A "Lantern Waste" in Leavenworth

The Jerusalem Cross Garden lies dormant and bleak now. Soon it will be covered by a cold blanket of snow leaving the harvest of spring, summer and fall a distant memory. But I am discovering something very exciting - that gardening continues this winter in the fertile souls of those meeting each week in the lectionary groups to study God's Word and be accountable for the Three Simple Rules (Do No Harm, Do Good, and Stay in Love with God), or the four acts (devotion and worship, compassion and justice) the Jerusalem Cross serves to remind us of .

In C. S. Lewis' tale, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Lantern Waste is a place that connects the children to a world of purposeful adventure. The warm light of a lamppost shines on a land, Narnia, trapped in the gloom and cold of perpetual winter, and serves as a promise that this need not always be so. Because the lamp burns, there is hope for this land and all the people and creatures living in it. Spring will one day return!

On my morning walks with my bird dog, Gilfillan, I often take the river walk to Blackbird Island. The many lampposts I pass by cause me to reflect on how the weekly lectionary groups serve as a type of Lantern Waste...places where God's warm light shines, where participants wrestle with the meaning of that light and the purposes of God and our role in it. Just as the children arrive in Narnia at Lantern Waste to deliver a land facing the curse of perpetual winter, we are discovering that God calls us to be the light in our world as we allow the Spirit, through the discipline fostered by these small groups, to empower us for kingdom living.

We are discovering we cannot do that by ourselves, or even by only attending worship each week. But in the community of the small group, a place of meaningful friendships, we are kept from living distracted lives by being accountable for holy living - engaging in acts of devotion, worship, compassion and justice - and sharing how this is happening. Truly there is a winter gardening that is happening in this season of winter. Hearts are being pruned, our souls fertilized. And the season of advent, the time of preparation, is more real as we discover the joy of living lives touched by a person, Jesus Christ, and filled with his purpose.

From Soil to Soul

The fruitfulness of spring and summer is over, and the beautiful fall hues surrounding us color our streets, valley and lives, prelude to the white landscapes to come. After the harvest from the garden - bright red tomatoes, golden wheat baked into a brown communion loaf, green basil - comes a frigid rest, the first frosts and an early snow having already arrived in our valley. The Jerusalem Cross Garden lies barren and empty, necessitating a shift in the focus of these blog ramblings - from soil to soul.

The faces of a small group of faithful men spring to mind. We have been meeting every Wednesday morning at 7 a.m. at our little church for about a year now. And first things are happening each time we gather. One, a new day begins with that vital cup of coffee (Fair Trade) and the friendly banter and fellowship of common purpose. Two, engaging the Word and the Three Simple Rules (do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God) we submit to the truth that life is not all about us.

The group is not the most handsome or holy. There is Wally and Jay from Ski Hill; Randy, Tony and Dale from down Icicle Road; Bruce from North Road; Charlie from up the Chumstick; and yours truly from here in town. And the gardening quality of persistence in their commitment to the cultivation of their own souls and those of the rest of the group, is yielding a harvest in each of us. We are all being fed. And truly, no loaf of bread from any garden, Jerusalem or otherwise, is proving to be so nourishing for life as him who is the Bread of Heaven.

Much More Waiting to be Birthed

It felt like a wake! In the early hours of this new day, again I stood with Gilfillan, my Brittany pup, on the banks of the Wenatchee River, holding vigil. The Chinook salmon, those liquid shadows in the waters, kept place in the steady flow of the current. And in the pregnant stillness, as voiceless fish waited their time to spawn, much more than a new day and a multitude of tiny fry awaited birth.

The summer run of Chinook, arriving this fall, was predicted to be good. And it has been! "Keeping watch" like the faithful few on Golgotha of old, I have been visiting the river most mornings. Today I saw the first one - the lifeless, soon to be mutilated, body lying in the shallows of the crystal clear waters. Having laid her eggs, her purpose to give life being done, this Chinook salmon was dead, and it was difficult not to feel the weight of this magnificent creature's great sacrifice, her death a gift to us in the generation of fish to come and the nutrients of her body that will fertilize our valley. Life coming through death.

