UNIVERSITY BAPTIST CHURCH
  • Home
  • Start Here
  • Staff
    • Annette Hill Briggs, Pastor
    • Rob Drummond ~ Music Minister
  • Listen & Read
    • Sermons
    • Pastor's Blog
    • #ITSYOURCHURCHTOO >
      • About >
        • When & Where?
        • Ministries >
          • Worship >
            • Music
            • Worship Arts
            • Worship Resources
          • Fellowship >
            • Wednesday Night Supper
            • Church Recipes
          • Service >
            • MCUM Collections
            • Habitat for Humanity Project
          • Vacation Bible School
        • Our Story >
          • Denomination
          • Who We Are
        • Contact
        • Calendar
    • Social Media Feed
  • Give
  • Newsletter
  • Recommended Reading

Pastor Annette's Blog

"OF ALL THE THINGS GOD HAS SHOWN ME, I CAN SPEAK BUT A LITTLE WORD . . . NOT MORE THAN A HONEYBEE CAN CARRY AWAY ON ITS FOOT FROM AN OVERFLOWING JAR."
~ MECHTHILD OF MAGDEBURG, 13TH CENTURY MYSTIC

August 19, 2014

8/25/2014

0 Comments

 
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

0 Comments

August 13, 2014

8/13/2014

0 Comments

 

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

0 Comments
    I write a Tuesday morning devotional to members and friends of UBC.  It is also posted here. 
     
    Enjoy!  
    Pastor Annette

    Copyright
    Everything on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons license, which gives you permission to copy freely, provided that you attribute the work to me, that you use the work for non-commercial purposes, and that you do not produce derivative works.

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    March 2011

3740 East 3rd Street
Bloomington, IN 47401
812-339-1404
[email protected]

Photo from TheReptilarium
  • Home
  • Start Here
  • Staff
    • Annette Hill Briggs, Pastor
    • Rob Drummond ~ Music Minister
  • Listen & Read
    • Sermons
    • Pastor's Blog
    • #ITSYOURCHURCHTOO >
      • About >
        • When & Where?
        • Ministries >
          • Worship >
            • Music
            • Worship Arts
            • Worship Resources
          • Fellowship >
            • Wednesday Night Supper
            • Church Recipes
          • Service >
            • MCUM Collections
            • Habitat for Humanity Project
          • Vacation Bible School
        • Our Story >
          • Denomination
          • Who We Are
        • Contact
        • Calendar
    • Social Media Feed
  • Give
  • Newsletter
  • Recommended Reading