Snow Day

It's snowing like Crazy outside, has been since mid-morning. They say sometime later it will turn into sleet, which I am not wild about.

In the meantime, I am making tortellini soup, and dreaming of a quiet evening at home.

Here is the recipe, which I received from a young woman at my internship congregation in Denver:

2 lbs ground italian sausage
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
6 cups beef broth (3 cans)
1 cup water
4 cups fresh tomatoes peeled and chopped
(if using canned tomatoes drain)
3 1/2 cups tomato sauce
2-3 large carrots
2 T. oregano
2 teaspons basil, dried
2 T. parsley, dried
a bay leaf
1 medium zucchini, chopped
2 10 ounce packages fresh or fresh frozen tortellini (cheese filled only; one spinach pasta can be used for color)

Brown sausage, keeping it in large chunks. Remove browned meat from pan, reserving 2 T of the oil Saute onion and garlic.

In a large soup pot, mix all ingredients, adding back sausage, except fo the chopped zuccini and tortellini. Bring to a boil and lower the heat.

Simmer the soup for 2-3 hours. About 45 minutes before serving, add the tortellini and the zucchini and summer until tortellini are done.

Soup can be made up to 3 days in advance and kept cool in fridge. Reheat to serving temperature.

Soup, corn bread, hot cocoa, maybe a little knitting and of course, the ubiquitous laundry before the first Sunday in Advent tomorrow.

I found the picture and an alternative soup recipe here

Rejoicing and Weeping

On Saturday, I wracked my brain for a children's message idea and finally went up to the church attic, where I found a crown, a scepter and a cape. I had the children come up at the right time and asked them about kings. Why did they look like? What did they have? Then I had one child put on the crown, hold the scepter and wear the cape. I also said that people follow kings, so I had all of the children line up in back of the dressed-up child. But then I said, "Jesus was a king. Did he have a crown?" (No!) Did he have a scepter? (No!) Did he have a cape? (No!) what did he have?

Love, someone answered.

I was going to say a cross. I liked their answer better.

On Wednesday morning, I had a nursing home service. I was preaching on my go-to text, Matthew 14:22-33, where Peter walks on water -- kind of. At one point, I was telling about Peter stepping out of the boat and how incredible it must have felt when he was walking on the water. Then, I said, he noticed the wind and the waves, and looked down. Then what happened?

From the back of the room a voice: "He got baptized!"

Exactly.

Yesterday, I got a call from a hospice chaplain. She is also visiting a couple from our congregation. I also have been visiting them for three years, ever since he was diagnosed with ALS. He's a tall, humble Swede, who always seemed to have his head tilted a little to the side, as if he were listening intently to everything you said. He was quick to smile, and to cry a little, too. For about two years I came every month and gave them communion. Now he cannot take communion any more. I give him a blessing instead. He has had a feeding tube.

The hospice chaplain called to tell me that yesterday his feeding tube fell out. When he was asked whether he wanted it back in, he blinked once. That meant, "No."

They said that it will be seven to ten days until he dies.

Today, I went to visit him.

I gave him a blessing.

Friday Five: Grumpy Holiday Edition

Will Smama over at Revgals writes:
Parishioners pushing for carols before you digested your turkey?
Organist refusing to play Advent hymns because he/she already has them planned for Lessons & Carols?
Find yourself reading Luke and thinking of a variety of ways to tell Linus where to stick it? (Lights please.)
Then this quick and easy Friday Five is for you! And for those of you with a more positive attitude, have no fear. I am sure more sacred and reverent Friday Fives will follow.
Please tell us your least favorite/most annoying seasonal....

1) dessert/cookie/family food
lutfisk. Although you can't really call it a family food any more. We only eat it at church suppers.

2) beverage (seasonal beer, eggnog w/ way too much egg and not enough nog, etc...)
Eggnog, if it doesn't have rum in it. I mean, really, what's the point?

3) tradition (church, family, other)
Taking turns opening gifts, one at a time. Takes forever.
Also, the tradition of spending more than you can afford, and the tradition of believing that everything should be "perfect" on Christmas

4) decoration
Any decorative candle in the shape of i.e. a Christmas tree, church, choirboy, etc. once it is half-burned down.
Also, the little church with the electric light inside it.

5) gift (received or given)
I refuse to answer on the grounds that it may tend to incriminate me.

