Ash Wednesday

And Lent begins...

with the stillness of almost-falling rain.
with the smoldering embers of palm leaves turning
turning into dust
(dust to turn us out of it)
Lent begins.

"Yes!" said the young adult peering into the newly-blackened can.
"These ashes are authentic. None of that ziploc-purchased sterility that comes late in the mail. Our ashes will be real--and we will share them."
We will share authenticity with others.

...because Lent has begun.
And we, ourselves, are turning.

Joy

One of the surprising delights about marriage was discovering that my husband likes to dance around the house. Nothing formal or choreographed, but it's not uncommon for him to spontaneously pop into a room where I'm working, do some sort of spin or air-guitar move and then leave--without a word.

He did this tonight while I was watching netflix (it was a shoulder-to-toe wiggle--not really sure what to call it) and the following dialogue ensued:

Me: "How is it that you can be entirely goofy and adorable yet simultaneously manly?"

Husband (without missing a single beat): "It's the cammo."

...and sure enough, he was wearing army-print cargo pants covered in old paint splotches. I laughed so hard! And then I thanked God for ridiculous moments in life.

Membership Vows in practice

Remember those "five practices" that were such a big deal a few years ago in the UMC? (salty service, radical hospitality, etc...) 

Well Bishop Mike Coyner from the Indiana conference connected them to the five membership vows-. Check it out....

1. Our promise to support the church by our “presence” is a part of our effort to offer “Radical Hospitality” to all persons.  My promise of “presence” is not fulfilled just by my showing up at the church; no I am promising to make our church a place where everyone’s presence is invited, expected, and welcomed.
2. Our promise to support the church by our “prayers” is a part of the practice of making our church a place of “passionate worship.”  I am promising to pray for my church, its leaders, its people, and its mission in such a way that demonstrates my desire to see my church become a place of passionate, heart-felt worship.
3. Our promise to support the church by our “witness” is all about engaging in Intentional Faith Development.  For me to be a good witness – whether that be in sharing my faith with another person, or carrying a sign to march for justice – must grow out of my own intentional growth in grace and holiness.
4. Our promise to support the church by our “service” is about joining and leading the church in Risk-Taking Mission and Service.  It more than just serving on a committee in the church, it is taking the risk to help our church serve beyond its walls.
5. Our promise to support the church by our “gifts” is about moving beyond offerings and support of the church budget, all the way toward engaging in Extravagant Generosity” and leading my church to be extravagantly generous beyond paying its own bills.

Visit the full article here: http://www.inumc.org/epistles/detail/43418

Using Bread Machines in Worship

The only thing better than the taste and smell of freshly baked bread is incorporating those elements in worship. We did that this past Sunday and it was a wondrous celebration of Word and Table. Our Christian tradition has no shortage of resources about bread (we used the Luke 13 parable of the leaven and the "Great Thanksgiving for Thanksgiving or other meals" from the United Methodist Book of Worship). However, practical tips about setting up bread machines during worship were a little harder to find... so here are some things I learned:

• For scent purposes, you probably want 3 or 4 machines (we had two working in our contemporary service and could barely smell them in our large worship space. One was 'ok' for the sanctuary narthex, but I would've wanted 2 in there also).
• Check the cycle times on your bread machines.
•  The 'knead' cycle or the 'punch' cycle are noisy, so avoid those during worship. You want the BAKING to occur during the service (or just before).
• Some machines have silencing options, but most of them beep when finished. We did not find this distracting during the service, but we also explained it to the congregation, so it wasn't a surprise.
• Test your bread machines ahead of time!!! Even if you don't do a full bake cycle, press the buttons and 'start' your cycle. Nothing is worse than calculating all your times, filling all the machines, and then getting a surprise error message.
• Give your machines plenty of space--If your recipe doesn't have enough water and/or the machine is old, the machine might move during the knead cycle. I tested one machine and it rocked its way off of my kitchen counter! On Sunday morning, I set the machines on the floor and then put them on tables during the final rise and bake cycles.
• Make sure you're not plugging multiple machines into the same electrical circuit--especially if your breakers tend to trip. We flipped through breakers and figured out exactly which plug went to which breaker switch.
• If you're using fresh bread for communion or as part of the service:
• Make sure you leave enough time for the bread to cool. For our 9:00 service, we set the machines to go off at 9:35 and the bread was still steaming when we broke it open for communion! It was breathtaking, but still a touch warm.
• Have volunteers ready to remove the finished bread (and the kneading paddles that often get stuck in the bread). ...and make sure they know how the machines work. Some baskets need to be turned or wiggled 'just so.' In a perfect world, your volunteers would be the people who owned those machines. 
• When we moved from the sermon to the communion liturgy, I simply asked if our fresh bread was ready and one of our volunteers yelled 'yes!' and brought two loaves forward on a wooden cutting board (covered with white cloth). It was an informal procession.
•  For bread removal, don't forget to have oven mits, cooling racks, plastic spatulas and wooden spoons ready.
• Mix the dry ingredients ahead of time. All I had to do was measure water, dump in a large ziploc of bead mix (see below), and add yeast. Ta dah!! It cut down on mess and time.
• If you're NOT using fresh bread for communion, you can still invite people to 'taste and see' the goodness after the service. We had a bread maker going in the narthex, so I removed the fresh loaf after the benediction and invited people to continue the worship experience on their way out of church... (or if you have leftovers, make sure to invite people back to the altar to consume the elements. They won't last long!)
• Please, please, remember to offer a gluten-free option. Even if it's wafers instead of bread, you'll be surprised how many people are usually excluded from eucharist because of food allergies.

Our Bread Machine Recipe for Communion

(compiled from all the different machine books, this recipe yields a slightly crumbly crust, but it tears easily for intiction):

Mix Ahead of time:

•  3 cups flour
• 1.5 TBS sugar
• 1.5 TBS dry milk
• 1 tsp salt

To add later (check your machine for which order they go into the basket):

•  1.5 TBS butter. 
• 1 cup and 2 TBS water.
• 2 tsp yeast (I used bread machine yeast)--make sure it doesn't touch water

Kingdom Parables

 And again he said, ‘To what should I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’ ~Luke 13:20-21

BakerWoman God

by Alla Bozarth-Campbell

Bakerwoman God,

I am your living Bread.

Strong, brown, Bakerwoman God.

I am your low, soft, and being-shaped loaf.

I am your rising bread,

well-kneaded by some divine and knotty pair of knuckles,

by your warm earth-hands.

I am bread well-kneaded.

Put me in fire, Bakerwoman God,

put me in your own bright fire.

I am warm, warm as you from fire.

I am white and gold, soft and hard, brown and round.

I am so warm from fire.

Break me, Bakerwoman God!

I am broken under your caring Word.

Bakerwoman God,

Remake me.

Prayers for hurtful comments...

Bind it. Remove it.

Reveal it. What is done in darkness may be brought to the light. Pray that God would reveal hidden agendas.

My Heart Hurts

It's advent, so we're supposed to hurt a little.
We're supposed to confess and be helpless--leaning on our saviour.

But it just plain aches when you know someone who is desperately sinking in the midst of addiction.

...and their partner can't carry the struggle
because they don't have any more trust to lose.

And it's awful when folk come to the church broken and beaten by life
...when pregnant mothers lose their jobs, but still have four kids to feed

 ...when women who make JUST enough to pay the rent can't pay the other bills
(and don't qualify for aid because they aren't technically homeless)

I can't fix it.

I can't heal it.

God, it hurts to even touch it!

In my heart, the words of Habakkuk echo:

How long, LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen?
Why do you make me look at injustice?
Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.

And God answers:
""Look at the nations and watch-- and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told."

Maranatha, Lord Jesus. Maranatha.