Other Artists commemorated this day

Lucas Cranach was a close friend of Luther and know as the portraitist of many of the reformers.  He did most of the portraits of Luther we are familiar with.

Matthias Gruenewald was an important German renaissance painter of religious works.  His most famous work is the Eisenheim Altarpiece,  painted for an altar in  a monastery in France.   

" I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free."

Micheangelo Buonarotti, Artist 1564

The best artist has that thought alone
Which is contained within the marble shell;
The sculptor's hand can only break the spell
To free the figures slumbering in the stone.

Michelangelo

Also commemorated this day, Albert Durer, Painter 1528,   Lucas Cranach the Elder, Painter, 1553; matthias Grunweald, painter, 1528

Monday Skating Video

Isabell Brassuer and Lloyd Eisler's "Patricia the Stripper"  - a classic from 1994.  Everyone loves a guy in drag.

The View from my Kitchen Window

The daffodils are from the South Side of the house - They always bloom first but I never go over there so I usually miss them.  I decided I'd enjoy them more in my kitchen.  That view almost makes washing dishes enjoyable.  In Wisconsin I lived in parsonage where you had to look at the wall to wash dishes.  Must have been designed by a man who never washes dishes.

Left over Ham bone? HAM STOCK!

Ham stock is wonderful.    

I won't even bother to make Gumbo without it. But even just to cook some beans and rice in ham stock really makes it so much richer.  And it's so easy.

I cooked a spiral cut ham for Easter dinner.  Spent a good amount of time trying to find the smallest one available but there's still a lot left over but the kids can take ham back to school.  So you cut as much ham off the bone as you can.  As you see, I left a lot of ham on it, it comes off a lot easier afterward.

Put the ham in a large stockpot and cover with cold water.  

Add some celery stalks - even the leftover leafy part from the celery you cut up for Easter dinner....a couple of pieces of onion, some garlic, I had a piece of red bell pepper that was getting soft.  

Whatever old veggies you have that you will probably throw out in a few days - throw them in there.  Add some peppercorns.  Bring it all to a boil, then lower the heat to simmer, put the lid on, and go take a nap for a few hours.

A few hours later, strain it, pour it in gallon zip lock bags, label and freeze it.  

You have this year's supply of ham stock.

I found a new blog I love

Dirty Sexy Ministry.  No really. Check it out.  These women are like me. 

I have to give Peacebang over at Beauty Tips for Ministers for finding it.

The Harrowing of Hell

The "Harrowing of Hell" is the ancient church teaching that when Jesus died he "descended into hell" as the Apostles and Nicene Creed teaches.  Well it says he went to Hades which could just mean he died.  He was dead.  And when the creeds were developed they were fighting some notions that he didn't really died, just looked like he died.  The Creeds say, no he died and he went where people who die go.  Wherever that is.

But there is that interesting line from I Peter 3:19

He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, ¹⁹

Biblical scholars really don't know what to make of that.  But the early church, particularly the Eastern church knew what to do with that.  Jesus stormed the gates of hell and freed Adam and Eve and all those imprisoned by sin, death and the devil.  

The Acts of Pilate, a third century apocryphal text describes the Harrowing of hell in this way:

The bronze gates were broken in pieces and the bars of iron were snapped; and all the dead who were bound were loosed from their chains, and we with them. And the King of Glory entered like a man, and all the dark places of Hades were illumined..

I'm very taken with this image.  This is what I said last year about that:

.....there is something very appealing about the ancient traditions of Jesus invading hell itself and releasing all the souls trapped there. If Hell is the place of total darkness and absence from God, Jesus' invasion of it shows there is no place that can hold God back. There is no darkness Christ's Light cannot illumine. In fact, if Hell is the absence of God, and Christ has invaded Hell, it no longer even exists! There is no longer exists a place where God is absent.

There is a beautiful homily on Jesus freeing Adam from hell on Holy Saturday by an anonymous Eastern priest from maybe third century that I posted here last year.

Oh Head of blood and wounding

O head of blood and wounding,
Of pain and scorn so full,
O Head, for spite now fettered
Beneath a crown of thorns,
O head, once fair and lovely,
With highest praise adorned,
But highly now insulted,
All hail to thee, I say!
Thou countenance so noble,
At which should shrink and quail
The mighty world's great burden,
How spat upon thou art;
How pale thou art become now!
Who hath thine eyes' bright light,
Alike no other light once,
So shamefully abused?

St. Matthew Passion
© Z. Philip Ambrose, translator

From Minnesota Public Radio

Spy Wednesday

 Giotto Di Bondone - "Jesus Betrayal" Scenes from the Life of Christ

I know we are lucky to get people to come to church for any of the Triduum services, much less pay any attention to the earlier part of Holy Week.  

