A word a day keeps the demons away in this theological dictionary that pointsout holy aspects of everyday life via wry, witty definitions and descriptionsof sacred words and biblical characters.

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Beyond Words
Daily Readings in the ABC's of Faith

A

AARON

Moses was three years younger than his brother,Aaron, but starting with the day Pharaoh's daughter fishedhim out of the bulrushes and adopted him, Moses was the one whoalways got the headlines while Aaron got the short end of the stick.Even when Moses had to clear out of Egypt for doing in an EgyptianJew-baiter, he landed on his feet by marrying the daughter of awell-heeled sheep rancher across the border.

Aaron, in the meanwhile, went quietly off into the ministry,where in the long run he didn't do so badly either, except that theonly people who ever heard about him were the ones who turnedto the religion section on the back pages. Moses, on the other hand,was forever making the cover. The payoff came around the timeMoses hit eighty, and out of a burning bush God himself voted himMan of the Year. As usual, Aaron had to be content with playingsecond fiddle, which he did well enough until he got the break he'dbeen waiting for at last, and then he blew it.

With Moses lingering so long on Mt. Sinai that some thoughthe'd settled down and gone into real estate, the people turned toAaron for leadership, and in no time flat -- despite an expensivetheological education and all those years in denominational headquarters-- he had them dancing around the Golden Calf like abunch of aborigines.

Nobody knows whether this was Aaron's way of getting evenwith his kid brother for all those years of eating humble pie, orwhether he actually believed with the rest of humankind that aGod in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Exodus 32:1–4

ABISHAG

When King David was nearing the end of his days, noteven his electric blanket could fend off the ominous chillhe felt rising in his bones. The fires of life were all but out, and in aneffort to rekindle them for the old man and at the same time preservetheir own jobs, the establishment enlisted the aid of a beautifulyoung woman named Abishag. In the hope that she, if anybody,could start his blood coursing again, they persuaded her to joinhim in the sack. By this time, however, the old man was past risingto the occasion, and not long afterward -- perhaps as the result ofhis unsuccessful attempts to do so -- he died. When one of his sonsoffered to make an honest woman of Abishag by marrying her, theestablishment turned him down on the grounds that by taking overhis father's girlfriend, he was just making a play for taking over hisfather's throne. What finally became of Abishag is not recorded,and perhaps it is just as well.

This sad story makes it clear that in peace as well as in warthere's no tragic folly you can't talk a nation's youth into simply bycalling it patriotic duty.

1 Kings 1–2

Beyond Words
Daily Readings in the ABC's of Faith. Copyright © by Frederick Buechner. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Excerpted from Beyond Words: Daily Readings in the ABC's of Faith by Frederick Buechner
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