Common Lot Spring 2013 by United Church of Christ

SPRING 2013

CommonLot A J O U R NA L F O R WO M E N I N T H E U N I T E D C H U R C H O F C H R I S T

Women on a

MISSION 4/1 EARTH Lillian Daniel:

MARY AND MARTHA AT YOGA CLASS Wisdom Calls: An interview with Rita Nakashima Brock

Meet “Pastor-Farmer” Robin Raudabaugh at the Nitty-Gritty Dirt Farm

Do You Believe in Magic? The Life-Giving Power of Sports

Also . . . Lost and Running: God Never Lets Us Out of Her Sight Celebrating Women at General Synod Sarah Laughs: Mary Luti

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Editor’s Note

Welcome to the Spring 2013 issue of Common Lot. I’m a stranger here myself. But it’s not just the pages of the UCC’s recently revised women’s magazine that I’m still getting to know. Almost ten years ago, when searching for a denominational home where I could fully live out my pastoral vocation as a woman, I found the United Church of Christ, a denomination that recognizes and nurtures the spiritual experience and theological authority of women like no other I'd encountered. The faith communities of my childhood and youth gave me many treasured gifts, but that affirmation of women’s leadership wasn’t one of them. So, occasionally, I still feel like a goofy tourist in some new land, too slack-jawed with awe to remember to lift my camera. I’m liable to blurt: “Look at what she’s doing! And she’s a woman!” Common Lot gives us a chance to take those pictures, pass them around, and celebrate. In these pages, we feature UCC women where they live, doing what they do, being who they are, in all their awesome diversity: mothers, sports fanatics, farmer-pastors, directors of environmental advocacy groups, justice advocates, authors, scholars, and theologians. As the 50 Great Days of the UCC’s Mission 4/1 Earth launches, we know women will be leading their congregations and communities in a shared resurrection witness for Planet Earth. Some of the women in these pages do that year-round, and we’re excited to introduce you. This issue also introduces what we hope will become regular features: “Wisdom Calls,” an interview with a woman scholar or theologian who is UCC or influences UCC women, and “Sarah Laughs,” a short, fun, funny treat. Jesus-loving, progressive, intelligent women can have a sense of humor. And if you don’t believe that, you ought to meet Mary Luti, who wrote this edition’s back-page feature. If something in this issue launches you into a theological argument or makes you laugh out loud, please share it with a sister, mother, daughter, colleague, mentor, mentee, or friend. Then, tell us how we’re doing by going to www.surveymonkey.com/s/commonlot and filling out a brief survey. I also welcome your story and writer suggestions via email: CLeditor@ucc.org. Christina G. Kukuk Editor

Christina G. Kukuk, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, spent her first (albeit short) career as a newspaper and magazine journalist. Despite having no hipster fashion sense and not a single tattoo, she is currently developing a new UCC church in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

Contents

A Note from Loey Powell

3 WisdomCalls

Repairing Souls: An Interview with Rita Nakashima Brock Donique McIntosh

6 Pastor-Farmer at The Nitty Gritty

Dirt Farm: A Ministry of Food and Faith Robin Raudabaugh

Women on a Mission 4/1 Earth

Lee Ann Beres Veronica Kyle Talitha Arnold

16 Mary and Martha at Yoga Class Lillian Daniel

20 Lost and Running Jennifer Mills-Knutsen

22 Do You Believe in Magic? Shaundra Cunningham

Celebrating Women at General Synod David Schoen and Loey Powell

Calendar of 2013 Events

32 Sarah Laughs

“The Lord Needs Them”

Thanks to everyone who let us know how much you liked the first issue of the re-created Common Lot. With this issue, I am pleased to introduce the Rev. Christina G. Kukuk as editor for Common Lot and as our online communications specialist. Christina comes to this work with a strong journalism background and has served congregations in Minneapolis and Elyria, Ohio. In addition to editing Common Lot, Christina will be developing other online vehicles of communication and connection for women in the UCC. Stay tuned! Many questions have been asked about who is the lead person on women’s ministries for the UCC. As we continue to implement new ways to resource women and women’s issues in a changing denominational landscape, a collaborative table has been established to brainstorm, coordinate and inform each other about what is going on, what is needed, and what is possible. This table is composed of more than a dozen staff and others who are working on various aspects of women’s programming and advocacy. If you have a question about who to contact concerning women’s ministry, programming or advocacy, please send an email to uccwomen@ucc.org. Enjoy this issue of Common Lot and encourage your congregation to participate fully in the UCC’s Pentecost focus on the environment, Mission 4/1 Earth! Together we can make a difference and, as our indigenous sisters and brothers counsel, live today so that the seventh generation after us will also live in a sustained, healthy, and beautiful world.

Mary Luti

Christina Kukuk

Common Lot is a publication

Editor CLeditor@ucc.org

of the Congregational Vitality and Discipleship Ministry Team Local Church Ministries United Church of Christ 700 Prospect Avenue Cleveland, Ohio 44115 (866)822-8224

www.ucc.org/women

Common Lot is made possible, in part, by gifts to Our Church’s Wider Mission.

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Wisdom Calls

Repairing Souls: An Interview with Rita Nakashima Brock Donique McIntosh

A soldier returns from Iraq. Another arrives home after a third tour in Afghanistan. She’s in one piece. He has all his limbs. But who tends the hidden wounds of war? As suicide rates spike among veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, many people are wondering how to respond. Rev. Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock believes Christian churches should be leading the way. Since publishing her most recent book, Soul Repair: Recovering from Moral Injury After War,with Gabriella Lettini, churches, colleges, and divinity schools have invited Brock to speak about how people of faith can help heal the hidden wounds of war. Brock, a commissioned minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), was raised in a military family. In February, she led a Soul Repair workshop at UCC national offices in Cleveland. Common Lot contributor Donique McIntosh recently caught up with Brock to discuss her soul repair work and the scholar-activist’s long history of calling people of faith to heal spiritual violence. CL: What moved you to write Soul Repair? RNB: I encountered the concept of moral injury in veterans and thought about the research we’d done on the ancient penance tradition in Christianity and the way it rehabilitated warriors. The question of moral injury in veterans was a call to the whole society, but especially to religious institutions of the society, to take this on as a really important mission. We’re not talking about people who have a disorder or are not healthy. We’re talking about healthy people and what war would do to a healthy person and our responsibility for restoring them in some way to a decent life. CL: Your book Saving Paradise was one of Publisher’s Weekly’s best books of 2008, and the theme book for the Greenbelt Festival in the United Kingdom last year. In it, you and Rebecca Parker look to the first 1,000 years of Christian art to contend that Jesus’ death on the cross was not celebrated by Christians for hundreds of years, and also that the crucifixion actually sanctions violence and sanctifies suffering, particularly against and for women. Can you describe a little more how you believe the early church viewed Jesus’ crucifixion? RNB: The early church didn’t think of his crucifixion as saving the world but regarded it as a moment of lamentation. They believed that Jesus’ incarnation showed us how to live with our own divinity like his divinity and that his resurrection confirmed that we were living in the paradise of this world. Common Lot

