The Internet Monk Archives

Reconsider Jesus – The Compassionate One (Mark 1:29-45)

Reconsider Jesus – A fresh look at Jesus from the Gospel of Mark
A devotional commentary by Michael Spencer
Compiled and Edited by: Michael Bell
Table of Contents

The Compassionate One

29 And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. 31 And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

32 That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered together at the door. 34 And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. 36 And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, 37 and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” 38 And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” 39 And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.

40 And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” 41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” 42 And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43 And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, 44 and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” 45 But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter.

Mark 1:29-45 – ESV

There is an aspect of Jesus’ ministry here that requires our attention: When Jesus casts out demons, heals a person with leprosy, or performs one of the other miracles we see in this passage, he is doing something radical in his world. He is rejecting a whole way of thinking about people and their problems. When the society of that time was confronted with what it called demon possession it was common for them to take sticks and beat these people into submission, or to give them poison thinking that if they vomited they would vomit out the demon. It is unbelievable what a person like this might have been through.

My father was put in a mental hospital in the late 1960s in Louisville and I was never able to visit him, but the people who did said the wards were like going to hell. People are not treated well when others don’t understand what is going on. In Jesus’ time they would write off these marginalised people, saying “It proves I am a godly person if I have nothing to do with that person.” “It proves I am a godly person if I avoid the leper.”

Jesus rejected this whole way of thinking about people and their problems. When Jesus saw a demon possessed person, a leper, or even a mother-in-law with a fever, Jesus saw a hurting person. He gave them love, acceptance, kindness, and dignity. Having anything to do with a person with leprosy would have made you unclean yourself. For Jesus to reach out and touch a leper, was not just a mere action, it was reaching across all of those barriers that society had put up and instead saying that this person is lovable and valuable in God’s sight.

We need to remember this: If we are not saying, “Give me compassion for the excluded, and compassion for the hurting” then we are not yet following Jesus. As we go through our world, through the courthouses, the hospitals, the classrooms, and the community, we will see all sorts of people of whom our world says, “They are in that unacceptable group and deservedly so.” Jesus calls us to be willing to go across that barrier, not just out of some sort of feel good duty, but out of true genuine compassion.

The gospel tells me that despite all my failings and imperfections Christ loved me, included me, cleansed and forgave me. Therefore I can go and eat dinner at a table with someone with whom I wouldn’t normally eat, talk with those with whom I wouldn’t normally talk, and befriend those who are not supposed to be in my group. That is following Jesus.

Jesus is calling us to reach across barriers and get out of our comfort zones. He is calling us to draw a larger circle of God’s love than just the people with whom we are comfortable. He wants us to include people who are different from us without excluding those who are like us. To cross the barriers, reject cliques, and to treat people as Jesus treated them is a powerful demonstration of the gospel. I want you to notice as we read through Mark what happens as Jesus does this: In verse 32, the whole town gathered at the door; In verse 45 Jesus could no longer openly enter a town. Over in chapter three so many people were being brought to Jesus that he had to teach from a boat because the crowds were so crushing. In chapter six, facing yet another large crowd, and despite a lack of food and rest, Jesus had compassion “because they were like sheep without a shepherd.”

Did Jesus face these crowds in these passages and elsewhere because he was a miracle worker? Yes, but more so because Jesus treated, and reached out to, and loved, and touched the unacceptable and the excluded. People came running to him, lepers came from their hiding places, and prostitutes came from their hiding places. People who were ashamed of their family members brought them to Jesus.

Do you understand what Christianity means if we practice this? What would a church look like if it was Jesus’ church? Would it be only for nice white families with no problems, two cars and two kids? No. Jesus’ church would include all kinds of people, with all kinds of problems, who would be drawn together by the acceptance they find in Jesus Christ. They would not be ashamed but welcomed and there would not be one hint of anyone saying, “We’re happy we don’t have that kind of person here.”

I cannot say I am following Jesus Christ if I am not willing to pray that the authority and the power of Jesus would change the lives of those around me. I don’t believe it is up to me to diagnose people’s problems, but it is appropriate for me to say “Lord Jesus Christ, send your Spirit and work in this life. Do what only you can do.” God saves people, heals people, delivers people and changes people. A rationalistic Christianity that excludes this is wrong. It doesn’t need to be a show, and it doesn’t need to be self serving, and it can’t be a circus, but it can’t be left out. You can’t have powerless Christianity. Our Savior has authority over everything, including demons and illness, and he extends it to people that our world has written off.