Wednesday in Holy Week was known as "Spy Wednesday"  remembering how Judas conspired with the religious authorities to betray Jesus. 

In some places, children drag effigies of Judas around and pound him with sticks.  

Pastor William O Avery, Professor at Lutheran Seminary at Gettysburg takes a different tact and suggests we are more like Judas than we care to admit - Below is a link to the whole sermon but I quote the part where he offers up Judas as mirror:

Surprisingly, I think Judas represents us good faithful churched people. We want to follow Jesus just as Judas wanted to. We think we are following Jesus, when we are actually following our image of Jesus. We think our community is living as a foretaste of the Reign of God, when really our community more closely reflects the values of the society around us. Individually and communally, we do, in fact, betray Jesus often. Yet, we can’t accept this. We’re baffled when someone points out that we’re imprisoned by the ways of the world rather than the ways of God. We, like Judas, may even feel betrayed by the good news of Jesus, especially when it doesn’t take away illnesses and suffering in ourselves or our loved ones. If we’re honest with ourselves, most of us will realize that we’re a great deal like Judas.

Now, notice how the Johannine Jesus responds to Judas. Jesus takes a morsel of bread and dips it in a dish (of wine? Who knows?), and hands it to Judas. Is this a foretaste of the heavenly banquet feast, and is Jesus suggesting that Judas will be at that banquet feast also? Moreover, Judas’ betrayal is not the only one in this chapter. The chapter will end with Jesus predicting that Peter will betray him three times.

I’m suggesting that giving the dipped morsel of bread to Judas is the gospel for him and us. It’s the good news that God loves us not on the basis of our lives, but on the basis of God’s love for us. For the gospel of John, everything occurs on a cosmic scale. It was Satan, we read, who entered into Judas. We have a cosmic battle between good and evil. God is fully at work here, in the clash between good and evil, loving us, as God loved Judas and Peter, apart from their ability to respond. Remember John 3:17: “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” In these verses, Jesus shows the gospel to Judas and to us.

You can read the whole sermon here   Judas & the Beloved Disciple

(update - the link above appears to be dead)

In Defense of Kate Gosselin - sort of

There are a lot of things I don't like about "reality shows".  Although I confess to being

attracted to some of them like some can't take their eyes away from accident scenes.  There is something riveting about the horror.  I blame it on Original Sin.  One of the things I don't like is the way we think watching these shows gives us the right to judge the people in them.  We decide who is good and who is bad.  Who is right and who is wrong.  Who deserves to stay and who should go.  It's kind of why I was so delighted when Jake the Bachelor picked the bad girl Vienna.  Although I think whole idea of the bachelor is so immoral and so horrible I feel like I need to take a bath after watching it.  Or maybe even visit the same clinic I hope all the girls involved in that show visit.  

But I digress.  This is about Kate.   I've watched her a couple of times on that show with all the cute kids and yea, I thought she was a bitch.  But you know, no more so than many--too many women are these days with their husbands.  A lot of women treat their husbands like shit.  Considering mine is dead and if I had the chance I would so appreciate him and all he did for me, that really pisses me off.  


So Kate is the bitch America loves to hate.  I saw her last night on Dancing with the Stars be a bitch to her dance partner.  Well actually she calmly asked him to explain things to her in a way she could understand and he threw a hissy fit "I TEACH TEACHERS TO TEACH - Don't tell me how to teach" and marches out  like a three year old.

  But remember, Kate is the bitch!  A whole week of practice and that's what they show just before she has to go out and dance.  And she looked like she was going to cry while she was dancing.  She was stiff and nervous but she was damn better dancer than I am.  The judges said it was nerves.  I think she was hurt by them showing that clip.  You don't think other celebrities had bitchy moments during a week to learn a dance?  But you see Kate is the Bitch so we only get to see her being a bitch.  She figured it out when she said in a shaky voice "that was 50 seconds out of a wonderful week"

Now you can say she asked for this, nobody forced her to be on this show.  She's been seduced by the money and fame of reality TV.  So what?  We are all seduced by things that are not good for us, it doesn't mean we don't deserve a little compassion like I felt for Kate when it seemed like she finally realized what was going on.  She's on Dancing with the Stars because America needs a bitch.  She's the designated bitch.

Hey Kate!  Chin up.  There are worse things to be than the Bitch.  I used to have a sweatshirt that said:

I'm not a Bitch.  I'm THE Bitch.  And that's MS. Bitch to YOU!

Hans Nielsen Hauge, Renewer of the Church, 1824

I have kind of a love-hate relationship with Hauge. 

