Palm Sunday - Scene 2

The following essay is by Peter Sawtell, Executive Director of Eco-Justice Ministries. I put it up on the blog last year and decided to repeat it this year. It really is "food for thought"!

"Palm Sunday is that occasion in the church year when we try and get ourselves into a really joyous mood, so that we can experience the full roller coaster effect of Holy Week.

"In many churches this weekend, the members of the Sunday School will be drafted to form a palm-waving procession through the sanctuary. Some lucky child may even get to play the part of Jesus, and ride the wooden donkey, the same one used by Mary in the Christmas pageant. Meanwhile, in the pews, well-dressed adults will sing All Glory, Laud and Honor and look very self-conscious about waving their fronds.

"Through it all, we make a noble attempt to capture the genuine spirit of celebration that is part and parcel of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. We try to claim the hope and excitement of the Messiah's arrival in the capitol city. And we set aside the awareness of what comes later in this Holy Week -- the agonizing times of betrayal and death, and the astounding joy of resurrection.

"The Christian liturgical tradition packs a lot into Holy Week. We observe Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil, and Easter itself.

"And yet, as I re-read the Palm Sunday account in the gospels, I'm struck by what our liturgies skip over. The tradition of the triumphal entry is truncated. Scene 2 is skipped.

"Picture this in your church's observation of the day: The bathrobe-clad Jesus rides the wheeled donkey down the aisle, while the congregation sings familiar hymns of praise and wave their palm branches. Then, as the music comes to a close, Jesus strides to the chancel, sweeps the silver communionware onto the floor, and shouts, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer', but you are making it a den of robbers."

What do you think? Is this true? Read the rest of the article

The painting is undated by Solomon Raj. Asian Christian Art Association

The sculpture of Christ cleansing the Temple is by Brian Burgess.

Making it all count

In C. S. Lewis’s “Chronicles of Narnia” Aslan the Lion takes Lucy, Edmund, Peter and everyone to the New Narnia—we might call it “heaven” or the New Creation. It’s a place of astonishing light and beauty; a place where every blade of grass seems to mean more and where every creature sings for the sheer joy of the Creator. It is a place where everything is just so real in depth and color that the mere sight of a daisy takes your breath away and makes you weep for the sheer beauty of the thing.

But there, in the midst of all that beauty, they see a group of dwarfs huddled together—convinced that they are living in the rank stench of a barn. Lucy—upset that they aren’t enjoying the New Narnia—begs Aslan to help them, and he tells her, “I will show you what I can and cannot do.”

Aslan shakes his golden mane and a sumptuous banquet appears. But when the dwarfs dive in, they start gagging and complaining. “Doesn’t this beat all,” they lament. “Not only are we in this stinking stable but now we’ve got to eat hay and dried cow dung as well!”

The dwarves, Aslan goes on to say, had chosen suspicion instead of trust and love. They were prisoners of their own minds. They could not see Aslan’s gift of the New Narnia for they would not see it. Aslan can but leave them alone to the hell of their own devising.

Living now, in a time of economic crisis and uncertainty, it’s easy to feel anxious—a lot like those dwarfs. It happens to people, it happens to congregations and presbyteries, too. The temptation is to hunker down and hold on tightly to what we have. But now, I think, is a good time to remember and claim God’s promise of abundant life by opening ourselves up even more to the glorious bounty that is all around and to choose trust and love. It’s also a good time to see that everything we do really counts. Give to One Great Hour of Sharing and other Presbyterian mission; spend your money on fair trade items that are beautiful and help the communities that make them.

Remember your treasure isn’t in your IRA or your building. Spend your precious time building relationships—with God, with God’s creation, and with yourselves. And enjoy the abundance!

The wonders of creation exceed imagination!

Thanks to Jamie Pharr, who sent this to me!

It's been said that God first separated the salt water from the fresh, made dry land, planted a garden, made animals and fish... all before making a human. He made and provided what we'd need before we were born. These are best and more powerful when eaten raw.

God left us a great clue as to what foods help what part of our body! God's Pharmacy! Amazing!

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye... and YES, science now shows carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.

A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart has four chambers and is red. All of the research shows tomatoes are loaded with lycopine and are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.

A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds on the nut are just like the neo-cortex. We now know walnuts help develop more than three (3) dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.

Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and many more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet, the body pulls it from the bones, thus making them weak These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.

Avocados, Eggplant and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight, and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? It takes exactly nine (9) months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the mobility of male sperm and increase the numbers of Sperm as well to overcome male sterility.

Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.

Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries.

Oranges, Grapefruits, and other Citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.

Onions look like the body's cells. Today's research shows onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells. They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes. A working companion, Garlic, also helps eliminate waste materials and dangerous free radicals from the body.

A new take on eating out.

