In today’s first reading, the brothers Cain and Abel have just brought an offering to the Lord. Abel brought his best lamb to offer to God in sacrifice. Cain brought some of the first fruits of the harvest, but pointedly not the best. “The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not.” (Gen 4:5-6a)
Several commentaries offer that what follows in Genesis 4:6-7 is perhaps the most challenging verse facing translators in the Book of Genesis, or perhaps all of the Hebrew Scriptures. “So, the LORD said to Cain: “Why are you so resentful and crestfallen. If you do well, you can hold up your head; but if not, sin is a demon lurking at the door: his urge is toward you, yet you can be his master.”
“He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp” – frightening and dreadful words. Spoken to leprous people in the wilderness, a people on the Exodus betwixt and between the slavery of Egypt and the promised land of Palestine. Words that ban, isolate, shun, and place someone beyond the connection to the community. These are words spoken to loved ones that pushed them from the routine of life into the wilderness. In modern life, we have our own words or lack of words that push people into a more modern wilderness where our loved ones are ghosted, cancelled, deleted, blocked and isolated – all this is a time when we all feel the effects of pandemic fatigue. Perhaps “outside the camp” sounds tempting during these safer-at-home days of the covid-19 pandemic. But this is different.
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Shira Ovide of the New York Times writes a daily newsletter, “On Tech.” It is mostly always interesting and in a non-geek kind of way. Yesterday’s newsletter was interesting because it followed up on something I heard the other days on the radio news – that Apple was considering investing in the electric car market. The final shape/vision of the investment was to be determined, but either way, it was surprising. Seems like a bit of a stretch at first glance. There is the old story of the railroad companies that did not understand their business was transportation, not just railroads and so missed out on automobiles/trucking, airplanes, and the like. Who knows what Apple is thinking? They view their business in ways that have been innovative and profitable. Very profitable.
t used to be that on my day off I could go to Ft. Desoto (Fla) with my beach chair and umbrella, watch the wind surfers, read a book …. Between dozing off to the sounds of the wind and surf. Thursday is still my one day off each week. Today in the Tampa Bay region temperatures will reach the high 70s. Today in Northern Virginia is it raining with a high of 36 degrees.
Earlier today I posted a great video from the folks at The Bible Project. The video is part of an on-going series on the nature of God as described in 
Today is the Feast Day of St. Scholastica, the foundress of the Benedictine Order of nuns and the twin sister of St. Benedict of Nursia, founder of the Benedictine Order of brothers. Together they are credited with establishing monasticism in the western world.
friarmusings 