Perhaps the earliest sign that summer is on its way is the sight of asparagus at the local farmer’s market. This strange looking vegetable, revered by many around the world, will make its way onto our tables over the next few weeks. It will be sweet, tasty, green, white or purple….and it will only be with us in its freshly harvested state for a few short weeks. While it can be found in frozen form or carried to us with a huge carbon footprint on its stalks, asparagus is not only nutritious but teaches us an important practice….the art of savoring what is short-lived.

We are generally not a culture of ‘savor-ers’. We gulp down food while riding in our cars at sixty miles per hour. We eat food that is hardly recognizable as such from boxes we’ve zapped for three minutes in a microwave. Unlike our brothers and sisters in other countries who can turn any meal into a several hour occasion, somehow we’ve pushed food into the ‘calories in/calories out’ realm and have allowed the art of savoring to fall by the wayside.

One of the by-products of the intention toward eating locally produced foods in their season is that it may bring back this lost art. Alphabetically speaking, let us begin with the letter "a" for asparagus.This crazy looking stalk that seems to be wearing a fabulous headdress of green feathers is meant to be savored….for it will not be long with us.

In her book Animal,Vegetable,Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver speaks of asparagus: "From the outlaw harvests of my childhood, I’ve measured my years by asparagus. I sweated to dig it into countless yards I was destined to leave behind, for no better reason than that I believe in vegetables in general, and this one in particular. Gardeners are widely known and mocked for this sort of fanaticism. But other people fast or walk long pilgrimages to honor the spirit of what they believe makes our world whole and lovely. If we gardeners can, in the same spirit, put our heels to the shovel, kneel before a trench holding tender roots, and then wait three years for an edible incarnation of the spring equinox, who’s to make the call between ridiculous and reverent?"

If you venture out to one of the many farmer’s markets opening this weekend and if you are blessed to find there a table holding asparagus, remember this: someone has knelt in the trench, has held these tender roots, has nurtured and fed them for three years and now offers them to you. It seems to me the only reasonable response is to savor….and give thanks.

Since April 23rd I have been standing watch. Standing watch over the cherry bush given by a circle of friends as a memorial gift at the time of my father’s death. Since we planted it the summer after his passing, it has always bloomed on a day near the anniversary of his death, April 23rd. But not this year. This year there were not even visible buds on the bush. The cold and gray of winter held it back from its delicate, perfect pink flowers. And so I have been watching and waiting.

Yesterday afternoon when I came home in the rain, I looked out the window to see that some buds had reached a fullness. With today’s sunshine, I am happy to say the bush has finally begun to flower. It has taken nearly three weeks longer than other years but over the next few days everyone who passes by our house will have the blessing of the sight of this sweet little bush.

When April 23rd rolled around and I could see that there would be no flowers for this anniversary, I was at first a little angry. Then I felt sadness and disappointment. It had meant something special to have those flowers bloom as homage to my Dad who was a great lover of cherry pie. But as the time wore on I began to see this delay for what it really was……a reminder that things don’t always happen when they are ‘supposed’ to, some plants(like some people) take longer to grow and flourish than others, some seasons last longer than we’d like, while others move on far too quickly.

I thought of the many times I have willed a project or situation to move forward, to progress, to ‘do something!’ only to have to practice patience and the humbling act of tongue-biting. If every parent or teacher could have a nickel for every child they have wanted to succeed more quickly, mature faster, only to learn-or re-learn, that all children do best when growing and moving at their own pace….why think of the fortunes we’d amass!

The cherry bush is blooming in its own sweet time following the wisdom and rhythm of sun, rain and temperature. To have brought forth those lovely blossoms earlier would have meant a certain wilting death. Unlike its human guard, the plant new exactly what to do and the right time to do it. How much I have learned from this precious plant.

Over the next few days I will continue to stand watch realizing that now is the appropriate time to do what humans were meant to do…….be awestruck with the beauty and wonder of it all and to give thanks. The cherry bush will do its job and I will do mine and all will be right with the world.

