Was Jeremiah W/Right?

I used this handout to line up our thoughts in talking about Was Jeremiah W/Right? at the Cottage on 11 May 08:

Jeremiah - a prophet of liberation and angry tears

Theme of liberation
Jer.8:18 - 9:1 (NRSV) --

My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick.

Hark, the cry of my poor people from far and wide in the land: “Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not in her?” (“Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their foreign idols?”)

“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”

For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?

O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people!

***

Theme of revelation/covenant/guidance
Jer. 31:31-34 (NRSV)

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord.

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

***
Liberation means this to me: (Ps. 34:18): The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and sves the crushed in spirit.
– Pastor Jon, 11 May 08 - Riverside-Salem UCC/DC

[tnx to June for the title of the program!]

A poem that I wrote

I wrote a poem for the last church mailing and wanted to have it somewhere on the web site, so here it is.

Absurdist Christian

Me and my shadow ... .

Me falling.
Me caught.
Me waiting.

Choosing to sing
praises to God.

Unable to feel the terror
of the time,
and of the place.

Dangling.
Sometimes content.

Corns that don't hurt

There are the corns that make your feet hurt, and there are the corns that make your tummy glad. This about the latter.

We got a tortilla press back awhile but haven't used it yes, but I found a simple recipe on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortilla) and we will be trying it out soon.

I still have some red spy apples waiting to be made into juice, sauce, and apple butter. That will be the last of the canning for this season, unless I put some garlic cloves in white wine and store in the refrigerator.

This is the recipe I use for making apple butter (in a slow cooker):

http://www.pickyourown.org/applebutter.htm

We continue with the 100-mile diet and have almost totally switched from shopping at Wegmans in favor of the Lexington Co-0p, which may cost a bit more but has food we can eat without qualms, and the checkers are actually friendly. Consistently. That's huge, in my book. Handing my money to someone who could care less does not make my day. And I am not talking about Wegmans here as much as most places where I shop.

Heard on the radio this morning that Wegmans will be stopping sales of tobacco. That is wonderful. So we will still buy a few things there.