Memorials

Well, I'm in the home stretch before it's time for camp...I head out on Friday, which means I need to spend this week organizing and packing up my stuff for the summer. It's hard to believe it's already time for this; I feel like last summer just ended! But on the other hand, I'm getting almost giddy with excitement...Friday can't come soon enough!

So today is Memorial Day. Yesterday in church we had a supply pastor filling the pulpit because our pastor is continuing education in Georgia or something. And yesterday had two possible directions it could've gone in: Ascension Day or Memorial Day. We went the Memorial Day route.

Ugh.

I'll clarify the "ugh." I put a lot of stock in Memorial Day. I have a lot of important people to remember today. I'll go visit a grave, I'll take flowers, I'll remember my loved ones. I know that, traditionally, this day is meant to honor veterans and their sacrifice for our country - I'm fine with that too. It's important to remember the cost of war (though I think it's quite telling of our culture that we find it so easy to forget that cost - casualties from both sides, that is). Here's where Memorial Day get's mucky for me: when it becomes GOD BLESS AMERICA (AND NO WHERE ELSE) Day.

The pastor who preached yesterday didn't really hammer that point home, for which I'm grateful. However, he spent little to no time discussing scripture and a whole lot of time talking about remembering the cost of freedom. You want to talk about that? Fine! But don't do it from the pulpit. God's heart breaks for our lost ones as much as it breaks for the soldiers on the other side of the line. We're not a country executing vigilante justice, or the swift hand of our angry God. We're a nation of broken people, who ask for God's blessing because of our brokenness. Not because of our awesomeness. So when we spend our Sundays contemplating how our nation is out there "puttin' a boot in the ass" of terror, I think we're focusing on the wrong thing.

We should ask God to bless America because we, like all people, need God's blessing. Not because we're the only country in this world who's finally got it right. Because...well, we haven't.


ANYWAY. I'm probably preaching to the choir on that one, but whatever. Now I'm going to go enjoy my Memorial Day! I have loved ones to remember, and loved ones to be with. I hope you can do the same :)

When I Grow Up...

...I want to have a real kitchen. As in, I want to cook real foods with real ingredients. Local ingredients. ORGANIC Local Ingredients. And all will be well, and all will be delicious.

Except for a few things: 1) I'll be a poor art teacher for a while, surviving on PB&J, 2) I may or may not be in a region where I have a regularly accessible farmers market (my home town's closest is probably 45-50 minutes away) and 3) I'm so used to having whatever foods I want, when I want them. I realized that I have no concept of seasons regarding most foods. I'm used to having whatever, whenever. In fact, the only clues I really have for what's seasonal come from either holidays (like pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving) or growing up on my grandparents' farm. They raised sweet corn, strawberries, melons, and potatoes. My parents have a tomato and pepper garden in the summer. That's about where seasonality ends for me.

So while I wouldn't dream of eating sweet corn in say, January (you've never had sweet corn until you've had it the day it was picked...it's beyond words) , I'm used to having things like blueberries or squash or broccoli any month of the year. On one hand, this pretty awesome. I can eat a huge variety of food all year round.

But on the other hand...well, you probably know the story. Carbon footprints, inorganic compounds, outsourcing of labor to industrial farms...none of it is a very pretty picture.

I'll turn to Lauren Winner (love her!) for some thoughts. She's referencing the author Barbara Kingsolver (author of the essay "Lily's Chickens") in the following quote:

"Why is Kingsolver so committed to [eating foods only while in season]? Because shipping food from greenhouses around the world is America's second-largest expenditure of oil...As Kingsolver explains, 'Even if you walk or bike to the store, if you come home with bananas from Ecuador, tomatoes from Holland, cheese from France, and artichokes from California, you have guzzled some serious gas.' To eat seasonally (and locally) is to enact a politics of reduced consumption." (Winner, Mudhouse Sabbath)

I don't say all of this to be some eco-green-hippy-christian. I've just been thinking about it. I talked to my friend High School Beth last night for a while about that concept of "my future kitchen" and it just got me to thinking. Mostly I was thinking about these delicious Mushroom and Asparagus Tarts...am I eating them right now? Wait, I'm not? Hmm...I'd better go do something about that...



PS - I've got mad love for food blogs...except for how much they want me to have a fully stocked kitchen and Whole Foods on hand (I have neither). If you want to check out some beautiful food (and find the recipies!) check out FoodGawker, where they gather the prettiest and most delicious foods of the day...mmmm....