"Silently a flower blooms, in silence it falls away; Yet here now, at this moment, at this place, the world of the flower, the whole of the world is blooming. This is the talk of the flower, the truth of the blossom; the glory of eternal life is fully shining here."  Zenkei Shibayama

On April 10th my horoscope read: "You can come up with bright ideas on your own, but bouncing off of another luminous mind produces the truly brilliant ones. Get together with the smartest person you know to start the ball rolling."  I so loved these words that I clipped them out of the paper and have carried them with me ever since. That morning I was meeting with one of the smartest people I know and I shared this little directive with him. We agreed we were up for what ever work our meeting required of us.

Today I shared this horoscope with my co-workers at our weekly staff meeting. I told them I had adopted it as my ‘daily’ horoscope, at least for the time being, and I implied that I looked to them as luminous minds I could count on. For me these words are advice to get up with every day. I can most certainly come up with some fairly ‘bright’ ideas. But the truly brilliant ones are those that rise to the top of a boiling pot of a multiplicity of ideas born out of gathering around tables, dreaming, discussing, asking questions, a little argument here or there, a prayer or two…and probably lots of coffee. Those are the places where brilliance is born.

When the apostle Paul described the community of believers as being like a body where every part was important, I think this is the concept he may have had in mind. Each of us, equipped with unique gifts, bring to any situation, any community, the raw potential needed to solve any problem, realize any dream. So many times, we sit by and let others design the show and don’t offer what we have beating in our heart. Or other times, we are so filled with our own ‘bright idea agenda’ that we railroad our way past the luminous beings heating the seat next to us.

I’d be happy to share my horoscope with you. As a Gemini, I can generally say we like to share. So if you are about to embark on a new adventure, a new life plan or you just need to figure out what to have for dinner, I’d suggest phoning a friend for a bright idea. Together your luminous minds might attain brilliance. I’m pretty sure that’s how it works.

"The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enter into the exuberance." 1 Corinthians 12, The Message, Eugene Peterson

"And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; you shall return every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family.You shall not sow, or reap the aftergrowth, or harvest the unpruned vines. For it is a jubilee;it shall be holy to you; When you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not cheat one another. If anyone of your kin falls into difficulty and sells a piece of property, then the next of kin shall come and redeem what the relative has sold. But if there is not sufficient means to recover it, what was sold shall remain with the purchaser until the year of jubilee; in the jubilee it shall be released and the property shall be returned."  Leviticus 25, selected verses

I don’t often go to the book of Leviticus for inspiration. It is a complicated, time sensitive book of law that has been used, by Christians and others, to do some terrible harm toward one another. But the past few weeks I have been fascinated by the concept of ‘jubilee’ that is outlined in the 25th chapter of this ancient book. The ruling to the people of the time took into account that greed, oppression, hording, consumerism, and ownership would quite frankly always get humans into trouble…..God knew this and planned for it.

Jubilee provides for a time, every 50 years, for a release of all debts, setting the slaves free, letting the lands lie
fallow,
and the return of  lands to their original (and rightful)
owners: all the farm lands that farmers had been forced to sell due to
debt. I think of it as a cultural ‘do-over’ or a true act of wiping the slate clean.

Last week I was riding in my car listening to the news. In five minutes of sound bites I heard of yet another person killed in Iraq pushing the American death count higher into the 4000’s;the figures reported for yet more and more foreclosures and loss of homes and pride;continually rising oil prices followed by gas prices with no end in sight and attention seemingly elsewhere; unemployment reports were high; food costs spiking due to oil prices; the ability to get college loans is on the decline; on and on. I felt my shoulders moving closer and closer to my ears as the stress of it all mounted.

That’s when I thought of ‘jubilee’, this principle the scriptures tell us was given to the Hebrew people as a gift to ensure they would continue to care for one another and the Earth in the ways in which God intended. Wouldn’t this be a good time for jubilee? Wouldn’t it be a perfect moment to stop the insanity and have a do-over? I truly believe that we have the creativity, the intelligence, the wisdom, to provide the change and possibility needed, the pull us back from the brink if only we’d take the time, the honesty and the intention to do so.

But Jubilee is not primarily head-work, it is heart-work. Jubilee is the recognition that we are all in this together and our interdependence is woven into the fabric of the Universe. When one part suffers, we all suffer. When one part rejoices, we all rejoice.The book of Leviticus is grounded in the premise that the Holy has ‘pitched a tent’ in our midst. Its laws and directives call us to live accordingly.