CL: You were the first Asian-American woman to get a Ph.D. in theology, and yet you had a difficult time getting a full-time, tenure-track teaching position. Why? RNB: I think institutions hesitated to make a permanent commitment to a woman and especially a woman of color who was also a feminist. Certainly no seminary ever was that interested in me. I don’t think they even could imagine me training clergy. CL: Women’s leadership in churches has not necessarily fared better than women’s leadership in seminaries and theological schools. Why is that? RNB: It’s much easier to change law and policy than it is to change attitudes. So you can decide you’re going to ordain women as a matter of policy, and you may even be in a tradition that actually appoints women clergy to churches. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be an easy road for women because what you haven’t done is change the deep sexist attitudes and discrimination against women that dominate the culture. CL: And while there have been changes individually and culturally in how people perceive people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, those same changes have been slow to come for women, haven’t they? RNB: I think that’s partly because once people started coming out of the closet and people actually discovered that they might have a gay or lesbian member of their family, or work with one, or have them in a church, it sort of demystified it. They had to decide to either hate a person they really liked or change their attitude. Attitudes were changed by just having contact with people and by normalizing relationships with gay and lesbian people. I think that hasn’t worked for women. Women live with, sleep with, and love people who oppress them, so I’m not sure what else is needed. The places where I’ve seen more change happen is when the honest realities of women’s lives go up against people’s assumptions. Fathers who have daughters who are discriminated against in the workplace or who are raped suddenly understand a lot about the feminist commitment. I also think that because there’s a long pattern of women loving and being with people who oppress them that it also requires women also to step up to the plate and challenge those attitudes, and I think women are socialized not to be confrontational, not to be assertive, not to do that a lot of the time. CL: Why do churches still struggle so much to confront and address sexism? RNB: There’s such a massive amount of cultural and religious weight to the dominance of masculinity not only in terms of who stands in front and leads, but also, the language of divinity is masculinized. It’s incredibly difficult to purge that language from all the things that people love: the hymns, the prayers, the liturgies. Just changing the language affects some of the ways that people think about it, but there’s so much momentum around the primacy of masculinity in the Christian tradition. It’s also in the biblical translations. It’s not always so much in the original languages, but the way English is translated [makes] people think that so much of the masculine gendered language in the Bible is what’s there. We’re looking at 1,500 years, at least, of this momentum, but probably closer to 2,000 years. If you count the Jewish traditions and the Hebrew Bible, there’s 4,000 years of momentum around the structures of a patriarchal society. We have many layers at which male dominance and male-centered thinking have been written into our tradition. F O R

R E F L E C T I O N :

• What are some ways that your church has responded or can respond to veterans returning from war? • Do you agree with Rita Brock’s contention that Jesus’ crucifixion sanctions violence and sanctifies suffering? If so, why? If not, why not? • How might your church combat sexism in the Church?

Dr. Donique McIntosh is a social justice and diversity consultant, blogger for The Huffington Post, Justice LED trainer with Justice and Witness Ministries, and a Member-in-Discernment.

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Pastor-Farmer at the Nitty Gritty Dirt Farm: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Food and faith, farming and ministering, sustainability and spirituality are integrally connected in my life and my ministry.â&#x20AC;? Robin Raudabaugh

Common Lot

I think I have been a farmer since I was born. I almost cannot recall a moment when I did not want to be a farmer. The minister part came later, almost as a surprise. The coming together of the sustainable farmer and minister took longer to evolve. It has been difficult for others to imagine how, or even if, they could fit together. But it is pure grace that somehow between then and now I became a sustainable organic vegetable, fruit and livestock farmer, an ordained United Church of Christ parish minister, a teacher, bread-baker, cheese-maker, wool artisan, bee-keeper, beer brewer and most recently, co-director of a United Church of Christ camp and retreat center. All of that together is my vocation, my calling, my life.

A Ministry of Food and Faith As the co-owner and farm manager/worker of a 15-acre Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm in Minnesota for the last eight years, I’ve produced a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, livestock, honey, and wool for farm shareholder members. The work has convinced me it is no coincidence that the themes of food and hospitality, community and generosity, abundance and sustainability that flow in and through my daily life are the very same themes that flow in and through Jesus’ teaching and preaching and showing by example what God’s beloved community look like.

The time of eating together, enjoying the fruits of the harvest from the abundance of the land we all work, lovingly prepared and served by one or two of us and enjoyed by all of us, always includes platters piled high with fresh bread and homemade cheeses. But the feast also includes the sounds of appreciation and laughter, the telling of stories, common stories of our day’s work together as well as stories from our diverse lives, stories of shared and divergent experiences. Around the table, connections are made strong by the hospitality shared between each one and among us.

To me, harvest time at the CSA farm looks a lot like God’s kin-dom coming into being here on earth. I described it once to my congregation this way: We push our furniture back to the walls, pull our dining room table out into the open, put the leaves in to make the table as big as it can be, gather all the assorted chairs plus the piano bench around, and welcome to each seat strangers – strangers who, by the time summer ends, will become not only friends, but family. And in the middle of each day, we share a feast together.

At our table, we say, “Here, try this casserole, this bread, this cheese, this wine, please eat, drink, I made this for you. Take more. There is plenty. It is here for you to enjoy, to be strengthened. It is to show you how much I care about you, how much I love you.” At the table, what we desire is not just to give food, but to give ourselves. “Be my guest,” we say, “Be my friend, be my companion on this road we are traveling together, be a part of my life.”

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Nitty Gritty Dirt Farm Community Supported Agriculture began in April of 2007. Just a few months later, in June, adventurous shareholders received the first box of our vegetable abundance. In community supported agriculture, customers buy “shares” of a farm’s produce for a season in advance, receiving weekly portions of whatever is ripe or ready to eat. The first year, our CSA provided food for 25 shareholders, and by the fourth year, we were growing and delivering food to more than 250 households. My life and farming partner, Gigi Nauer, and I were the sole employees our first year, but we soon included an annual farm team of 4 to 8 part- and fulltime apprentices who shared in nearly every aspect of farm life. At the beginning of our CSA’s third year, Pilgrims United Church of Christ, in Maple Grove, Minn., called me as its pastor. This small, Open and Affirming, Just Peace congregation embraced my calling as a farmer/minister, delighting in the ways shepherding and sheep stories nosed their way regularly into sermons, just picked watermelons and cantaloupe rounded out Sunday potlucks, and stories poked up everywhere of weeding and tilling, growing seeds, and grieving over the deaths of a baby lamb or chick or fields devastated by hail, flood or drought. Food and faith, farming and ministering, sustainability and spirituality are integrally connected in my life and my ministry. They are the way I meet God constantly in the daily tasks of tilling soil, growing vegetables and raising livestock. They are the way I recognize that the dirt under my fingernails is holy ground, the way I know that preparing and serving good food is a sacrament just as Holy Communion F O R

is a sacrament, the way agriculture informs and becomes my hermeneutic. Writing sermons is part of the way I chronicle life on the farm, the way I make sense of the humility required to be a farmer, the way I ground myself in the Holy, the way I invite non-farmers into the inner sanctum of the sheep fold, the vegetable fields, the vineyard, and the farm table feast of community, welcome and hospitality. Now, God is extending the farm table feast even further. In 2012, Gigi and I became co-directors of the Minnesota Conference UCC Pilgrim Point Camps and Retreats. Although accepting the job meant deciding to no longer operate our farm as a CSA, the transition from CSA farming toward planning programs and direction for Pilgrim Point seems like a seamless extension of the farm table. This year at Pilgrim Point, we will run, with guests, a small sustainable farm of sheep, goats, chickens and rabbits, as well as raised-bed kitchen gardens to provide fresh salad bar offerings daily. The camp farmyard and the camp-wide emphasis on reducing, reusing, recycling and rethinking will move us toward ever more sustainable practices. Congregational camp and retreat participants across the generations will be invited to participate in small-scale sustainable agriculture surrounded by the natural world of water and forest. At Pilgrim Point this year, as we share food grown and picked just moments before, sort and compost our food waste and animal waste, pass loaves of bread kneaded and baked by our own hands, and gather around tables of grace and plenty, we will live out the meaning of a community of faith.

R E F L E C T I O N :

• What was the best feast or meal you can remember sharing with others? • In what ways did that meal feel like an experience of God’s kingdom? Rev. Robin Raudabaugh is the pastor of Pilgrims United Church of Christ, Maple Grove, Minn., co-owner of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Farm and co-director of the Minnesota Conference’s Pilgrim Point Camps and Retreats.

Common Lot

Mission 4/1 Earth SOUTHWEST:

Women on a

Earth Mission4/1

Jesus’ many examples of advocacy make clear that our call as Christians includes speaking up for the powerless and working for justice. Yet taking action can be frightening. We tell ourselves that we don’t know enough about the issue, that someone else can speak better than we can, or that our voice doesn’t matter. The little voices in our head say, “How can I? Not me!” The truth is that people just like you and me – people with jobs, families, church obligations, and evening soccer practices – can make a big difference simply by sharing our values and personal stories with elected officials. People of faith in particular can articulate the moral voice for the health of God’s creation and our neighbors, which encourages decisions for the common good. The United Church of Christ has a long history of putting faith into action in pursuit of justice. The UCC first made a statement about caring for creation in 1959, only two years after the formation of the denomination in 1957. The UCC’s publication of “Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States” in 1987 was the first report of its kind to show a direct correlation between the location of toxic waste facilities and communities of color.

Today’s UCC women continue to lend our voices, in many different ways and in many different locations, to the growing choir of individuals and religious communities speaking up for the health of our neighbors and the Earth. Here are three such UCC women on a mission…a Mission 4/1 Earth.

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Southwest SOUTHWEST:

Getting Over the Color Green Talitha Arnold

Say the word “desert” and what comes to mind? The Sahara? Sand? A barren wasteland? A place of trial and temptation? How about “one of the most bio-diverse places on earth?” A place of dreams and visions? A place worth saving because of its lessons of faith and hope? A place called home? Those are some of the experiences and understandings of the desert that we seek to instill at the United Church of Santa Fe in northern New Mexico. Since the church began in 1980, the congregation has had an overall commitment to care for the environment. The church's original covenant calls us to “live in harmony with all creation (as) stewards of the earth.” Over the last 30-plus years, we've sought to live into that covenant in a variety of ways, from developing creation-based liturgies for Sunday worship and hosting educational forums to creating the Children's Creation Care Garden and installing cisterns to catch rain water. Our church logo affirms “Love God. Love Neighbor. Love Creation.” Four years ago, with the leadership of Dr. Larry Rasmussen, author of the essay “An Earth-Honoring Faith” and Professor Emeritus from Union Theological School, we developed a Whole Earth Covenant with specific commitments to deepen that love. Currently we're in the two-year certification process with the ecumenical organization GreenFaith to join their work in environmental leadership. But at the United Church of Santa Fe, we don't call it GreenFaith. Here, we call it “DesertFaith.” The name change is significant, since a central mission of our church is, as the title of a collection of desert essays puts it, “getting over the color green.” Living in harmony with all creation is one thing. Learning to live in harmony with creation's arid places presents a whole different set of challenges, including our

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understanding of where we experience God's beauty and presence in the created world. Many UCC members, both in Santa Fe and throughout the Southwest, come here from the more lush landscapes of the Northeast, Midwest or Southern United States. Whether it's the high desert of northern New Mexico or the Sonoran Desert of central Arizona, this land of little rain and much sky challenges not only our lifestyles, but also our theology. Several years ago at a clergy retreat in southern Arizona, we sang the familiar hymn “Joyful, Joyful.” As we belted out our thanks to God for “field and forest, vale and mountain, flowery meadow,

At the United Church of Santa Fe, we want to help people live in this desert land with faith, not fear. As environmental ethicist Larry Rasmussen affirms, “We will not save what we do not love.” Therefore along with practical actions like xeriscape (water conserving) landscaping or solar panels, we've also sought to instill a love for this beautiful, harsh landscape. We seek to learn from the people who have lived and prayed in this land far longer than we have, the Native Americans and Hispanic Catholics for whom the desert is home, not a place of trial and temptation. In our biblical studies, we go beyond Jesus' temptation to explore other stories of the desert, from

Learning to live in harmony with creation's arid places presents a whole different set of challenges, including our understanding of where we experience God's beauty and presence in the created world. flashing sea,” we looked out on a landscape not of pine trees and wildflowers, but of saguaros, chollas, ocotillos and other desert cactus. Not exactly the hymn's vision of God's country.

the place where Hagar first heard God's voice and Jacob dreamt of his ladder of angels to the desert of Sinai where the people of Israel learned to trust God more than Pharaoh.