I have always served congregations more or less influenced by his movement.  Right now definitely more.  Sometimes it seems like everything that is wrong with midwestern American Lutheranism is laid on him.  Legalism, Pietism, anti-clericalism, congregationalism, individualism, judgmentalism, small-mindednessism...all those isms ALL HIS FAULT!

Then I started learning more about him and this guy's had kind of a bum rap.  

And a lot of that which passes today for "Haugeism"  I believe would make his hair stand on end.  I got people in my congregation who argue against any change or innovation claiming proudly "This is a HAUGIAN CHURCH!"  who don't have any idea what he was about.  

Hans Nielson Hauge was born April 3, 1771 on  a farm in Norway.    He never had much of a formal education but from a very young age he was drawn to God.  As a young man he had an intense religious experience in which he felt very close to God and experienced great peace about the love of God and salvation.  

Hauge felt called to share this experience so that others could know this love and peace.

The thing is, from what I can make of how Norway got to be Lutheran --it seems like the the Danish King just said "Okay now we are Lutheran" but there no grassroots movement or reform or renewal  - everything that was corrupt and stale about the Roman Catholic Church stayed the way it was only now everyone called themselves Lutheran.  

There was a lot of corruption among the clergy and church hierarchy at the time. It was against the law for lay people to preach and Hauge was persecuted, arrested and served time in prison for daring to preach.  This explains that left-over anti-clericalism and suspicion of educated people.  

Back then there was good reason to suspect church authority.  And maybe there is now but I highly doubt Hauge meant there to be the lack of respect for education and church authority that passes for Haugeism today.

Hauge just wanted people to experience the love of Jesus.  

 He didn't want them to be afraid of hell.  He felt the church had become stale and dry and non-responsive to the needs of the people to hear and experience the Gospel in their lives.  

Modern day Haugeism has seemed to hang on to the reaction against what was wrong with the church at the time but lost the heart of Hauge's message - that Jesus loves you!

I think it's very possible if Hauge came back today he'd be persecuted by the very people who bandy his name about.

Monday Morning Skating Video

To help me get back to blogging I'm reinstuting my Monday morning/afternoon Skating video- Today's selection is the "Red Hat" -  a  group number choreographed by Christopher Dean for the 1996-97 Stars on Ice Tour.  I saw this live.

Oscar Arnulfo Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, Martyr, 1980 Quotes

“A church that suffers no persecution but enjoys the privileges and support of the things of the earth - beware! - is not the true church of Jesus Christ. A preaching that does not point out sin is not the preaching of the gospel. A preaching that makes sinners feel good, so that they are secured in their sinful state, betrays the gospel’s call.”

We must not seek the child Jesus in the pretty figures of our Christmas cribs. We must seek him among the undernourished children who have gone to bed at night with nothing to eat, among the poor newsboys who will sleep covered with newspapers in doorways. 

“Peace is not the product of terror or fear. Peace is not the silence of cemeteries. Peace is not the silent result of violent repression. Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all. Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity. It is right and it is duty.”

"When I fed the poor they called me a saint. When I asked why there were so many poor they called me a communist." 

"Do you want to know if your Christianity is genuine? Here is
the touchstone: Whom do you get along with? Who are those who
criticize you? who are those who do not accept you? Who are those who
flatter you?"

If God accepts the sacrifice of my life, may my death be for the freedom of my people ... A bishop will die, but the Church of God, which is the people, will never perish.

"If they kill me, I shall arise in the Salvadoran people."

"May this Body immolated and this Blood sacrificed for Mankind nourish us also, that we may give our body and our blood over to suffering and pain, like Christ -- not for Self, but to give harvests of peace and justice to our People." 

(As he prepared to consecrate the Eucharist - just before he was shot to death)

 "May God have mercy on the assassins." (Last words.)

Mary of Egypt

The Eastern Orthodox church commemorates Mary of Egypt on the Fifth Sunday of Lent.

Mary's story has always fascinated me.  She was a teen-aged runaway.  She ran away from her home in Alexandria at the age of 12 in the 7th century.   Now the story is that she simply ran away because she was wanton and wanted to live a life of promiscuous sex.  Yea right.  That's what every happy and loved 12 year old girl wants.  Her words are that she was driven "by an insatiable desire and an irrepressible passion"  I just don't believe it.  A runaway little girl who turns to promiscuous sex to survive and find love sounds to me like she was abused at home.  I think she should be the patron saint of runaway teens. 

So she meets up with a group of pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem and joins them with the goal of seeing how many pilgrims she can seduce.   Yea I'll show God.   Then she tries to enter the church of the Holy Sepulchre and is mysteriously blocked from entering.   She believes this is due to her impurity (does this story not SCREAM sexually abused child to you?) and seeks forgiveness from an Icon of the Theotokos outside the church.  After this she is allowed to enter the church.  She receives absolution and Holy Communion and retreats into the desert where supposedly she lived the rest of her life on three loaves of bread.  But the story gets even more interesting.