Today might just be the day to begin declaring a Jubilee. Perhaps if each of us forgave a debt, offered another a simple freedom, loved the land and cared for it with our heart, we might have a ‘trickle up’ effect that might have far reaching implications.

It couldn’t hurt.

"Whoever has ears, let them hear."  Luke 8:8

I am a visual person. I take in the majority of information, process it, make sense of it, react to it, through t my sense of sight. My eyes have been searching the landscape for weeks, as have many others, for the visible sights of spring. Certainly the calendar declares it is spring and every day or two we will have a hint of warmth that tempts us to believe. Green has emerged from our garden but seems to have reached a plateau that could be called ‘not quite yet.’ I’ve been looking and looking(and with the chance of snow in the forecast for tomorrow) I am yet to be convinced.

But today I was driving past an area in our neighborhood where there are some small ponds. My windows were cracked ever so slightly and that’s when I heard them: peepers! The small frogs that signal spring is here. Their rhythmic chirping was beautiful music conjuring up wonderful memories of backyard play as we children were accompanied by their soundtrack. The sound of their singing said,"School will soon be over. Freedom is on the way!"

That’s when I realized that spring really is here….though the visual signs may seem slow to manifest themselves…the sounds of spring are all around. For weeks we have been hearing the call of the geese making their way through the sky way over our house. Honking their way home, they are. And then in the early mornings, the other birds….chickadees, cardinals, others…..are calling to one another, flitting and flirting with their come hither songs. And as I sit here I can hear, not the sound of forceful winds bringing snowflakes and ice, but the pitter-patter of rain outside the window carrying its green-making power in each tiny drop.

So instead of watching the pot of spring which doesn’t seem to want to boil, I am going to close my eyes and listen. Listen for all the ways in which spring is not only making its appearance but is already here. I will practice patience and develop this lesser used sense to hear the buds opening, the grass growing and the leaves popping out.

"It is the beginning of May and over near the statue of Moses, raising his staff to something none of us can see, hundreds of tulips have broken through the dark earth becoming every color they held inside and quietly they ignore each other in this chorus of oneness, bobbing gently, as children race up to their splashes of yellow and red, expecting the colors to sing, and maybe they do in a song only children can hear………" Mark Nepo, from ‘Opening Without Words’

I hope you hear some spring sounds this weekend……enjoy!

"Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy."  Joseph Campbell

Thursday is my ‘on call’ day. It is the day I visit hospitals, nursing homes, call to check up on those who have had surgery or have been ill. I share a  rotation with my colleagues, each of us taking a different day of the week.It is a fine arrangement and allows us each the opportunity to check in with our community. As you might imagine some days are filled with sorrow and others with joy. This past week for instance I was privileged to see two beautiful twin boys, new to the world, still soft and fragile, a complete double package of wonder. Other days I have seen people in pain, fear, distress, grief and deep sadness.

Today as I drove to a hospital I found myself stuck in traffic and sitting very close to other cars. The bumper sticker on the green minivan was right at my eye view. "We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy."  These wise words of Joseph Campbell were in very small print. This was definitely one of those bumper adornments that was either meant for those inside or to be read while the car was not moving. To do so at any faster speed would have been dangerous! The rectangular sticker did not include the words that introduce this statement….Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world.  That part doesn’t seem like the stuff of bumper stickers to me.

What would it mean to participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world? It is, in some ways, a curious directive.There seems to be the understanding that sorrow is inevitable which is certainly true. It is a by-product of a life of connection, of relationship. If we are truly engaged in our lives and the lives of others, in significant relationships, invested in the world, we will have sorrow. People disappoint, lives end, change  infringes on what we have planned, what we have known, bad things happen to good people and to a marvelous world.

But to participate joyfully in the sorrow implies that we continue to hold on to that connection, recognizing its power to transform even in the darkness of a bleak situation. Joy is not happiness, that emotion that can be battered about by so many outside forces. Joy, something that lives deep within, can be a way of living which is, I think, Campbell’s point. Given what we know about how life works and doesn’t work, isn’t the most productive choice to live joyfully? It may not always be easy but I believe in the end it will be the most rewarding.

The refrain of a favorite song goes: "No storm can shake my inward calm while to that rock I ‘m clinging, If Love is lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?" Though the sorrows of the world may press in, may we each set an intention of joy…….and lift our voice in song. It’s bound to make a difference.