That includes us. All of us know what it is like to feel unaccepted. The word “stigma” may not be in vogue anymore, but if you have been divorced you know what stigma is. If you have been unemployed you know what stigma is. If people look at you as a failure, or as somebody they don’t want to talk to or know, then you know how powerful it is to realize that Jesus Christ includes you and accepts you. There is no time that I need Jesus more than when I feel unacceptable to myself and to others. I am acceptable to him and he will always come and stand by me, and embrace me, and love me. He doesn’t exclude me, and he doesn’t blame me.

The kind of Christianity that presents a Christ who blames people and excludes people is not following the Jesus of the gospels. In the New Testament when someone has to be excluded from the church for reasons of church discipline, it is a heartbreaking matter because Jesus Christ is an includer, not an excluder. Our gospel needs to start at that. You need to feel what it is to follow a Christ who looked at a demon possessed man and said, “Bring that man to me and I’ll help him.” Jesus looked at illness. He looked at stigma. He looked at all of that and said that in the Kingdom of God it is a whole different thing. Those barriers are gone. I pray that you experience that for yourself through the gospel.

In our next chapter I will elaborate a little more about what this should and shouldn’t look like in a church today.

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Notes from Mike Bell:
1. What questions or thoughts come from your mind from what you have just read? What stood out to you?
2. Would you be interested in a paper or Kindle version of the book when it is available? Please email us at michaelspencersnewbook@gmail.com so that we can let you know when it is ready.
3. Find any grammar or spelling errors, phrases that are awkward or difficult to understand? Also send these type of comments to the email address above.

Another Former Creation Museum Staffer Speaks Out About Ken Ham’s Toxic Empire

Another Former Creation Museum Staffer Speaks Out About Ken Ham’s Toxic Empire

The Friendly Atheist writes:

Last summer, a former employee of the Creation Museum, Ariella Duran, explained the “toxic culture” of that work environment in a lengthy Facebook post. She worked for Answers in Genesis for just over two years in “every single existing department,” finally leaving in 2017 for a variety of professional and personal reasons. She wrote about how she “witnessed rank partiality and favoritism, nepotism, inconsistent or non-existent communication, bullying, and spiritual abuse,” adding that Ken Ham had “built his legacy on the bones of employees he has knowingly driven into the ground.”

He goes on to say:

And now another former employee is speaking out about similar treatment.

Back in March, Leah Jessie wrote about how she began working at the Creation Museum in 2016 as a seasonal employee. She eventually left in December of 2019, when she was a “technically full time employee.” She wanted the job specifically because she grew up on Ham’s books and content and was excited to join a Christian ministry. While there were plenty of good memories from her time there, she pointed out a number of concerns…

Among the concerns she lists are:

workmates who experienced dishonesty, bullying, overwork, illegal discrimination, harassment, and blackmailing…
most employees who work on Sundays are unable to attend church, which forces hypocrisy because they are required upon hire to sign a statement promising to faithfully and regularly attend church.
When her car broke down a fellow employee gave her a ride… and got in trouble because he was a man alone with a women…
Another employee got in trouble for commenting on Ariella Duran’s Facebook post saying “I’m so sorry this happened… I’m praying for you.” That person was later reprimanded by AiG for commenting on the post.

All this finally prompted Leah Jesse to write:

“While there are some Christians who work at AiG, I do not consider it to be a Christian organisation.”

And:

One last point she mentions: Some people responded to her Facebook post negatively, saying it reflected poorly on Christianity. But Leah says — rightly, I would argue — that “it’s the mistreatment and abuse that brings a bad name on Christianity, not someone talking about it.”

A couple of things I’m going to note here. One is that I’m not surprised to hear this. The type of fundamentalist authoritarianism that Ham apparently subscribes to breeds just this type of abusive, toxic religion. I’ve experienced it – and that is what started my journey out of evangelicalism – and a number of Imonk readers have testified to the same thing. Two, is that this is so often what happens when your deeply held beliefs devolve into ideology. The behavior is not isolated to religious fundamentalism – really it’s a human failing.

