James Derkits

When Moses came down from the mountain, where he was visiting with God and receiving the liberating commandments that would free the people from perpetual distraction, he found that the people had already recreated one of their former idols: the golden calf. Of course, the people were eventually brought back into the way that leads to God, but right there in the shadow of the mountain where God was speaking to Moses, instructing him in the way that they could walk with God, they back-slid. They opted for something they knew, that they could hold, touch, and see rather than wait for Moses to report back from the cloud and fire at the top of the mountain. We've probably heard that story often enough to know better than to make a literal, physical golden calf or statue, and place our prayers at its feet. If the Hebrew people following Moses had heard that story, they would have already known better, too. And they probably would have secretly created new and even more ...

 I hadn't been to Enchanted Rock for about 10 years. A decade away from that place. Unlike my visits to cities I once lived in, the rock remains the same. It was very familiar to me, from the top of the dome to the gruss filled steam bed down below. I went there with a group of eight clergy with Jeff Hammond from St. Barnabas who offered to drive us out there and show us around. He goes out there a couple of times a week, which surprised me, until I realized I go to the beach a couple of times a week. Get out to nature. It's good for one's soul. We stood up on top when we finally arrived, and someone suggested to Bishop Reed that this was probably the spot where one could see the most geography of the diocese in a single view. As we caught our breath, I felt the breeze and remembered other visits to Enchanted Rock from my past. Once with two of my nephews. Several trips with friends during college. One time with a friend who was an experienced climber. He was helping me...

  I heard about the total eclipse on NPR while driving to the North Padre Bible Study. When I arrived at the site for our meeting, I went ahead and set my alarm for 4:15 a.m. so that I wouldn't forget to do it later. I recently learned from Barbara Brown Taylor's Book, Learning to Walk in the Dark, that sleeping 8 hours straight through a night is a modern invention anyway. What better night (early morning) to get up and play in the dark than on the night of this eclipse. In the early morning, when my alarm woke me, Laura asked what was going on, and I reminded her about the eclipse. Then I went out to find that it had already begun. The Earth's Shadow was crawling across the face of the moon as the orbits of the earth and moon aligned just right to shadow the sun's light. After I saw what was happening, I went back inside to make coffee, then found my binoculars. The light from the moon was so bright it was difficult to look at it through binoculars at first, but...