"I cannot hold up any book and say, ‘Here. This is what I believe.’ I do not know of any church where I would feel at home. But I do believe that what people call God refers to something real… I would even go so far as to say that this God of mine makes demands. To learn, to teach, to engage. To be aware of and respect the world around me. To acknowledge that there are things greater than myself and to be humble in their presence." — Dan Jackson

I spent last evening reading the faith statements….the creeds…of our confirmation class of 2008. These sixth graders have spent the past year getting to know one another, learning to work together, studying the Bible and the history of this tradition and generally learning to be the church. They have served in mission together, gone on retreat, and played tons of games and eaten lots of pizza.

This past weekend they went on retreat and talked about what they ‘believe’. What did you believe when you were eleven or twelve years old? Can you remember? Could you have written it down and then stood in front of an entire sanctuary full of people and read it?  am far from twelve but my stomach starts to get queasy at the thought. But this Sunday that is exactly what they will do.

I can tell you that there are some very deep thinkers in this group. There are also some fine writers and even a politician or two. Some write what they think they should and most all write from their heart. For this moment in time the words they have written will define the day and their enfolding into the community of this church, this time on their terms not just their parents’.

Two weeks ago when Bishop John Spong spoke in our sanctuary, someone asked him what he thought of the Apostle’s Creed. He said he had no problem saying this historic statement, words many can recite from memory. He said he didn’t have a problem reciting these words because ‘creeds are love songs.’ Now there was a statement that stopped me in my mental tracks. Love songs?

I’ve thought long and hard about that statement. I’ve spent more time reflecting on those words than perhaps anything else he said that morning and he made some mighty bold statements. The creed as love song captured my imagination. What might I say I believe to be my relationship with the Holy, Jesus, the Spirit, the church, if I were to think of it as a love song? I might say things like "I believe the Sacred is alive in every cell, every atom, every breath, every thing in ways known and unknown to me." or " I believe following the Way of Jesus is to walk the path of peace and unconditional love, no matter what." or "The church is the place where I come to know and be known in ways that nurture who I am as a child of God."
Or I might keep it simple and say, "I have given myself to the Love of Mystery and there is no turning back."

What love songs are living in your heart waiting to be written? What is your creed?

"The question does not lie with whether or not the Creed is believable. The Creed is about the mystery of life, and its mystery is apparent. The question is whether or not the Creed is meaningful to us, here, now." Joan Chittister, from In Search of Belief

"Earth is a Paradise, the only one we will ever know. We realize it the moment we open our eyes. We don’t have to make it a Paradise-it is one. We have only to make ourselves fit to inhabit it." Henry Miller

If you awake early in the morning and are able to take in the day at its birth, you will see it. This Paradise, waking up, or our human eyes and senses awakening to it. This morning I had reason to not only wake early which is my usual pattern, but to actually walk out into the day. I should say that,In general, most Minnesotans are crabby right now. Yesterday I stood at a soccer game in which I experienced snow,rain, brilliant sunshine and gloomy gray skies….all in the period of 90 minutes. This on-going hostage situation of Winter has us all a little testy.

So this morning as I traveled across the Mendota Bridge which spans the Minnesota River as it meets up with the Mississippi, I didn’t expect to be dazzled. And yet there it was. On one side of me the half Moon stood watch in the blue sky of morning. In my rear view mirror I could see an orangish-pink begin to color the misty horizon. I found myself suspended in the halo of these beacons of night and day. Later as I crossed the bridge back toward the East, the Sun was showing itself……a bright red ball of fire screaming: "Look at me! Look at me!"  My eyes were momentarily drawn away from its brilliance to the sight of at least a dozen wild turkeys, huge and glistening in the oily greenish black way they do, strutting their stuff on the side of a hill. All this before 6:30 a.m.

And so here I was, someone who yesterday said ‘to heck with you!’ at what seems like a god-forsaken land of never-ending gloomy weather. I had essentially ‘broken up’ with this land. Then this morning I was seduced once again by the remarkable beauty, the unmistakable wonder, the never-ending allure, of this world. This Paradise had once again shown up at my door with a bouquet of flowers, fluttering its eyes, flirting with me. I shrugged my shoulders and said, "O.K., you’re right. I love you." And we made up.

