PASTOR DAVE’S MUSINGS FROM THE HEARTLAND

APRIL 21, 2024

THE SOLAR ECLIPSE

Indiana celebrated the solar eclipse on Monday, April 8, in a spectacular fashion.  People flocked from all over the state and from beyond to find a view path in a narrow path of totality.  Special events were held all over the state.  There was a special watching party at the Indianapolis 500 speedway. Special ISO glasses were to be had from many sources.  There were all kinds of pre-eclipse information and instructions.

Diane and I watched the Eclipse from the comfort of our deck.  My brother and his wife came to watch with us.  Following a sumptuous meal, we adjourned to the deck about 2:00 P.M.  A little after 3:00 P.M. the eclipse was about 97%.  Birds began to sing.   An owl in the neighborhood seemed to be especially concerned.  The temperature must have dropped ten degrees.  It never really got that dark.  By 4:30 P.M. it was all over.  The four of us adjourned to the house for a game of Five Crowns and snacks.

The celebration of the solar eclipse on April 8 reminded me of an episode from Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.  In the book Hank Morgan finds himself mysteriously transported back to the time of King Arthur and his roundtable.  Early on Hank finds himself in a dungeon with the prospect of being burned at a stake.

When Morgan discovered that it is June 19, 528, he realizes that a solar eclipse is close at hand and he sends the following message to the king that at such time as he might be burned at the stake he would “smother the whole world in the dead blackness of midnight; I will blot out the sun, and it shall never shine again; the fruits of the earth shall rot for lack of light and warmth and the peoples of the earth shall famish and die, to the last man (A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, A Signet Classic, p. 40).”  As they are preparing to burn Morgan, the solar eclipse begins, the skies darken, the people become afraid, and Hank is freed.  You will have to read the story to find out what happens next!

A solar eclipse also plays a part in one of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe mysteries, The Death of a Doxy.  Barry Fleming who is the brother-in-law of the murder victim and a high school math teacher is not only the murderer but a blackmailer.  When he contacted his victim by phone, he instructed him to send ten hundred-dollar bills monthly to General Delivery, Gand Central Station, in care of Milton Thales.  Wolfe   quickly connects Milton Thales with Thales of Miletus (626/623-548/545 B.C.) who was the founder of geometry and the first to predict a solar eclipse.

There is no direct mention of a solar eclipse in the scriptures.  The event that had solar implications is to be found in Joshua 10:13 when the sun stood still and the moon stopped until the Israelites could take vengeance on their enemies.  However, there are several passages which would seem to connect the coming judgment of God with an eclipse.  One such example is Matthew 24:29-30, “’Immediately after the suffering of those days the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of heaven will be shaken.  Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”

The solar eclipse of 2024 was a wonderful time for people from a diversity of backgrounds to come together for a time to celebrate a common event.  For a few hours our attention was drawn to a common interest and focus.

(Comments may be sent to davidh15503@embarqmail.com.)