The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
July 10, 2011
Vol. 14 no. 28
We are in the season of Red, Pentecost, which reigns and endures until the coming of Advent, when everything outside should be white. Red is often the colour of the Church and many clergy don red for ecumenical services. Beyond that, the Bible is fairly quiet about red, or is the better word, subhued?
Purple in ancient times was the royal colour and all you have to see is an Anglican bishop with his purple shirt to know that this colour retains favour in parts of the Christian Church. Purple is not that common in nature and food – although I know I will now be flooded with obvious examples! – so it does not usually show up in the Biblical stories. Not enough eggplant in the Holy Land.
But red surprises, sneaking up on us unawares. In the sibling rivalry of Esau and Jacob, the narrator observes that Esau was born red, “all his body like a hairy mantle.” Then when Esau returns from the hunt famished and starving and demands some of that red stuff or pottage, the narrator slips in the comment – “therefore his name was called Edom.” Edom is the Hebrew word for red and Esau would settle in the region to the immediate south of Israel and Judea where the soil was generally red – obviously P.E.I. is a ‘holy land.’
Moreover, the first human being is Adam, essentially the same word, for this was a ‘red/pink’ person taken out of the red soil. Adam doesn’t just mean ‘man’ or ‘human being’ but a ‘red human being.’ Does that mean we are all Esaus? What kind of red stuff do we covet?
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan