not the easiest to bring to understanding.  The Roman’s discourse is long and complex but what Paul is struggling to put to us is that the Law of God, given the Jews, is a gift of vast value.  It shows us what is expected of a faithful life.  But it is also a potential problem.  We may teach it and not follow it or even follow it with a judgmental tightness.  As we seek to follow it few if any are perfect. It is a tutor which invariably ends with the faithful knowing they fall short of perfection.  While it is a good tutor, God sees we need more.  So St. Paul speaks of a spiritual circumcision of the heart. Here we both see the possibility of good and the difficulty of always seeking it. It cuts us to our quick.  But here is more.  Here we also are able to be opened to Grace, the love of God we see in Jesus that offers to forgive, redirect, plant in us hope to begin again.  And Grace holds us in this ever new beginning.

 

That brings us to John 5.  Jesus has been indirectly challenged as to why he would heal on the Sabbath and break to law.  He then goes into an intricate description of how his work aligns with God’s continuous work of healing the world, seeking to draw us Godward.  The author of John is clear; we are not made whole simply by seeking every jot and tittle of the Law, but aligning ourselves with the deeper motivation, God’s love of all.

But I know you have not the love of God within you. I have come in the Father’s name and you do not receive me…” 5:41-43 

The point of the discourse is that if we look on Jesus, follow his teaching (Word), we will encounter the core of God.  Is it that the Sabbath of our Heart will burst with healing and wholeness from time to time?  Will I bypass greed and do a better thing?  Will I just forgive the imperfection of ME and perhaps my family yet again?  I do so hope so.

I wonder what this Sabbath healing might be for you who read this.

When the bread is done, if I put too much salt in it, can I just slather it with no salt butter or maybe jam and redeem it?  Or will I just look on it lovingly, say I made a mistake, and begin again. Both I think taste of grace.

Do bird's like bread with too much salt?

 

I’ll know in an hour.