How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given...a Christmas carol?... when creation's Good Friday in the river before me weighs my spirit down? But then followed victory! Relief came in a wondrous affirmation of faith, written boldly across the same heavens in which a star once led wise men to a humble manger centuries ago. For above me a flock of migrating Canada geese winged their "V" boldly across the sky to complete the story being enacted below that "unmerited suffering, willingly endured as the will of God, redeems," or as Aslan explains his death to the children in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, "When a willing victim who has done no wrong is killed in a traitors' stead, the stone table will crack and time itself will turn backwards." Resurrection follows sacrificial death!

So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven...the words of the Christmas carol continued in my thoughts as a winging victory disappeared into the morning mist above me. Soon our Christmas town's streets will be filled with the Norman Rockwellian longing for picture postcard living. But the Creator's voice whispers from our rivers just as advent approaches that the Christ child, born to die, comes that all the world might be redeemed.

Truly, in the pregnant stillness, as voiceless fish wait their time to spawn, much more than a new day and a multitude of tiny fry wait to be birthed. I felt God's finger gently pointing at me. And Gilfillan and I turned towards home. Soon the Jerusalem Cross Garden at the church will be buried by snow. But beneath it will lie the spring wheat, enduring it's burial, waiting for Spring and resurrection. How might God be waiting to use what I (we) am willing to sacrifice, or die to, to redeem the world?

"Crucidance" - Dying we Live

Visible only as fleeting splashes and liquid shadows in the crystal clear waters, Chinook salmon announce their arrival in our beautiful rivers without fanfare. The "crucidance" begins - living to die, dying to live - and these messengers from the deep in turn invite us to think on deeper things.

Some of these magnificent creatures will fall to hook and line as anglers like myself find satisfaction in sport and flesh. But survivors, paired up with their mates, will dig, lay, defend and die...to live again in the next generation.

Liturgically, kingdomtide is drawing to a close with the approach of advent. Good Friday and Easter are still far off in the annual rehearsal of the story of Jesus' birth, life, death and resurrection. Yet this kingdomtide-crucidance of life-giving death taking place in our rivers, reminds us that God's kingdom comes not through crown but cross, not on war horse but humble ass, not through power but in servanthood. It is good to splash the refreshing waters of such thoughts onto our often indifferent faces.

And I ponder a fish emulsion of the entrails of salmon caught this season with which to fertilize the herbs and vegetables in the Jerusalem Cross church garden? So will the "crucidance" of the salmon in the waters of the Wenatchee be poured out onto the soil of garden that a greening cross might turn us towards Him alone who is the perfecter of our faith. And in the holy gardening of our souls, 'the gates of God's kingdom" will "open in us" (Click to hear).

Monthly Church Pot Lucks - Good for Body and Soul

An e-mail I received after the feast on Autumn Leaf Harvest Sunday this past week said it all. "The celebration was absolutely fabulous. I'm thinking it's time to reconsider a monthly potluck after worship." - Stephanie.

It truly was fabulous - both the worship and the harvest meal! My mouth waters as I remember the taste of the communion bread, baked using the whole wheat flour grown in the church's JCGarden wheat patch. Others thought so too. "...that was the sweetest wheat bread that I have ever tasted. Amazing how the flavor lingered – a beautiful gift…." - Susan. Then there was the harvest meal. It featured locally raised organic beef patties, church baked hamburger rolls, bean soup made from plants grown from seeds passed out during the Blessing of Seeds and Gardens Sunday, and many other local dishes lovingly prepared by members of the congregation. All were tasty and made more so because we knew whose hands had prepared them.

