Working our Way Through the World

Wisdom 9:1, 7-18

“14 For the reasoning of mortals is worthless,

 and our designs are likely to fail;

 15 for a perishable body weighs down the soul,

 and this earthy tent burdens the thoughtful mind.

 16 We can hardly guess at what is on earth,

 and what is at hand we find with labor;

 but who has traced out what is in the heavens?”

It was verse 16 that grabbed me, especially “what is at hand we find with labor.” I have been writing reflections on the Waystead Intentions lately, and one of them is about ‘labor’: “To labor gently, mindful of the amount of strength and energy to be had.” I really like the idea that labor comes first, and by virtue of our labor, the job at hand will appear. We will find out what needs to be done because we are already at work, not the other way around. We don’t see a job undone, and have to stir our stumps to get up and go do it. Instead we work our way through the world and all our various tasks sustain our labor. I thought of Jesus’s saying about the works he does in his Father’s name testifying about him. I also thought of the saying, “the proof of the pudding is in the eating.”

Colossians 4:2-18

“5 Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. 6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone.”

Is this where the saying “take it with a grain of salt” comes from? I looked it up, and it’s actually from a recipe for an antidote against poison found in Pliny’s writings. So what the heck does Paul mean? Various commentators seem to agree that “grace” is being compared with “salt.” So gracious speech is well-seasoned and full of flavor, interesting and appealing. I’m not so sure. Salt was used as a preservative as well as a flavoring, maybe even primarily as a preservative. So when Jesus called his disciples “the salt of the earth” maybe he meant that they defended the world against spoilage. Maybe seasoning your words with salt means that your speech is always intended to sustain integrity and kindness in human dialogue, just as salt is intended to preserve the wholesomeness of food. Anyway.

Luke 7:36-50

“36 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and took his place at the table. 37 And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. 38 She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment.”

Sorry, I got distracted trying to figure out how a person could both stand behind him and at his feet. The only way I could figure it out was by assuming I had pictured people reclining at feast quite incorrectly. So the diner’s heads would have had to be toward the center and they would have had to be lying on their stomachs….? Sure enough, a Google search produced multiple images of just that. It also explains how she got in, because apparently servants stood behind the diners and “at their feet” in order to wait on them. I was also amused and pleased at the way Jesus got back at the Pharisee for being rude to him by using her as an example of good hospitality. I’ll bet the Pharisee only invited him for his shock value, or to try to embarrass him by forcing him out of his social depth. I can just see all the other high-society guests just waiting to get at him, to try and humiliate him. They must have thought that this girl with the ointment was giving them the perfect opportunity! Not!

I think maybe I’ll go through the Bible and collect all of Jesus’s snarky comebacks. He was really good at those.