The Night Before

Well the To Do List is pretty much done.  Trying to get the car packed tonight because I have a planned departure time of 5 am.  I want to be relaxing in my hotel room in Sterling, Colorado well before sunset.  These are my sister's boxes I am taking to her.  I want to put them in the car but I hate to disturb Tommy.

These are all the cards I got yesterday.  Some even had cash and checks in them.   Back in my traveling days I used to print out labels and then take them to slap on postcards.  This time I had the secretary print out labels and I am going to use postcards as thank you notes on my trip.  Clever, eh?

I have my IPod loaded with Lady Gaga, Brandi Carlile, Paul Simon and lectures on "Turning Points in American History" from the Learning Company.  Got a couple of bottles of Samual Adams for the evenings and even a bottle opener.  I even threw my skates in the trunk.  You never know!

The plan is drive about 12 hours to Sterling, Colorado tomorrow.  That is BEFORE the moutains so I will be fresh to tackle them.  Second night is at Kanab, Utah.  The next day I'm going to take a tour of the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, which will give me a later start, but then it's only about 7 hours to Granada Hills, CA.  And it just so happens that right in the middle of my drive is Las Vegas!

My sister will be coming back with me and we are going to come back by way of the Grand Canyon.  But before that we have to go through my mom's things.  I guess she was something of a hoarder.  My sister called me to day she found 43 pairs of pants.  Most them blue.  Okay.  THAT is going to be interesting.

Wonderful Day

Celebrated my 25th Anniversary of Ordination today.  It was just wonderful.  It was a beautiful service.  We had the best organist.  A member of the congregation played the trumpet.  The bishop talked about what has happened in the last 25 years, talking about how terrorist acts have become more and more a part of our reality, how children who have grown up in the last 25 years have known nothing but a world with this reality.  But he also talked about hope and grace and the wonderful gift of the church.  Oh yea he said some nice things about me too.  He made me cry.  Damn I knew I should not have put on mascara for this!

The pastor who was the senior pastor at my first call came.  Now I had been a pastor for  one year as an interim while waiting for a call.  Then I get called to be the Associate pastor.  He was kind of (okay more than kind of) a control freak.  It was um, difficult let us say.  But it was only for a couple of years.  He preached at my wedding.  His son (who died of ALS a few years ago) was my son's godfather.  He stayed in my life long after our working relationship.  He was a much better friend than a "boss".  I love him dearly.  He and his wife came.  A classmate of mine from PLTS (both of us ended up in Wisconsin) came.  My son got up and went to church.  They had balloons.  One former congregation (that pretty much let about 3 people run me out) sent flowers.    It was everything you could want.   I love the church.  I will remember this day on those days when I forget how much I love the church.

This is my favorite picture from the day.  This is what it is all about.

What I'm Doing on 9/11

Having a party.  This year is my 25th anniversary of my ordination.  The actually date is July 6, 1986.  September 11 is the earliest my bishop had free.  And I wanted the bishop so September 11 it was.    After what I've been through this year I'm just so damned grateful I'm still a pastor.  

 This is what I wrote in my pastor's letter in this month's newsletter:

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

          I am so looking forward to the celebration on September 11 of my anniversary of ordination.

I hope this doesn’t seem egotistical because what I am looking forward to is not a celebration of ME but a celebration of the church, the ministry of the whole church and how grateful and happy I am to be a part of it.

          I really wanted our Synod Bishop Steven Ullestad to preach.  Not because he’s so wonderful (although I actually think he is) but to include the wider church in this celebration, to emphasize this is about what a gift the church is to us.  It just so happened that he was not available to come until September 11.  I understand the tragedy of  September 11, 2001 is imbedded profoundly in this nation’s memory, especially this being the 10^th anniversary.  It gave me pause to wonder it was inappropriate to have a celebration on this day.

I know something about grief.    I  know that even in grief , celebration is essential.  Even in grief, you must be open to finding joy or you will sink in despair.   The last 25 years have not been a cake walk.  I served in some very difficult situations.  I have stood and prayed over the graves of babies, children and teenagers.  I have seen people in the church do truly evil things in the name of “being Christian”

But I have seen people rise above the evil and pettiness and selfishness that surround us and shine with the love of Christ so brightly that it hurts my eyes just to think of it.  I have been forgiven and I have forgiven.  I have been upheld and sustained by the prayers and faith of the church when I was too sad, too tired, too overwhelmed to lean upon my own faith.

