(Full disclosure–my Latin has gone downhill and I didn’t translate this on my own.)
boni pastoris est tondere pecus non deglubereÂ
It is a good pastor who shears, not flays, the sheep. (Tiberius’ directions to his regional commanders, reminding them to take it easy on their populace)
I thought it was a good reminder for a new pastor: make God’s people sleek, allow them to produce their fleece in season, don’t injure with over-excited shearing.
A few members of my high school youth group requested this recipe after I made it for our night on Hinduism. It’s good, but let me warn everyone that the smell persists for days. My house and parts of the church smell. (This is adapted from Madhur Jaffrey’s fabulous cookbook.)
Chana Masaledar (Made in a Crock-pot for a Bunch of Hungry Teenagers…)
1 T vegetable oil
4 medium onions finely chopped
3/4 t ground cumin
1 t ground cinnamon
1 t ground nutmeg
1 t ground cloves
4 t ground coriander
8 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
2 sq inches of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped (I freeze my fresh ginger so it’s easy to peel and then when I slice off fine layers of it, the layers sort of break up and the fine chopping is pretty much done for me.)
1 tiny can tomato paste
5 15 oz cans garbanzo beans (drain the liquid from 4, keep th liquid in one)
1 t salt
1 t cayenne pepper
juice of 1 lemon
And the directions? Throw all that stuff in a crock pot and cook it for a really long time…Serve with rice or chapatis (whole wheat tortillas also work well…)
Who knew that one of my favorite liturgical days was also connected to a favorite past-time? Gotta love the anglican liturgy.
My (very few) frequent visitors might notice that I added myself to a WebRing today (like-mined bloggers, in this case women clergy and their buddies especially…).
Looking through these blogs has me thinking about the issue of anonymity and blogging. When I started this blog, I made the decision to not be anonymous. I did this for several reasons:
Now, I don’t want to in any way question the choice of my fellow bloggers who go anonymous. I think blogging is a wonderful way for pastors to support each other. In fact, there are times I really wish I had gone anonymous. Sometimes, I really wish I was putting things here without some of the worried listed above. Sometimes I think my posts could be deeper or more interesting if I was anonymous and felt less constrained. It would be a great outlet, a great way of consulting with colleagues, a great way to receive support from some people who I really respect.
I could say more, but Zora is fussing.
So, feel free to weigh in. What are the merits of being anonymous/being public with your blog?
Erik has been reciting William Carlos Williams’ poem “So much depends upon a red wheelbarrow…” to Zora for a few days. (Since she’s so exceptional, we’re sure she’ll have it memorized by 3 months!)
I love that poem, the idea that life sometimes hinges on little things.
And here’s my little thing for the day: outside my office window, a crabapple tree is bare and all of its leaves completely cover the lawn and shrubs in gold. One or two red leaves from a nearby bush are mixed in. So I almost missed the cardinal poking its head around in the leaves.
Well, it’s official.
I am finally called and installed as an associate pastor at Fox Valley Presbyterian Church.
The service was wonderful—excellent preaching (thank you, Dave!); beautiful music; inspiring charges; the nine questions (what Presbyterian ministers are asked on these occasions); meaningful participants (my Dad and my Grandpa; sheet cake…
After my family left this afternoon, Erik and I went for a walk with Zora. And that’s when it hit both of us: here we are. We’ve been nomads since we got married—grad school, switching jobs, waiting for a call. But here we are. Called and installed. We’re finally in the place where we’ve been waiting to be.
A new-found great joy in my new call: walking through the various classrooms on Sunday morning to see how wonderfully my lay-leaders and the kids are doing.
This past week, we started a new unit (Moses and the Exodus, and how that story pre-figures the story of Jesus) for grades 1-5. The third grade was working on producing a radio skit based on a story about Sherpin the sheep, who learned from Jesus-sheep about how to get to God’s Great Pen. Their leader was reviewing the story before the recording started, and asked, “How do you get the God’s Great Pen?” The girls, of course, were ready with the “right” answer: “Follow the Jesus-sheep.” But the boys were up to something. One little guy piped up: “You have to die!”
Now, this being third grade, and Halloween being around the corner, the discussion among the boys descended into suggestions about the sheep murdering each other to get to the Great Pen. But these little guys were defintely onto something. Want to follow Jesus? To start with, you have to give up who you thought you were. And that’s no easy, painless procedure. To quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
So, don’t let anyone tell you that Sunday School theology is any less complex and advanced than the stuff they study in seminaries!
First, a note about names. In the 19th century, when Dutch immigrants arrived in western Michigan, many of them stayed in clumps with other people from their home villages. They might name a village, or even a church after that village. Thus, the name that looks strange at best to non-Dutch speakers.
My dad was an associate pastor here in the early 1980s. He was ordained here, my brother and my youngest sister were baptized here. I have my first real memories of church here. Some of the things this congregation taught me:
As a pastor’s kid and a pastor, I have the blessing of a nomadic church background. I’m not yet thirty, but as far as I can calculate I’ve been a member/regular attender of more than ten churches. (I’m guessing I can look forward to more being added to that list during my life as well.) Every one of these congregations has impacted the person, Christian, and pastor I’ve become.
In the next few months, I’ll try to write a little about most of these churches, and make short list of things I learned there.
