October 15th, 2010
During the month of October, our congregation has had an opportunity to explore what it might look like for St. Lydia’s to be in relationship with the wider church. We’re already in relationship with our local host congregation, Trinity Lower East Side. What would it look like to extend that relationship to the Metro New York Synod, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America?
We’ve heard sermons on the subject, as well as discussed it in our Community Meeting. What are your thoughts as we participate in this discernment process? Leave a comment below to share an experience, a hope, or a concern related to this process.
October 15th, 2010
During the month of October, the congregation at St. Lydia’s has been taking part in a conversation discerning how we might be in relationship with the wider Church. We are already in relationship with Trinity Lower East Side, our host congregation, and through them, to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). But what would it mean for us to formalize our relationship with a denomination, specifically the ELCA?
We’ve had some wonderful discussion about why denominations matter, and talked about the church as one body, a body of which we are a member. You can’t be a Christian alone; begin a Christian is about being in relationship with others. But why the ELCA in particular?
St. Lydia’s has a very particular identity. We worship in a way that’s modeled after the practices of the early church, and draw people together from diverse traditions. Therefore, I think that what we’re looking for in a denominational home is a tradition that resonates with us. We’ll be a bit of an oddity wherever we land. What we’re looking for is place that can be in relationship enough, find enough points of resonance, and nurture us as we grow.
Here’s where I see places of resonance between St. Lydia’s and the ELCA:
Eucharistic Theology: both the ELCA and St. Lydia’s place the table at the center of their worship. God’s presence in known in the meal that we share. This is different from other traditions that celebrate communion once a month or once a quarter, and place preaching at the center of their worship practices.
Earthy Sacramentality: St. Lydia’s celebrates God’s presence in the ordinary bread and cup we bless together, and in the ordinary people gathered around the table. For Lutherans, God is also known through ordinary things and ordinary people.
The Bible as Living Word: At St. Lydia’s, we explore the place where scripture meets our experience as we read the Bible together. Lutherans often talk about the “living word” which breaks into our lives. Luther compares the bible to the manger that held Christ. The manger and the bible are made by human hands, yet both hold God.
Liturgical Freedom: the ELCA invites its congregations to use the book of worship as a resource, and to experiment with different forms. This is different from other traditions where congregations ask permission to depart from the denominational prayer book.
Ecumenical context: St. Lydia’s is home to people from a number of denominational backgrounds, and welcomes presiders from different denominations. The ELCA has worked tirelessly to create ecumenical relationships with a number of other denominations. They are in full communion with six other mainline denominations, which means that in the future, St. Lydia’s could call a pastor from one of those traditions.
Welcoming Congregations: St. Lydia’s is a congregation that welcomes and affirms GLBT people. In 2009, the ELCA adopted a social statement called “Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust,” which sees bodies and sexuality as good, and means that openly gay and lesbian persons are now being ordained as clergy.
I invite you to reflect on what I’ve written here, explore the various links, and if you feel moved, participate in the online conversation!
-Emily M D Scott, pastoral minister
October 14th, 2010
SOUP
4 15oz cans of beans
2 medium onions
2 quarts of low-sodium veggie broth
3 cloves garlic
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled/chopped
Seasonings: salt, black pepper, corriander, cumin, and aniseed or star anise
Strain beans and add them to chopped/peeled sweet potatoes and broth in a saucepan. Brown garlic and onions in olive oil and add to saucepan. Add coriander (1 1/2 tsp), cumin (1 tsp), and 1 tsp aniseed (or 2-3 star anise). Bring to boil and then reduce to simmer, skimming as necessary. Cook until sweet potatoes are soft. Reserve 3-4 cups of soup and puree the rest, mixing the puree back in with the reserved portion. Season with salt, pepper (and extra garlic!) to taste. Serve with a garnish of yogurt or sour cream.
SPAGHETTI SQUASH FAUX-PASTA SALAD
Slice 1-2 spaghetti squash in half and roast at 400 for 30-40 minutes (until it’s easy to pierce with fleshy edges with fork). Scoop out seeds and center portions and discard (or wash off the seeds and roast them separately, like pumpkin seeds). Carefully scrape down the sides of each squash, removing the stringy, spaghetti-like meat so you end up with a pile of what looks like noodles. Separate “noodles” with a fork. Toss with olive oil, toasted walnuts or pine nuts, Italian seasoning (or any good savory herbs you have on hand), and roasted or sauteed garlic.
