May 23: Walking and thinking

It hit 32 today, but there was a consistent breeze. We started before 7:30 to get the best of the day. “Only” 28km, and a much easier experience, despite more hills.

Yesterday evening I led a session on “The Spirit of Evangelism” for the Sofia Anglican communion’s annual “Thy Kingdom Come” reflection series before Pentecost. I really wrestled with it but found a positive path through: true to my conviction that all Faith Traditions embody true spiritual value, while also recognising the need to witness about one’s own life and spiritual journeys. The Camino is a great metaphor for holding space and welcome for fellow travellers, even if just for a few miles together. I leaned heavily on that, grateful for the challenge of preparing a script that felt authentic, respectful and appropriate.

Today, I was still feeling the “lift” from that session. I did some singing in a beautiful hilltop chapel (empty except for a nest of house martins at the back and a fledgling stone chat at the altar). It was a cool and ringing space – a lovely experience.

I have stopped trying to take photos of the landscape. We had an incredible 2 weeks where the clouds, sky and rain created wonderful landscapes. The flat, white heat of these very hot days washes everything out. Add the haze, and the exercise of trying to frame a macro-shot completely pointless. So, I walked very much with my thoughts today. You will see an additional post: the result of my really thinking about the Biblical basis for my political and social views. That’s what happens when the sky is clear! You have been warned…

It was the “Revive America” Bible Read that made me start fretting about this. I admit a very UNChristian motivation of wanting to argue with “Judeo-Christian Nationalists” who insist their hate is based in Scripture. It is. Hate is there, if you cherry-pick. I feel I must have a coherent rebuttal. They deny science, expertise and insist that they are “Biblical”, so it is from/in the Bible that argument must be made. Unsurprisingly, the problem was shrinking down an embarrassment of riches to just a few key passages.

Perhaps one pertinent question is: Esther or Ruth? Both are Biblical heroines, with their own books.

· One (Esther) was groomed by her family to captivate the Persian Emperor (think Katherine Howard and Henry VIII). Once ensconced as favourite wife/Empress, she/they used her influence to secure consequence-free pogroms against her father’s enemies (whoopie!).

· The other (Ruth) was a penniless migrant from a hated country. She made a clumsy attempt to seduce a wealthy relative of her mother-in-law. She was met with courtesy and rebuff AND a man decent enough to fulfil the legal requirements to clear her debts and to marry her (think Mr Darcy to Elizabeth Bennet). She became a great-grandmother of Christ.

I think your choice speaks to how and why you read the Bible (in this season) and what it says to you.