But I’d like to focus on Leah Jesse’s final point:

One last point she mentions: Some people responded to her Facebook post negatively, saying it reflected poorly on Christianity. But Leah says — rightly, I would argue — that “it’s the mistreatment and abuse that brings a bad name on Christianity, not someone talking about it.”

Some have criticized Internet Monk for focusing on the failures of evangelicalism saying the same thing: that we reflect poorly on Christianity. But as she notes, it’s the failure to talk about it, to reveal the flaws, that brings the bad name and causes the name of Christ to be blasphemed. It’s to our shame it takes an atheist to point that out.

under a fallen wall

under a fallen wall

what you do
after you hit the wall
and then the wall falls on you
you gather your strength
what’s left
and begin digging out
but it’s fits and starts
choke on dust
pause, rub wounds
take a moment
you can do it, you insist
to yourself
anyone there?
brush aside the debris
try to work your legs
free from the pinching beams
trapping, holding on like chinese torture
each move only seems to
increase the weight
can anyone hear me?
cough, sputter, spit particulates
chalky mouth muttering
rest a minute
got nothing but time
just a little more time…

A Beauty Before Death

I walked through a graveyard on an October morn, and worshipped as I wandered. For the slant light illumined the rainbow of trees, each aflame with the beauty of God.

I stood speechless before so many burning bushes.

But stones also surrounded me, cold in the morning air. Stones shaped and engraved, each marking and mourning a life now gone.

An odd juxtaposition. Beauty and life watching over, guarding …. death stones and corpses.

I used to walk through a graveyard like a child scurrying through a field on the way to the playground.

But now I linger and wonder. Every stone a story. Each now silent.

I look again at the trees in their autumn finery, the contrast with the stones enlivening their glory.

And yet, these also will soon choke in the deathly grip of winter. Their leaves dropped and scattered and gone, like the minutes and days of those lying in the ground below them.

I reflect. I too…I too will soon lie down with them.

Soon? Not to be morbid. I may live two or three decades yet. Who knows? But certainly I walk in the autumn of my life.

The years have weight, and my back is stooped.

How I wish…how I wish…

Not to stop the seasons…not deny death its day. No, for I believe in the eternal spring.

I wish for something else today.

I wish and pray…that I too, like the majestic maple before me, would be beautiful and lovely before I die. That the autumn of my life would be aflame with the grandeur of the One who made me.

That there would be a beauty before death.

Is this possible…could this ever happen?

With God, what is impossible?

It will certainly not be a bodily beauty. But the beauty of a life lived with You, and for others. A life of love. Your love, flowing through me. You the branch; I the leaves.

Yes, this is my prayer as I wonder and wander amidst the gray stones, under the rainbow of leaves.

That I too may have beauty. A beauty before death.

Reconsider Jesus – The Exorcist (Mark 1:21-28)

Reconsider Jesus – A fresh look at Jesus from the Gospel of Mark
A devotional commentary by Michael Spencer
Compiled and Edited by: Michael Bell
Table of Contents

The Exorcist

21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, 24 “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”

25 “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” 26 The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.

27 The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” 28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

Mark 1:21-28 – NIV

While many are comfortable with the image of Jesus as a teacher, picturing Jesus as an exorcist however, raises problems for many modern western minds. Exorcism is associated with a primitive and pre-scientific world-view, particularly in the area of mental and physical illnesses. In the first century, demons were considered a common explanation for many physical, mental and emotional problems. In order to help us understand this passage, I think it would be helpful for us to deal with one principle of Bible interpretation by discussing the implications of a pre-scientific world. I think it is important for us to understand, and for me it has been very helpful.

The Bible is written in a pre-scientific world. What this means is that, given the opportunity to describe something that is going on in the real world, the authors of the text do not give a modern scientific description. They don’t describe things as scientists would describe them, or as a medical doctor today would describe them. What they do describe is whatever they are looking at in a way people would understand at that time. If you try to hold the Biblical descriptions to the standards of modern science, you are going to be in trouble for many reasons. Let me give you two examples of this that I often use when trying to make this point.

In Mark 13:24, when speaking about the signs that will accompany the end of time, Jesus quotes from two Old Testament passages⁷⁸ and says: “But in those days, following that distress, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.”

Let me focus on one thing here: “The stars will fall from the sky.”

