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February 27, 2018 Beloved: I am home. I love being away and I love being home. Away from all the daily chores and pulls on my time. Home with the dogs and this kitchen and my own bed. Away to walk on the beach. At home to see these daffodil bulbs popping through again. Low country food. Eggs from my own hens. It is all, as my favorite philosopher Mary Poppins said, practically perfect in every way. The best part of my retreat was surely a retreat from the news. Upon re-entry I found not much had changed in eight days. The country up in arms over the deaths of white kids in Florida. I’m glad for the outrage but ashamed that the everyday gun deaths of black kids doesn’t warrant similar grief.* We’ve so much for which to repent and so little room to judge the rest of the world. For this very reason the Church has bequeathed us Lent: an entire season for reflection, confession and repentance. For reflection I’ve been reading James Baldwin, the African-American writer whose prose positively sings, which is good as he has hard things to say to white people. Every story, book and essay is another heart-wrenching opportunity to confess the truth of the hardness in my heart. A hardness that protects the guilt and shame I don’t want myself to know. Repentance is hard work, the willful choice to live a different way – a way lit by the truth of what I’ve learned about the world and my own heart, no matter how others choose to live. Repentin’ ain’t easy ~ that’s for sure. But it is the only way to the life in Christ that he has offered us. I’m glad to be on this journey with you. ~ peace & prayers, pastor annette * African-American children have the highest rate of firearm mortality and are 10 times as likely to be killed by guns as white kids are. http://abcnews.go.com/US/parkland-mass-shootings-children-wounded-killed-guns-daily/story?id=53197811 Photo: February sunset, Tybee Island, Georgia 
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February 13, 2018
Beloved: Early in the morning with sixty-five snuggly dog pounds on my lap, my coffee steams beside me and Taizé plays on Spotify. I write in my journal and hear my husband putter in the kitchen. The dog sighs, and great is the temptation to thank God for a life so safe and warm and blessed, rather than admit that all these blessings are the benefits of privilege willfully exercised. I might just as willfully have chosen a tiny apartment at one tenth this monthly mortgage and to eat on ten dollars a day. Better folk than me do so all the time. Am I prepared to call them less blessed than me? Sometimes only after I preach a sermon do I realize what I was supposed to say. In John 9 some religious people longed not to see (know, believe, remember) that once upon a time “to have it all” meant God was on their side, that God loved them most and best. We are, in a word, most blessed, they kinda, sorta, really thought. Then Jesus turned the tables on that notion and gave a man born blind his sight, putting blessing up for grabs, making it not so much a privilege as a gift ~ for positively anyone whom Jesus wants to have it. I like my house and dogs and books and coffee but I’m reluctant to give thanks for them. They are possessions (not the dogs, of course) and can be done without in a New York minute, things I’ve chosen over other choices ~ good works of biblical obedience, for example. Does it make faithful sense to give thanks for lack of faith? Such questions are the work of the coming season, beginning with Ash Wednesday. Let Us Be Done With It is the title, the theme that comes to mind. What it is must be up to you and me. Whatever we have loved or needed more than what God wants for us ~ that is it. What we have wanted, clung to and hoarded as our own. Anything we chose when we might have chosen otherwise - and then regarded it a blessing. As we begin the Lenten season, I am glad to pray and worship with you. peace & prayers, pastor annette P.S. I found this wonderful Taizé instrumental playlist on YouTube. Check it out!  February 6, 2018
Beloved: Chinese New Year is a big deal at Global Women’s Gathering and this year it falls near Valentine’s Day, so our usual chocolate plans happened one week early. Today we made ten dozen Dark Chocolate Key Lime Truffles. The easy, beautiful, delicious recipe is below. We spent a good deal of time explaining elementary school classroom Valentine’s Day to our international friends at the table. They know Valentine’s Day as a romantic for-adults-only holiday. They are a little shocked by the first-grade teacher’s note that says “Valentine Party next Wednesday,” with instructions to bring a card and small treat to share with every kid in the class. Heidi wisely googled kid valentines and showed them the $3 box from Target; “they can pick Spider-Man or trolls or smiley faces,” she explained. There was much relief all around. Our conversation question for English practice had to do with homemade food gifts: “What is something you like to cook to share?” Jenny, from Taiwan, told how once a year she makes trays and trays of egg rolls for her grandsons who eat them up all in one day. Florine told how her husband’s grandma hid a $5 bill in every kid’s birthday cake, then cut it perfectly so the birthday kid always got the slice with the prize. It was as ordinary a winter afternoon as might be found anywhere on earth – women friends drinking tea and talking about food. I felt privileged to attend and grateful to call it work. Grateful to be part of a church where hospitality is a living, breathing, joyful thing. Thank you for your support and prayers. ~ peace & prayers, pastor annette Key Lime Truffles ~ Dark Chocolate Candies for Valentine’s Day Annette Hill Briggs Ready in: 1 hour, 10 minutes Yield: about 80 truffles Ingredients
Directions ~ In a bowl, beat together the cream cheese, butter, sugar, lime zest and lime juice until well combined. Mix together the flour and graham cracker crumbs and beat into the cheese mixture to form a scoop-able “batter-dough.” Roll small balls of the mixture and refrigerate at least 1 hour to firm up (or freeze at this point). Dip in melted chocolate and allow to set. Sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts before chocolate sets. When coated, truffles can be kept at room temperature for 1 week or for 3 weeks in the fridge. |
I write a Tuesday morning devotional to members and friends of UBC. It is also posted here.
Enjoy! Pastor Annette Copyright
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