The Msg of Jesus vs. That of Peter & Paul

Posted on by Sare

So, we were discussing this at our sermon group this morning.  On the one hand you have Jesus saying that The Most Important Thing Ever (the Summary of the Law, it is called in some circles) is A) Love God with everything in you and B) Love your Neighbor as Yourself.  All of his ministry and most of his teachings that are told of in the four canonical gospels support this and the ones that don’t are suspected by many biblical scholars to be later additions and edits by his well-meaning but utterly clueless and totally unhelpful students.  Okay.  Nifty.  Very clear.  Love-Love-Love.  It’s a reeeeally easy doctrine to remember.  Less easy to live out, but not a whole lot of memorization required.

But you know, all throughout the four canonical gospels, over and over again, his students ranged from Not Getting It to Seriously Misunderstanding with exceptionally brief intervals of seemingly divine epiphany in which they Sort Of Understood, A Little.  Pentecost notwithstanding, I don’t think much changed with their understanding of his message after the Roman Empire executed him.  What makes me say this? Continue reading →

Identity Theft

Posted on by Sare

I’d intended to settle into this delightful cafe table, ensconced with my technology, my oh-so-tasty bagel and my perfectly doctored coffee and blog myself a nifty blogpost.  Instead I’d discovered that someone had hacked my email account at quarter to six in the morning, and spammed all of my family, friends, acquaintances, and business contacts.  So, there was less blogging and more damage control.  Needless to say, I have changed my password.

As it goes, this is a rather minor level of identity theft, but it is disturbing nonetheless.  My more tech-savvy friends recognized the phishing/spam email for what it was and contacted me in a variety of ways to alert me that I’d been hacked, but my less savvy contacts totally clicked on the link.  This event has provided an interesting diving board for my thoughts, in that way.  I mean, perhaps this is a Writer thing, or perhaps it’s simply a Human thing, but I strive really hard, and really intentionally to not only be understood when I communicate, but to experience a really high level of integrity in my words, and not only my words, but in my thoughts and my actions as well.  It got me thinking, this minor case of identity theft. Continue reading →

Crisis

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No one wants to be thrown into crisis.  No one wants to lose their home, to not pay their bills, to have someone they love die.  No one wants to be in a car accident.  No one wants to hit rock bottom and have to look at their own behavior and how it might have made a difficult situation even more untenable.  No one wants to have an emotional breakdown, at least no one of whom I’m aware.

And yet there is this funny thing about crisis.  It can make us better people. Continue reading →

Cool as shit.

Posted on by Sare
Photo by Jean Carneiro at http://www.sxc.hu/profile/jpaulocv

You are the beloved.

Soundtrack: ‘She Sells Sanctuary’ by The Cult. “When the world drags me down, she sells sanctuary…”

Because she’s cooler than shit, she starts the meeting out with the following reflection: We tell other people all the time that God loves them, that they are the Beloved (see first creation story, any accounting of the baptism of Jesus, etc), but how often to we spend quality time meditating on that fact as applied to us?  And then we spent five minutes in meditative silence.  And instantly the tone is set for our sometimes negative, sometimes fractious group: start from a foundation of love, and be honest about where we are in relation to it.  And we turned to the person next to us and discussed it.  And we opened up to the larger group some of our experiences, and believe you me, we were all over the board with it.

For some of us this was the most fundamental part of who we are.  In the voice of a mother, or father, or spouse there is that constant reassurance: You are so incredibly loved.  You are lovable.  You are wholly good.  These other things?  These failings?  This brokenness?  All of that is stuff that can be forgiven, or is already.  But at your essence, you are Perfectly Beloved.

And for others of us… yeah, not so much.  Perhaps you’d think a room full of Clergy who regularly preach the Love of God and who regularly sit with the dying and assure the Love of God and who regularly baptize newborns and proclaim the Love of God would have a better handle on it in their own lives.  Well, you’d be wrong about that.  ::stepping down off the pedestal, on behalf of all her brother and sister clergy::   Continue reading →

Multi-Grain (Vegan) Bread

Posted on by Sare

Ingredients

  • 2 t dry yeast (or one packet of dry active yeast) + 1/4 c luke warm water
  • 1 c rolled oats + 2 c (rice) milk, scalded
  • 2 t salt + 1/4 c oil + 1/4 c brown sugar + 2 T honey
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten (using appropriate amount of vegan egg replacer)
  • 1/2 c wheat germ, or other interesting flour
  • 1 c soy flour, or other interesting flour
  • 2 c whole wheat flour
  • 3-3 1/2 c all-purpose flour

Directions

  1. Combine yeast & warm water, let sit for 15 minutes.
  2. Scald milk, pour over oats. When cooled to 85F, continue on.
  3. Stir in salt, oil, sugar, honey
  4. Stir in rest of ingredients
  5. Knead for 15 minutes
  6. 1st rise: 2-2.5 hours
  7. Separate into 4 pieces.  Twist two together, put in pan for 2nd rise (1 hr).  Repeat.
  8. 375F for 45-50 minutes
This makes two decent sized loaves, so for a 48 hour life expectancy of the bread, I’ll be making a double recipe to foster Co-op Love.  Also, this will insure that the Sabres win tonight, as the last time I listened to the game on the radio as I baked bread for the house, they did in fact win.  I’m sure this has deep and profound significance.  (The last game when we lost?  I wasn’t baking bread.  I was watching in High Definition at my sisters house, trying not to covet.  And failing.)