As the e-mailer noted, it is time to reconsider monthly church potlucks! I agree, for two things happened on Sunday. Firstly, Christ Jesus was made known in the breaking of bread during holy communion. And secondly, Christ Jesus was made known in the "breaking of bread" during the harvest meal as we experienced him in table fellowship with each other. And that was good!

It IS time to get back to regular church potlucks. These should be held on communion Sundays, so that monthly, bread is broken in sacrament and, after worship, table fellowship too. For Jesus longs to make us one with him (communion) and one with each other (table fellowship) that we might live in relationship with God and neighbor as the starting place for Christian living.

Each monthly potluck could be flavored in some way with one of the four different herbs that grow in the four little crosses. The devotion and worship herbs, processed into herbal vinegar or herbal oil as salad dressing, would remind us how these two works of piety draw us ever deeper into relationship with God. And the compassion and justice herbs could remind us how these two works of mercy connect us not only to friends but to all who stand in need of love and care. A brief story could introduce the herb of the day and share how the act it represents (devotion, worship, compassion or justice) was practiced and found meaningful.

In this fashion, springing directly from the centrality of the cross, the potluck might allow us to sacramentally ingest the very truth of God, that we might be one with Him in purpose and prayer, "Thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven." Amen!

From JCGarden "Wheat Field" to Communion Loaf

Today, a sunny Sunday in the fall of 2009, a full year after sowing tiny wheat seeds in the Fall of 2008, a "miracle" loaf of communion bread, home-grown, -ground, -baked and promise-filled, lay upon the altar.

Leavenworth - the village - celebrated Autumn Leaf Festival this weekend. Leavenworth United Methodist - the church - joined in and celebrated Autumn Leaf Harvest Sunday. And the Sunday celebration made the weekend festivities complete.

During the worship hour, thanks was given for the fullness of the earth - apple and pear trees laden with fruit in our valley - evident in our own Jerusalem Cross Garden with its' red tomatoes and mini wheat field. Then the special home grown loaf of bread was broken, the wine poured, and on our knees the heavenly feast partaken of. This is my body broken for you. This is my blood of the new covenant poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this as often as you eat this bread and drink this wine in remembrance of me. And we were reminded that fullness came and comes, not in harvesting more and more of worldly pleasures and things, but in the constant planting, through self-emptying love and sacrifice, of acts of compassion and justice.

More than the harvest of pears and apples and grapes and veggies was celebrated this Autumn Leaf Festival as the surrounding hills change color. For this weekend our lives were colored with the divine as we took our place at both the banquet table of creation (in the harvest meal of local food following worship) and the heavenly banquet of holy communion, while in my own mind sounded the words and refrain of the Taize Alleluia:
Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word,
that proceeds from the mouth of God
Allelu alleluia.
Truly, we were fed in both body and soul.

Salmon Watch

Gilfillan, an energetic Brittany Spaniel pup, still learning how to follow his bird dog instincts, takes me for an early walk most mornings. Our destination of choice lately has been the Wenatchee River, for we are on salmon watch. Salmon Sunday which included a salmon bake on the lawn beside the Jerusalem Cross Garden this past Sunday, along with Leavenworth's Wenatchee River Salmon Festival, have come and gone. Still we wait with a lenten-type expectation for the annual re-enactment of a life-giving sacrifice in our waters.

Soon the beautifully sad, and sadly beautiful procession will begin. The summer run of salmon, arriving in the fall, will rise and turn in our shallow waters, each sleek fish having swum hundreds of miles from the Pacific Ocean, to spawn in the gravel bottoms of our crystal clear rivers. Then they will die, their flesh torn, their bodies scarred. And hundreds of emaciated carcasses will litter our river banks, mere shadows of the magnificent creatures they once were, to be picked over by crows and ravens, raccoons and other critters.

It's difficult to accept death in such large numbers. The grandson of one member, his little soul unable and unwilling to process death in such mutilated fashion, is troubled by the sadness it engenders in his still sensitive heart. I picture Mary, Jesus' mother feeling much the same as she saw her son hanging on the cross with nails through his hands and feet, his possessions being picked over by the soldiers on Golgothan duty.