On Friday night Paul and I decided to go to a local restaurant for dinner. We were tired of chain restaurants, we find the food is always too salty and we wanted some variety. So we headed out with Italian in mind. After some suggestions from my sister we found a nice Italian place that was family owned in Point Pleasant. It was an amazing experience. Our waitress I believe was one of the owners of the place. Everything including the salad dressing was homemade. That was very refreshing and some of the best salad dressing I have had in a long time. Salad for me was followed by some of the best stuffed shrimp I have ever had, there was nothing frozen about them and there was actually real crab meat in them nothing imitation. Paul went with chicken Parmesan which he thoroughly enjoyed. We ended with a homemade Cannoli. The waitress warned us there was no processed cream in it and we may not like the texture because it was made from real ricotta cheese. It was delightfully refreshing and not as heavy as your typical cream filled dessert. The waitress was so kind she even told us how to make them at home.

To be honest it reminded me of eating at my Grandma’s house. Everything was fresh and homemade and the waitress made us feel like we were family. She even pointed out the weekly specials for what we ordered so we could come back again and save money. Paul and I decided not only would we go back again but that from now on our dinners out will not be at chain food services. We had much better food and service. I am the daughter of a long time small business owner so it made me feel good to patronize someone local. I even remarked to Paul that we should use small local businesses more often. So I guess you can say this is day that I wrote off the big chain restaurants for dinner and replaced them with smaller places and better food and service.

~Becca

Eisenhower got it!

Whether or not you support the war in Iraq, you should be aware of its costs--especially the effect on the most vulnerable in our society.

This is an excerpt from a speech by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1953. My guess is that 55 years later, the numbers would need updating but the truth is still there.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

This world in arms is not spending money along. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

"The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete pavement.

"We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people."

Food for Thought: "The Eyes of All . . . "

The food crisis is very much in the news these days. An article on the Presbyterian Hunger Program website begins with this: “The food crisis has reached violent extremes. Yet food riots are like flare-ups from the hot coals of widespread, preventable hunger.” With rising food prices, in addition to the approximately 854 million people in the world who go hungry, another 100 million people are at risk of starvation, while a billion of us are overfed. Denial, helplessness, and fear of not being able to do anything are common reactions to such numbers—but we are called to something better.

Each year on Pentecost we read Psalm 104:24-34, 35b. It tells us that God’s wisdom abounds in all of nature and that all creatures are made by God and all belong to God. But verse 27 gets at the crux of the matter: “The eyes of all look to you to give them their food in due season.” Which seems to imply that when people are not fed, when 1 child dies every 5 seconds, God is somehow absent—or seems to be absent, perhaps in an especially heartbreaking way to women who already suffer disproportionately from hunger (70% of hungry people are women and girls). It also gives us a warning, in the first part of verse 35 (now why is this cut out of the official lectionary reading??): “Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more.” We are accountable.

Recently I visited three locations with Derrick Boykin, the Northeast Regional Organizer for Bread for the World. We wanted to talk with people and see if there was interest in starting a Bread for the World chapter in central and southern New Jersey. Derrick gave a persuasive presentation on hunger, mentioning many of the statistics we are so familiar with. Then he drew a chart with two columns.

On one side was a list of all the things churches do to fight hunger. We named the usual: food pantries and soup kitchens and fund raising. Churches do these things really well. On the other side we listed the causes of hunger. We came up with things like poverty, natural disasters, war, agricultural policies, food policies, and environmental degradation. He didn’t need to say any more; the message was clear: much of what we do is necessary and we must do it—but it is only a Band-Aid that alleviates hunger, when what we really need is to eliminate its causes.

The Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP) works to alleviate hunger and eliminate its causes. Direct Food Relief is just one of five program areas; others are Development Assistance, Lifestyle Integrity, Education and Interpretation, and Influencing Public Policy (we do a lot in partnership with Bread for the World).

On Pentecost, the church was born when the Holy Spirit came and breathed new life into everyone and gave everyone the gift of bold speech. In this season after Pentecost, please add your voice to the chorus of those who speak out and seek justice for the world’s hungry people. Learn about the issues; hold an Offering of Letters; send e-mails, make phone calls; meet with your senators and representatives—they need our encouragement, they need to know we’re there. It’s a good time to claim the gifts of the Holy Spirit for ourselves to move from fear and helplessness and denial to a life that is truly abundant—for everyone. Perhaps God’s eyes are waiting on us!

Wishing you traveling mercies and many glimpses of redemption on your journey with Jesus

Growing Food Crisis - Prayers for those who suffer, Prayers for Guidance

I received the following message from Andrew Kang Bartlett of the Presbyterian Hunger Program. Please pray for those who suffer and for guidance on what we can do to respond. For starters on a response, I highly recommend the Bread for the World meetings we are holding on April 30.