This is a pre-scientific description. In Jesus’ day, people believed stars were little points up in the sky. When they saw the streak of light in the sky it made sense to them that these were falling stars. We understand stars differently today, and we know that “falling stars” are bits of meteoric dust burning up in our atmosphere. What Jesus is doing here is using poetic language to describe a future cataclysmic time. He is using language that people of his day understood. We shouldn’t expect this to be written in modern scientific language, as that would be foolish.

Let me give you another example from the Gospel of John: “As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’”⁷⁹

You see the worldview that is at work? It is a worldview that does not understand what doctors understand today about eyes and blindness. Thinking that blindness is a consequence of sin is a thought from a pre-scientific world.

Jesus didn’t walk into his world as a 21st century doctor or scientist. So 21st century doctors and scientists shouldn’t make fun of scripture because scripture uses the language of its own culture. Jesus lived and spoke and ministered in his world as a person of his time and culture. He responded as a person of his time. We should not ask that the Gospels present us Jesus with a scientific and psychologically sophisticated point of view on questions of mental and physical illness. The particular demonology of Jesus day was derived more from Persian sources than from purely Jewish ones, but the important point is that in a pre-scientific worldview, it is not “ignorant” or “primitive” to see spiritual forces at work in these sorts of situations.

When I was growing up I would frequently see an epileptic seizure in my school. It was kind of frightening. A child would fall out of his chair, or writhe on the floor. It occurred to me as I have been studying the Gospel of Mark these past years, that you don’t see that any more. It is now controlled by medication. Yet how would the people of Jesus’ day interpret these episodes of epilepsy?

There are a lot of encounters between Jesus and demons in the Gospel of Mark. As we go through Mark we will observe some events that are attributed to demons, that when seen from our western mindset, can be understood to be as a result of something else.

That being said, I absolutely believe in demons. They are fallen angelic spirits. I believe they are real, and yes, I believe Jesus encountered them. I also believe that most of what is labeled as demon possession in the Gospel of Mark is exactly that. You will notice in this passage, along with the encounter in Mark 5, that the demon possessed typically speaks and identifies Jesus. In Mark’s Gospel, demons know exactly who Jesus is: “The Holy One of God” with the power to destroy them. They recognize his authority as well. This is indicative of a true demon possession. However, I do believe that demon possession is very, very rare in the world and is not the usual explanation for bad behavior or other problems seen in the Bible.⁸⁰ My own ministry with troubled teenagers leads me to believe that the demonic is real, but not the primary issue in most human problems.

At the same time, we would be wise to remember the following points:

The Bible presents a spiritually charged universe, with divine, angelic and human levels.
The fall of angelic spirits into the world is an unarguable fact of the Bible’s view of the world.
Nowhere does the Bible tell us that all demons are responsible for all evil, but undeniably demons are responsible for some aspects of evil.
Even modern science recognizes that complex human problems are more complex than science can fully explain.
It is not surprising that demons would confront Jesus during his time on earth.

I believe those who reject this aspect of the Gospel portrait of Jesus are seriously damaging the truth of who Jesus is. We need to recognize his authority over demonic powers. In his name, Christians may oppose any and all forms of evil, both personal and corporate.

At the same time, I have learned that many Christians who do take this seriously have gone overboard. Nowhere does the Bible suggest that demons are the primary problem. Our problem is sin: Our own sin, the sin of others, and the combined effects of the two. We live in a world affected by sin and this is the center of God’s redemptive work. The Bible tells us that humanity’s fascination with the occult is even a manifestation of sin more than of demons.⁸¹

The breaking of the power of demons indicates that the Kingdom of God is breaking into human history. This is important. But Christianity is not demonology; once we are in Christ, we are free from the power of the evil one. The Bible does not teach a dualistic worldview of the “good” God on one side and the “bad” God on the other. All of the demonic operates in a universe where God is sovereign and even demons believe and tremble. Those who approach every problem as a demonic attack rather than a manifestation of sin have forgotten this. At that point an unhealthy focus on the demonic is demeaning to the salvation and victory of the Savior.

Here is an illustration that helps me. Where there is garbage, there are rats! The garbage of human sin is the problem in our world. Rats, with all their diseases, etc. are only a manifestation of the garbage. If you get rid of the rats (demons), you still have the garbage. However, when Christ gets rid of the garbage (sin’s power, influence, and guilt) the rats go as well.