Yet beyond the death of the salmon will come the miracle of new life, as hundreds of thousands of little salmon hatch to cavort and grow in Pacific Northwest waters. Similarly, beyond the cross came the resurrection, life beyond the grave. And the good news is that the Lenten and Easter event of long ago still brings resurrection life today. It comes to people who learn to die their own deaths, so that rising with Christ as new creations, their Godly living can help redeem the world. The salmon remind us so graphically of this truth each year.

The Jerusalem Cross, laid out so beautifully in garden form at the church and planted and tended by the Harvest Team to bring forth life - red tomatoes, orange carrots, green squash - as "bread of the earth," reminds us of these deeper things. That through the cross we learn to die to self, and, nourished by the "bread of heaven," we are empowered to live resurrection lives by joyously engaging the four acts of devotion, worship, compassion and justice.

It feels good to be "devoting" weekly with a small group where, watching over each other in love, we extend support in the gardening of both our souls and the soil of God's creation. This is Jerusalem Cross gardening, filled with promise.

From Winter Wheat to Loaf of Bread to Bread of Heaven

Growing wheat and baking bread is not something many folk these days know much about. We are no exception. In fact things around our "wheat field" have been rather comical. But we have grown our first batch and now are learning how to thresh, winnow, grind and bake. Based on the article below, processing next years winter wheat will be a whole lot better informed, visual (think "shocks") and fun. Read below how easy it is to grow and harvest your own wheat even as you expand your vocabulary. We're learning it's healthier and we're anticipating a loaf of bread sitting on top of the altar table soon in affirmation that "one cannot live by bread alone."

Freshly ground wheat flour has a high vitamin content; vitamins that degrade all too quickly when exposed to the air. The whole grain flour that we buy from stores is often quite stale and may have significantly reduced vitamin content when compared to freshly ground.

Grow Your Own Wheat (taken from breadinfo.com)

"Planting a plot approximately 10 feet by 10 feet will, when all is said and done, yield between 10 and 25 loaves of bread. To begin, choose the type of wheat you wish to plant. In the United States two varieties are grown, white and red. Red wheat is more common. Red wheat also produces bread with a much more intense flavor. Consider the advantages of growing winter wheat as opposed to spring variety.

Winter wheat can be planted from late-September to mid-October. It is the preferred variety because it tends to be more nutritious than spring wheat, protects the soil in the winter, and has less competition from the weeds in spring. Try to plant early enough to get a good root system growing before winter dormancy sets in, but not so early that flies and pests become a problem. Spring wheat is planted in early spring and is most commonly found in the northern reaches of the country where the intensely cold winters create problems for winter wheat.

Finding a source for seeds can be a problem...You can find wheat seed at your local natural food stores. The grain in the bins may be planted as well as eaten, just be sure you know whether you are getting winter or spring wheat so that you plant in the proper season.

Try to plant the seed on good rich soil. The ground should be relatively even. There are three methods of planting, one is the time honored broadcast method in which 3 ounces or so of seed is "sprinkled" over the garden bed for every 100 square feet. This is about 1 seed for every square inch. Planting density is largely dependent on the richness and moistness of the soil. More wheat per square feet will absorb more nutrients and moisture. Be sure to rake the patch to cover the seed and protect it from hungry birds. Another method, called drilling, creates a hole about every six inches and plants several seeds per hole. The plants come up in a bunch but spread out over the bare area. This method allows for weeding when the plants are young, but is more labor intensive. Similarly, tight packed rows (about 6 inches apart) can be made in the soil and the wheat seed spread up and down the rows in the manner of beets and or carrots.

Harvest, Thresh and Winnow Your Wheat

Wheat harvest usually occurs in June when the wheat begins to turn a golden color but still has a few streaks of green. Using a scythe or some other sharp blade, mow down the stalks then tie them into bundles, standing them upright in the garden patch. Then allow the grain to fully ripen into a golden color.