There will always be sorrow, tragedy, unkindness and hate, not only in the world but in the church until Our Lord returns.  Until then, we live with chaff.  And too often we ARE the chaff.  But there will always be love and there will always be forgiveness and there always be grace.  And until the Lord returns and it is no longer needed, we will always have the Church.  And that is what I hope you will come and celebrate with me on Sunday, September 11.

“And be of good courage, for God has called you,
and your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

                                         

I found another Cooking Pastor

She's had beautiful photos of the process of cooking.  Check out Sarah at The Strength of Faith.

I'm leaving on a road trip to California in a few days.  My plan is blog every night.  Ha ha ha.  That depends on how good my internet connection is and how tired I am after 11-12 hour drive.

What the Church Can Learn from Gordon Ramsay

Gordon Ramsay is the guy that screams and humiliates wanna-be chefs who take it for a chance to work for him (and take even more of it I suppose) on "Hell's Kitchens" and tells people their food is crap and they have their heads up the wrong part of their body before saving their failing restaurants on Kitchen Nightmares.  What on earth can the church learn from him you may wonder.

I've been watching back to back episodes of Kitchen Nightmares, where failing restuarant owners ask him to come and turn their business around.   They always think they have wonderful food and are always shocked when he tells them their food is crap.   He always asks them "What is wrong with the restaurant?" and the answer is always  "We don't have enough people"   The look on his face when they tell him that is really worth watching it over and over even though it's always the same story.

So when you ask a congregation what do they need to do to improve, what do they always say- "We need more young people!"  What's wrong with the church?  Not enough young people!

If you push it and ask "Well why aren't their more young people?", the answer is "they are too busy, their priorities are screwed up, they were not brought up right"... blah blah blah.  There is nothing wrong with the food we are serving, it's just that the people don't appreciate it....

Just saying...

It all Began at Churchwide

 

Just got this from my Northeastern Iowa Synod office:

ELCA Hay Lift Update

Three to six semi trucks will be loaded with hay at 10 a.m. Monday, Aug. 29, at two Luana farms as part of a hay lift sponsored by the Northeastern Iowa Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The trucks will leave Northeastern Iowa on Monday for delivery on Wednesday to Texas ranchers affected by that state’s severe drought.  

The hay lift is spearheaded by Pastor Harold McMillin of St. John Lutheran (ELCA), Luana. While visiting with Texas residents at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Churchwide Assembly in Orlando, Fla., last week, Pastor McMillin learned how Texas ranchers were having to sell their herds due to a lack of food. McMillin suggested a hay lift, and the three ELCA bishops from Iowa met with three ELCA bishops from Texas to plan a joint project. They decided to designate the Northeastern Iowa Synod as a pilot synod to get the hay lift project off the ground. If this initial effort is successful, plans are for Iowa’s other two ELCA synods to organize hay lifts statewide.

So far five local farmers, including four from St. John Lutheran (ELCA), Luana, have donated hay for the project. Lutheran Disaster Response has contributed $25,000 to purchase additional hay and to pay for trucking costs. Plans are to help the ranchers have enough hay to last until they are able to have their own crops again. The biggest challenge has been finding the trucks and drivers to deliver the hay, but McMillin says that as word spreads, people have been coming forth with referrals of drivers and equipment

 I love my church.  I love my synod!
Iowa Farmers Organizing Hay Lift for Texas

Saying Good Bye (or not) to Mom,

Mom and I, seeing my aunt off on a Cruise, around 1964

My mother is 96 and dying. 

 It's not going to be easy for her to die because she's healthy and tough.  Too mean to die, that's my Mom.  She's in California, I'm in Iowa.  The congregation I'm serving as generously given me a gift in honor of my 25th ordination anniversary early in case I wanted to use the money to go see her.  

In a different story, I would take that money, fly out to see her before she dies and we would all have "closure" and no regrets.

But that is not going to be our story.  