–Prepared by Richard at St. Lydia’s on October 10
October 13th, 2010
Read Emily’s sermon, “The Church is Not a Country Club,” preached on October 10, 2010, at hear blog, Sit and Eat.
October 12th, 2010
prepared for St. Lydia’s by Denise on September 26
Ingredients
2 cups water
1 cup quinoa
1 pinch salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 tomatoes, diced
1 cucumber, diced
2 bunches green onions, diced
2 carrots, grated
1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
Directions
In a saucepan bring water to a boil. Add quinoa and a pinch of salt. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Allow to cool to room temperature; fluff with a fork.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine olive oil, sea salt, lemon juice, tomatoes, cucumber, green onions, carrots and parsley. Stir in cooled quinoa.
October 12th, 2010
by Oscar Romero
It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying
that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church’s mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,
knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation
in realizing that. This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well. It may be incomplete,
but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference
between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
Amen.
–Read by Michael at St. Lydia’s on October 10
October 12th, 2010
by Adam Zagajewski
The room I work in is as foursquare
as half a pair of dice.
It holds a wooden table
with a stubborn peasant’s profile,
pouting Hapsburg lip.
From the window I see a few skinny trees,
wispy clouds, and toddlers,
always happy and loud.
Sometimes a windshield glints in the distance
or, higher up, an airplane’s silver husk.
Clearly others aren’t wasting time
while I work, seeking adventures
on earth or in the air.
The room I work in is a camera obscura.
And what is my work–
waiting motionless,
flipping pages, patient meditation,
passivities not pleasing
to that judge with the greedy gaze.
I write as slowly as if I’ll live two hundred years.
I seek images that don’t exist,
and if they do they’re crumpled and concealed
like summer clothes in winter,
when frost stings the mouth.
I dream of perfect concentration; if I found it
I’d surely stop breathing.
Maybe it’s good I get so little done.
But after all, I hear the first snow hissing,
the frail melody of daylight,
and the city’s gloomy rumble.
I drink from a small spring,
my thirst exceeds the ocean.
–Read at St. Lydia’s on October 3
October 1st, 2010
by Matthew Zapruder
Oh this Diet Coke is really good,
though come to think of it it tastes
like nothing plus the idea of chocolate,
or an acquaintance of chocolate
speaking fondly of certain times
it and chocolate had spoken of nothing,
or nothing remembering a field
in which it once at the most wondrous
sandwich of ham and rustic chambered cheese
yet still wished for a piece of chocolate
before the lone walk back through
the corn then the darkening forest
to the disappointing village and its super
creepy bed and breakfast. With secret despair
I returned to the city. Something
seemed to be waiting for me.
Maybe the “chosen guide” Wordsworth
wrote he would eve were it “nothing
better than a wandering cloud”
have followed which of course to me
and everyone sounds amazing.
All I follow is my own desire,
sometimes to feel, sometimes to be
at least a little more than intermittently
at ease with being loved. I am never
at ease. Not with hours I can read or walk
and look at the brightly colored
houses filled with lives, not with night
when I lie on my back and listen,
not with the hallway, definitely
not with baseball, definitely
not with time. Poor Coleridge, son
of a Vicar and a lake, he could not feel
the energy. No present joy, no cheerful
confidence, just love of friends and the wind
taking his arrow away. Come to the edge
the edge beckoned softly. Take
this cup full of darkness and stay as long
as you want and maybe a little longer.
–Read at St. Lydia’s on September 26
September 28th, 2010
Read Emily’s sermon, “A Pretty Good Little Church,” preached on September 26, at her blog, Sit and Eat.
September 23rd, 2010
by Denise Levertov
The world is
not with us enough
O taste and see
the subway Bible poster said,
meaning The Lord, meaning
if anything all that lives
to the imagination’s tongue,
grief, mercy, language,
tangerine, weather, to
breathe them, bite,
savor, chew, swallow, transform
into our flesh our
deaths, crossing the street, plum, quince,
living in the orchard and being
hungry, and plucking
the fruit.
Recited by Sarah at St. Lydia’s on September 19