Often our biblical faith reinforces the image of the desert as a strange and hostile place. The desert is where the Israelites almost died of thirst and hunger. The desert is where Jesus was tempted by the devil. Generations of Protestant Christians who've come west have also seen the desert as a God-forsaken place. “Goodbye God,” wrote a Congregational girl in her diary in the 1800's. “We're moving to Montana.”

Through spiritual retreats and mission trips to the Arizona/Sonoran border and the Navajo reservation, we connect the congregation with the desert around us, so people of faith can experience from its plant and animal life how to live together in a dry land. We've expanded our baptismal liturgy to include, in addition to the blessing of the water in the baptismal fount, a prayer of thanksgiving for all the waters of creation and our recommitment to conserving this gift of God. Two years ago, we introduced a resolution to the Southwest Conference encouraging other congregations to adopt both Whole Earth Covenants and desert-wise water use.

Such fear often leads to the desire to tame the wilderness and make the desert bloom by force. For a hundred years, we've dammed the rivers and drained the ground water to create an artificially green landscape of grass lawns and golf courses. The result has been the destruction of multiple ecosystems in this region and the creation of an unsustainable lifestyle for the millions of people who now live throughout the Southwest. F O R

United's focus on a DesertFaith has taught us to pay attention to the place God has called us. What are the lessons of your congregation's “corner of creation?”

R E F L E C T I O N :

• How might God be calling you to love deeply the particular place that you call home? • What other people, plants, animals, or creatures share your “corner of creation”?

Rev. Talitha Arnold is Senior Minister at The United Church of Santa Fe (Santa Fe, New Mexico).

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Chicago SOUTHWEST:

Migration, Monarchs, Birds and Me Veronica Kyle

On a recent January day, I stood with the members of four different Chicago-area churches plus the Audubon Society at the Sand Ridge Prairie Nature Preserve. We sipped cider and ate cookies in the crisp but sunny weather, and we asked one another: How do our human stories of migration and community inform how we relate to our non-human neighbors? In what ways can how we treat our communities, “our hoods,” impact the way we offer hospitality to other living creatures who share space with us on this planet? It was the winter outing for “Migration, Monarchs, Birds and Me,” a program that combines nature with storytelling in a way that connects the personal with the ecological by exploring personal migration stories of survival, opportunity, welcome, and, ultimately, community. Funded in partnership with the Audubon Society, the program seeks to build cultural capacity within the conservation movement. What do I mean by “cultural capacity”? The four congregations present that January morning had never met. Yet, together they helped preserve migratory birds by clearing brush at Sand Ridge, all the while shar-

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ing their own family stories of migration from the U.S. South, Asia, North America and Latin America. The group was a diverse one, both racially and generationally. It included African-American, Latina/o, Asian and White, youth and elders. Nearly 50 of us gathered together to both help our avian friends and share our own migration stories in a Story Circle, making powerful connections between human migration and the natural world. Telling stories, being in nature, and working side-by-side identifying migrant birds and native plants created a spiritual synergy. Given the headlines Chicago makes, this picture might be a surprise. (Youth turf and gang violence cost over 500 people their lives in Chicago last year, and 44 deaths were added just in the first month of 2013.) Yet, that day, youth from all across this city gathered together with only harmony and mutual respect. The youth worked side-by-side with their elders – no generational divide that day! All ages shared their experiences with candid honesty, and their stories of fear and excitement, their stories of hospitality in new lands, were breathtaking and inspiring. I describe these kinds of connections as cultural capacity: engaging people’s relationships with nature through their own personal/cultural tapestry of experiences. Bridging the ecological divide by meeting folks where they are has shown me that this world still has a chance of saving itself if we work as one Big Green Team to do so. On that January day, 50 diverse people got it! These are the experiences I’m blessed to be part of as the Congregational Outreach Coordinator for Faith in Place, a faith-based environmental organization that has spent the past 14 years equipping congregations of

I describe these kinds of connections as cultural capacity: engaging people’s relationships with nature through their own personal/cultural tapestry of experiences all religious backgrounds with the tools to be better stewards of the Earth. My primary role is to introduce and find ways to support congregations that are usually not visible around the ecological-conservation table. I like to call it the ecological divide, a chasm that must be bridged if the environmental movement is ever to gain the strength and momentum it needs to save this planet. Environmental justice is not only about cleaning up and clearing out the environmental injustices in certain communities, cities, towns and countries across the globe. It’s also about inviting and acknowledging all to come around the table and participate in shaping a movement that reflects justice for all, regardless of race, gender, class, culture and ethnicity. “Migration, Monarchs, Birds and Me” is one way we are seeking a more diverse conservation movement, fueled by diverse voices. F O R

R E F L E C T I O N :

• Do you have a story of personal or family “migration”?

Veronica Kyle is Congregational Outreach Coordinator for Faith in Place and a member of Covenant United Church of Christ, in South Holland, IL. She served for 12 years with Wider Church/Common Global Ministries in Jamaica and Southern Africa.

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PacificSOUTHWEST: Northwest

The “Coal Hard Truth” Lee Ann Beres

In the Pacific Northwest, coal companies want to build enormous export terminals to ship coal to Asia. This would mean millions of tons of coal traveling 1,500 miles in uncovered trains through cities and small towns in Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, blowing dirty coal dust and dividing communities along the way. Every step of the coal-fired process is dangerous to human health, from mining and processing to transporting, burning and waste. Those most often impacted by these dangerous processes are the most vulnerable: the poor, the elderly, communities of color, and children. Over the last few years, UCC churches across the Northwest have mobilized to educate and organize members in opposition to coal export terminals. Congregational green teams have led the way in hosting “Coal Hard Truth” Forums, bringing together experts from the environmental, health, economic, and religious communities to discuss the impacts of proposed coal terminals. In the last few months of 2012 alone, Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power & Light (WAIPL) partnered with four United Church of Christ congregations in Seattle to host these public forums, reaching over 250 people of faith. Earth Ministry/WAIPL provides education, materials, training, and support for congregations of all denominations wanting to engage their members in environmental justice. Our faithful advocacy program empowers clergy and lay leaders to speak out on public policy issues such as coal export. “We see this as a moral issue,” says Liann Sundquist, who chairs Seattle’s Fauntleroy UCC’s green team, and organized her church’s coal forum last September. “The negative impacts that coal export terminals would have on our communities and all of God’s creation are simply unacceptable. Our

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green team wanted to make others in the congregation and wider community aware of these issues, and give them an opportunity to take action. Earth Ministry provided us with the information and tools we needed to make a difference.” Building on the momentum created by the coal forum, Liann hosted an after-worship action table for written comments to agencies responsible for developing the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for one of the proposed coal terminals. She collected over 50 comments and recruited members of the church to attend a public hearing a few weeks later. Mary Ellen Smith and Nancy Hannah of University Congregational UCC’s Sacred Earth group took a similar approach in their congregation. They hosted a coal forum and encouraged members to attend the same public hearing.