See, my mother never wanted me or any of her kids for that matter.  As she told us many times, in those days you had no choice but to get married and have kids.  She was a negative, critical, unhappy person.   Fortunately, I did not notice that growing up. My husband noticed it.  "I am never going out there to see her again.", He told me,  "You will have to go without me"

So I did one last time, a little less than 20 years ago.  My children were toddlers.  I never tell anyone this story because it's just so unbelievable but this is what happened.  We were staying at her house.  She was pretty irritated because my children spilled ketchup on her white tablecloth, didn't want to eat dinner at her usual time of 4 pm and they liked to watch cartoons on television.  What kind of a mother was I?  I was washing clothes and she came in to tell me how to do it.  Well you know mothers and daughters.  I rolled my eyes and said "MOM! (you know, in two syllables) I know how to use a washing machine!"

She kicked me out.  "I can't stand you.  Get out of my house"  I said I was sorry.  I cried.  I begged her not to be that way.  But she was done with me.  It was 10 at night.  I had to call a friend, pick my babies up out of their beds sleeping and leave.  And I never came back.  Not because I wasn't willing to forgive, she was not willing to forgive. 


I have an older brother and sister from another marriage. When I was younger.  I never understood until then why they never came to see her.  Now I do.

But she tolerates visits from them.  Me, she never wanted anything to do with although we have exchanged a few polite phone calls.   

I've called her a few times since she's taken to her bed trying to die.  "I love you Mom," I say, "Okay thanks for calling, goodbye," She says.  That and "Don't come visit me"

There is something wrong with her.  I know it's not me.  It took me a long time to realize that.  I used to feel guilty about messing up her life for being born but she chose to get married again, get pregnant at 43 and have me.  

Oh, yea she would tell me how everyone told her she should abort me but she didn't.   Oh how noble. Abortion was illegal,  she was not stupid, she didn't feel like dying in some back alley.   

I could make excuses for my Mom and believe me I have.  But excuses can get in the way of forgiveness.  If  it's not your fault, then what do you need forgiveness for?  

My mother had a hard life.  But she had choices.   We all have choices.  I do forgive her.  I do feel sorry for her.  I do pray she dies soon and finds some peace.   If there is a hell I'm pretty sure she's already served her time there on earth.

So I'm not going back there.  She's not going to die alone.  My sister takes a bus (because she can't afford a car) every day to go see her and listen to her complain.  My brother, who is very successful, pays for round the clock care for her in the house he bought for her.  She never says thank you, she just complains.  And she has the housekeeper she's had (paid for my brother) for 30 years.  That's who she is close to.  The housekeeper.  

Sometimes I look at how lucky she is to have all that care, to be in her own house and think "nobody is going to do that for me when I die" .  

That's right, I'm not going to die the way she is, bitter and closer to a housekeeper than her own children. 

She's had a hard life but so have I and I am not going to die like she is, only thinking of the hard things, not all the blessings and love and good things there have been along with the hard things.   

There is always something to be thankful for.

*Update - my mother died a week later on August 31, 2011.

 

Pepper Relish

 

I love pickled banana peppers.  I have a few bushes growing in my garden and they are great producers.  But the one time I tried pickling them they were pretty mushy.  So how about some relish? 

8-10 Bananna peppers

1/2  Red Onion

1 Red Bell Pepper

1 jalapeno pepper

1 Cup cider vinegar

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 Tsp course salt

 1  Tbl Pickling spice ( I made my own with some mustard seed, celery seed, whole cloves, cayenne pepper and turmeric.)

So I chopped half of the peppers and mixed the rest in the food processor to get a mixture of fine and more course vegetables.  I seeded the jalapeno because it came out of my garden and they are usually hotter out of the garden then from the store and banana peppers have a little heat.  I like heat but not so much that you can't taste the relish.

Bring the vinegar, sugar and spices to a boil.  Then add the vegtables and cook, stirring often for about 10 minutes.  This makes about  3 half-pints.  Water bath for 5 minutes.

Jacob's Family-Our Family: Blessed and Disfunctional

Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Dante's Vision of Rachel and Leah. 1855.

One of the dangers/benefits of interim ministry is that you can easily get away with pulling old sermons out of the barrel.   Serving three churches where there were two before me, I confess to having succumbed to that habit for a few months.  It got so I was afraid I would forget how to write a sermon.  Then the alternate continuous readings option came up in the lectionary.  And I knew I had to take this on.  I love these stories.  They are so real.

