Rector's Reflection—5 Pentecost, Proper 8
June 27, 2010

By the time you are reading this, I will have returned from Destin where I will have spent June 20 until June 26 on vacation. As much as I would love to tell you that I had set aside time from surf, sand, and grandchildren to write and e-mail a reflection to the church, we all know that didn't happen! In anticipation of the upcoming vacation, however, I found something in Reader's Digest upon which I am reflecting... and it will fill the void on the back of the 10:30 service sheet.

I came across this little item a short time after having a conversation with some folks about the wonderful world of texting and tweeting. Although the teacher in me usually balks, the efficiency of the texting vocabulary cannot be disputed. After all, there is a limit to the number of characters a single text message or tweet can handle, and we all know that shortened "words" eliminate that excruciatingly long time subtracted from our life spans that spelling an entire word takes.

I think the ancient Hebrews would have liked the idea of texting... or if not actually liking it, would have felt comfortable with it. Hebrew Scripture was written without any vowels, which, by the way, can make for some humorous assumptions about what a string of consonants means. Consider lmnm fl. Aluminum fool?? But speaking of ancient Hebrews... this from Reader's Digest:

"What if God had texted the Ten Commandments?" by Jamie Quatro

M, pls rite on tbs & gv 2 ppl

1. no1 b4 me. srsly
2. dnt wrshp pix/idols
3. no omg's
4. no wrk on w/end (sat 4 now; sun l8r)
5. pos ok – ur m&d r cool
6. dnt kll ppl
7. :-x only w/ m8
8. dnt steal
9. dnt lie re:bf
10. dnt ogle ur bf's m8, or ox, or dnky. myob.

Click here for Jamie Quatro's article from Reader's Digest at www.rd.com.