The negative impacts that coal export terminals would have on our communities and all of God’s creation are simply unacceptable. At the coal export hearing in Seattle last December, about 20 percent of the 2,500 residents present were people of faith from Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power & Light, including members of seven UCC churches. Religious leaders also stood in solidarity with the Lummi Tribe on whose sacred land the proposed Cherry Point coal export terminal would be built.Across the state in Spokane, Rev. Andrea (Andy) CastroLang of Westminster UCC worked with Earth Ministry/WAIPL to host a Faith Leader Breakfast for Creation Care, designed to prepare religious leaders to testify at that city’s coal export hearing. These women’s leadership helped raise a loud, public, faithful voice on the moral, health, environmental, and economic risks of shipping Montana and Wyoming coal to Asia through our Northwest ports. In the end, 10,000 people attended 11 hearings, and we delivered 125,000 written comments to decision-makers All we are asked to do in striving for justice is to leave our comfort zones — leave behind our reluctance to speak up, to take action. In the Pacific Northwest, UCC women are taking the lead in their churches and communities. As we open our hearts and accept Jesus’ invitation to join him in advocating for a better world, we hear his comforting words: “Do not be afraid.” F O R

R E F L E C T I O N :

• What environmental issue do you see as “a moral issue” for your local community? • How might you mobilize your church to take action on it? LeeAnne Beres is a UCC member and the Executive Director of Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power & Light, a non-profit organization committed to engaging the religious community in environmental stewardship and advocacy. www.earthministry.org

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MARY AND AT MARTHA YOGA CLASS

In order for some people to sit around being still

and having deep thoughts, I guarantee you thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

always another group of people running around

behind the scenes making it all possible.

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The beginning of yoga class is always a painful and difficult time for me. Why is it painful? Is the first pose a hard one? Or an exhausting one?

No, this is the beginning of class when we haven’t done a thing and won’t for a while. That’s what makes it painful. We have to spend all this time at the

beginning of class doing nothing and sitting still. “Let’s begin with some

breathing,” the yoga instructor explains, and inside I groan. “No, please, no breathing, let’s just get on with it.”

Lillian Daniel At the risk of stating the obvious, yoga does not come naturally to me. I have nothing against the spiritual side of things. I just can’t deal with it when it involves sitting still. Which is why I really struggle with the story of Mary and Martha. It is all about Jesus praising someone for sitting still, a woman named Mary, who sat quietly in his divine, spiritual presence. Mary would be awesome with those first few minutes of yoga class. But picture the scene. There Martha was, running around the house, getting food on the table for all the disciples. The entertaining pressure was on. This food was for Jesus for crying out loud. And Martha’s making it all happen, because somebody has to. In order for some people to sit around being still and having deep thoughts, I guarantee you there’s always another group of people running around behind the scenes making it all possible, making sure the space is ready, the food is cooking, the music is prepared, and the atmosphere is just right for the other folks to have this deep spiritual connection.

Take church, for example. We sit in our pews, having the time to pray, to listen to the Gospel being read, and to connect with the divine in this beautiful, transcendent, holy space. But out in the lobby, we’ve got a crew of people setting up coffee. They’re listening to the sermon on the sound system speakers while they put out the cream, the sugar, and the cups. Those coffee makers are no less spiritual. They’re just highly caffeinated. And they want the rest of us to join them. They’ve found a way to go to church without having to sit still. If I were not a preacher, I’d be out there multitasking with them. Downstairs and upstairs and in the nursery, there are folks watching and instructing our children so that the parents can take this moment of silence and peace. So right in the middle of a worshipping spiritual community, it takes a lot of busy people behind the scenes to create a space for other folks to sit still. If you had been there with Jesus that day, who would you have been? Mary, sitting still, or Martha, making it all possible? Common Lot

If I had been there that day, I would have been Martha, running around. I don’t know if I would have been cooking or doing dishes, but I would have been doing something because, to be honest, that’s just more comfortable for me. I don’t like to sit still. Never have. Never will. And that’s not easy in my field, where ministers are sort of expected to be meditative.

for us to read about two thousand years later.

So on behalf of all the undercherished hyperactive people of the world, let’s put away for good that old simplistic interpretation of the Mary and Martha story that goes like this: Martha was more interested in doing housework than in listening to Jesus.

By sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening, Mary was breaking a gender rule of the culture. Women weren’t supposed to sit at the feet of gurus. Women were supposed to be serving the food. Men got to sit and have deep thoughts, but not women. It wasn’t their place.

I feel like I know Martha, and she absolutely would have been following Jesus’ conversation, keeping track of it, as she went around doing this thing and that. Martha’s not shallow, but like most women—and many men—she’s a multitasker.

So maybe Martha was distracted, upset even, by her sister’s breaking of the social code. Mary was acting like a man, taking on a male privilege that society did not, and would not, give her. And not only that, Jesus was commending her for it.

And as an excellent multitasker, Martha probably would have found Mary more than a little annoying, sitting there all goo-goo-eyed at Jesus’ feet, listening as if the world depended on her hearing every little thing he was saying.

Taking it even further, Jesus made it clear to all the men and the women that day that women could be disciples too, saying, “Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

So what was Martha distracted by? Along with her own work ethic, perhaps Martha was distracted by something bigger and more complicated, something so much a part of life and the air she breathed that she just couldn’t see it. Perhaps Martha was distracted by gender, and gender roles, because they play an important role in this story.