Pre-readers?

Posted on by Sare

Hello, all!

I’m updating my list of pre-readers and I know that I’m missing some people who have asked me in the recent past (er, the last six months?) to join my group of pre-readers.  So if you’re one of those, or you’d like to apply to be included anyway, send me your email address, or simply reply with it in a comment to this post and I’ll put you on the list.

Now, a little detail:  I use pre-readers to vet only my original work, not my fanfiction.  Mostly this means novel-length stories, but also some short stories.  Genres covered include romance, serious lemons, science fiction, fantasy, and mild horror (nothing too yucky or scary – we’re talking mild HP Lovecraft type stuff, not serious Stephen King stuff).  If you have a particular genre you would not like to read, or if you would prefer either novels or short-stories but not both, please feel free to specify and I’ll get really specific with my lists.

Now, a Pre-Reader is not quite as intense as a Beta.  The stuff I send to my pre-readers I’ve already sent to a beta and gotten really in-depth commentary on, most of which will probably be visible when the pre-readers read their non-alterable PDF copy.  What I’m looking for in the pre-reader commentary is more along the lines of general reactions, specific likes and dislikes, general flow of plot and character development, glaring inconsistencies, and whether or not you think it sucks, or might in fact be publishable.

So, if you think you’d like to come on board, let me know, and thanks for being patient with me.

Maundy Thursday Service

Posted on by Sare

Service.  Not as in ‘church service’.  More like as in ‘servant’.  I’ll not be washing anyone’s feet tonight.  I’ll not be stripping the altar of a church, though I’ll be stripping my own small personal altar in my bedroom.  Earlier today I renewed my ordination vows along with my colleagues.  But what I will be doing this evening, from roughly four in the afternoon (about an hour from now) until nearly nine in the evening, I’ll cook for my twelve housemates.  Not all of them will show up for dinner, I know that in advance, but I cook for all twelve nonetheless, as I make up plates for those who are missing, and ensure some leftovers for those who are not fasting tomorrow (that would be everyone but myself–this is not a religiously based cooperative living outfit I’m a part of).

And so, as I realized my faux pas during communion earlier today (oops, I signed up to cook on Maundy Thursday), I thought, ‘yeah, this is kinda like footwashing.’

And here’s why.  I live in a commune.  We do things for each other because we recognize that our common lives are inextricably linked.  One of the things we do for each other is cook dinner.  Six meals a week are cooked by someone in the house and we are on roughly a two week schedule.  So, yes, I only have to cook dinner once a fortnight.  That’s the exciting part.  And nearly every day I can come home from work just in time for the dinner gong to ring at seven in the evening, and I can sit down with a group of wonderful people and eat tasty, nutritious, filling food that was made from scratch from mostly locally produced organic ingredients.  There is no bad, here.  And then when ever it is we are done, we wash our individual dishes and leave.

That was the part that stymied me when I first was introduced to the House.  The cook doesn’t want help cleaning up, and when it’s your turn, you’re not going to get help cleaning up unless you specifically ask for it, and then it’s more like asking a favor.  Why?  Well, partly it’s tradition.  And partly, it’s the service we perform for our friends and guests as a part of honoring our common life together.  No one is too good to cook, and no one can get out of it by performing other, say administrative chores.

A little like washing the feet of your guests and friends.

The Zen of Cleaning Toilets

Posted on by Sare

So, I live in an urban hippie commune in downtown Buffalo.  Some of you already know this.  The picture is of the particular house I live in…  You see, I’m a member of the Nickel City Housing Cooperative which is a member of NASCO (North American Students of CoOperation), and Nickel City has two houses: Ol’ Wondermoth & Plankton.  I live in Wondermoth.  It has many nicknames in my head.  The House of Awesome (we do accept rebel freedom fighters on horseback).  The Hippie House.  Home.  You get the idea.  I’ve lived here for about 18 months and it has been wonderful and difficult, a place of healing and learning… but mostly, it’s been… cooperative.

Continue reading →

Issue-by-Issue

Posted on by Sare

It was pointed out to me by one of my CREDO-mates that an issue-by-issue sort of thing for the Monday Morning Exegete might go well.  You know, for people who really like it, but won’t use it every single week.  All you periodic preachers out there are thusly served: The Exegete can now be ordered/delivered on a periodic basis.  So, come and get your exegesis, hot off the presses.  Let me know which weeks you want, and at the end of the month you’ll get an invoice for only the ones you’ve requested.  If you’ve got my email address, of course you can simply shoot me a request for whichever dates you need.  Alternately, you can check out this nifty page with the even niftier form and fill it out as often as you need to.

Et voila!  Exegesis when  you need it, and not when you don’t.