St. Antony’s Cave

               I now know who is forking over 70 bucks to buy a shirt that looks good untucked. It’s the pastors of Antioch Community Churches. I virtually attended Antioch, Waco on 10-11-20 and Antioch, Bryan in person on 10-18-20. And every pastor I saw – and they have lots – save the female ones and there are lots of them too – wore the same uniform: untucked shirt, blue jeans – perhaps the skinny kind – and colorful tennis shoes. And that says something, but what?

Dr. Horace Hummel has this story in his wonderful commentary on Ezekiel. He tells of the church in Nebraska where he spent his childhood. He describes the reredos having a statue of Christ flanked by Peter and Paul and accompanied by a lion and ox respectively reflecting the early association of Peter with Mark the Evangelists and Paul with Luke. He had many childish fantasies about those animals, but no one ever explained to him what those two animals were doing above the altar. Much later his own studies informed him.