I took a break from my blog during Eastertide (and a little time more) both for the sake of Sabbath rest, but also to celebrate a whole bunch of weddings. I'm finally back and so eager to share the recipe that has grounded me from Easter up until now. I made this olive oil sourdough on Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and as the communion loaf for a wedding last week. It is sweet, rich, and a tender reminder of the dearness of a community that holds you near.
Read MoreAs we head into Holy Week, I pray that we do not fall into the temptation of following the crowd. As we hear calls to violence, attempts at military domination, I pray that we hold onto our cries of Hosanna. I pray that we eat bread and wine, body and blood shed to end the shedding of blood, remembering the humility and nonviolence of him who came to save.
Read MoreWhen I was in kindergarten, I stole my first bite of communion bread. I didn't understand what the meal meant, but I craved it deeply. Twenty years later, I can't say I understand it any more, but I'm prepared to spend my whole life giving into the cravings that began at five years old.
Read MoreTake This Bread is the memoir of Sara Miles, a woman who never expected to find herself at home in a church. Passionate about social justice, Miles was raised under the assumption that the Church was no space for those who wanted to extend love, instead restricted to the unquestioned faith of fundamentalists.
Read MoreI’ve had difficulty coming to terms with the tensions of following a God who commands, “Do not fear, I have overcome the world,” with the knowledge that those I love are at risk. Jesus did not fear, but neither did he believe God’s being in control would buffer from the death to come.
He grieved, he wept, and he ate.
Read MoreAt Simple Church, when we pass the bread we say to one another, "This is My body, this is our body." Recently, one of our young members connected this phrase with her own right to protect her body. What does it look like to take seriously the Eucharistic commitment to give up our own selves in order to be a part of Christ's body, where we each care for and protect one another?
Read MoreIt is easy to romanticize the community-building power of the dinner table, but commensality, or the process of eating together, can also be used to maintain boundaries of difference. In my research, I sought to understand how a dinner church harnesses the positive power of commensality through the potentially divisive ritual of the Eucharist. I was particularly interested in the idea of comfort, and how feelings of comfort or discomfort affect church members involvement in and understanding of church.
Read MoreMy hope is not a naïve expectation for discord to disappear, but a belief that the God who asks that we eat together in remembrance of Him does change our minds, does bind the hearts of all mankind. It is a belief that my studies are not in vain, that bold expectations for justice are not a waste of time. That leaning into the tensions of the already but not yet, we will find the strength to carry our sorrows in the small, slow glimmers of change.
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