Of course when you preach these texts you have to tell the whole story.  The pericopes are not enough.  You cannot assume that everyone knows these stories anymore.  They do not.    Like last week the pericope ends with Jacob praising God and erecting a shrine after God appears to him in a dream promising to be with him and bring him back to his homeland.   It should have ended with Jacob saying "Yea well IF you do what you promise, then you can be my God"

Today's lesson should have ended with   "So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah" because that is the sad reality of this story.  Jacob has left one dysfunctional family for another.

As much as  I love telling these stories, when writing this sermon, I was stuck for awhile.  It's one thing to tell the story in an entertaining manner, but at some point you have to figure out what we are supposed to get out of this sad family mess?  Where is the good news?  

I perused around the net to see what other preachers had done with this story.  Mostly it's just a bunch of moralizing.  Don't be a cheater like Jacob and you won't be cheated.  Don't be jealous and bitter like Leah and Rachel.  Don't be like them and you'll have a better family life than them. 

Well sure yea, we know we shouldn't lie and cheat like Jacob.  We shouldn't play favorites with our children like Rebekah and Isaac.  And we shouldn't dress up our children like someone else to fool our husband or our new son-in-law.   But as much as we try to do the right thing, we screw up.  We make mistakes with our children.  Sometimes mistakes that cannot be undone.  We have to live with consequences of our mistakes.  And even when we do the best we can, our families don't turn out the the way we thought they would.

Maybe the good news is that nobody's family is perfect.  The big lie that too often gets told in the church is that if you love God and follow the rules, you will have a happy family.  But the hidden truth in our congregations is that people are living all kinds of damaged dreams in their families.  Some of it can't be fixed.  The good news of these stories is that damaged, dysfunctional families can be blessed.  The Good News is that God loves us even if we are not the pretty sister.  Here's how I ended my sermon:

Life is messy.  Families are messy.  Love isn’t always pretty.  But there is goodness in all of it.  You don’t get everything you want, life doesn’t turn out the way you planned, but if you look and are open to receiving it, you will see graces and blessings that God has sent your way.  Human love is not enough, but God’s love is more than enough for all. 

Ryan & Tatum - A Reality Show Worth Watching

I know, I know....Reality shows are bad for us.  It's all voyeurism.  Bad TV. Bad people for airing their dirty laundry for a few minutes of fame.   Bad networks for giving it to us.  Bad us for watching it.

But Ryan & Tatum: The O'Neals on OWN  is pretty compelling TV for me anyway.  It's about a dysfunctional family trying to come back together.   It's about forgiveness.  If you are going to be a voyeur (and come-- on we ALL are) - this is something to watch.  You have to hand it to Oprah (and OWN is her network) --she became an icon taking something that was probably bad for us and using it to educate us.

The short version of the sordid story of this family is that Tatum's father Ryan and mother broke up when she was very young.  For the first six years of her life she lived with her mother who was an alcoholic.  Ryan got custody of her and for the next several years it was just the two of them and they were very close.  Then he met Farrah Fawcett and nobody else existed for those two.  Not even their children.

Tatum never got over her father's abandonment and refused to speak to him for 25 years.  Her life spiraled out of control with substance abuse.  But she got sober, Farah died and father and daughter are trying to find their way back to one another.  On camera.  And it's pretty compelling TV.

Yes I know they are both actors and this could all be put on for our sake.  I can be kind of gullible (It took several episodes of "Pit Boss" before it occurred to me some of these situations HAD to be contrived and set up).

But it rings true.  Tantum is 47 years old and she is still desperate to please her father and worries about saying something to him that will make him mad.  Ryan thinks he's the victim and SHE abandoned him.  He says in all seriousness to his therapist that when he met Farrah "Tatum got left at the curb.  But I told her - STAY there and I'll come back and get you"  But of course she did not wait for him at the curb and he's still can't quite understand why.

 But they love each other and keep trying.  They go to therapy.  He goes to her AA meeting and is surprised that the people are there are "smart and good looking"   Ryan comes off as the clueless one here.  And yet he loves his daughter desperately and keeps trying and you have to admire that. 