There's this monk Zosimas who entered the monastery as a young man.  He's led a very religious life but still feels like he is missing something so he goes into the desert and encounters Mary.  She recognizes him to be a holy man and calls him by name, begging his forgiveness.  She asks him to bring her communion and tells him her life story.   While she feels unworthy to be in the presence of one whom she perceives to be a holy man, he is overwhelmed by how she has turned her life around and perceives her to be the holy woman because of how her life testifies to the grace of God.  There's a scene I find almost comedic where she begs him to bless her but he says "No you should bless me!"  They are arguing over who is holier.  


I believe there is another story in Mary, not the wanton sinner but  the broken child who finally found wholeness and healing in the desert with her God and the holy man who recognized what she could not - that her life testified to an amazing love and grace of God that he in his more sheltered existence had missed until he encountered her.

In thee, O Mother, was exactly preserved what was according to the divine image. for thou didst take the cross and follow Christ, and by thy life, didst teach us to ignore the flesh, since it is transitory, but to care for the soul as an immortal thing. Therefore, thy spirit, St. Mary, rejoices with the Angels.

John Wesley, 1791; Charles Wesley, 1788; Renewers of the Church

Wow.  I've been blogging for more than a year.  This is what I wrote last year about the Wesley brothers.  It's still good.

The Lord got his oysters tonight.

Actually when you read the lay preacher's allegory of Christ fishing for oysters ---it's not that much different than what Origin and some of the early western church fathers did with scripture.

On my trip to and back from Omaha I listened to some lectures from the Teaching Company.    I LOVE these lectures.  Right now I'm on the History of Christian Theology taught by Phillip Cary - he's one of my favorite.  He's got an excellent series on Augustine.  One of the lectures was on Christian reading that explained the difference between Typology and Allegory in Christian interpretation, which was always a little confusing to me and this was very helpful.


So I know that Luther did away with allegory and brought back the literal meaning of scripture which was a good thing.  To a point.  But you know you have to give those guys credit for trying to make ancient stories about a desert God and a desert people relevant to Greeks and Romans.  And it makes me feel kind of good to know that Augustine was a little perturbed by verses about dashing babies heads against rocks that he found a less literal way to make that helpful.  Which just goes to show you that Augustine and other church fathers were NO fundamentalists!


oh and BTW, if you decide to buy some lectures from the Teaching Company - NEVER pay full price!  At one time or the other during the year they all go on sale.  If a series you like is not on sale, just wait - it will be after a while.

Pastor Joelle's Weekend Off

Okay so people want me to blog.  I'm gonna blog about my weekend off.

I went to a skating competition in Omaha, Nebraska - Winterfest.  This was the very first competition my daughter and I ever skated at back in 2002.  I was terrified and did terrible.  She finished in second place and was hooked on competing every since.  We went every year after that.   I stayed in the same hotel we stayed in.  I got through hotwire, just like  eight years ago.  Holiday Inn, 48 bucks a night.  Only now they have a water park.  But you aren't allowed to swim before a skating competition anyway.  I'm not sure but most coaches have that rule. My coach wasn't able to come but I still follow the rules.


Funny what you remember.  I remember walking through the parking lot at 5:30 am to get to Sarah's 6 am practice.  This time my practice wasn't until 7 am.    I had a good practice.  

One of the things I like about this competition is that there are usually a lot of adult skaters and there were quite a few this year but nobody at my level.  I was the only one in my two events.  But it's a good warm up for the big adult competition I'm going to in Indianapolis in two weeks. 


So I had a good practice and a good warm up and then my nerves got the best of me and did not do my freestyle as well as I would have liked.  I actually left out two jumps- half flips which are very easy jumps for me to do.   I don't know - what can I say?  I get nervous when I skate in front people and judges.


Then a couple of hours later I did an event I've never done before and will be doing in Indianapolis as well - Improv.  You get a  minute to warm up with no music, then you hear your music for the first time...you get to hear it twice on the ice, then you get off and  you get to hear the music one more time off the ice. Then you do a program that you make up yourself with no help.   I had NO idea what to expect.  I practiced to slow pretty music, country music, fast music and dramatic music.  I was hoping for slow, pretty.  What I got was "Dancing  Cheek to Cheek"  which is kind of fast tempo but it was perfect for me.   Had a great warm up - people were clapping for me in the warm up!  Then I tried a bunny hop and went down and went down hard on my knee.  Ouch.  My knee is still black and blue and sore.  Fortunately it was toward the end of the warm up.


I felt pretty good about what I did - I did not jump, still being shaky from the fall, but I did dance moves and hammed it up with arm movements and facial expressions.   I felt really good.  Lots of people said they thought it was great.  Should have left it at that.