"I'm sure you've been hearing about the growing food crisis (as if 25,000 people dying daily from hunger and hunger-related disease was not already a crisis of epic proportions!) due to increases in food prices. The short piece from the Globe and Mail gives a stark glimpse of this.

"I believe that we need to think, pray and work together to come up with the best strategies (that we can connect to and/or devise ourselves) for dealing with this. As the article mentions, higher prices could be with us for a long time - and it is estimated that for every 1% rise in food prices, worldwide 16 million more people become hungry.

"Please pray for those who are suffering. And let us pray for guidance about what our responses should be. Please share your thoughts and ideas!"

Reese-isms (for making a difference)

The following post isn't related directly to hunger and environment--but it is about being "wise as serpents and gentle as doves"--exactly what we need to make a difference.

Sometimes cleaning out your desk can yield forgotten treasures along with a neater desk, and I just found one that the Rev. James Foster Reese provided at a workshop a few years ago. He called them "Reeseisms (For Making a Difference." I call them uncommon sense. Here they are:

1. "Don't put your dog in every fight"
2. "Don't argue if you can't win."
3. "Don't think you will learn something from the second kick of a mule." (Mark 6:10-13)
4. "Don't be known for much speaking as for speaking much."
5. "Don't self-sacrifice unless this is your last cause or you know you will rise on the third day."
6. "Don't believe that just because it is right, it is necessarily smart."
7. "Don't forget, you can learn something from a jackass!" (Numbers 22:22-35)
8. "Don't risk more than you can afford to lose."
9. "Don't think you can get clean clothes without agitation."
10. "Don't always believe a meeting is more important than a birthday party."
    

Which one would you like to work on? I think I'm going to work on one a week.

Wishing you traveling mercies, many glimpses of redemption on your journey with Jesus, and the joy of making a difference.

After the Palms - Imagine Scene 2

The following essay is by Peter Sawtell, Executive Director of Eco-Justice Ministries. It really is "food for thought"!

"Palm Sunday is that occasion in the church year when we try and get ourselves into a really joyous mood, so that we can experience the full roller coaster effect of Holy Week.

"In many churches this weekend, the members of the Sunday School will be drafted to form a palm-waving procession through the sanctuary. Some lucky child may even get to play the part of Jesus, and ride the wooden donkey, the same one used by Mary in the Christmas pageant. Meanwhile, in the pews, well-dressed adults will sing All Glory, Laud and Honor and look very self-conscious about waving their fronds.

"Through it all, we make a noble attempt to capture the genuine spirit of celebration that is part and parcel of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. We try to claim the hope and excitement of the Messiah's arrival in the capitol city. And we set aside the awareness of what comes later in this Holy Week -- the agonizing times of betrayal and death, and the astounding joy of resurrection.

"The Christian liturgical tradition packs a lot into Holy Week. We observe Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil, and Easter itself.

"And yet, as I re-read the Palm Sunday account in the gospels, I'm struck by what our liturgies skip over. The tradition of the triumphal entry is truncated. Scene 2 is skipped.

"Picture this in your church's observation of the day: The bathrobe-clad Jesus rides the wheeled donkey down the aisle, while the congregation sings familiar hymns of praise and wave their palm branches. Then, as the music comes to a close, Jesus strides to the chancel, sweeps the silver communionware onto the floor, and shouts, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer', but you are making it a den of robbers."

What do you think? Is this true? Read the rest of the article

The painting is undated by Solomon Raj. Asian Christian Art Association

The sculpture of Christ cleansing the Temple is by Brian Burgess.

Make the World a Better Place

Do you dream of a better world? Why not help make your dream come true?

San Jose Presbytery has published a beginners guide on how to do it. A copy is available at the Presbytery or you can watch it on line. The theme of the documentary is:

• Do something to improve the world (even if it's a small something)
• Urge others to do something, too
• Do that something soon (. . . a better time may not come!)
• Notice, stop, act - Be like the "Good Samaritan" who noticed the man in the road, stopped, and acted to help the man recover from his injuries, even as others passed by who could have helped, but chose not to. (Luke 10:33)

Watch the film

"How to Make the World a Better Place...

a beginners guide" online and see how to use it in a discussion on service, social change, advocacy and individual ability and motivation to make change.

THANKS TO PAT PLANT, HUNGER ACTION ADVOCATE

IN SAN JOSE FOR SHARING THIS!

Food for Thought: Do you know how much your burger costs the earth?

The Food and Faith site of the Presbyterian Hunger Program is "chock full" of good information. The following is directly from there.

Grain

It takes 12 pounds of grain to produce one pound of hamburger. This could make eight loaves of bread, or 24 plates of spaghetti. Grain consumption by livestock is increasing twice as fast as grain consumption by people. Cattle consume 70 percent of all U.S. grain.

