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March 27, 2018
Beloved: "Please don’t leave church simply expecting to come back to the lilies of next Easter Sunday. That day will really mean next to nothing, except for bunnies, eggs, and spring celebrations, if you don’t travel through this holiest of weeks." ~ Sojourners I don’t remember a spring in which my daffodils endured such abuse with such grace and strength. They are bowed but not undone. I’d have given up under the ice and snow, but not them. Their blooms are lush and full of color, even as they kiss the ground. The lilacs are still holding back their buds, but I saw some green on a hydrangea bush, and irises are pushing through the mulch as well. Nature all around reminds me that rising is not easy. Something always pushes back, sometimes with more force than we ever might imagine, so that giving up makes sense and giving in comes easy. Weather.com says rain every day this week save Friday. On Good Friday there’ll be sun. How odd. Maybe the weather can remind us to keep struggling toward the Light that came to claim us, to pick us up and carry us the rest of the way. We have church kin who are hurting and healing. Pray for them every day. Give them a call or send a card if you can. I am ever so grateful to serve the gospel among you. ~peace & prayers, pastor annette
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March 13, 2018
Beloved: I was nearly a hundred pages getting there, but once one gets the hang of his writing voice, Brother Thomas à Kempis is a remarkably sensible read for a wannabe disciple of Jesus. I don’t mind his partisan pronouns, as he was writing specifically for his cloistered brothers. He could no more have imagined women reading his little notes than that they’d be for sale at amazon.com five-hundred-plus years later. This morning’s passage, from Book Three, chapter 19, titled How to tell if you are really patient, says this: "Perhaps to you your sufferings don’t seem to you so very little; "If so, see whether it isn’t your unwillingness to suffer which is magnifying them to you." And this: "A man is not really patient when he is willing to suffer patiently only as much as he thinks fit and only at the hands of those he chooses. If he is really patient, he won’t mind who makes him suffer . . . it is all the same to him.” Brother Thomas might have read my own heart’s secret thoughts: how I seethe and complain to do for some people yet glory to be asked by others . . . ; my sly hopes to be noticed as a saint while pretending to myself I’m not . . . . I am the worst of all offenders and yet able to fool myself completely, so as to escape both the labor and reward of discipleship. Between his handy quotes, Brother Thomas expounds upon our human, dogged commitment to our own good intentions. Our faith in our own strength rarely wavers despite our dismal record of success, at patience most of all. We seem sure we can do what Jesus wants of us, no matter his great effort on our behalf. The audacity of our pride cannot be overstated, I suppose . . . or, more truthfully, the depth of our fear, at the reality of our own helplessness. Yet for that, Brother Thomas comes through again at chapter’s end with a simple sentence prayer: “Lord, let what seems improbable for me to do by nature become possible by your grace." I pray the day finds you leaning into the grace of God. March 6, 2018
Beloved: For February Wednesday Night Supper I tried a new smashed potato recipe. It was good, but I had imagined it would be better. Yesterday for supper I made it so much better. See recipe below, unless you are on a low-salt diet – in which case, ignore altogether. I read once that the emergency rations soldiers carry are nutrient-dense but don’t taste very good, so men only eat them once they are really hungry. I’m ever amazed that human beings are not satisfied simply to eat. Once past subsistence, we crave food that is more complex, beautiful and tasty than is required to keep us alive. The same is true with art. Since forever, women have sewn quilts from scraps of fabric or spent precious labor to dye and weave a pretty rug. The most humble homes have ditch flowers on the table or a picture on the wall. Our spirits crave beauty like our bellies crave calories. Too long without either, and we human beings starve – with all the attending maladies therein. Good worship satisfies this longing of the spirit. So does walking on the beach at sunrise, sitting in the woods or rocking a sleeping baby. Creating almost anything, a salad or a sculpture, can give a glimpse of beauty that hints at the Divine hiding just beyond our sight. Silence, silence of the mind most especially, is an unending source of confluence between the reality we can hear and touch and the one just beyond our reach. These hungers are God-given, I am very nearly sure – one of the tweaks that make us positively human. They are to be managed well, of course, accommodated with good boundaries and respect for collective human hunger. All I see is not mine to take and eat, but rather to discover the greater joy of eating with others as often as possible – whether the meal is food or beauty or both. ~ peace & prayers, pastor annette Mashed Potatoes w/ Twice-Cooked Skins Serves 4 Note: I didn’t actually measure anything, so these butter, yogurt and half & half amounts are estimates. Ingredients
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One More Thing: Would you help me out with a ministry project? Our Global Women's Gathering ministry really does get a lot of traction through Facebook contact but we need more Likes so we can show up on our GWG friends' feeds more regularly. Would you take a minute to click on the GWG link and then like our page? We only post about once a week, so your feed won't get flooded if you are also willing to follow us. Thanks! Here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/Global-Womens-Gathering-at-University-Baptist-Church-497495550600810/ |
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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August 2018
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