Jesus was not the first exorcist in his culture. They were common in his time. But their methods were hardly similar to his! Those who were possessed were often subject to days of beatings and verbal abuse in the attempt to drive out the spirit. Jesus simply commanded and they left! This was the cause of tremendous amazement because Jesus did with his word what others would nearly kill someone trying to accomplish. This manifestation of the authority of Jesus underlines his teaching authority, but most of all his identity as the Holy Son of God.

A final thought about this passage. Mark often will show Jesus commanding spirits not to say who he is and commanding those experiencing his power to not tell anyone. We see this both here, and in the following passage. This puzzling behavior is only found in Mark and scholars have called it “Mark’s Secret” for many years. It is clear that Mark and the other Gospel writers want us to know that those who were with Jesus knew without a doubt he was the Son of God, as did demons and even unlikely Gentiles! The “secret” actually shows us that Jesus did not want to become so famous as to lose control of his mission. He was surrounded by people inclined to see him as a political, even military ruler. Yet Jesus knew his identity and mission would only become clear after the cross, something that could not be taught or explained. So he tells people and demons to be quiet. You get the feeling it didn’t often work.

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Footnotes:

[78] Isaiah 13:10; 34:4

[79] John 9:1

[80] For example in the letter of 1 Corinthians, the church has problems of adultery, incest, drunkenness, and division. Paul does not attribute this to demons, instead he says that the Corinthians are immature, they don’t have any good leaders, and they need to grow up and love each other.

[81] 1 Samuel 15:23

walk among the autumn trees

Dead leaves, and the nourishment they store, remind us that there’s beauty and life to be found in disorder and decay.

• Laura Poppick, What Happens to All the Dead Leaves

a friend from my past who i saw at a reunion
someone i used to laugh and play sports with
grimaced when i told him what i do
a chaplain in hospice, i said, when he asked me
and immediately he had no words
just this look of distaste so striking
as though i were some unclean israelite
who had brought death’s stench
into the holy place

i wish i’d had the imagination to tell him
that what i do is walk among the autumn trees
i stop, examine each luminescent leaf
and try to capture its essence
before its inevitable letting go
falling to the earth
feeding the ecosystem
bringing life to us all

The IM Saturday Monks Brunch: October 10, 2020 – Open Mic Edition

The IM Saturday Monks Brunch: October 10, 2020 – Open Mic Edition

Well, fellow brunchers, your chaplain is weary this weekend after covering for his colleague whose been on vacation and taking care of his own patients as well. I had posted a few things throughout the week, but find I’m lacking energy tonight to add more content and compose a slam-bang brunch for the morning.

So…we’ll move to the Open Mic format for today. Heaven knows, there was an overabundance of news this week to talk about. Or to ignore, so that we can focus on things less tiresome, more encouraging, and without as many apocalyptic overtones.

That’s up to you. But remember — this is no Trump v. Biden debate. I expect you behave yourselves and show the rarest of commodities in today’s social media world…

…respect and civility in the conversation, even when disagreeing.

•

Have I Ever?

I thought we would have a little fun today. This is quite the list, eh? My Father saw it online and sent it to me, because he thought it sounded so much like me. He didn’t realize that I was the one who had posted it in the first place!

I have been writing for Internet Monk (off and on) for over 10 years now. But how well do you know yours truly? I have done some stupid things in my past. The good news is that stupid decisions usually make for great stories.

Here is the deal. I have done everything in the list except one. Can you guess which one? Take your best guess in the comments, and I will tell you the story behind the one you guess. At noon, and at the end of the day, I will update the post with some picture of the events in question.

How many have you done? Got any crazy stories of your own? Did you know Internet Monk commenter Klasie has been struck by lightning and had an artery severed in a home invasion shooting?

I am looking forward to reading your guesses; how many you have done; and some of your own stories. As usual, your thoughts and comments are welcome.

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Update: Here are some of the answers you guessed incorrectly, and the stories behind them.

