On Twitter last night, reflecting on the readings to come in a week that was … chaffy … I posted that I could stand to see some chaff burn: Bring it on, was the prayer that I tweeted.

Whether rashly or otherwise, it was, I felt, a reasonable response, and I have reason to think that John the Baptizer might have agreed. At a quiet day today, the wisdom of the group remembered John’s great crowds of followers, and the moments of almost unbearably poignant joy that must have accompanied his many baptisms. Yet he also had his moments of viper broods and burning chaff.

May God burn the chaff from your threshing floor.
May God wash the dirt from your face.
May God bless you, and keep you, restore your faith and resurrect hope
in the name of the Messiah and the Spirit, One God for ever. Amen.