Persecution, the Church...and Watercolor

It's Sunday! And I went to a different church this morning (I do that a lot - mostly because I'm not here much on the weekends, so I don't really have a "church home" here)

Sadly, the service I attended today set my teeth on edge. I'm not sure if I my response is entirely justified or Biblical; sometimes my personal values and beliefs cloud what is true. But sometimes I think my response is grounded in truth...and I think today that was the case.

Now, I'm SURE this church is rooted in the Bible. They are brothers and sisters in faith. They seek after the Lord. They want to love Him and serve Him; I acknowledge that wholeheartedly. But today's sermon frustrated me in many ways. The preacher spoke on the passage in John where Christ warns his disciples of persecution due to their faith (the end of chapter 15 and the first few verses of 16). The crux of the sermon was that we, as American Christians, are persecuted by those who hate the faith - particularly those in our government. There was lots of talk about things like pro-life pastors being arrested for protesting, laws being passed that "attacked the faith" and so forth. The pastor suggested that we should all be memorizing scripture not because it is important to have the Word in our hearts, but because one day (possibly soon!) being a Christian may be illegal in our nation.

What.

To suggest that the greatest dangers facing the American Church today come at the hands of our government is foolishness, to me. That kind of religious-right agenda puts a bad taste in my mouth, and in the mouths of many. Sure, there is merit to discussing issues like abortion - but there is much more than just that.

The American Church (oh what a varied body she is!) cannot wallow in its "persecution." We cannot point fingers at atheists, or pro-choice people, or our government. The dangers facing our church are much deeper and much closer to home than that. The dangers in our church come from within - from apathy, complacency, from being satisfied with the status quo. They come from our culture of consumption, entitlement and me-first-me-only thinking. They come from alienating others with a message of hate, or - on the other side - from being passive and postmodern in our approach to the gospel.

There is so much work to be done. Work that goes beyond mailing postcards of fetuses to senators. Work that involves loving others, not shouting at them. And even if I don't share the views of this church (I'm one of those Demi-crats, you know), I am as much a part of the problem. I know that I fail to meet the demands of the gospel. I am broken, too.

That being said...the rest of my Sunday has been enjoyable! And really, even If i don't agree with that church on that, it gave me something to think about. And that's a good thing. After church I had lunch with my roommate and some of her friends, and I just finished a watercolor!



See, there it is! I was really nervous about watercolor before I started this semester. I'm an oil painter usually, and the method is very, VERY different. But I'm starting to get the hang of it, which makes it much more enjoyable, that's for sure.

So now I'm just going to enjoy the rest of my Sabbath. I might make some granny squares, or do a crossword, or call a friend. It's a nice, snowy day to enjoy.

Bill Strickland & The Manchester Craftsman's Guild

Bill Strickland, originally uploaded by modefstef.

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Jubilee Conference in Pittsburgh, PA. If you haven't heard of it, it's a huge gathering created by the CCO that is made up of college students from around the Pennsylvania/Ohio/West Virgina area. The goal of Jubilee is to get college students thinking about how their faith intersects their everyday lives - everything from their profession to social justice.

The conference usually features a few big-name speakers from the Christian community. Over the last years people like Tony Campolo, Lauren Winner, and Donald Miller have all been among the keynote speakers at the conference. This year, a man named Bil Strickland gave an incredibly moving talk about his organization, The Manchester Craftsman's Guild.

Bill grew up on the north side of Pittsburgh, in a high crime area. He discovered the power of art while in high school, after seeing his art teacher throwing some ceramic shapes in the art classroom. After learning to be a ceramists himself, Strickland began on an incredible journey to bring opportunities to everyone from his neighborhood. He started by teaching kids off the street in a basement of an apartment, and since then his organization has expanded to the vision of eventually having similar arts institutes in 200 cities - 100 in the US and 100 abroad.

Now, this kind of story matters to me, because...well art education will one day be my profession. To hear this man's story of going from the depths to the heights is empowering. But more than that, I think that Bill Strickland gets at something more than just art education. During his talk he focused on the importance of setting high standards and providing high quality experiences to everyone. In fact, one thing he said stuck with me in particular:

"You see, we found out that the only problem with the poor is that they don't have any money. And that's a curable condition."

Too often we don't see the poor as people. We see them as problems. Bill Strickland decided to love, support, encourage, and care for the poor in tangible ways. He and his organization set high expectations for their students, and give them the tools to reach them. And they do.

What if we started seeing people as people again? It's time to get some humanity back in here.

If you want to check out the MCG, the website is:
http://www.manchesterguild.org/indexflash.htm

You can also read a article about Bill here:
http://www.miller-mccune.com/article/a-poverty-antidote-goes-global