If you wake early, that’s what can happen. It might work the same if you stay up late and take in the flirtation of the descending nighttime. But the Sun does have a way to turn your head….and make you fall in love all over again.

"Do I not fill heaven and earth? says God." Jeremiah 23:24

"What I want is to leap out of this personality
   And then sit apart from that leaping-
I’ve lived too long where I can be reached."
             –Rumi

Fanny Brice in the musical Hello Dolly! says: "Life is a smorgasbord and most poor fools are starving to death." Her impetus for making this remark is to encourage others to move out of their staid lives, to find the exciting, to take risks. It is a good challenge. I find it very easy to fall into the rut of a routine….make the coffee, read the paper. Why, I even like to read the sections of the paper in a certain order!

Following Fanny’s advice can, however, be taken to the extreme. For me the past few weeks have been a prime example. There have been so many things good going on in my life, in the community, especially in our faith community, that I feel as if I have been standing at the buffet line on a cruise ship…..constant, wonderful, delicious food…. consumed all the time. So much so that one of our community members came up to me Sunday and said:"You have to let us rest now." Of course, he said it with a satisfied smile on his face. All the choices people have been offered have been wonderful, inspiring, beautiful. But it is time to rest. I can feel it. As my mother often said:"It truly is possible to have too much of a good thing."

I was supposed to lead a retreat this weekend with two friends. We had worked on the plans, the material was rich using the simple cup as a metaphor for our lives, emptying, filling, overflowing. We were excited about it and it would have been a delightful experience. But unfortunately there were not enough signed up. Perhaps everyone needs a rest from all the good things that are happening.Perhaps their cups were too full.

At any rate I now find myself with the opportunity to slow down and to ‘sit apart from the leaping.’ It will, I know, take a bit of time to slow down to the speed of life. The weather may add just the perfect backdrop for slowing down, for resting. With the rain falling outside, the temperatures falling, it will create an atmosphere for going within, for being introspective. It may be just what is needed for a perfect retreat, a perfect rest.

In Wayne Muller’s book Sabbath he tells a traditional Hebrew tale. "Rabbi Levi saw a man running in the street, and asked him, "Why do you run?" He replied, "I am running after my good fortune!" Rabbi Levi tells him, "Silly man, your good fortune has been trying to chase you, but you are running too fast."

I am going to take off my running shoes now. I am going to sit down and stop leaping. I am going to watch the rain fall and think back to the richness of these past weeks….and count my blessings. Then I might have a nice nap.

May you have a restful weekend…………………

On Monday evening I was sitting in a meeting listening to a report from the chair of the Board of Trustees.In the course of listing all the many large and small tasks that had been done to maintain a large, aging, yet beautiful building, he said:"The architects facility review addresses concerns about the north sanctuary walls and so crack monitors were installed". My ears perked up. Crack monitors? What in the world are crack monitors? Upon further investigation I was told that they are like rulers glued over a crack in a structure and read monthly to determine whether a crack is changing.

What a concept! What a metaphor! I began to think of all the places where crack monitors are needed. I mulled over the situations that could have been so different if only a crack monitor had been installed before things broke apart. Perhaps most wars would never have started had this stop gap measure been in place.  I wondered if the United Nations has an equivalent of a crack monitor to alert them to times of action…..or inaction.  I thought of some of my past friendships that could have fared better had they had a ruler glued over the hurt caused by an ill spoken word. Perhaps that ruler could have shown the visible change in a precious relationship before the person drifted out of my life.

We move through our lives with ferocious speed, bumping into this, bouncing off that. Sometimes the fact that cracks are forming, growing, hurdling us toward a rent in the tide of our lives goes unnoticed. It is only when bridges collapse or buildings fall do we stop. Then our minds take the needed time to travel back, back and we begin to see that tiny little crevice that could have used some tending.

Where does your life need a crack monitor? How might the attention to the beginning of a problem prevent a devastating outcome? What small ruptures need tending?

I think tonight I may gather together all the extra rulers and glue and begin some important monitoring. Join me?

"O God of new beginnings, who brings light out of night’s darkness and fresh green out of the hard winter earth, there is barren land between us as people and as nations this day, there are empty stretches of soul within us. Give us eyes to see new dawnings of promise. Give us ears to hear fresh soundings of birth." J. Philip Newell, Celtic Treasure