L. Free climbed a mountain summit… alone (guessed by Robert F.)

(picture not mine)
In the summer of 1993 I was staying at a retreat center just outside of Banff National Park. I decided to drive some back roads into Banff and go for a hike into Lake Minnewanka. As I was hiking along, I said to myself, “I be I could climb that mountain.” And… with no ropes, no proper climbing equipment I did. It got pretty scary when I got stuck on a cliff face for about half an hour, and no one knew where I was. If I fell there was a good chance my body would never be found. But I fought the urge to panic and eventually made my way off the cliff. I found out later that the mountain was named Mount Costigan.

M. Organized a rally for a Catholic Saint (guessed by Eeyore and Klasie)
In the late late 1980s I was very active in the pro-life movement. I was invited to be on the organizing committee for the “National Rally for Life” in Ottawa. Mother Teresa was the key draw. And we had an estimated 15-50,000 in attendance on the front lawn of Parliament Hill.

A. Competed in an international shooting competition… in the submachine gun category (Guessed by T.S. Gay and Dan from Georgia)
Yes, that’s me. Taken in the summer of 1981 on my way to compete in the Canadian Forces Small Arms Competition. It was an international competition with Rifle and Pistol teams from several nations, along with the various police forces from across the North America. For the record, I finished top 10 in the overall Pistol Category and top 20 in the Submachine cateogory.

E. Walked half a mile down the road… in my skates (guessed by Michael Z)
This one and Z. Fallen through the ice are actually tied together.
I was skating on a shallow pond and went through the ice with both feet. I was 10 at the time and skating with a bunch of friends about half a mile from my house. I was able to step out and kept on skating. When it was time to go home my friends quickly put on their boots and left. I on the other hand was staring down at two solid blocks of ice where my skate laces lived. I had no choice but to walk home on my skate blades down a gravel road. I narrowly escaped frostbite and screamed in pain when my dad tried to put warm water on my feet.

Y. Eaten a Giant Puffball (guessed by jimbo and David Greene)
Still fresh on my camera roll! I did this just last month! It was delicious. Tasted like a melt in your mouth mushroom.

V. Fallen into a Beaver Lodge (guessed by Rick Ro.)
Just 5 days ago!!!

Two weeks ago I had spotted a Beaver a few hundred yards from my home (as the crow flies). So last Sunday I decided to take a little walk along the stream were I had originally spotted it. I saw some fresh cut saplings lying on the ground next to the creek and as I walked up to them my foot went through the ground almost up to my hip. He had burrowed into the stream bank to make his lodge, and I had fallen directly into it from above. The hole is in the bottom left of the picture.

So, no one has guessed the correct one yet. I am hoping you will humour me with some more guesses Saturday, and I will humour you with some more stories.

Food for Thought Part 2: When Invasive Species Become the Meal

Food for Thought Part 2: When Invasive Species Become the Meal

The red lionfish in its home hunting grounds of the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean was just a fish among fish, a known enemy that the smarter, smaller creatures avoided, and food itself for larger predators. But by 1985, one was recognized off the coast of Florida. Scientists theorize that specimens imported to the United States as part of the aquarium trade were let loose in the ocean. They adapted quickly and began thriving throughout the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, and traveling north to Rhode Island by 2001 and south to Brazil by 2014.

Lionfish are voracious eaters; researchers have observed that the presence of a single red lionfish in a small patch of reef can lead, in just five weeks, to an 80-percent decrease in the number of native fish that survive from larvae to adulthood. They also breed at a startling rate: females are capable of producing eggs every three to four days, roughly two million a year.

This article, from the New York Times, suggests that one way to help control such invasive species is to put them on the menu:

For in the past decade, another front has opened up in the fight: restaurants and home kitchens, where we are slowly learning to defeat the enemy bite by bite. In Florida, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in partnership with REEF has enlisted chefs to make a case for lionfish as a delicacy: pan-seared, skewered on its own spines (provided that the spines have been baked first, to denature the venom) or diced into ceviche. To the south, in Colombia, where the government has declared the lionfish a “national security threat,” an ad agency persuaded local priests to exhort their congregations to eat lionfish during Lent, as a good deed, to help restore equilibrium to the sea.

These campaigns are part of a broader movement to reduce, if not eradicate, invasive species — Burmese pythons up to 20 feet long swallowing bobcats whole in the Florida Everglades; sea lampreys sucking the blood out of fish in the Great Lakes; wild boars uprooting crops and wreaking havoc in city streets from Berlin to Hong Kong — by cooking them for dinner.

