A new method for gardening of soil

Of Soil: The Blessing of Seeds and Gardens Sunday has come and gone over the weekend of Maifest here in Leavenworth. Seeds and seedlings were blessed... and the planting begun. Lettuce, spinach and cabbage seedlings were transplanted into the first bed that has been gridded out into square feet. So a new "method," the Square Foot Gardening method, is being explored, reducing our "gardening of soil" into bite-sized units so that the whole, step by step, methodically, might be more productive.

Of Soul: It's interesting to note the very real growth occurring in those participating in one of three weekly Lectionary Groups. Not only have participants chosen to live disciplined lives by engaging regularly in one of the acts represented by one of the small crosses in the Jerusalem cross - devotion - but in feeding weekly on God's Word and in Christian conversation exploring what God might be saying through that Word for that week, slowly, methodically, step by step, souls are being fed and lives shaped.

And the church as a consequence is stronger. Leadership is being exercised. And the Aldersgate Staff is leading us this year to Hope House and the Salt Lake City UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief) Depot to serve.

Pentecost Looms and a Staff Waits to Guide Us

In slow progression, in step with the liturgical seasons - Christmas, epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost - THE STORY unfolds for another year to help shape our hearts and common life.

And we enact this story in multiple ways. A tree decorated our celebration of Emmanuel, God with us, Him who was and is the Light of the World. That same tree on epiphany moved out of the confines of the sanctuary into the Jerusalem Cross Garden, visible to the neighborhood, sign that the Light comes to shine a way in the darkness. Sited at the center of the Cross (click on photo, left, to enlarge), it reminded us that through regular practice of the four acts - devotion, worship, compassion and justice - God uses our light, Christ living in us, to draw all people to Him.

Now the Aldersgate Staff, made from the 09/10 Christmas tree, hangs on the CommonGround Gallery wall waiting to inspire us to step our way into a year of mission and service. Where will the same Holy Spirit that inspired John Wesley on Wednesday, May 22, 1738, in that chapel on Aldersgate Street, London, lead us this year?

We'll wait for Pentecost to prayerfully make our choice. Perhaps the Holy Spirit will decide? Kingdomtide awaits, a season of summertime adventure in service to God and Gods' kingdom.

In Christ there is no East or West but One Great Annual Conference

An e-mail from Rev. Tom Carlson, from the West side of the Cascades, and two photos say it all... Jerusalem Cross Gardening takes root in the "soil and soul" of the people called Methodist, East and West.

Roger, We are doing the Jerusalem Cross Garden again this year. The congregation wanted to do it! Note the new crosses for each quadrant. Thanks for the inspiration. I am forwarding 3 pictures taken on Sunday at the "Blessing Ceremony" - Tom Carlson, Kennydale UMC, Renton.

Thanks for sharing Tom. This Sunday is Maifest in Leavenworth, when we have our Blessing of Seeds and Gardens Sunday. We will be adopting the Square Foot Gardening (click here to find out more) method in the Jerusalem Cross Garden as a way of encouraging more people to have productive food gardens at home. Could this be the "method" for gardening the soil, just as our Lectionary Groups are the "method" for gardening our souls? Just how "methodist" can we helpfully become? Please stay tuned for photos and articles...and thank you for your encouragement.

Earth Day Sunday..."And God saw that it was good."

The 40th Earth Day has come and gone. And our little village of Leavenworth, along with the world, paused long enough in thought and deed to say a healthy creation - fresh air, good soil, clean water, robust forests - matters. Doing our part, our little congregation, with its' "new and improved" Jerusalem Cross Garden, in adding "Sunday" to "Earth Day", linked creation with our Creator. This is as it should be.

On Earth Day Sunday we dedicated a St. Francis of Assisi statue during worship. (click on photo to enlarge). We sowed spring wheat in the garden. And heaven and earth, creed and deed, were united for a moment in enacted truth that "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." (Click here for song).

And during our simple Earth Day Sunday celebration, a whisper of the words spoken way back "in the beginning" were heard, ... "And God saw that it was good" (Genesis 1: 10b). May it be so again!

Prayer: Dear Lord, let it be so again. May we encounter You in the garden (our own or the Jerusalem Cross Garden at church) as the invisible Conductor of the miracle of life - processes that yield bread for the table which, when broken as sacrament on the altar, feeds body and soul. And in our weekly wrestling with the Word in the lectionary groups, may our very lives, rooted in the Alpha and Omega, learn to speak love. Amen.