BONUS: SONG/CD that makes you want to tell the elves where to stick it.
John Lennon's Merry Christmas (War is Over). Sorry all of you John Lennon fans out there.


Ok, I'm a grump, but I'm going to put up a short list of favorites too:

1. Dessert
lefse. Deserves a post all its own.

2. Beverage
We don't really have a special beverage for Christmas, but I certainly like spiced cider.

3. Tradition
Listening to Bing Crosby's White Christmas Album while decorating the Christmas tree.
Also, I really like the tradition where some churches give their pastor presents (just kidding!)

4. Decoration
the cardboard angel we always put on the top of the tree

5. Gift (received or given)
The year I gave my mom a scarf which exactly matched her coat! It maybe cost $1.50, but I knew she would really like it. (It was the first year I picked out gifts myself.)

BONUS: You haven't lived until you have heard Bing and the Andrews sisters sing Jingle Bells and Santa Claus is coming to town. Really.

Right, Janet?

Advent/Christmas reading...

I stopped into one of my favorite stores yesterday (on the way home from a hospital visit) and came out with a couple of new books for the Advent season -- and into Christmas. It's always difficult for me to find good Advent material. A few years ago I got the Advent/Christmas and Lent/Easter collections: Watch for the Light and Bread and Wine, and still enjoy those many readings.

However, this year, I found a new book called God with us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas. It's beautifully illustrated, with readings for every day in Advent. It's published by Paraclete Press, an ecumenical publishing house. Some of the writers include: Scott Cairns, Emilie Griffin, Kathleen Norris, Eugene Peterson. I also found A Seasonal Book of Hours, by William Storey, published by Liturgy Training Publications. This is not a book of readings. It is a morning and evening prayer book for Advent/Christmas and Lent/Easter. It is very simple and liturgical.

Last year I discovered a great picture book for children called An Advent Storybook. Little Bear and his mother are opening a door on their advent calendar each night, and telling a story. The first story is about a star with a tail. They end up at the manger in Bethlehem.

This year local author Kate DiCamillo (author of Because of Winn-Dixie, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane) has a picture book out for Christmas, called Great Joy. It's about a little girl who is preparing for a Christmas pageant (perhaps in the 1930s?) but is very concerned about an organ grinder and his monkey, who sleep on the street.

And there are two books I am recommending even though I'm not sure they are still in print: two short story collections by Katherine Paterson. One is Angels and Other Strangers, and the other is A Midnight Clear. They have been favorites of mine for a long time. I discovered a few years ago that she began writing the stories for her husband, a Presbyterian minister, to read on Christmas eve.


What are you reading this Advent?

Global Warming

At Thanksgiving, my mother-in-law mentioned that she heard a program at church recently about Global Warming. She didn't know what to think, she said. The man said it was such a political issue, she said. It didn't take long to figure out that the speaker she heard doesn't believe that global warming is real.

It wasn't more than a month ago that our synod invited Will Steger to come and speak to us. His presentation was "Eyewitness to Global Warming", and one of the things he said was, "this is not a matter of politics." Not for him, at least. He doesn't have a political axe to grind. He's been there, seen things, and just wants to tell people what he has seen, as a person who loves the earth, and the creatures who dwell on it. It's possible that he thinks of himself as a kind of prophet, although I don't know if he would use those words.

One small story that struck me that day: there is a small Inuit village that has been in the same spot for centuries. But, they will have to move their village due to the change in climate. The village is Shismaref. When Will Steger said this name, I sat up, because a friend of mine was a Lutheran pastor in Shismaref.

Here's the problem I have with the Global Warming nay-sayers: They are telling us exactly what we want to hear. We don't have to change the way we do anything. Everything can stay just the same as it is. We can continue to live our comfortable existence. Don't worry. There is nothing to repent about.

Kind of like the false prophets -- the ones who would say, "Peace, peace," when there was no peace.

Now I don't know for 100% sure if global warming is real, although I do think that Will Steger has some credibility. I would be the first person to rejoice if I found out absolutely that there was no such thing.

But the whole thing does remind me of our gospel reading for Sunday: not the part we are always curious about, the part where some are "taken up" and some are "left behind." But the first part of the reading, when Jesus says that "as in those days before the flood, marrying and giving in marriage..." In other words, they were not paying attention, even though an ark was being built right in front of them.

