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Beloved:
Another Holy Season is in the books. Jesus ascends to heaven, and we settle down to be the day-in, day-out church. A whole week after and I still have more adrenaline than interest in the work to be caught up. I wonder if the ancients had a practice for this strange transition, from urgent to eternity, such contrary states of mind. As we resume our more ordinary calendar of worship, prayer, and service, I am grateful for another year together. I’ll soon start preaching through Romans, if you want to read ahead. In the next few weeks we will have a wedding shower and a baby shower, and get Vacation Bible School ready to go. Another school year will wind up, and town will quiet down. Only God knows what the future holds for us, but I trust our life together will take the shape of kindness, justice and humility. ~ peace & prayers, pastor annette This recipe came from a Nigerian chef at Tasty who described it as fast food ~ what his mom cooked when she didn’t feel like cooking. Ben and I have made it twice in two weeks. Chicken would work as well as beef. Fried plantains are so good! Nigerian Beef Stew Ingredients for 6 servings
For Fried Plantains - get two of the ripest plantains and slice into ¼-in. slices. Heat about 2 inches vegetable oil in heavy pan and fry slices a few at a time, turning them a couple of times. They fry fast. Drain on cooling rack and sprinkle with sea salt.
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April 16, 2019
Beloved: The journey into darkness is more difficult when Easter comes so late. Everything is so alive already! Lots of tulips opened yesterday and we are eating lettuce from my husband’s early crop. I cleaned out all my porch pots to ready them for planting and can hardly wait until May 6th, my self-imposed safe date for planting in the ground. All the same, Good Friday comes first. Its shame and sorrow are the context of Easter’s joy. Each requires the other be fully entered in. Yet they are not two stories but one, the story of Love’s willingness to walk through any fire and confront any power between that Love and us. Told in the smallest of ways, with words and songs and candles on Good Friday. With food and friends and music on Easter morning. Small, but not too small for our hearts to know what’s what. That we are loved by the Love that will never let us go. That life is therefore good and we have cause for joy! I look forward to worshipping with you Friday at 7 PM and Sunday morning at 9 AM. ~peace & prayers, pastor annette April 9, 2019
Beloved: The air outside is so sweet it practically hurts to be inside at a desk. The lovely consolation is, today’s inside work is fun: a wedding service and an easy-peasy letter of recommendation. Heidi, Chris and Kallie become an official family on Saturday, and Andy is after every college scholarship he can find. What a privilege to be invited into such joyful occasions! Pastoring is seasonal work, don’t you know, similar to farming. There’s work to do in every season of life, cradle to the grave with oh so many potlucks in between. Even the sadnesses are precious for all the love it takes to make things bittersweet. On the days this job drives me crazy I wouldn’t trade it for anything, which more than anything means it’s what I’m meant to do. For your part in this life together, I am grateful, for the gifts and labor that you bring and for the fellowship and ministry created and delivered, by which so many lives are sweetened and encouraged. I look forward to sharing the next few weeks of worship and joy with you. ~ peace & prayers, pastor Annette Saturday, April 13th Heidi & Chris get married at UBC Sunday, April 14th at 10:45 AM Palm Sunday Worship at UBC 4:00 PM Eastern Greene County Musical Theatre Production of The Little Mermaid, starring Andy & Emily, Eastern Greene Elementary School. Tickets at the door. Sunday, April 21st at 9:00 AM Easter Feast followed by Worship
As I turn it over in my mind, I remember a college minister shaking his head and saying, “Annette, you read too much.” Had he been the only minister I knew, I might have been broken-hearted but, instead, I just kept reading. Thirty-six years later I’ve come upon a new heartbreak. Even if my eyes hold out, I won’t live long enough to get through all I have left to read. I already barely do housework. I suppose I could hire a reader to do double time as I knit and sew. But then who will take notes? Can I afford a reader and a scribe? Posing yet another question and then another after that: Is it possible I read too much? That I might better spend my time? Or that I take too much pride in reading . . . or in these notebooks full of scribbles that no one on God’s green earth, including me most likely, will ever remotely care to read? Surely that’s just crazy thinking, for which the same college minister expressed concern: “Annette, you just think too much.” Maybe he’s right on both counts, after all. In any case, I’ll take my chances that he’s not, so long as my eyes hold out. And then I’ll find a reader, some young bibliophile upon whom the same spell is cast. They will read and I’ll drink tea, and we’ll talk books until my nap time comes around. If such a thing is even possible, then I know for sure that life only gets more grand. I pray you find some joy today! ~ peace & prayers, pastor annette Books I have going these days: Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics, Reinhold Niebuhr The Hidden Life of Trees, Ben Wohlleben Spineless: The Science of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing a Backbone, Juli Berwald |
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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