But no I had this bright idea since I was the only one skating to ask if I could get a judges critique after words.  Now I meant that I wanted a critique about the IMPROV and musical interpretation.   This is what I got--  I need to work on my carriage, bending my knees more, too many two foot turns - I need to turn on one foot.  And she didn't like my dress.  If I hadn't been so devastated by the criticism I would have asked "um, did you have some suggestions about the improvisation - choreography--musical interpretation?"  But I just "Thank you"   


I should have never asked for the critique.  I should have gone home feeling good about how the people in the audience liked the performance...instead the last thing I heard was how I'm still pretty much a crappy skater.  But I did learn something.  No more judges critiques.   Because I know I need to work on carriage and soft knees and yes I do know the ideal is to turn on one foot, not two.  You get nervous and you do the best you can.  I do think I will have to add some jumps next time.


Sunday I went to a ELCA church in Omaha that has right on their masthead "Progressive Christian thinking"  - can you imagine -being PROUD of being a progressive Christian and advertising it???  I had to go to that church.


So any of you ever heard of Kennon Callahan's Twelve Keys for and Effective Church?  Of all the church growth stuff that was so popular in the 90s I was pretty impressed by his stuff and I did his Twelve Keys thing in two different churches.  Well where I am going with all this is that his point is that there are some attributes of a church that will not get you any points if you have them, but they will hurt you if you DON'T have them.  Like PARKING.  Nobody says "Oh that church has plenty of parking spots I'm going back"  but if there is no parking, that's gonna hurt you.  Yea.  This church needs to read that about parking.  I could not find a place to park.  Perhaps they should save some parking spaces for visitors.  That used to be the thing to do when everyone was gung ho on church growth.   

But I was motivated.  And I thought..."wow - they must have a lot of people if there is no place to park!"  So I drove around the block a couple of times and finally parked down the street on the street and hoped it was okay and I didn't get towed.  And remember I have a bum knee by this time!


The church sanctuary must be very large and the parking lot very small because it looked pretty sparse.  And I know the worship is for the members and I guess everybody has to get up and point out the announcements that are already written in the bulletin cuz nobody reads the bulletin, except visitors who are BORED TO DEATH with your ten minutes of announcements.


But it was  very nice service, good message from the preacher.  They have communion every week so I was fed.  And I snuck in and went out, shook the pastor's hand, complimented her on her message and left and nobody ever even asked my name.  Which is okay with me but you would have thought someone might have been a little curious. 


When I used to take my kids to churches on vacation, people would be on us like white on rice.  You want those families you know.  When I go as a single women, they don't seem to be so interested.  Or it could be that it was the 90s when we visited a lot of churches as a family on vacation and the 90s it was all church grow-hospitality all the time.  I am kind of glad we've gotten over the church growth marketing craze, but you there were some very simple lessons in hospitality that we learned back then that I think we should still be practicing.  Like introducing yourself to visitors.  And making sure there is somewhere for people to park.


But it's back to the grindstone tomorrow.  I'm doing a sermon series on the Seven Deadly Temptations (which is what they were before a pope declared them sins) for Lent.  Maybe I'll post them.  


Oh and no pictures from my competition because I HATE the way I look in all my dresses and have two weeks to figure out how to solve that dilemma.

Friday Five - Olympics

 It's been a while since I've participated in a RevGalBlogPals's "Friday Five".   This week's is such a no brainer for me, it's a good way for me to get back in the game.

1) Which of the Winter Olympic sports is your favorite to watch? HAHAHAHAHA.... FIGURE SKATING...Of course!  Second favorite~short track racing. But I watch it all. 

Who do you think had the best-looking uniforms?  Don't remember.  I fell asleep during the opening ceremonies.


3) And Curling. Really? What's up with that?  My late husband used to love to watch curling.  If they showed it, I'd watch it.  I remember the year the US curling team had the oldest Olympic athlete (he was in his 50s) and the youngest (don't remember) on their team. 

4) Define Nordic Combined. Don't look it up. Take a guess if you must.   Ski jumping and cross countryskiing.   But I like the biathlon that combines SHOOTING and cross country skiing.

   You do the work - GUESS

  5) If you could be a Winter Olympics Champion just by wishing for it, which sport would you choose for winning your Gold Medal?

(There will be a prize for the best answer, but be aware, this is a judged sport.)

Bonus - Last night was the BEST skating I have seen in any figure skating competition in years, maybe ever.  Usually SOMEONE in the last group makes a heartbreaking mistake and other years they all seem to be saying "no you take the champtionship, no YOU take it"  Sasha Cohen got the silver medal 4 years ago simply because she made fewer mistakes.  But EVERYONE in the last group had the skate of a lifetime and that's what you want.

