October 20, Ordinary 29B (Hebrews 5:1–10)
It can be easy to read this portion of Hebrews as making glory out of what is inglorious.
Before I was an Episcopal priest, I was an editor at a Roman Catholic magazine. We once published a poem called “The Order of Melchizedek,” by the late, great Brian Doyle. It captured my imagination the moment it landed on my desk, especially the last lines:
But my point is how very human the first minute
Is, sprawled out on the floor, not thinking of awe
Or prayers or promises, but of your ice-cold nose.
That’s the exact right honest human way to begin.
Doyle is writing about the practice, in some Christian traditions, of ordinands lying prostrate before an altar during a litany of prayer.