This is  a story played out in countless families across the country.  If someone can watch this and get some insight, some understanding or some inspiration to reach out and repair a broken relationship, well ...isn't that what it is all about?

Bruschetta

I seem to be uninspired to rant these days. Perhaps trying to pastor THREE churches has something to do with it.  Ah but there IS always food.

I don't like raw tomatoes.  The tomatoes I grow in my garden are the paste variety and I cook them into a sauce and can them.  I think next year I will grow grape tomatoes to make bruschetta.

The best bruschetta is served at Romano's Macaroni Grill Italian Mediterranean Restaurant

Mostly I say that because I like that they serve big slices of shaved Parmesan cheese on top.  Of course MY brucschetta is the best.  This is what I do to raw tomatoes so that I will eat them:

2 Cup  Grape Tomatoes  -- fresh, diced.  This is rather labor intensive.  
3 Cloves Garlic,  diced
2 Tbl or so of Olive Oil
A little sugar
1 Tbl or so of Balsamic Vinegar
A few leaves of Fresh Basil, cut up
a little course salt
 French bread

Mix this all up in a bow.  Let it sit and marry for a few hours or if you are like me and can't wait, eat right away.


Slice the bread and butter it.  (it's better with REAL butter).  You can toast it in the toaster oven.  Or grill it.  Tonight I used my son's George Foreman Grill.  That worked really well.

 
Spoon the tomato mixture on the bread, drizzle the juice over the bread.  Top it with shaved Parmesan cheese - You can buy that now in containers or you can buy a hunk of Parmesan cheese and slice with a peeler.   Do not even TALK to me if you want to use that stuff in a can.
 
It's really wonderful.

Once I posted this recipe in a gardener's group and someone said she didn't use olive oil or sugar.  Or cheese.  Like she was so healthy.  Puleeze.  A little sugar to cut the bitter of the tomato (which is what I don't like) won't hurt.   And olive oil is good for you.   Everything in moderation.  And real food is always good.

Since Everyone Else seems entitled to have an opinion.....

Here are some of mine on the Casey Anthony case:

My own personal speculation is that the baby's death was an accident due to neglect, and someone besides Casey was in on the cover up.  I think probably the whole family is screwed up.

I think the justice system worked.

I think nobody benefited more from the death of Caylee Anthony than Nancy Grace.

Every year six million children die from malnutrition before their 5th birthday.  Millions more are sold into slavery. What would happen if we saw pictures of them on TV every night?  Would people do more turn on the porch light for them?

This is NOT Finland's National Anthem -

But wouldn't it be cool if it were?  The words were written by Lloyd Stone in 1934 to the tune of Finlandia

This is my song, Oh God of all the nations,

A song of peace for lands afar and mine.

This is my home, the country where my heart is;

Here are my hopes, my dreams, my sacred shrine.

But other hearts in other lands are beating,

With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean,

And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine.

But other lands have sunlight too and clover,

And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.

Oh hear my song, oh God of all the nations,

A song of peace for their land and for mine.

May truth and freedom come to every nation;

may peace abound where strife has raged so long;

that each may seek to love and build together,

a world united, righting every wrong;

a world united in its love for freedom,

proclaiming peace together in one song.

Sofrito

Sofrito is a staple in Puerto Rican cooking.  It is what gives it a distinctive flavor.    Of course I would like it since it is made up of my favorite cooking staples~~  onions and peppers. This is my version:

1 Yellow onion

1/2 Red bell pepper

1/2 Green bell pepper

1/2 Jalapeno pepper

2 Cloves garlic

1 handful of cilantro

1 tbl olive oil

1/2 tsp cumin

2 TBl  Olive oil

1 Tbl Lime juice

Chop the vegetables up just enough to fit in the food processor.  You really need a food processor for this because you want this to all blend into a smooth sauce.  Throw everything into the food processor and blend until fairly smooth - like the picture.  

You can make up more and freeze it.   You can put this is stews and soups and sauces.  I like it on rice.

My Neighbors

Even though I have to drive an hour an a half just to shop at Target, I have some great neighbors:

 

There's the deer that come and hang out around dusk.  Five or six of them at a time, they make themselves right at home in my back yard. 

I first found this guy in my trash can.