The Hills are Alive with the Blooms of Springtime

We hear it sung each summer as Leavenworth's theme song. Now we will listen to it in church this Earth Day Sunday as our ritual of welcoming Spring and celebrating the work of our Creator. And you know it well!

The hills are alive with the sound of music
With songs they have sung, for a thousand years.
The hills are alive, with the sound of music
My heart wants to sing every song it hears.

I love to go to the hills each morning myself at this time because what I find is that the hills really are alive...alive with the color of springtime. Walking past the Ski Hill amphitheater I cannot help but sing along with an absent Maria as I witness the transformation of the forest from winter. But I change the words of the song to give expression to what I am seeing and feeling within.

The hills are alive in a blaze of glory
With blooms that unfurl, as they have before.
The hills are alive with the shades of springtime
My heart swells with joy as it beats with "more."

(Or something like that, with apologies to Rogers and Hammerstein).

The color begins with the yellow Avalanche Lilies and white Baby Faces. Soon they are joined by blue Oregon Anemones. And all around is the promise of the "more" yet to be given - the purple Lupin, the bright yellow Balsam Root and a rare bloom the color of the dark chocolate found in our Leavenworth chocolate stores.

In the meantime, as part of our play in this trinity-mapped world of ours, the Jerusalem Cross Garden has been seeded with the spring wheat. And the Lenten challenge, fulfilled in Easter promise, will be re-enacted by creation on the holy ground of church garden where, as seeds humbly die and "resurrect" in fertile soil to yield abundantly, souls are nurtured and fed.

The Blooming of Easter and Spring

Two trumpets, two trombones and a tuba helped mark the occasion in worship. Easter arrived with musical fanfare amongst us!

Now the cross, decorated with the bright yellow blooms of daffodils, stands outside in the Centennial Garden to proclaim the victory - "Christ is Risen," "Alleluia."

Ahead of us lies a welcome Easter season, fifty liturgical days, coinciding with spring, to creatively celebrate Gods' triumph - light over dark, life over death, warmth over cold. And the worlds Earth Day becomes for us an Easter Earth Day Sunday as we celebrate the Christ who plays in creation. Our town's Maifest becomes an Easter Blessing of Seeds Sunday as we prepare to engage life by planting our gardens. And Leavenworth Spring Birdfest becomes an Easter Birdfest Sunday as, having officially sponsored the Mourning Dove, we prepare for the moving of the Holy Spirit amongst us on Pentecost and Aldersgate Day.

This is the time for us Christians, as creation awakes around us in the bloom of spring, to witness to the Christ who plays in creation (Father), to open ourselves afresh to the Christ who played and plays in history (Son), and to embrace the Christ who plays in community (Holy Spirit) and promises to make all things new.

Story - Winter to Spring, Christmas towards Easter.

The photos of the JCGarden portray it all - a steady progression of earth's seasons, from Winter to Spring with the promise of Summer to come. And the science of creation's story reveals Gods' hand in ordering the cycle of life: from the dormancy of winter towards the promise of Spring and eventually back again. Rest, growth, fruit, harvest, rest!

This year's sanctuary Christmas tree, standing sentinel-like in the middle of the JCGarden as it changes with the seasons, helps link science with faith. The Jerusalem Cross Garden "orders" our daily lives in the ways of God - acts of devotion, acts of worship, acts of compassion and acts of justice; the Christmas tree helps cycle us through the Savior's story each year of advent, Christmas, epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost and Kingdomtide.

Yesterday the Christmas tree was removed as we prepared the JCGarden for planting. The tree had its' branches lopped of, preparing it for its' transformation into the Aldersgate Staff. Seeds will now be planted in the fertile soil of the Jerusalem Cross during this Spring season. There they will die and bring forth much, even as this Easter season of the Savior's story celebrates the truth that dying we too might live. And the Christmas tree, now transforming into the Aldersgate Staff, helping us to enact our faith story in its' metamorphosis, awaits to lead us into the rest of The Story - of entering the darknesses of the world where many are trapped in perpetual winter, to proclaim the Christmas truth (Advent/Christmas), "Behold, your Light has come," by living resurrection (Easter) lives pentecostally (Pentecost) empowered.

And best of all, soon the JCGarden will see the shoots of young plants break the surface of the soil...even as the green shoots of our faith, watered by the "Christian conversation" found through lectionary group participation, grow into the sunlight and warmth of God's love.