Who I felt bad for - Racheal Flatt got hosed!   Even with downgraded jumps (and come on that was pretty nit-picking) she should NOT have been placed so low and certainly not below Miki Ando. Miki Ando had cheated landings and take offs.  She takes off on the wrong edge on her lutz which is also supposed to be a deduction.  Her layback is horrible, she was slooooow and her posture is awful.   Hey but that's figure skating.  Part of the fun is to be pissed off at the judges.  And Rachael skated about as best as she could and to do that at the Olympics, well she has to be happy about that.

I felt badly for both Yu Na Kim and Mau Asada and the incredible pressure their country's put on them to win.  They are just teenagers!  I remember back with Midori Ito had to publicly apologize to Japan for bringing home a silver rather a gold.  Wonder if they will require that of Mau.  

Now it's over.   It's always so sad when the skating is over at the Olympics.  Oh well...Apolo skates in short track tonight...I'm competing myself tomorrow.  And the World Championships are coming up.   And there's always EASTER!

Skating Through Grief

Well if you are paying any attention to the Olympics at all, you know the heart wrenching story.  Canadian Figure Skating Champion Joannie Rochette's mother died suddenly of a heart attack shortly after arriving at Vancouver

to watch her daughter compete.  Tuesday night, just days after the loss, Joanie went out and skated her heart out, ending up in third place overall.

I have to admit I am finding it impossible to stay up late enough to watch skating to the end.  I think I might have to take a nap today so I don't miss the live ending of the Ladies Final tonight.  But I only watched the short program on DVR yesterday.

Yea um, no way should Miki Ando be ahead of Racheal Flatt with her cheated landings but whatever.

I think I also resisted watching Joannie's performance because I knew it was going to make me cry.  What really got me was the shot of her father sitting in the stands, alone when he should have been sitting there with his wife.  The painful combination of grief and pride etched into his face was just about too much to see.

People say "how could she go out and skate like that - I could never do that"  Well you don't know how  you will respond in grief until you actually go through it yourself.  Part of the answer is that elite athletes are not like you and I.  They have an ability to focus and shut out everything else that is beyond our abilities.  

But there is another answer and it is not that Joanie is so different than the rest of us.  First there is the shock and numbness from a sudden loss.  I had sprained my ankle a week before my husband died and was still using crutches.  The days following his death I literally "forgot" about the pain and walked around on it until a couple of days later I woke up and my ankle was the size of a football.  So it was probably actually easier for her to do this now than it would be a few weeks or months from now.   That's the thing about grief.  About the time everyone else thinks you should be "getting over it" is about the time it sinks in and is the most painful.

Also in grief you have choice.  You can withdraw into your grief and yourself and begin a descent into hell.  Or you can own the pain, but look forward and do what you have to do.  Honestly some days I think it took as much strength and courage for me to get out of bed and cook my children breakfast as it did for Joanie to take the ice the other night.   And so I admire and applaud her choice to skate.  Tonight whatever she does, whether or not she takes home a medal, she has taken an important step, she has refused to go down into the pit and decided to live.  The days, weeks and months ahead are going to be painful and difficult for her, but the strength she showed on the ice will get her through. 

Women Ice Dancers are Strong!

'

Sinead & John Kerr, British Ice Dancing champions, they finished 8th over all

Free Dance Tonight

 Going into the the free dance the standings are:

1.  Virtue & Mohr - Canada

2.  Davis & White - USA

3.  Domnina & Shabalin - Russia

4.  Belbin  & Agosto - USA

Just a couple of thoughts.  My favorites are Tanith Belbin & Ben Agosto.  He's a magnificent  skater.  A judge I respect says their Original Dance last night was more difficult than Davis & White's.  But I liked Davis & White's OD much better.  It was different and interesting to watch.  I just didn't get the bird thing.  And  I liked Davis and White's free dance better at Nationals so we'll see tonight.  I liked Belbin & Agosto's tango interpretation the best but can live with Davis and White being ahead.  

They are both better than the Russians who were not only offensive last night, 

they just were not that good.  They get points for being Russian.   Also I think anybody wearing a cowboy costume last night should have received a .2 deduction, that's how tired I was of that.

In a perfect world I'd say it would be a fight beween the top two Americans for 1 & 2.  But it does look like the Eastern Bloc judging is at work again and so don't be surprised to see the Russians on the podium with a subpar performance.    

And don't even get me started on that whiney baby poor sport, out of shape, should shut up because the silver medal was a gift Plushenko.

Hate to say I told you so....

Since way back I have been saying that women clergy are going to be the next target of the Word Alone/Core types.  This prediction has been met with much huffing and puffing by folks from that side as well as "Naw that'll never happen--look at all their women leaders" from those opposed to the Word Alone/Core POV.  