Using slogans such as “If you can’t beat ’em, eat ’em”, educational websites like “Eat the Invaders” urge diners to take up eating invasive species as a type of civic duty. Some universities host annual invasive-species-themed cook-offs, fund-raisers and feral-hog roasts. At least one state, Maryland, has started putting the blue catfish, indigenous to the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico and now gobbling up blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay, on menus at state institutions, including schools, hospitals and prisons.

Sometimes it’s a tough sell to convince diners that something bad is actually something good. For example, nutria, a 14-pound rodent with long orange teeth that lurks in the swamps of Louisiana, have multiplied, gobbling up plant roots in the marshes and leaving a wake of razed vegetation equal to 10 times the amount of each mouthful they take. The article notes:

Robert A. Thomas, a biologist and director of the Center for Environmental Communication at Loyola University New Orleans, was among the first to offer a culinary solution to the problem. In 1993, he recruited the chef Paul Prudhomme to transform the erstwhile pest into gumbo and étouffée for what would become, for a few years, an annual “Nutriafest”. (The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries later joined the fight, posting online recipes for nutria chili and jambalaya.) Prudhomme has described nutria meat as “a light lamb,” while others liken it to rabbit or turkey thigh. Still, the animal’s reputation as roadkill remains a barrier to its acceptance, however adorned with cayenne and allspice.

Sometimes the effort leads to successes like wild fennel from the Mediterranean that proliferates in abandoned lots which is becoming prized for its vivid flavor, and black tiger shrimp in the waters off Texas, half the length of a human arm and as plump and sweet as lobster.

Another example is the Silverfin which the article says “… is the Louisiana chef Philippe Parola’s rebranding of the formidable silver carp, capable of growing four feet long and known to leap out of waterways and slap boaters on the head hard enough to cause a concussion. This troublemaker now quietly inhabits the frozen-food aisle, in the innocent form of breaded fish cakes, safely free of the carp’s many annoying intramuscular bones.”

I suppose this is a good idea. It seems to be one solution to undoing the damage we as humans caused in the first place. Availability and price would also seem to be a limiting factor, among other issues, federal regulations on trafficking wild-caught game across state lines can make it tricky to procure such ingredients in the first place. There is also the law of unintended consequences and the article warns:

At the same time, the word “invasive” has metaphorical freight, encouraging, as the American biologist Matthew K. Chew has written, the “monstering” of flora and fauna, which can make killing them seem like the central mission, diverting attention from the more difficult and demanding task of redressing environmental harm…

Well, I’m hungry now… who’s ready for some pie made with wild fennel, kudzu, Japanese beetles, tiger shrimp and Asian shore crabs. Yum…!

the mind of god

the mind of god
october 2020

when the belt on the mower broke the other day
i cursed as though god was out to get me
though god may have wanted me to invest in my health
give me some time walking behind the push mower
make me stretch my legs and work my lungs
give me a closer view of this little plot
feel its undulations beneath my boots
i’ve never quite figured out the mind of god

frank and jean have been married 70 years
and now they find themselves living in a home
but in two separate buildings because of the virus
70 years together pales to a month apart

and why i can’t seem to be happy, i’ll never know
i sit here tonight and the crickets are chirping a symphony
the sky above like diamonds, the evening breeze a delight
as the year falls, the colors brighten before fading
and with each bite of apple, a satisfying crunch — i wipe my chin
but i still find it hard to sleep at night

i have a friend whose wife got the virus and it nearly took her
all while he’s sitting at home in a wheelchair preparing to die
but he still laughs and makes jokes about my baseball team

our pastor and his wife go to florida for the winter
while i preside on sundays in our little country church
because of the virus we don’t gather at the table like we always have
we eat and drink jesus out of little plastic communion sets
we don’t get to look in each other’s eyes there near the altar
and the cushions are turned up in the rows where we’re not allowed to sit
it won’t be long before i return — first of november —
and then it’s my job, i guess, to explain what god is trying to say

i’m on call for work tomorrow, but i’ll try to get the mower fixed
if it doesn’t rain, i’ll get the grass i left uncut the other day
it’ll be sunday, but i won’t be at church, not this week
perhaps it will be quiet and i won’t have to go out to work
i’ll watch a little football, phone the folks, eat an apple
listen to the crickets and try to fall asleep at a decent hour
god willing, of course…