Mary and Martha are not two different people, one getting it right and one getting it wrong. Martha would be used to the disciples acting that way, so devoted and spiritual and interested in every word from Jesus, while someone else brought them food and drink. Yes, she was used to the men just assuming that someone would wait on them. But Mary? Come on, Mary, not you too? Get over here and give me a hand. We can listen to Jesus while we work. To which Jesus would have said, “Martha, Martha, you are distracted by many things.” Distracted? Here’s what I would have said, if Jesus had talked to me like that: “Don’t call me distracted. I’m the only one with any focus here. I’m making this party possible. Everyone but me has just been sitting around, just being, just listening to you talk for hours. Can’t we go do something? Jesus, isn’t it time for your next healing miracle, your next lecture on world peace? I mean, please, can’t we just get on with changing the world already? How dare you call me distracted!” But Jesus did call her distracted, and it’s preserved in scripture

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Not by you, Martha, not by you, my male disciples, not by you, this society that says women can do only one kind of work, and not by the religions that tell you only men can be spiritual leaders. It will not be taken away from her. It was like Jesus was saying, “Mary, your place in society may be exhausting and confining, but your place in God’s realm is open and restorative. Martha and Mary, there is room for you both, but in this moment, Mary has chosen the better part, because it’s brave and it’s countercultural and it’s daring. Don’t hold her back, Martha. Don’t put her down or make her feel small for doing this. In sitting at my feet, by taking herself seriously as a spiritual student, Mary is going for it. And Martha, Martha, don’t you yank your sister down.” Every spiritual tradition has some tension between action and meditation. Some tension between doing God’s will and listening for God’s will. Some tension between life here on earth and the interior life of the spirit. Some tension between acting and being.

At the end of every yoga class, we bow and say to one another “Namaste.” That greeting gets translated into English in many ways, but the one I like is this: “The divine in me acknowledges the divine in you.” I don’t think we’re able to see one another in that way before class. We have to get there. They call the final pose in yoga shavasana, which means “corpse pose.” You literally lie there like a dead person, your body totally relaxed, for as long a time as the teacher sees fit. Often the teacher will say, “For some people, this is the hardest pose in yoga.” Because it is hard in our culture to justify being still. And it was hard in Jesus’ day as well. When I hear the Martha and Mary story, I immediately want to defend being busy. And when I do that, I imply that these two states are polar opposites with no relationship to each other, when actually, that is just not true. Mary and Martha are not two different people, one getting it right and one getting it wrong. Mary and Martha are two halves of the human spirit, two parts that complement each other.

really important. In sitting still to listen to Jesus, she was actually saying, “I matter, I count, I am somebody.” She was still but she was strong. If Mary and Martha live inside all of us, who wins the wrestling match? Have you set up your life so that it can be a fair fight, or is the contest rigged to mostly go one way? Only you know. But I do know one thing. In order to even ask the question today, we need to slow down and be still, like we can be in church, or in yoga class, or wherever you can be like Mary and get quiet in a holy place. But as a pastor, I know one more thing. The holy places wouldn’t be here if we didn’t actively engage, like Martha, and do the hard work.

Mary and Martha are two halves of the human spirit, two parts that complement each other. Mary and Martha aren’t fighting out there. They are fighting in here, inside each one of us.

Do we have to choose? Or can we embrace both?

Do you ever feel it? Mary and Martha, wrestling within you?

Martha. Mary.

When I ask someone how they are, I can almost predict the annoying answer. “Busy, I am so busy.” It pains me to hear people who live good lives complain about being busy, especially when it’s my own voice doing it. When I feel busy, I try to look for a better phrase, and the one that works for me is “rich and full.” But could we have lives that are not only rich and full but also occasionally still and strong? Still and strong. It’s an option. Mary, in her stillness, wasn’t being passive. She was being strong. By sitting at Jesus’ feet, she was actually standing up to the men in the room who thought she had no place there. In doing nothing, she was actually doing something

Rich and full. Still and strong.

Amen. Namaste.

Lillian Daniel is the Senior Minister of the First Congregational Church of Glen Ellyn, Illinois.

Common Lot

One winter vacation, my family relaxed for a morning on a mostly empty Florida beach. My husband built a master sandcastle, I stuck my feet in the cold water, and my son, age four at the time, ran around chasing seagulls. His fear of the water kept him away from danger, so we let him wander freely. For over an hour, he ran and returned, up and down the beach, never going farther than ten or fifteen yards from us. The yellow bulls-eye on his blue tie-dyed shirt made him easy to spot.

Lost and Running Jennifer Mills-Knutsen

No matter what, God will not stop chasing But one time I looked up to discover he had strayed a little too far. I called out to him, but he couldn’t hear over the sound of the waves. I suspected he was running over to investigate some fishermen just down the beach, and he would turn around after he investigated. When he ran past their poles and buckets, I started out after him, calling his name. He just kept running. Growing angry, I quickened my pace to close the distance, and waited for him to turn around. Still, he ran, getting faster and farther away. I started to run – and I don’t run – and shouted louder. I contemplated what kind of consequences to apply to a child who runs away. He just kept running and running, and I couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t getting tired, stopping, looking back. I ran and ran, but I couldn’t catch up to him. The longer he ran, the more angry I became.

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At last, an older gentleman noticed the young child running alone and looked back for a parent. I gestured back, and the man jogged to catch up to my son and stop him. He touched him on the shoulder, bent down and turned him around to face me. He took off running immediately, but this time straight toward me. It was only then that I realized what had happened. He’d gotten confused and thought he was lost. He panicked, and started running faster and faster. By the time I caught up to him, he was red-faced, crying and shaking with fear. All the harsh words I’d been planning vanished, and I embraced him in the sand. My son learned an important lesson that day: if you are lost, sit down. Stay put. Wait to be found. Do not run faster and faster and faster – because you might be running in the wrong direction. You might just be making it harder for your mother to find you. We had talked about this a few times, but he said he forgot when he got frightened.

Since then, I’ve thought a lot about how different our experiences as mother and son were that day. My son panicked, probably afraid he’d lost his parents forever, that he’d never get home from this faraway place. I remember that fear as a child, the fear of being lost and separated and unable to find your way home. His heart must have been racing as fast as his little legs. I can’t recall another experience in his short lifetime that would have been so frightening or traumatic. Had he even paused to look back over his shoulder, he would have seen me and ceased to fear. But the more fear he felt, the harder he ran – and the farther away he got from me. While I was annoyed with him at first, as his mother, I was never afraid. I was never lost, nor was he ever lost to me. I could see him the whole time, that electric blue t-shirt against the pale sand. I knew he was safe. I knew he would not be harmed. I knew I would not stop running until I caught up with him. I knew the way back home. I had nothing to fear. And then I realized how much this resembles our relationship with God. How often do we think we are lost, panic and just start running? The more frightened we get, the harder we run. The less we recognize our surroundings, the faster we blow through them trying to recover familiar territory. Like a child, we forget the rules when we get

us until we are safe in Her arms again. frightened. If you are lost, sit down. Stay put. Wait to be found. Do not run faster and faster and faster – because you just might be running in the wrong direction. God knows where we are. We are never lost to God. Like any watchful mother, She knows exactly where we are and will not let us out of Her sight. When we stray too far, She is in active pursuit. Our reunion with the Beloved does not depend on our ability to find our way home again all by ourselves. All we have to do is stop running, and She will find us. Sometimes, it takes intercession, direction from another soul who can see our fear, turn us around, and show us God is coming after us. No matter what, God will not stop chasing us until we are safe in Her arms again. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear. The Lord of Hosts is with us. “Be still and know that I am God.” – from Psalm 46 F O R