Twine could be used to tie the bundles, but the traditional method is to take about an inch thick bunch of stems. Tie the lower end, binding the stalks together. Then wrap them around the bundle tying the head and foot of the stalks at about the middle of the bundle, creating a shock.

Keep the heads dry, then thresh and winnow at your leisure. The simplest form of threshing involves grasping a quantity of ripe wheat in one hand and beating it around the inside of a barrel. the grain falls off the stalks and the stalks are discarded or composted.

Winnowing is the process of separating the wheat from the chaff and small bits of straw. Since time immemorial this has been done by pouring the wheat from one container to another in a stiff breeze. The breeze blows away the chaff and the resulting wheat is as pure a product as you may easily produce. Absent a stiff breeze, a fan may be used.

Your wheat is now ready for storage. Wheat may be stored in barrels, bags, or what-have-you. The basic requirements are that the space be cool, dry and pest-free ( think rodent and bug).

Grind it
Throw some in a [10-speed] blender or food processor and grind to flour consistency.

Start with a half cup of whole grain. Turn the blender up to its highest speed. If the blender seems to bog down, stop and reduce the amount of grain. Add a larger amount for the next batch if the blender handled the original half cup sufficiently. Continue to grind the grains until they reach the consistency desired. Grind the grain in batches until the desired amount is achieved.

Pick you favorite pasta, pancake, bread, cookie or muffin recipe and start baking!

First the blade then the ear then the full grain in the ear.

Body: They began as little green shoots before the first snows of winter '08 fell. As spring '09 debuted, these same infant sprouts reached for the sun, each growing with the seasons and the steady circling of the earth round the sun - fall, winter, spring. And then came summer, and the green ears, full and promising, matured into "amber waves of grain." Now fall cycles back, one year of holy history later, and each head of grain, harvested, lies in a box ready to be threshed in preparation for Lana, our church baker's, skillful hand.

Maturing, it strikes me, takes time. Fall planting is three seasons from late summer's harvest; a loaf of bread is almost a year from the sowing of seed. But with patience and tending and an element of faith, comes the bread to nourish body and give flesh-and-blood life. Perhaps we'll have enough flour for our two fall festivals this year which celebrate the gift of God's good earth - Salmon Sunday during the Wenatchee River Salmon Festival and Autumn Leaf Harvest Sunday during the Autumn Leaf Festival. Bread goes well with both the salmon from our rivers and the fruit and veggies from our valleys.

Soul: "Spirit" has intersected with "body" in a marvelous way lately at Community United Methodist Church. The wheat in the garden has been maturing and harvested, moving us towards that communion loaf representing the body of Christ, even as our lectionary groups have considered John 6:35, where Jesus says "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." How important these weekly small groups have become for us that we might regularly feast of Christ Jesus through encounter with the Word, so to become more like him.

Fertile Promise becomes a Watered Hope

The JCGarden at Leavenworth United Methodist Church - slowly, during a cold Spring and early Summer, brown has become green, fertile promise a watered hope. The garden has grown, green in abundance! So has faith! And Kingdomtide's green "go" beckons our hearts beyond metaphor into the fertile love of God, that we too, in the fertile soil of small groups, might grow, grow, grow...and God's kingdom come.




The photos document the "green" progress of the garden and point, as acts of devotion, worship, compassion and justice are engaged, to the growth of Gods' "green" kingdom in our hearts.


The heavenly feast has been set. How good it is to pull our chairs up to the banquet table of God and be fed in both body and soul.

The best of all is that all are invited!

The Coloring of Green

The greening of the JCGarden soil as the plants grow, is leading progressively towards the color of the coming harvest.

Green wheat becomes the "amber waves of grain" (click on photo to enlarge). Bright yellow marigolds bloom their sunny presence. Tomatoes brighten into juicy red orbs of flavor, unique to the home garden, unavailable at Safeway. The feast from this garden is about to begin!

