Monthly Archives: February 2026

Religion

Of death, and of children

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Image credit: Royal Academy

Bad and good things today. The good came first, but I’ll discuss it last.

Today, in the course of carrying out a routine task, I learned that a friend of mine had died last month. He was a member of my Viking group – not one of the regulars, but he showed up from time to time, and the two of us generally talked. But it was only at our last event, Viking Fest Minnesota last fall, that we discovered we shared very similar religious and social views. It may seem strange to know a guy for years and never learn that, but we generally keep off such topics at our events. Try to avoid kicking up divisions in the group. But lo and behold, Paul turned out to be One of Us. So we had a good talk. I looked forward to having more such talks.

Now that won’t happen.

He was almost two decades younger than me.

Receive him into glory immortal, O Lord.

Now to the positive stuff.

If you scroll down this page a few inches, you’ll see my meditation from the other day on some verses from Luke 18. I was pondering the contrast between the parable of the Importunate Widow and the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.

I saw the point of the first parable as encouraging chutzpah – ask boldly; don’t be shy.

And I saw the point of the second as calling for humility.

Which seemed contradictory to me. I don’t know how to reconcile the two things in my own life.

This morning (having been kept from my devotions yesterday) I came to the passage that follows. And once again, context matters. Jesus Himself answers the conundrum he posed. It goes on like this, Luke 18:15-17:

Let the Children Come to Me

15Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 17Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

And there, I think, is the answer, the truth that squares the circle. Who can be importunate like the Widow, and humble like the Tax Collector, all at the same time?

A child. Children ask without shame, and are humble by necessity. “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

So all I need to do is become like a child.

The actual problem remains as difficult as it was before, but at least I can articulate it now.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Murder On the Menu,’ by Bruce Beckham

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Strands of cotton wool cloud stretch like forsaken laundry across Skiddaw’s darkening lower slopes.

Yet, like a split time zone, the setting sun spotlights the great fell’s scree-capped summit – and overhead, at some indeterminate altitude (but not so high) rays incandesce in a layer of fine golden mist.

I’ve read most of Bruce Beckham’s Inspector Skelgill novels. I can’t say I actually love them, but they’re uniformly satisfying. The great virtue of the books is probably their prose. The author spends a lot of time describing the landscape and weather of England’s lake district, which he obviously loves.

In Murder On the Menu, Skelgill and young female detective Emma Jones are looking into some non-fatal poisonings at restaurants in the area. It appears that their region is a hotbed of fine dining (Skelgill generally cares more about quantity than quality), and the restaurants that have seen the poisonings are contenders for an important magazine award. Could somebody be trying to nobble the frontrunners?

In a rather comic subplot, Sergeant Leyton, the citified London transplant, finds himself slogging around the countryside, stalking a man he suspects of being a poacher.

Murder On the Menu is notable for the fact that Inspector Skelgill himself spends quite a large part of it out of commission – and yet manages to save the day.

Quite entertaining, especially if you’re a lover of the outdoors. No cautions I can think of.

Religion

Of tax collectors and widows

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Photo credit: Getty Images. Unsplash license.

Today the sun shone most of the time, and temperatures moderated in my embattled town. I went to the eye surgeon for a follow-up examination, and everything looked good. I also did not encounter any neo-secessionist rioters en route, which pleased me.

In my morning devotions, I read the passage below from Luke 18. Actually, just verses 9-14. I did 1-8 last Friday. But, in considering the context, I noticed for the first time that Luke jams two very contrasting parables right next to each other, thus:

The Parable of the Persistent Widow

1And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 6And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

9He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayeda thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

I’ve always been fond of the Tax Collector in the temple. In fact, my personal “conversion” (we Lutherans believe we’re converted at baptism, but some of us also believe you can have a renewal of your baptism when you’re old enough to understand the life of faith) followed a sermon on this parable. I was about 12 year old. As a guy who suffered from “low self-esteem” (a concept not yet invented at the time), I could identify with that beaten-down guy.

But just before that parable (I noticed today), you’ve got the outrageous story of the Persistent Widow (or the Unjust Judge). This is one of those parables that confounds our left-brain impulse to make every parable an allegory. Jesus is absolutely not saying that God is like an unjust judge. He’s just practicing hyperbole, telling an exaggerated story to make a point. You might call it a kind of a joke – “Even a crooked judge can be worn down by constant petitions. Certainly our good Heavenly Father will respond much faster than that!”

In other words, this parable commands us to approach God with what the Jews call “chutzpah.” Jewish people are famous for being bold askers. Their parents (generally) raise them to be like this. “What can it hurt to ask?” they say. “The worst they can do is say no.”

This is not something I learned in my Norwegian home. Precisely the opposite, in fact. It’s something I need to ponder, tax collector in the temple that I am.