 




And there was the Red Tailed Hawk fledgling that popped in one morning.

He was very loud and he pooped all over my front porch.

And in the pasture behind the barn - Black Angus cattle and their young uns

I guess you can go to Target anywhere, but neighbors like these are hard to come by.

Why I am Not a Member of the Amish Fan Club

I had an esteemed colleague who believed that there was more than just stinginess at play when congregations underpaid their pastors.  

He believed that at some level, some church folk believe the financial sacrifices of their clergy rub off on them vicariously.  You know like extra merit points in the Medieval Catholic system. (Ok maybe not so medieval)  

I think he was on to something.  I also think that is what is at play with this silly love affair Americans seem to have with the "idea" of the Amish.  Nobody wants to live as they do but the idea that there are some people living off the land, unsullied by the evil of the world in the world, just makes us all a little bit more holy.

Well that's a lot of horsepoo.  There is nothing romantic or holy about the Amish.  The fact is the Amish have just as big a problem with sexual abuse and covering up as the more vilified Mormon cults.  Just google Amish sexual abuse and you'll see the problem.  

Sorry I just find nothing romantic about patriarchal closed communities.

And the Amish are the largest operators of puppy mills.  You know those places where dogs are kept in unspeakably cruel conditions and then sold sick and unsocialized to unsuspecting customers? 

 I was ranting about this to my son and he said,  "And you blame ALL the Amish for this?"  Yes.  Yes I do.  

A community that requires conformity and shuns those who don't comply must also bear responsibility for the behavior of their whole community.

So no, I don't want to read the latest book about how forgiving and loving the Amish are. 

You Never Know How the Spirit Will Blow

So if it were up to me, I would be fine going my whole career having never conducted a Polka Mass. I could have ended my ministry never having to sing  "Please Forgive me" to the tune "Please release me..." (which isn't even a polka but more Country Swing)

But as those of us in the ministry know, it's not up to me.  People in the midwest LOVE their Polkas.  I like a good polka.  At a wedding or a beer garden.  But it's really just a matter of taste that I don't care for it in church. And worship is not just about my taste.  I get a kick out of people who insist worship can only be classical music or German chorales and criticize those who like rock or pop or polka music by saying "oh they think worship is all about emotion" without admitting that it's all emotion for them too-- they just get their jollies from different music.

So I showed up to lead the community polka service this morning.  Or I thought I was going to lead it.  Really the polka band was leading it.  Already my nose was out of joint.  No mike for me, no podium for me to preach.  Where am I supposed to preach from?  "Oh last year the pastor didn't preach."   Immediately I wished I had listened to my first instinct which was to take this Sunday for vacation.

I had about 15 minutes before my sermon to figure out how I was going to hold my sermon and bulletin in one hand (a sermon nobody wanted to listen to) and the mike in the other and preach standing behind the band.  When it came time to preach I just left my sermon folded up and talked about Pentecost and the gifts of the spirit and how the spirit brings us all together even though we are all from different churches.  Honestly I don['t know what I said.  I made few jokes which I NEVER DO and people even laughed.  

Whatever I said, people told me it was perfect.  The few people I admitted to that I just made it up five minutes before were amazed and said they had no idea it was off the cuff.

I'm not writing this to brag about how wonderful I am.  I'm not wonderful.  I don't do this sort off the cuff stuff.  I don't even like to pray off the cuff.  It was the Holy Spirit.  It blows where it will

But next week I'll go back to the manuscript.

And our Bishop IS the Coolest

And here's the proof - he and is wife were invited to a State Dinner at the White House - on his blog, Erik share's his dad's description of the evening.

Koinonia: Rubbing Elbows

Seriously, the Northeastern Iowa Synod is the Best Synod in the ELCA

Our bishop is too modest to say so, but he did keep saying that the future of this synod looks very bright and he's right.

I just got back from our Synod Assembly.  I've been to many assemblies in many synods and usually I leave thinking "well that's three days of my life I will  never get back" (except for the late night poker games in Wisconsin back in the late 80s but I digress) but I left today feeling good about the church, the ELCA and my synod.  

No fighting, no wrangling, no scolding, no politcking, just uplifting and encouraging stories about the mission.  