It has been fun each Sunday to gather with other members of the congregation before worship to examine and discuss the progress in the garden. It still is. But perhaps more so now as our taste buds begin to be tickled. From the green of new growth comes the color of maturity...and it promises to be richer, deeper and good.

So much for soil in this gardening project. What about soul? For the garden, as sign and metaphor, orients us toward God in Christ Jesus, and offers to feed us body AND soul.

And this is happening! Quietly, in exciting ways in our little congregation, people's souls are being fed. I see it most obviously in the two lectionary groups. Meeting weekly, participants are committed to the practice of acts of devotion through the reading of Scripture and through prayer. From the "new growth" of venturing into an intentional Christian practice, is coming the color of a new maturity as we learn to live with God each day and allow him to lovingly shape our lives far better than we can do ourselves. Life therefore, like the Jerusalem Cross Gardens' ripening produce, becomes richer, deeper and good as a consequence.

And kingdomtide green is enriched by the color of hearts renewed daily. Renewed, folk engage in other Christian acts - worship, compassion and justice - and God's kingdom emerges just that little bit more in our midst.

Green - The Liturgical "Go" of Kingdomtide

The banners in the sanctuary colorfully proclaim it. Now soil offers soul a sign as greening JCGardens cover winter beds with the liturgical "go" - green - of kingdomtide.

Check out the promise. Kennydale UMC's JCGarden, the layout so clear in the photo below, is almost lost in a sea of green (bottom, right), hiding the little crosses representing the four Christian acts, as it overflows with the promise of food. Click on the photo and the detail of the coming Kennydale harvest is revealed - beans, onions, tomatoes, carrots...What feasts await!

Could it be that the harvest of God's kingdom is realized only as the cross is "lost" in the countless, anonymous "green" acts of compassion and justice performed by a people rooted in God through regular acts of devotion and worship? Makes me proud to be a part of the two lectionary groups where we wrestle with the words of the Word who plays in creation, plays in history and plays in community...and who prepares the banquet table to which all are invited.

Watering Soil and Soul

Jerusalem Cross gardening of soil and soul continued this last Wednesday evening. The soil in the JCGarden was watered. And souls were "watered" too through acts of faith as micro-loans were made to the poor to help them help themselves.

The evening began in the sanctuary. Three recent confirmands considered what to do with their baptismal water. Rather than "waste" holy water mindlessly, it was decided to pour it onto the four little crosses of the JCGarden so that it might continue as sign. There it will nurture the herbs planted to remind us of the four acts - devotion, worship, compassion and justice - Christians are called to engage in which help nurture our souls.

From the garden we moved to the CommonGround Cafe in Remembrance Hall so that the fragrance of the herbs in the crosses might be released into holy action. Interest free loans to "little" entrepreneurs across the world, aspiring to help themselves but lacking only the capital, were prayerfully made with Kiva.com's aid. About $400 was prayerfully allocated to Felicia Coffie of Ghana, Lititiana Faleti of Samoa, and Lider de Pinedo of Peru,... and compassion and justice was done...kingdomtide advanced.

Baptismal Water - Needing a Place to Go

Water is precious and life giving. Holiness is too. So the question is, what do we do with the precious, holy water remaining in the baptismal font after a baptismal service?

On Pentecost Sunday we confirmed three young ladies, baptizing two of them. The water is still in the baptismal font, though the second Sunday in Kingdomtide has come and gone. I don't want to waste this precious holy water in any mindless act - like pouring it down the drain or turfing it out on the lawn. For it is still precious. It is still holy. And so it is still there...potentially life giving, capable of nurturing soil and soul, needing an appropriate place to go.

Soil and soul! Why not? Why not let the holy water continue as "outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace?" Why not?