R E F L E C T I O N :

• Recall a time when you felt lost. What did you do? How did you get found again? Where was God? • Psalm 46 speaks of God’s presence in times of great distress. When you are in those times, are you more likely to start running, or to be still? Why or why not? • Read Luke 15, stories of being lost and found. How does this story above make you think about God in those stories? Rev. Jennifer Mills-Knutsen is the pastor of St. Luke’s United Church of Christ in Jeffersonville, Indiana, and she blogs at http://forthesomedaybook.wordpress.com. She finds God most often in a good book, an imperfect church, the sights and sounds of the ocean, and time spent writing.

Common Lot

Do You Believe in Magic? Shaundra Cunningham

Common Lot

Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and the Magic Kingdom all come to mind when I think of the word “magic.” Amusement parks are synonymous with fantasy and merriment. They are alternate spaces constructed to suspend time and the burdens of responsibility while awakening the big kid in all of us. We look back with fondness for the way our favorite cartoons, toys, superheroes, fables, and games all conjured fantastic worlds. They ignited the imagination and kindled a spirit of wonder and delight. Somehow, along the path to womanhood, with the constant demands on our time, the never-ending problems to be solved and crises to be managed or averted, our care-free “conjuring” all but dissipates. We blink and realize that our lives feel constricted in more ways than one. By ignoring the spirit’s need for play, festivity, and fantasy, we deprive ourselves of life-giving power. One way I release from such doldrums is by turning to the magic of sports.

In my life, sports sparked new sister-girl friendships as strong in connection as the unyielding loyalty between Ruth and Naomi. Rather than yet another battle or war metaphor, I intentionally use magic to characterize the impact and evocations of sports. I fell in love with sports, in part, because it provided a method for me as a military kid to re-set my own paradigm and sense of identity every time my family relocated. Sports were exciting and fun, but they also offered a quick avenue to finding my pack. Since then, I’ve become an avid sports fan who watches ESPN religiously – no, really! It is my unorthodox daily devotion, replete with life lessons, tragic heroes, embedded proverbs, and multi-faceted pharaohs of empire. Sports function as a microcosm of society, holding a mirror up to reflect the spirit of the times. The inherent camaraderie of either individual or team sports forms friendships across genders, but in my life, sports especially sparked new sister-girl friendships as strong in connection as the unyielding loyalty between Ruth and Naomi. We can never underestimate the value of sisterhood, and because of sports, I have 1-800-dial-a-friends for times when I need a good laugh, a safe space to vent, or just have a sounding board for my thoughts.

Common Lot

Beyond the friendships forged, sports embody a sort of royal theology. To cause that which was void or formless to gain velocity, synchronization, movement, direction and to literally create “let there be” moments is nothing short of majestic. It is no accident that we call that retired L. A. Laker point guard, “Magic.” The extent of an athlete’s skill and dexterity dictates the depths of the spectacular…and every time, the amazement from within and from those around shouts back affirmation: “and saw that it was good!” Sports are sacred – they offer spaces for visualized, embodied prayer. In the book The Feast of Fools, Harvey Cox writes that “anyone who gives vent to joy, sorrow, or gratitude, or refuses to be bound by the narrow world of facts is really living a prayer. Faith, too, is more than mindless credulity. Both prayer and faith are really forms of play.” But how often do we frame our mindfulness and spirituality in terms of play or magic?

terious or extraordinary quality or power.” Yet the more I think about it, the more I realize that, on the whole, we as women sometimes need reminders to respect and cultivate that which is magical within us. We live in a society of male privilege, where institutions and systems work in pernicious ways to undermine our sense of power. The barrage of sexist images and sanctified suppression doesn’t help. But we have to seize our God-given magic to alter spaces and our own lives. Audre Lorde’s classic understanding of the erotic is helpful. In the book Sister Outsider, she suggests, “When I speak of the erotic, then, I speak of it as an assertion of the lifeforce of women; of that creative energy empowered, the knowledge and use of which we are now reclaiming in our language, our history, our dancing, our work, our lives.” We can tap into that creative energy through sports.

How often do we frame our mindfulness and spirituality in terms of play or magic? In many Christian circles, “magic” is considered a taboo topic for any selfrespecting person of faith. To be clear, one definition of magic is “assuming human control of supernatural agencies or forces of nature.” Another is “any mysF O R

So, using sports as our model, let us recommit to casting spells and trying new tricks in the everydayness of life. What kind of self-revelations might we discover? How might our view of the divine alter or shift in light of an intentional dose of awe? We may discover theophanies all around us that our eyes weren’t open to see. Burning bush revelations call forth modern prophets, and dry-bone communities from Detroit and Cleveland to Oakland stand in dire need of new life. In Hugo Rahner’s book, Man at Play, he writes, “To play is to yield oneself to a kind of magic.” Maintaining our respective commitments to treat our bodies as temples through exercise and sports, let us also recover the dimensions of our faith that empower us to “believe in magic.”

R E F L E C T I O N :

• “Both prayer and faith are really forms of play.” When was the last time you “played” your prayer? • Can you remember feeling a moment of sheer awe in sports? • How did it empower you or others?

Rev. Shaundra Cunningham is a staff chaplain and healing services coordinator at the Cleveland Clinic. As a sports enthusiast, she embraces every opportunity to moonlight as a cultural critic.