People people people, read your church history.  Women have often been given positions of leadership and respect in the church and church movements when it suited the people in power.   Kind of like giving  Rosie the Riveter a job when we needed women in the factory and then escorting them out the door back into the kitchen when the menfolk came home and needed their jobs back.  

Thank you to Spirit of a Liberal for taking the time to read Lutheran CORE's Vision and Plan for The North American Lutheran Church–NALC for short.  Cuz I sure as heck have better things to read.  

Here's a little gem:  

...the NALC and Lutheran CORE will recognize both women and men in the office of ordained clergy, while acknowledging the diversity of opinion that exists within the Christian community on this subject. 

Obie points out the obvious ...Um isn't that what the ELCA wants to do with rostered leaders in committed same-sex relationships?  That little inconsistency aside...that statement leaves the door back to the kitchen and Ladies Aid wide open....

Molly 2009-2010

 

Be thou comforted, little dog, Thou too in Resurrection shall have a little golden tail.~

Martin Luther (died on this day 1546)

Some animals want and need to be wild.  Some animals want and need to be with people.  Molly was a feral cat who wanted to live with people.  

She showed up crying in my garage last winter.  It was so cold it took little coaxing to get her to come into my house.  She promptly made a beeline for the basement and found a cubby hole to hide in.  

Everyday I would come downstairs and sweet talk her.  She liked to be talked to.  She would come out of hiding to listen to me talk to her.  Pretty soon she was coming upstairs to eat with the other cats.   She made friends with Mr. Boots.  Well, I think she wanted something from Mr. Boots he was not physically capable of providing her but she seemed content with his affection.

While laying in the same bed with Mr. Boots she let me pet her.  And she realized she liked being pet.  She became one of the sweetest, most affectionate of all my kitties.  

I noticed last night she didn't come up to bed with me which was a little unusual.  Then this morning when she did not come to eat I knew something was wrong.  I found her sitting in the basement, lethargic and with labored breathing.  


By the time I got her to the vet she was having an extremely difficult time breathing and so we put her out of her pain.  She had fluid on the lungs.  Lots of reasons for that.  It was something of a shock since it came on so suddenly.  My pretty little Mollie.  I'm so glad I took her in and gave her the home she so obviously longed for.

Blogging for Lent

Pastor Clint over at Lutheran Confessions has made a commitment to blog every day during Lent and he even has a plan for each day.  I have liked the idea of having a theme for each day.  I fear I'm just not disciplined enough for that.  I couldn't even keep up the Monday afternoon skating videos!

I have found writing to come very hard to me lately.  I haven't even kept up my Tues-Friday  email devotions.  Part of it is that I'm so public I fear I cannot be truthful about what I'm really thinking and feeling.  And if I cannot be truthful how can I write?

Perhaps during Lent I will find my courage to speak my truth.  And the hell with consequences.

Getting in the Harness

I'm kind of in a theological dry spell right now - I will write about what is going on sometime when I'm not in the thick of it.  But I need to write.  So my next love - skating

I drove through blowing snow at 5 am this morning to get to my lesson. My coach is moving to California the end of March and I have two competitions coming up so I cannot miss ANY lessons.

So me and the waltz jump.  A waltz jump takes off from a left forward outside edge and you land on a backward right outside edge. It's what an axel is based on but  for an axel you take off forward, rotate one and half times and land backward...double axel two and half, triple, 3 and a half.  For any jump you must get up on you toe and vault off your toe pick.  For me this is not a problem with jumps that you take off going back going backward - half flip - you put your toe pick in behind you vault up and land foward, same with a half lutz.  But there is something about going up on my toe gong forward that I just can't get myself to do.  So I have really pansy itsy bitzy waltz jumps.

So today my coach Mandy suggests I get in the harness.  Which in itself terrified me.  Because it works by a pulley system and so I have to trust her to hold me up.   Yea I got trust issues--so?  

"I HATE THIS I HATE THIS I HATE THIS" she caught me mumbling under my breath "Okay Joelle that is not the mantra I want to hear from you.  You have change that mind set or this is never going to work"  Okay we have to do the little engine that could.  I can do this.

I did it.  I jumped off my toe pick. Several times.  In the harness.   Didn't try without the harness.  But I got in the harness.

I'm gonna really miss her.  Who else will put up with my whining?

"The Fairly modest Requirements of the Mother Denomination"

I have mentioned how much I enjoy Magdalene's Egg.  Sometimes it takes a little patience to figure out where Father is going with his reflections.  Today it was worth it to go back to his home town, his detours on "Old Catholicism", ancient gossip about a church scandal, and a hippie priest and you will get to this - what it really takes to be part of community:

"...don't sleep with your church members, for example.  Put up with meetings where nothing gets done, and learn to work and worship with people who share your creed but not your reading of it.  And all the other stuff that the rest of us do more or less easily, because we know that living in community, while difficult, is worthwhile."

