john is at it again...

john of locusts and honey is at it again - check out his latest post here. (vote for shane, ok? he has closet-britney-supporter written all over him.)

how do you take communion?

Sorry for the posting absence. I'm currently enjoying a week of volunteering at Camp Aldersgate, and internet connections are tricky at best!

This past Sunday we celebrated communion in my church, and I was mulling over how people take communion - and I don't mean whether at the rail or in pew or in lines. I mean this: we most often have communion by intinction at St. Paul's, and I've notice people have a 'way' they take their bread. Some take a tiny piece so small that they can barely find any to dip in the cup. Others mean to take a small piece, but accidentally get a big piece, and then are embarrassed. Others take a big soft piece from the center, and seem to enjoy it. And still others always go for a piece of crust, with gusto. Do you have a favorite way?

I think that there must be a great metaphor somewhere in this - a metaphor for how we receive God's grace, or something. Do we receive grace timidly? Boldly? Fearful we've accidentally taken to much? With gusto? Joy?

What should I read?

I usually read one fiction book and one non-fiction book at the same time (ok, not the same time, but you know what I mean.) My 'to read' pile of non-fiction is neverending. But I'm out of ideas for fiction books. Suggestions? I listen to lighter fare as books-on-tape when I'm driving, so I prefer the more thought-provoking for before-bed reading. Any genre is fine. Help me out!

Reflections: A Wedding

This weekend I had the great joy to be part of the wedding celebration of my dear friend from college, Julie (who I mentioned in my Locusts and Honey profile as one of the people I most admire)

Julie is an awesome young woman with a huge heart for justice issues, and she fell in love with a great person - Ramesh, a doctor with an equal activist-minded soul, who has worked, for example, with Doctors without Borders. Ramesh is Indian and raised in a Hindu family, and so I got to experience my first interfaith wedding celebration - and what a celebration! In the Bible we read about wedding feasts that lasted for days or weeks. The traditional Hindu wedding is about 3 days of ceremonies. Julie and Ramesh celebrated a somewhat condensed version of the traditional, and incorporated a Christian ceremony as well, but the end result was still something closer to what I would call a feast than what I have usually experienced in today's Christian weddings. A feast, not because of the food (though there was certainly enough of that to qualify) but a feast because of the whole feeling - the gathering of friends and family, the home filled to overflowing with people celebrating this union, the music, the dancing, the food, the ceremony and ritual - it was a feast.

I loved being part of it. I even got to join in the henna or mehndi party with the other women and the bride, where we were decorated by a fantastic artist for the wedding. (Check out a picture of one of my henna-decorated hands here.)

The Hindu ceremony itself was great fun to watch, even if it wasn't always easy to follow what exactly was happening - the service is conducted by a priest in Sanskrit. Highlights: the bride and groom shower each other with rice as a symbol of abundance and blessings, and the congregation gets to shower the couple with rice as well, and also, the vows that the couple take, walking together around the fire - seven vows:

Together we take the First Step to respect and honor each other
Together we take the Second Step to commit to care for each other
Together we take the Third Step to commit to be patient with each other
Together we take the Fourth Step to be honest and faithful to each other
Together we take the Fifth Step to stay together in happiness and sorrow
Together we take the Sixth Step to travel this journey of life with love and harmony
Together we take the Seventh Step to cultivate a strong and happy family

A great weekend...

Niger - What to do?

I keep reading news about Niger, thanks to the reminders of my mother - the famine has really captured her attention - that and watching the baby panda (this is in lieu of grandchildren, which she'd rather have, but she'll take the panda for now). I feel quite helpless, and frustrated. I've read several news stories which said: "We knew this was coming. No one responded. Now it will be too little too late." I've seen the terrible, terrible images of starving children. And I think, what can I do? What can we do? What should we be doing?

What do you think?

I don't have many ideas, but here's a couple thoughts.

1) UMCOR, our United Methodist relief agency, could use our donations. Find information, worship resources, and bulletin inserts here. They don't have an online donation set up for this as they did for tsunami relief, which is frustrating, but there are still several methods available to use.
2) Be thankful for every day you are not hungry. I am not thankful enough for what I have.
3) Be less wasteful. Shamefully, I sometimes throw away food that I've purchased and then not used because I was never in the mood for it, or I forgot about it, or I was too lazy to prepare it. Or, I choose fast food and restaurants instead of cooking at home, which uses more money and makes more garbage (and hurts the environment too).
4) Redirect resources. Spending less on ourselves is good, and healthy, but even more effective when we redirect what we have to others. (see #1)

I know that's not much of a list. Add to it! It is baffling that there is a famine going on, isn't it? We have so much power, and so little interest in using it in the amazing ways we could.

Hugh Blumenfeld

My brother introduced me (musically, not personally) to folk musician Hugh Blumenfeld, and I want to pass along the recommendation to you.

Lyrics to a favorite called "long-haired radical socialist Jew":
Well Jesus was a homeless lad
With an unwed mother and an absent dad
And I really don't think he would have gotten that far
If Newt, Pat and Jesse had followed that star

Refrain: So let's all sing out praises to
That long-haired radical socialist Jew

When Jesus taught the people he
Would never charge a tuition fee
He just took some fishes and some bread
And made up free school lunches instead
So let's all sing out praises to....

He healed the blind and made them see
He brought the lame folks to their feet
Rich and poor, any time, anywhere
Just pioneering that free health care
So let's all sing out praises to....

Jesus hung with a low-life crowd
But those working stiffs sure did him proud
Some were murderers, thieves and whores
But at least they didn't do it as legislators
So let's all sing out praises to....

Jesus lived in troubled times
the religious right was on the rise
Oh what could have saved him from his terrible fate?
Separation of church and state.
So let's all sing out praises to....

Sometimes I fall into deep despair
When I hear those hypocrites on the air
But every Sunday
gives me hope
When pastor, deacon, priest, and pope
Are all singing out their praises to
Some long-haired radical socialist Jew.
They're singing out their praises to..oooo..oooo..Some long-haired radical socialist Jew.

A Baransu Blessing and a Baransu Prayer for Guidance and Strength

Tom Davison, a friend of my mother's, is quite the writer, and he's written A Baransu Blessing and Prayer for Guidance and Strength. It is too lengthy to post it all here, so you can find it posted on my main site here. But I really enjoyed it, and want to share it with you. Here's an excerpt from the prayer:

"When life seems to be sinking, may God help me as often as possible to go for a walk instead of crashing on the couch, and not only exercise my literal legs (literal exercise is said to alleviate depression), but also my figurative legs, helping me to see how to stand up for my rights in a mild mannered way (like Clark Kent, mild mannered reporter), when I am in danger of being unjustly intimidated, or else may God enable me to use my legs to do the heavy lifting in an effort to rebuild after an emotional “disaster.” This may mean learning to appreciate that the “autumn” of life is better than the coming “winter,” knowing that eventually hope will “spring” anew, and that life’s problems usually have enough compensations and silver linings to make life “good enough,” in the long run. Also may God help me realize that later in life, and in afterlife, perhaps, I will be stronger for the efforts that I make in the here and now to do heavy lifting in the present.
Yes, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”"