November 22, 2022

Here is T.S. Eliot on Huck Finn: “He sees the real world and does not judge it – he allows it to judge itself.”  What a thing to say. It is certainly rooted in Eliot’s Christianity; there is judgment, but we are not the ones to judge.

Reminds me of Jesus’ masterful parable about the wheat and the tares. A farmer plants wheat in his field. An enemy comes at night and sows tares. The farmer’s workers ask if they should weed out the tares. The farmer says this: “‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” (Matthew 13:29-30)

So, at the Thanksgiving table, maybe you can keep quiet about what you judge to be wrong about him, about her, about the world? Looks like God will take care of it in the end.

“Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications ofyour people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and theHoly Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany – BCP)