Snow days

I'm really weary of winter and cold and ice and shoveling or as the Iowans call  - "scooping snow"  Doesn't scooping sound much more fun than shoveling?  Yea well it's not.

Ah but the snow days.  When all the roads are closed.  The children stay home.  You can't leave the house.  So you make a fire and make some soup or cookies.  I really feel sorry for people who never get snow days.  Snow days are really all we have left of a Sabbath in this society. 

Snow days are Sabbath for me.  No guilt about some place I should be because I can't be anywhere else.  Yes I will work on confirmation or a sermon or a bible study on a snow day.  Or I'll clean house.  But it's still restful and peaceful because no one expects me to be anywhere but where I am.

The difference is that Sabbath doesn't just give you permission to stay home and rest.  It commands that you stay home and rest.  Sabbath isn't just about "going to church".  It's about rest.  It's about God loving us so much that he commands us to rest because he knows if we don't have that excuse we will adhere to the command the world makes on us to go here, go there, buy this, do this, take your kids there.  At least when the roads are covered with ice and snow we cannot obey those commands.

I wish you in warmer climates could have a snow day.  But we all do have the Sabbath.

A Plug for Pretty Good Lutherans

Yesterday Susan Hogan, the writer for the independent ELCA news blog Pretty Good Lutherans disappeared from the face of the internet.  Her blog went down.  Her twitter was de-activated and she didn't answer emails or phone calls. 

And her friends, people who only knew her online got worried.  I was ready to try to figure out who her pastor was and call that person.  Because people who poo-poo the internet and social networks as not a "real" community just don't know what they are talking about.   I actually have met Susan in real life but even if I hadn't, I would not have been less concerned.

She's back, the site is back up and she explains what happened over there.   Basically she's burning the candle at both ends.  She thought the blog was just her little hobby and no one would notice if it qietly disappeared.  She was shocked at how wrong she was.


But that blog takes a lot of work.  I read it everyday and had ignored the donation button.   When it went away and came back I realized I could not afford to ignore that donation button.  It's a full time job to keep that site going.  Susan says she doesn't like to ask for donations because of Haiti.  Oh please. EVERYONE reading this can afford a donation for the PEOPLE of Haiti, the ANIMALS of Haiti, your  Sunday offering, a $3.00 cup of coffee AND  a donation to Pretty Good Lutherans.

Black Bean Hummus

Whatever you have planned for your Superbowl party tomorrow - you want to add this to your menu.  It's just wonderful.

I got the idea for black bean hummus from Melissa d'Arabian at the food network  but that girl is TOO afraid of spice.  "Now this raw garlic so just use a little bit"  Garlic is your FRIEND - especially in hummus.  So this is MY version.

I did like her idea of cooking up beans and freezing them so they are available cuz it takes time to soak and cook beans.  Doing that you never have to buy canned beans. 

I cooked my beans in my vegetable stock.  

2 cups cooked black beans

2 or 3 large cloves of garlic, chopped

small handful of cilantro

juice of 1/2 lime

a few shakes of balsamic vinegar

a little kosher salt and pepper

a few shakes of cumin

about 3 tbl olive oil

Throw all this into the food processor.  To me lime and cilantro is about the best combination ever.  This wonderful stuff.  You will want this at your superbowl party tomorrow.  I'm having a bible study on Jeremiah myself and frankly I'm probably not going to share my hummus.  Probably too much garlic for those Norwegians anyway.

The Legend of the Snow Drop

After Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden, they experienced the cold and snow of winter. Eve began to weep, fearing she would never be warm again or experience the beauty of Spring. As she wept, an angel of the Lord took pity on her and turned the tiny snowflakes into tiny Snow Drop flowers, given Adam and Eve hope that winter would soon turn to Spring.

“The Snowdrop in it’s purest white array, first shows her head on Candlemas Day”To a Snowdrop

                William Woodsworth

Lone Flower, hemmed in with snows and white as theyBut hardier far, once more I see thee bendThy forehead, as if fearful to offend,Like an unbidden guest. Though day by day,Storms, sallying from the mountain-tops, waylayThe rising sun, and on the plains descend;Yet art thou welcome, welcome as a friendWhose zeal outruns his promise! Blue-eyed MayShall soon behold this border thickly setWith bright jonquils, their odours lavishingOn the soft west-wind and his frolic peers;Nor will I then thy modest grace forget,Chaste Snowdrop, venturous harbinger of Spring,And pensive monitor of fleeting years!