And so we, the three confirmands and I - Kaylee, Kelsey, Emily and Pastor Roger - will gather soon to water devotion, worship, compassion and justice, as these are represented by the four herbs planted in the four little crosses of the Jerusalem Cross Garden. Perhaps this use of the holy, baptismal water, will help us watch the herbs grow with a special interest. And as we watch them yield their fragrant leaves, perhaps we will "remember our baptisms" and be grateful, even as we reflect on how our Christian lives, rooted in acts of devotion and worship, engage in kingdom actions of compassion and justice. Or do not!

And there is more as we potentially connect garden with CommonGround Cafe. Harvesting and using these herbs at church meals to flavor our food, perhaps we will "taste and see that the Lord is good," helping the outward and visible and "tastable" to nurture the inward and invisible within our souls - that we might be fed both of soil and soul.

Definition: Sacrament - An outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace.

Green of Garden and Kingdomtide

The day of pentecost has come and gone. The green season of kingdomtide now begins for Christians everywhere. And our green liturgical banners in the sanctuary celebrate the promise of this season. Their color reminds us both of the new growth in our Jerusalem Cross Garden and of the hope congregational actions which help grow Gods' kingdom can bring.

In the Jerusalem Cross Garden, vegetable plants are being added regularly. The latest has been a row of onion starts, lots of tomatoes, companion planted with the herb basil which is reported to add flavor to the tomatoes even as it helps control pests, an egg plant and a green pepper plant. And meanwhile the perennials - plants that wonderfully minimize work and optimize the yield of a garden - especially the four grape vines, have leafed out with multiple small bunches of grapes, miniatures, teasing us with what can be. All around us the invisible hand of God is at work. Beneath the surface of the soil earthworms are eating plant detritus and transforming it into castings rich in nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium (N, P, K), all elements which enrich the soil and help in healthy plant growth and food production. And as the garden matures, the hidden hand of God, so intricately at work in mini-miracles like photosynthesis around us, manifests itself in the gift of food.

So the green of the growing garden beckons the green actions of compassion and justice this kingdomtide. Purchasing Fair Trade Coffee and our confirmands $1000 micro-loan program are wonderful existing kingdomtide actions. But I'm wondering what other life giving adventures to grow Gods' kingdom Christ has for us this kingdomtide. Any ideas?

In the meantime, let's watch our tiny wheat field move towards a rich harvest, and hear again Gods' promise to act in soil and soul.

Fellow Crossbearing Gardeners at Kennydale UMC

Rev. Tom Carlson, who served Community UMC here in Leavenworth some time back, noticed our JC Garden when he kindly joined us for our centennial celebrations in 2007. His congregation now joins us on a journey of gardening soil and soul. Read Tom's note to his congregation at Kennydale UMC below and take a look at the photo of their own JC Garden.

KENNYDALE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH------SUMMER 2009

From the Pastor's Desk: Summer has finally arrived...

Many folks have been stopping by and looking at our Jerusalem Cross Garden, in the front yard of our Church building. The comments have
been varied, but all have been very positive. Soon, I hope to have some leaflets available to the public explaining what this garden is all about. Rev. Roger Hudson, in his Jerusalem Garden blog, calls it gardening of soil and soul. You can read more about it at---------------------------------------http://www.jerusalemcrossgarden.blogspot.com/. In the course of the summer, I will share with you all the meaning of the four smaller crosses inside the four larger plots. Then, the Lord willing, there will be vegetables to share throughout the growing season.
- Rev. Tom Carlson

Four crosses, four herbs, four acts

Jerusalem Cross Gardening is happening again this year. Food is growing! And so is faith!

Leading the way, food wise, is the winter wheat, growing in the "justice quadrant." Already heading out beautifully, we are anticipating enough flour for a small loaf of bread on Autumn Leaf Harvest Sunday. The bright yellow marigold seedlings, natural pest repellents in the ecology of God, add color to the green of wheat and brown of soil. Volunteer nasturtiums, self seeded from last years' crop, surprise us everywhere in the "worship quadrant." The four sets of three bush beans look ever so small to yield enough beans for that harvest meal later in the year. But as we take time to tend the soil, yield they will - one must simply have faith.

