Wesley the Architect?

I conclude this blog series with a look at John Wesley the architect--not the architect of our denomination, but actually designing a church building. That church is City Road Chapel in London.  It is also referred to as Wesley’s Chapel and was built to replace John Wesley's earlier London chapel, The Foundry.

The site was purchased from the Corporation of London in 1776. After considerable funds had been raised, the foundation stone for the new chapel was laid on April 21, 1777. On that day Wesley preached on what God had accomplished through him and the Methodists (Numbers 23:23). Although Wesley designed the building, he was wise enough to use the architect George Dance the Younger, surveyor to the City of London, to provide the building plans. Built by Samuel Tooth, a member of the Foundry Chapel and one of Wesley’s lay preachers, City Road Chapel was opened on All Saints’ Sunday, 1778.

Even though Wesley called his chapel "neat, but not fine," its Georgian lines and other features are quite attractive. It faces Bunhill Fields across the street, where his mother Susanna is buried along with several notable Non-Conformists. Wesley's tomb is behind the chapel.

Wesley used City Road Chapel as his London base. The chapel was the first Methodist church in London built for the celebration of communion and preaching. It is not the first Methodist church, however; that honor belongs to the New Room in Bristol.

In 1891, to mark the centenary of Wesley's death, the chapel was refurbished. The original oak masts that supported the gallery, a gift to the chapel from King George III, were replaced with marble pillars from around the world. As it was the Civil War era, the chapel received two pillars from America: North and South.

One year after the completion of the chapel, Wesley built a house on the property. He spent the last 11 winters of his life here and died in his bedroom on March 2, 1791. An art print from the era shows Wesley on his deathbed surrounded by several friends and associates. Having visited the house myself, I can only wonder how all fifteen people fit into such a small space (11ft. x 14ft.). Artistic license?



 

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher got married at Wesley's Chapel in 1951. A devout Methodist, she attended services here from time to time, but the security arrangements eventually made it very difficult to do so. She donated the current communion rail.

 

 

 

Frost Fairs

During John Wesley’s life England experienced some of the most severe winters on record. In fact, the period is often spoken of as the Little Ice Age.  It began in the Fifteenth Century and continued into the Early Nineteenth Century. During this era, the River Thames often froze over. One story (legend) from the early 1600s purports that William Shakespeare’s acting company, along with a small band of helpers and roughnecks, carted the various parts of their timber-framed theater away from its original location in Shoreditch and stealthily made their way across the ice of the frozen Thames to its new location in Southwark, where it would later become famous as the Globe Theater. In doing so they avoided the taxman on London Bridge.

With the River Thames frozen, not only could things be moved across the river, but people could enjoy skating, food booths, drinking booths, games of chance, rides, and performance artists. 

A few years ago I had the opportunity to see a newspaper from 1788. The paper was owned by a good friend, Rev. Frederick Maser.  Dr. Maser was not only an exceptional Methodist preacher; he was also a recognized Methodist historian.  Related to his interest in Methodist history, he had become a collector of things related to John Wesley: books, letters, and ephemera.  The newspaper was in this last category.

He pointed out the front page article about the Frost Fair being held on the Thames. It spoke of the fair as a fairyland all lit up with lanterns at night. The article extolled the great joy that people of all ages had on the ice. After showing me this account, however, Fred directed me to another, shorter article on one of the inner pages of the paper. The headline to that article was, “Mr. Wesley’s Societies Collect for the Poor”. What was most interesting was that the poor in question were the very people who were out of work due to the prolonged freeze of the river: longshoremen, sailors, fish mongers, and so on.

The paper caught for me the spirit of Methodism, which is to be aware of the joys in life and to participate fully, but to not let those joys blind us to the needs of others.