Common Lot

Celebrating Women

Dear UCC Women:

Coming to the 29th General Synod this summer in Long Beach, California? If so, please join us for “A Celebration of Women’s Leadership” luncheon on Sunday, June 30, at the Convention Center. At this sponsored meal, we will lift up and celebrate in new ways the remarkable and creative gifts of women in the UCC whose leadership as laywomen, clergywomen, and licensed and commissioned ministers grows life and faith throughout the UCC. For many years, two different sponsored meals honored UCC women. One recognized the recipients of the Antoinette Brown Award for outstanding clergywomen. The other celebrated the gifts of Honored Laywomen, lifted up by their Conferences. Each event has been an important way to recognize the leadership of women, but now we are moving in a new direction to hold before the church and each other the significant contributions of all women: younger, older, middle-aged, ordained, lay. We will no longer seek Conference nominations of laywomen, and the nomination process for the Antoinette Brown Award will be temporarily suspended in 2013 as we look to develop new ways to recognize and support the leadership development of ordained UCC women. Through extensive conversation throughout the United Church of Christ, we heard loudly and clearly from women that they are ready for some new approaches to strengthening the leadership skills and opportunities for UCC women. Conference staff, a collaborative women’s staff table coordinated through the national setting, and the church-wide study of women’s ministries two years

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ago, all contributed to this decision. Because of the historic significance of Antoinette Brown’s ordination, we will continue to lift up outstanding clergywomen with an Antoinette Brown Award, but we hope to do this during a separate event designed specifically for the leadership development of ordained women. Plans for this are currently underway. As we develop new ways to resource women in the UCC, support current networks and develop new ones, we will find ways to tell the stories of women whose gifts for leadership uplift us all. We hope that this will occur in all settings of our church - not just once a year or once every two years - but every day. We invite you to express your gratitude for women’s gifts at “A Celebration of Women’s Leadership” Luncheon during General Synod. Sincerely, David Schoen & Loey Powell P.S. Check out the Women’s Kiosk in the Registration area during General Synod!

General Synod 29

June 28 to July 2, 2013 Long Beach, California

GOD S VISION Common Lot

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Calendar of 2013 Events CENTRAL PACIFIC:

November 1-3 Northwest Regional Women’s Retreat At Kah-Nee-Ta Resort, Warm Springs, OR Keynote: Rev. DaVita McAllister For more information: nrwr.wordpress.com

FLORIDA:

October 18-20 UCC Women’s 2013 Southern Regional Conference “Connecting Lives in Changing Times” At Camp Weed & Cerveny Conference Center, Live Oak, FL For information and registration form: uccwomen.org

IOWA:

June 7 Iowa Conference Women’s Gathering

June 1 Eastern Association of the Iowa Conference Mississippi River Cruise for Women Contact: Conference office: 515-277-6369

NEBRASKA: First Central Congregational UCC, 421 South 36th St., Omaha, NE 68131 402-345-1533

CONTINUING

TESTAMENT

April 1, 7 p.m. Bring Your Best Joke, 3311 Woolworth Contact: Cherie Ferber

May 11-12 Super Sale Contact: Cherie Ferber, Barb Switzer

June 3, 7 p.m.

EXTRAVAGANT WELCOME

Planning meeting 123 Oakmont Plz., Papillion Contact: Susan Dolezal For more information, please visit www.firstcentral.org Zion United Church of Christ, 302 Carol Street, Talmage, NE 68448 Women’s Fellowship meetings, President Ruth Baker First Thursday of each month, 2 – 4 p.m. Contact information: Zion UCC, 402-264-2965

MICHIGAN:

April 17

CHANGING

LIVES OUR CHURCH’S WIDER MISSION

u c c . o r g /o c w m

Spring Gathering Michigan Conference UCC, East Lansing, 9 am-3 pm

June 7-9 The Annual Gathering –this year’s theme “Walk in the Spirit” Kettunen Center, Tustin, Michigan Contact information for both: Janet Frank, President of the UCC Women of Michigan, 248-541-7519; Email: Jfrank39@aol.com Another contact: Michigan Conference UCC, 517-332-3511 MISSOURI:

May 3-5 Women’s Retreat –“Meet Me at the Well and Water Our Souls” Camp MoVal, Union, Missouri Contact: Missouri Mid-South Conference UCC, 314-962-8740 Or visit missourimidsouth.org

NEW YORK:

May 2-3 Women of the New York Conference Annual Gathering "Shine On" Keynote: Mary Anne Glover, Disciples of Christ Regional Minister Watson Homestead, Painted Post, NY Contact: Rev. Marian Shearer, shearerm@uccny.org

PACIFIC NORTHWEST:

May 3-5 Women's Retreat N-Sid-Sen Camp and Conference Center in Harrison, ID For more information, contact: Mark Boyd, camp manager: mark@n-sid-sen.org or Arlene Hobson, Executive Administrator, 206-725-8383 Pacific Northwest Conference of the United Church of Christ www.pncucc.org

SOUTHERN:

June 13-15 UCC Women Annual Conference Elon University For more information, contact: Margie Weavil, 336-859-2418

Sarah Laughs

“The Lord Needs Them” Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” Matthew 21:1-5

It’s strange, to be sure, prompting many a doubt, and even the scholars can’t figure it out why Matthew, who no one would say is a dolt, made Christ ride a donkey as well as her colt. Perhaps it was whimsy, just Matt being droll, to mount the Messiah on filly and foal; or maybe he found himself tied in a knot when trying to make every tittle and jot of prophecies old a meticulous fit and didn’t know quite how to edit or quit when verses came up that said “riding on two.” We just can’t be certain, we don’t have a clue why Christ so specifically (joking aside) wants mother and offspring alike for his ride. The question is open for you to opine and your guess is good as the guess that is mine: So I think that Jesus (this theory’s my own), who knew what it’s like to be left all alone, imagined the jenny apart from her foal and felt donkey anguish knife into his soul, and being a Mother himself, and so kind, could simply not bear to leave baby behind. Mary Luti

Mary Luti, retired seminary professor and UCC pastor, blogs at www.sicutlocutusest.com, where you can find prayers, sermons, midrash and other marginal notes, including her series “Critters in the Gospels,” where we found this donkey and her colt.

32 Common Lot

CommonLot United Church of Christ 700 Prospect Avenue E Cleveland, Ohio 44115-1100

UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

Church Building & Loan Fund E S TA B L I S H E D

God is Still... Building, (and we’re here to help).

1 8 5 3

“I thank God for the Church Building & Loan Fund of the United Church of Christ, for being the hand and wealth of God in the life and mission of Covenant UCC.” The Rev. Ozzie Smith Jr., senior pastor, Covenant UCC, South Holland, Il.

Capital Campaign Services FA I T H

B A S E D . S P I R I T F I L L E D . L AY L E D .

“Through the excellent questions from our Capital Campaign Services representative and the candid responses of church members, we learned not only about our readiness for a capital campaign, but much helpful feedback about the church and ways to move forward with plans, hopes, and dreams in a manageble way.” The Rev. Dr. Donald Schmidt, pastor, Admral Congregational UCC, Seattle, WA.

UCC CHURCH BUILDING & LOAN FUND

Capital Campaign Services visit us online: www.ucc.org/cblf or toll free 866.822.8224 ext.3834