Rain forest

While not all hamburgers come from the rain forest, for every pound of rain forest beef, approximately 660 pounds of precious living matter is destroyed, including 20—30 different plant species, over 100 insect species, and dozens of mammals and reptiles.

Water

It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of hamburger. This could be used to grow more than 50 pounds of fruits and vegetables. Half of all water consumed in the United States is used to grow feed and provide drinking water for cattle and other livestock.

Food for Thought: Lord I want to be GREEN and CHRISTIAN in my HEART

I don’t want to have to deal with climate change! I feel hopeless and powerless when I see pictures of polar bears stranded on ice, or think about the rising ocean temperatures and sea levels that we know will eventually submerge an entire nation, or when I visit a rapidly disappearing glacier high up in the Bolivian Andes and learn about the effect on the people who depend on it for their water.

But after a long time of hoping global warming would go away (a.k.a. being in denial),I’ve come to terms with the need to make some changes in my lifestyle. A lot of them are cosmetic: compact fluorescent light bulbs, alternative energy sources, less driving. They’re becoming good habits that I really like.

But there’s a deeper change that I really struggle with, and that is the need to turn away from the individualism and materialism of our market-driven society. I need another kind of change—a paraphrase of an old Slave Song: “Lord, I want to be green (and Christian) in my heart.” And that means a deep spiritual change leading to voluntary simplicity, real community, and the genuine abundance of “enough”—which is, after all the abundant life that God offers us.

That kind of change isn’t easy in a world where we hear the story “more is better” 24/7. But we have God’s promise of shalom, and we have hope that calls us to committed and active engagement with the “principalities and powers” and compassionate relationship with all of creation.

It may not be quite as easy bein’ green on the inside, but “it’s beautiful and it’s what I want to be.”

Wishing you traveling mercies and many glimpses of redemption on your journey with Jesus.

For a really good article which says this so much better than I can, check out Peter Sawtell's recent article "Only a symptom" in Eco-Justice Notes.

Food for Thought: Reeseisms (for making a difference)

Sometimes cleaning out your desk can yield forgotten treasures along with a neater desk, and I just found one that the Rev. James Foster Reese provided at a workshop a few years ago. He called them "Reeseisms (For Making a Difference." I call them uncommon sense. Here they are:

1. "Don't put your dog in every fight"
2. "Don't argue if you can't win."
3. "Don't think you will learn something from the second kick of a mule." (Mark 6:10-13)
4. "Don't be known for much speaking as for speaking much."
5. "Don't self-sacrifice unless this is your last cause or you know you will rise on the third day."
6. "Don't believe that just because it is right, it is necessarily smart."
7. "Don't forget, you can learn something from a jackass!" (Numbers 22:22-35)
8. "Don't risk more than you can afford to lose."
9. "Don't think you can get clean clothes without agitation."
10. "Don't always believe a meeting is more important than a birthday party."
    

Which one would you like to work on? I think I'm going to work on one a week.

Wishing you traveling mercies, many glimpses of redemption on your journey with Jesus, and the joy of making a difference.

Food for Thought: Don't let the alligators get you down!

The Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP) is a ministry of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) that works to alleviate hunger and eliminate its causes, responding with compassion and justice to poor and hungry people in local communities in the United States and internationally. (Read more about the PHP’s work and the five program areas.)

Earlier this week, Andrew Kang Bartlett from the Presbyterian Hunger Program office in Louisville put out the question to the Hunger Action Enablers: About what do you hope? Which I think is a great question because I tend to get bogged down in problems and this question gave me food for thought and reminded me of some things from the old days at AT&T.

It used to be that when I told people where I worked, they would ask me if I was an operator (this was when they still had lots of operators and before Women’s Lib really took hold). Then I would explain that I worked with computers and data bases (anything more than that was too much information). Now, when I tell people I work on hunger, they ask me if I run a feeding program and I go into my 30 second elevator speech on the Presbyterian Hunger Program and how Direct Food Relief is just one of five program areas.

All of this reminded me of a saying we had at AT&T:

When you’re up to your “neck” in alligators, it’s hard to remember that your primary goal is to drain the swamp.

I think it’s the same way with working on hunger:

When we’re up to our necks in trying to alleviate hunger, it’s hard to remember the other goal: to eliminate its causes.

(For some interesting perspective on this, read Mark Winne's "When Handouts Keep Coming, the Foodlines Never End" in the November 18, 2007 Washington Post.)

So—for anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed with trying to do something about the problem of hunger—in your community, in NJ, in the USA, and around the world--it gives me hope that we are working to eliminate its causes and more and more folks are out there helping to drain the swamp.

Wishing you traveling mercies on your journey with Jesus—and watch those alligators!