August 19, 2014

Beloved:  

       Mandatory curfews and national guard - the BBC reporter could have been talking about Egypt and I was embarrassed at the similarity and not a little horrified, and sad.  The media invites us to see Ferguson Missouri in black and white.  But surely poverty is also in play.  Surely economic and social confinement only become more combustible over time for the prisoners and the guards.

      I began the week suggesting that a solid Christian response is to be Jesus' eyes, ears and voice wherever we are.  Now I'm not so sure.  Was Ferguson leveled by an earthquake or swiped by a tornado, we'd call it a national emergency and flood it with relief workers.  Maybe it's time to flood Ferguson with prophetic, kind and helpful Christians.

To the front go the preachers, wedging themselves in the line of fire.  They (we) can pray or preach but the single objective is to stay put, positively refuse to move until every single weapon is laid down.  

Further back are the Sunday School teachers with their flannel boards, craft supplies and juice boxes. Anyone one who wants can rest, have a snack, color a picture and hear again how each and every one is so precious in Jesus’ sight.

When calm is restored the engineers arrive. Engineers don’t preach, they work.  They are the vast army of church workers that puts its back to the gospel day in and day out all over the world.  They feed people.  They build houses and hospitals. They dig wells.  In Ferguson they will clean up debris and rebuild neighborhoods, acting out God’s intention that human beings live safely, with dignity.  

Youth ministers will serve the longest deployment, doing the heaviest lifting of all - convincing the wounded to trade anger for freedom, the kind not given by the world but guaranteed by God, for themselves and their enemies.   

Of course we can pray from where we sit.  But maybe it’s time we rose, packed the car and drive four hours west.  After all, if it were a disaster, many would be gone already.

~ peace and prayers,
pastor annette

Beloved:

      Hands to work . . . hearts to God

    More rain is coming this morning.  The air is cool and smells the tiniest bit like fall.  The school bus just went by but in the garden everything is still absolutely summer.   The magic of it all ~ that six seeds cover a twenty foot fence with gourd vines. Three dollars worth of plants give up dozens of cucumbers.  

    Food wise August is most definitely my favorite time of year.  I've put up 3 gallons of shredded yellow squash and twelve pints of pickles. The freezer is full of pesto and I've another load to harvest. My tomatoes are slow but we'll buy what we need to can and freeze.  Peppers too since they refuse to grow in my yard.  What kind of gardener can't grow peppers?  The chickens are in heaven with all the melon rind we toss them.  Pumpkins are turning from green to orange. And the gourds!  Oodles of gourds hanging on the fence.  With flowers of course  . . . . flowers everywhere with their attendant hummingbirds, yellow finches, bees and butterflies.  Some of the zinnias are over six feet tall.

    From home to church I drive past dozens of gardens and farms and think how all over town, all over the world people are tending their own ground, picking food and cutting flowers, writing down things to remember for next year.  All these ordinary people stepping out of their ordinary lives to put heart and hand to this magic.  Are we ever more true to God in us than when we tend and train and watch over fragile growing things? With simple tools in dirty hands we partner in creation itself shepherding life from seed to fruit to plate for another day of human strength. If not us then some farmer somewhere who, likely as not, is hard at it even now and deserves a nod in our mealtime blessing.  ~peace & prayers, pastor annette

What I made for supper last night. The starchy pasta water melts the cheese, wilts the spinach and releases all the pungency from tomatoes to make it creamy, saucy, yummy.  I don't have a name for it.

* 4 skinless chicken thighs, grilled
* medium shell pasta
* 1 bunch or big bag of fresh spinach, washed and stemmed
* 1 red bell pepper, sliced
* sundried tomatoes soaked in olive oil then drained
* 1/2 an onion, sliced
* 2 cups pecorino romano cheese, grated

Grill chicken and keep warm while plating the rest. Cook 1/2 box of pasta to aldente' but do not drain. Carmelize onions and half the peppers together in olive oil. Tear spinach and divide between 4 plates.  Use lots because it will wilt and get little

On top of spinach on each plate layer:
   1/4 the  carmelized onions/peppers
   1/4 the sun dried tomatoes
   1/8 of the cheese
   1/4 of the pasta, scooped out of pasta water with strainer
   1 chicken thigh, sliced
   1/8 of the cheese
    Ladle a little less than 1/4 cup of pasta water over the whole plate
    Garnish with remaining bell pepper