We are not to be alarmists, trying to figure out the day that Jesus is coming back (we will never know), or even what day the earth will give out. But God does want us to pay attention -- to what is going on with our neighbors, the stranger, the earth -- and to live our lives as good stewards of the earth and of one another.

The basic instructions for Christians remain: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself." -- and keep in mind that our neighbor includes the earth and its creatures.

The Rest of New York

Saturday, November 17....

Our friends actually got their car out of storage, because they wanted to go and see The Cloisters with us. The Cloisters is a part of the Metropolitan Museum which was build to resemble a medieval monastery (some of the architecture, including doors, etc. are actually from monasteries in Europe). Lots of medieval paintings, tapestries, and sculptures, all pre-reformation. At one point our friends turned to me and said, "So what did Martin Luther do that was so great?"... which prompted a mini-Reformation history lesson.

The Cloisters is on the tip of upper Manhattan, in a wooded area you can't even imagine exists until you get there. I wish we had pictures to show the fall beauty all around the area. We spent all morning roaming around, until suddenly we realized we needed to get back to meet a pastor friend of my husband's. So we rushed back, and caught a subway down to Greenwich Village, where we met another friend -- this time under the Washington Square Arch.

He took us to a little noodle restaurant in the area, and learned a little about how he was doing. He had been a pastor in NewJersey at the time of 9/11, and several people from his congregation were missing after that day, their cars abandoned at the train station. It was a hard time for the small congregation, and a few years ago, he had a severe stroke. He now is able to work 10 hours a week. At one point, he confessed to not being able to follow part of our conversation. I was tempted to feel sorry for him, but he went on to say that he thought he was doing pretty well. "After all," he said, "I'm alive." I'll remember that short sentence for a long time. He also invited us to come back to New York, and stay with his family.

Later, we took the 1 train (our friend!) back to Upper Manhattan. We were a little alarmed when the train skipped several stops before 34th street. We weren't sure what was going on, but there was some kind of work going on, and some of the stops were closed -- just going north. Our friends D and A had invited us over to their house for supper at 7:00 -- homemade lasagne, created by D, salad and ice cream for dessert. Afterwards A had gotten reservations at an Uptown Jazz Club called Smoke, where we heard a be-bop group, featuring drummer Louis Hayes. It was a great atmosphere -- made us wish, though, that we hadn't had dessert! When the show started at 10:00, the first words from the small stage were: "It's Saturday night, and this is New York City!"

The club was cozy, with small tables and sofas in the back, and plush red curtains hanging throughout. D thought that the set was a little too short, but at 11:15, we were sadly up past our bedtime already.

(A word about our building: large, old building -- the rooms had been redecorated and the bathrooms new. Our blow dryer didn't work, and all of the hotel phone went out on Friday night for awhile. Also, one of the hotel elevators was kind of scary-looking, really small with gang markings on it. There was another, newer elevator, but we didn't find it until we were almost ready to leave.)

Sunday, November 18...
we ate breakfast at another wonderful little New York diner called Key West, where they know how to keep the coffee coming, and keep people moving through!

At 11:00 we met our friends again at a church they attend, Advent Lutheran. Pastor Elise Brown preached that morning, and there was a baptism: quite an event when a baby is not just sprinkled, but dipped naked into the font and then clothed in a towel and shown around to the cheering congregation. This was the tradition of the family's culture, we were told. I was impressed by the diversity, and openness. I really enjoyed worshiping with them, but again we had to rush off after worship to meet with a friend of my husband's, who lived down in Soho.

We ate at a cosmopolitan little place where there was a duo playing guitar and bass, and an international crew talking about world issues. Then took a short tour of the neighborhood, and learned a creative way to get back uptown for our luggage since we discovered that our beloved number 1 train did not stop at this station!

We were sad to leave New York, to get on a plane which would leave at 6:00 p.m., and sadder still when we discovered that our flight would be delayed! I would have loved one more hour to walk around in Central Park, to shop at Macy's, stop in at Rockefeller Center. In fact, I'm already planning out next itinerary, which includes:

A show at Radio City Music Hall
Rockefeller Center
Central Park
more Metropolitan Museum of Art
MoMA
The Ellis Island Immigration Museum

I have a migraine...

... and a funeral tomorrow. Please pray for me.

I spent the afternoon in Urgent Care.

Now I am beginning to write my sermon.