Methodist Micro-Loans

The Foundry was the home of several of John Wesley’s ministries in London. The former cannon works (Old King’s Foundry) was purchased by Wesley as a chapel in 1740 and was referred to simply as “The Foundry.”  Over time, the Foundry became home to a school, a bookstore, a clinic, a home for the elderly who were destitute, and on Tuesdays, beginning in 1744, a place for members of the Methodist Societies to find micro-loans.

Originally, the loan limit was 20 shillings or one pound. In today’s dollars that is something less than $100. It was capitalized with 50 pounds. During the life of the loan program, many tradesmen who had sold tools during times of unemployment were able to buy new tools through the micro-loan program. For example, during a very severe winter a stone mason might not find work. In order to survive, he would be forced to sell his hammers and chisels. With the return of good weather, he would not be employable without his tools.

The most famous of the micro-loans went to James Lackington. Lackington became the most successful book dealer in London, and it all began in 1774, when the 26-year-old Methodist applied for a loan to start a used book business.  The loan’s upper limit by then had been raised to five pounds; he received the full five pounds. Within a few years, Lackington was a very wealthy man, and his book store, “Temple of the Muses," was London’s largest. (See right)

Unfortunately, James Lackington did not stay within the Methodist fold.

His departure reminds me of the old tale of the single mother with three small sons ranging in age from six to ten.  The Sunday School at the Methodist church noted their absences over a period of several weeks and went to their home to inquire. The mother, obviously embarrassed, told the Sunday School Superintendent that she didn’t have enough money to provide new Sunday clothes for the boys and was reluctant to send them in tatters. The Superintendent shared this news with the pastor, and together they found enough money to buy the boys each a new suit, which were delivered to the home. For the next three weeks, the pastor and Sunday School Superintendent were on lookout for the boys, but alas they did not come to church or Sunday School. The pastor went round to call on the mother. He asked had they not received the clothes, and she replied that indeed they had, but the boys looked so good in them they were now attending the Episcopal church.

A Word to Preachers

As one might expect, Wesley was an excellent preacher and wanted the same from his traveling preachers. In his writings there are several cogent pieces of advice both on the standards of good preaching and also ways to improve. I share the following quotes:

“Be sure to begin and end precisely at the time appointed. Sing no hymn of your own composing. Endeavour to be serious, weighty, and solemn in your whole deportment before the congregation. Choose the plainest texts you can. Take care not to ramble from your text, but to keep close to it, and make out what you undertake. Always suit your subject to your audience. Beware of allegorizing or spiritualizing too much. Take care of anything awkward or affected, either in your gesture or pronunciation. Tell each other if you observe anything of this kind.”

A young preacher once asked John Wesley, "How can I get crowds to attend my church services?" Wesley replied, "Get on fire, and people will come out to see you burn."

Here is John Wesley writing to John Trembath (August 17, 1760), a young minister who was a poor preacher: “What has exceedingly hurt you in time past, nay, and I fear, to this day, is lack of reading. I scarce ever knew a preacher who read so little. And perhaps, by neglecting it, you have lost the taste for it. Hence your talent in preaching does not increase. It is just the same as it was seven years ago. It is lively, but not deep; there is little variety; there is no compass of thought.'

'Reading only can supply this, with meditation and daily prayer. You wrong yourself greatly by omitting this. You can never be a deep preacher without it, any more than a thorough Christian. Oh begin! Fix some part of every day for private exercise. You may acquire the taste which you have not; what is tedious at first will afterward be pleasant. Whether you like it or not, read and pray daily.”

One temptation of every Christian worker at some point in their ministry will be the temptation to succumb to discouragement because of a lack of visible results. In a letter to a leader of one of his societies Wesley says, “Sometimes you will be in danger of dejection--when you have labored long in any instance, and see no fruit of your labor. But remember! You will be rewarded according to your labor, nor according to your success.”

