#57.4, Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Historical Setting, 629 C.E. Vosges Mts.

         Will and his family arrived leading the peasants walking up from the creek.  He goes immediately to the long board sparse for feasting — if it had only been our lambs. But some peasants came with venison and Luxeuil sent a boar in the donkey cart. I would expect to find Will touting the options as people are also arriving from the vineyards on the river. What might he say about the ethnicity of these meat choices with lamb at one end, venison in the middle and a pig at the other end? If he could just quietly appreciate the boar – that would be fine with me.

         But now, he is here with the baby in his arms, and Layla close at his side at the lamb end of the table welcoming everyone as they are arriving from the vineyards.  They’ve had a long day’s journey already, and now, they find Will ready to sort out Jew from Gentile, I fear.

         But why do I fear?  Did I fail to trust that the Jesus’s love would one day infect him with a need for wider love, also? He is answering everyone’s questions as though he is the guide here, introducing himself as “family,” and the baby in his arms is “little Willanod, the youngest niece of the bride and groom.” He brags so proudly.

         “She will be baptized today after the wedding. She was born Christian, you know,” he says to a man who is clearly in Jewish garb. Then he adds, “So here on the feast board we have this fine lamb – if you have a taste for it, and at the far end is the long-anticipated boar. Enjoy the feast but not yet. First the churchy thing.”

         Again, it is so good to hear Will calling himself “one of our family” and the proud father of our newest grandchild. He seems a very different man than the brutish thief who stole Layla away in the middle of the night then ridiculed her Jewish heritage. Dear God, thank you.

         I ask Will to help me direct the people toward the arch openings in the walls of the little stone church so that everyone will be able to see and hear the ceremony even though such a crowd will never fit into the tiny building. He is still bullying people as it is his nature, separating people, saying only the family may go inside. But it is true, there isn’t room for all the guests inside.

(Continues tomorrow)