A particularly low moment in a State of the Union speech full of them was President Trump awarding a Presidential Medal of Freedom to one of the voices that had most contributed to the decline of American civic life and political engagement, professional racist conservative radio personality Rush Limbaugh.
Limbaugh is sixty-nine and, as he just announced on his daily radio program, has been diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer. Empathy is due to anyone who is suffering. But not high honors, not a celebration of a life’s work devoted to the mockery and derision of the Other. For the President of the United States to bestow one of the nation’s highest laurels on Limbaugh is a morally corrosive and politically cynical act. It is a kind of assault on the achievements of so many previous award winners, a list that includes Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., Václav Havel, Rosa Parks, and John Lewis. It is appalling to see Rush Limbaugh’s name listed alongside theirs.
Something all the cool kids are doing these days is email newsletters. I have a handful I subscribe to and read, and I really like the format. So, I’ve decided to do my own!
So, what will set it apart from this blog? Good question.
I envision this blog holding thought out, “completed” pieces, for lack of a better term. What I post here I what, in my head, feels like published work, things I’ve thought about and planned and taken time to write and edit.
The newsletter, on the other hand, I hope to use more as a place to quickly put together things I’m thinking about, things I’ve read that I don’t have a ton to say something about, and “status update” type reports on things I’m reading, watching, listening to, experiencing etc. Alan Jacobs, whose “Snakes and Ladders” newsletter is one of my favorite things, does this in each of his, and I love it. So, with credit to him, I’m going to borrow the idea for myself.
I’ll also usually link to what I write here, as I intend to do a weekly newsletter. It can be a place to aggregate what’s happening here.
On Saturday, one of the Scripture readings from my Sacred Ordinary Days planner was Genesis 18:1-16, the story of Abraham welcoming the three angelic messengers to his tent, and their speaking of the promise of God that nearly-100 year old Sarah would soon bear a child.
The Lord appeared to Abraham[a] by the oaks[b] of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. 2 He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. 3 He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. 4 Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. 5 Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” 6 And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three measures[c] of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” 7 Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. 8 Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
9 They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” 10 Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?” 13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.” 15 But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. He said, “Oh yes, you did laugh.”
Then the men set out from there, and they looked toward Sodom; and Abraham went with them to set them on their way.
Genesis 18:1-16, NRSV
This story is featured in the world’s most famous, and most intriguing, sacred icon, Andrei Rublev’s Trinity, also known as The Hospitality of Abraham.
Rublev’s Trinity
Rublev originally painted the icon to depict the story from Genesis 18. However, interpreters and worshippers have long interpreted the image as also depicting the Holy Trinity, as well as an invitation to the Communion Table.
There are entire books written about The Trinity, not to mention countless articles, papers and sermons. For a quick devotional-style primer from the perspective of relational theology, read this piece by Fr. Richard Rohr. He writes,
If we take the depiction of God in The Trinity seriously, we have to say, “In the beginning was the Relationship.” The gaze between the Three shows the deep respect between them as they all share from a common bowl.
Richard Rohr, “Take Your Place at the Table”, Center for Action and Contemplation
In relational theology, the Holy Trinity is depicted as, first and foremost, a relationship, self-giving and freely receiving, showing that God desires nothing more than non-coerced relationship with each of us. To contemplate Rublev’s Trinity is to contemplate our own place in relationship with God, offered (like the empty seat in the image) without condition or judgment, but simply because we are here.
Justin DaMetz 