Which is what happens when we take time to tend our souls. There is a yield as tangible as the aroma from any of the four herbs planted in each of the four crosses. These crosses remind us of the four acts - acts of devotion, acts of worship, acts of compassion and acts of justice - that help flavor our spiritual journeys. Justice is being done in the micro-loan program adopted by the three young ladies who were baptised/confirmed on Pentecost Sunday this year. Having already raised $725 towards their goal of $1000, this money is loaned through www.kiva.org, and will eventually help hundreds of poor folk help themselves. The girls excitement is palpable! Doing justice, God's will is done, and we are inspired and fed.

Acts of devotion are happening too in our congregation. Two lectionary groups are meeting weekly at the church with fourteen members participating. As the Word is read and discussed and applied, it is being enfleshed in our lives and we are changing, journeying into holiness.

So Jerusalem Cross Gardening of soil and soul -wheat, marigolds, nasturtiums, beans, herbs along with justice and devotion. A yield is on its' way. We simply need join God as God lovingly plays in creation (Father), history (Christ Jesus) and community (Holy Spirit). The rest is faith!

Two Gardens, One Message

Community United Methodist Church grounds include two "gardens" - the Centennial Garden and the Jerusalem Cross Garden.

The one celebrates the very nature of our Trinitarian God, one in three, three in one, who invites us to choose life by joining the trinitarian dance of love (perichoresis). The other roots life in the ordinary - a vegetable garden from which comes, symbolically, our daily bread. But the latter points too to the truth that people "shall not live by bread alone" in reminding us of the importance of being fed by God through regular Christian acts of discipleship.

1. The Centennial Garden of Community United Methodist Church, established in 2007 and still evolving, celebrates 100 years of ministry in Leavenworth, Washington. The three huge, glacial boulders anchor the garden and our congregations' faith in the "Trinity-mapped country in which [Christians] know and believe in and serve God: The Father and creation, the Son and history, and the Spirit and community" (Eugene Peterson). We are invited, as we take a seat on the two wooden benches, to experience God as the ground of our being - that still today God cares and wants to sustain both our personal lives and the life of all creation by living in relationship with us.

2. The Jerusalem Cross Garden invites members to participate in God's rhythm and receive Gods' gift of place. Rhythm: Seasons come and seasons go - spring, summer, autumn, winter- giving us our daily food. And gardening connects us tangibly to this divine rhythm of creation that helps to feed us. On the other hand, the weekly day of rest, part of God's rhythm too, feeds our soul by anchoring us in the fertile soil of God's nurturing love. Place: The gift of place reminds us that we are placed in this particular part of Gods' garden, the Wenatchee River Valley. It is here that we are called to tend the garden and all that is in it, people and all created things.

Spring 2009

Spring has arrived in the Pacific Northwest, and our annual Seedtime Sunday blessing of the Jerusalem Cross garden, consolidates this Easter time of resurrection by launching us into the planting season.

Gathering in the garden after worship on Seedtime Sunday we prayed a prayer of planting - At this time, dear Lord, we plant these seeds and seedlings that You have given us. Bless them, and watch over them, and bring them to the full growth and rich harvest that You wish to bless us with. Amen.

Already the four little crosses have been planted with four varieties of perennial herbs to remind us how acts of devotion, worship, compassion and justice flavor our lives. The winter wheat, planted in the fall, has already sprouted in one of the quadrants. Maybe it will provide enough wheat for one loaf of communion bread on our Autumn Leaf Harvest Sunday. Into the composted soil, increasingly alive with earthworms after four growing seasons, once the snows have disappeared from Wedge Mountain, we'll companion plant various seeds and seedlings. And Jerusalem Cross Gardening will have begun again...with the promise of good food...for body and soul.