Some highlights

A touching and inspiring tribute by the Bishop for L. David Brown, the first Bishop of the Northeastern Iowa Synod.  I thought our present bishop was the coolest bishop ever.  No. Bishop Brown was the coolest bishop ever.  In 1961 the Rev. Martin Luther King jr. was invited to speak at the ALC Youth Convention.  Then some of the bigwigs of the church though it best to uninvite him.  King uninvited himself, not wanting to be the cause of controversy.  It was Brown who talked him into coming.  He really was a remarkable man, you can read more information about him here: L. David Brown.  But it was really touching hearing our bishop speak of him because he always gets emotional about these things.

A keynote by one of our own, Pastor Steve Brackett who spoke of how his ministry at St. Paul in Postville led up to them being prepared to respond to the crisis when ICE raided the town.  I just think it was so cool to hear from one of our own, to remind us that WE are doing the work of God, here, in Podunk Iowa.

We also heard from the Rev. Twila Schock Director for Global Mission Support, ELCA, reminding us that yes, the ELCA is still doing Global Mission.

Our synod is one of the pilot synods to support the ELCA Malaria Campaign. We passed a resolution with a goal to raise $350,000 for the Malaria Campaign in three years.  We had people dressed up like farm animals holding a mosquito net to take pledges.  I mailed my pledge in last week.  I didn't know we were going to have an opportunity to throw it in a net held by people dressed up like farm animals.  I feel a little cheated.  Kind of like on 9/11/01 when everyone was giving blood--I couldn't because I had given blood the week before.  By the time the synod was over we had $60,000 in gifts and pledges.  

We passed a new synod structure, pretty much doing away with committees that meet because it says in the by laws they need to meet.  We are going to do business through networks and task forces.  Not sure how it's going to work, but I think it's pretty exciting that we are blazing the way.  And it passed with nary an argument.  Which I credit to the synod doing good work on educating folks about it beforehand and the fact that people pretty much trust the synod.  So different than the days in some synods (Ahem....WESTERN IOWA) where you couldn't even pass a budget without folks arguing and questioning nearly every line item. 


And because we did not spend time arguing, we had time at the end to have people come to the mike and tell the stories of mission going on in their congregations. 


There was nary a word about sex at this assembly.  Because the sad hard truth is that pretty much anyone that is unhappy about the sexuality statement or ministry recommendations has left the synod.  A lot of congregations and pastors have left.  We are a smaller synod with less money to work with.  But we are moving forward doing good stuff, instead of arguing about sex.  It's a good thing.

When Justice Becomes a Reality Show

If you are in the US and you have the TV on at all you will have heard of Casey Anthony a 25 year old who is accused of killing her three year old girl and then going to a party.  (That going to the party afterwards is what really seems to piss people off)

I've been wanting to ignore this because...

a) Nancy Grace has a lot to do with it and I can't stand that judgmental, manipulaitive, exploitive...um, woman

b) I refuse to get sucked into the national pasttime of  playing jury. and deciding the guilt or innocence in cases we really know nothing about but we think we do because Nancy Grace has told us what to think

c)  Between my soft spot for screwed up single mothers and penchant for taking the side of the underdog, I don't want to believe she's guilty but even her parents think she did it ...and that's a bad sign.

It's her defense that is so disturbing.  She's claiming that the baby drowned in the pool and she didn't tell anyone and went to parties because she is screwed up because both her father and brother sexually abused her.

If she wasn't hated before, that defense has really pissed off the peanut gallery.  How dare she accuse this wonderful family of such a horrible thing?  If she's lying about that, that's a terrible thing to do to your own family.  And it's a terrible thing to do to real victims because it makes it even harder for others to be believed.

But but but....this happens in so called "wonderful families".  And it screws up people.  It would explain her behavior.   And I keep hearing "It can't be true because why would she let her father and brother near her daughter if they did that to her?"  Why indeed.  But it happens.  Victims serve up their own children to their abusers.

Not that all sexual abuse victims party after their babies accidentally drown. And she could just be a truly awful person.

But it's also possible she's telling the truth.  I'm just saying.  We don't know what happened.  A jury is going to have to decide what is justice for this world.  In the end, God will decide ultimate justice.  But let's not make Nancy Grace anymore rich or famous over this perverted tragedy.