Hopewit

  Eigenheim Mennonite Church, ca 1950 Exodus 20: 8-11: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God, in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy …” I sometimes think about this on a Sunday morning when I’m all dressed and ready for church, sitting in my recliner with a hot coffee on one armrest and a bowl of oatmeal on the other and the sun streaming in across the carpet and the Post Office closed, Bigway closed although the Coop Gas Station will undoubtedly be open. And I know the Seventh Day Adventists hold Saturday to be that seventh day and so gathered for worship yesterday and observed in their way what they understand is meant by “the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord.” And I did some Spanish study preparatory to a month in Mexico and learned that Saturday in Spanish is Sabado . In German, the se

  RAINBOWS DON’T COME EASILY  (copyright)          - A Good Friday Lament George G. Epp Rainbows don’t come easily. Mostimes a storm is wanted first with roiling, darking clouds, With hail and snow or sleet Or at the very least sharp rain.   Or, sinfulness of man: A flood, a storm-tossed ocean Drowning out a dross of Snoring, drunken men And laughing slatterns Lying in some gutter east of Eden;   A moaning wrings grief from out The sorrowing sky.   Much later, then, a dove A timid olive branch A patch of bluest sky That whispers hope, And paints a rainbow there.   On Golgotha, a waning moon threw Crosses rude in silhouette Beneath an angry sky. It’s not enough, the suffering servant said, To leave these moaning, weeping women thus, Tore loose an arm and with triumphant cry Painted a pallid rainbow ‘cross the sky, And died.   Rainbows never come easily: Mostimes a storm is wanted first with roiling, darking clouds, with