 

 

 

The Christian Library

John Wesley lived by the Bible, even using it when making difficult decisions. (See last week's blog entry). He claimed to be a man of one book: the Bible. But in fact he was a man of many books. His devotion to scripture did not prevent him from reading a wide range of authors on a great variety of subjects: history, medicine, natural science, grammar, and devotional literature. Wesley knew how to learn from others and achieved much learning through reading. He wanted to pass on this knowledge to others, and to that end he published a number of extracts from many of the 17^th and 18^th century’s best devotional writers.

Although it never had the success of many of his other writings, Wesley put together what he considered the ideal Methodist lifetime reading program. The fifty-volume Christian Library, with the subtitle, “Extracts from the Abridgements of the Choicest Pieces of Practical Divinity. . . .” (Pictured to the right is a complete set in the library at Southern Methodist University.)

This collection consists of John Wesley’s heavily abridged anthology of mostly English Christian classics of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including works by Jeremy Taylor (vol. 21) and Richard Baxter (vol. 37). As he “extracted” the works of his favorite authors, preserving roughly one page out of every fifty pages of original text, Wesley was careful to edit out any hint of the doctrine of predestination so as to emphasize what he judged were their most important contributions to the common thread of Christian piety.

The selections show Wesley’s bend towards piety over strict theological treatises. He included sermons from many of the well-known clerics of the previous generations, including his maternal grandfather, Dr. Annesley. Also prominent was John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, up to two-and-a- half volumes (vol. 2, 3 and 4).  The first edition was published from 1749-1755.  One can find all 50 vols. on line at  http://wesley.nnu.edu/john-wesley/a-christian-library-by-john-wesley/

Bibliomancy

John Wesley throughout his life resorted to the practice of bibliomancy. Bibliomancy is a practice whereby a person seeking spiritual insight selects a random passage from a book, in Wesley’s case, the Bible.  His journal is replete with references to this practice, but I bring to our attention the following.

John Wesley went to the Georgia colony in 1736 to serve as the settlement priest and as a missionary to the Native Americans.  John found comfort in a female acquaintance in Georgia named Sophy Hopkey.  But he was concerned that settling down would hurt his ministry. He wanted to evangelize the natives first. After a year, Sophy was getting impatient. Finally, in March, 1737, she made it known that she was going to marry another if Wesley had no objection. One of the things Wesley did when it was time to make a decision was to resort to bibliomancy and drawing lots. During these difficult days of decision, he wrote three slips of paper: 1) marry, 2)  think about it after a year, and 3)  think about it no more. He drew the latter slip of paper and decided that he was correct in not pursuing marriage.

During his time of indecision, Sophy became engaged and subsequently married another suitor. When Wesley later refused Sophy communion on August 7, 1737, stating that they had not properly posted the ‘bands’ for the marriage, he became mired in controversy. It was obvious to most of the colonists that Wesley was acting out of his pique about Sophy marrying another. He claimed he did so for valid reasons, but Sophy's new husband brought him to court for defamation of character. It did not hurt that Sophy’s father was the chief magistrate. Other charges were levied against him (concocted by people seeking ill will against Wesley). After a while, Wesley could take no more and headed back to England, with an unserved arrest warrant for him. I believe President Jimmy Carter finally commuted the warrant, but I don’t recall if it was while he was Governor of Georgia or as President.

Bibliomancy was so popular among early Methodists that John Wesley even produced a pack of readymade cards with scriptural excerpts, “Draw Cards”, which Methodists used as a kind of religious parlor game of fortune-telling, as well as a conversation starter.

And here is a story related to this practice:

A businessman was in a great deal of trouble. His business was failing, he had put everything he had into the business, and he owed everybody. It was so bad he was even contemplating suicide. As a last resort, he went to his pastor and poured out his story of tears and woe.

When he had finished, the pastor said, "Here's what I want you to do: Put a beach chair and your Bible in your car and drive down to the beach. Take the beach chair and the Bible to the water's edge, sit down in the beach chair, and put the Bible in your lap. Open the Bible; the wind will rifle the pages, but finally the open Bible will come to rest on a page. Look down at the page and read the first thing you see. That will be your answer; that will tell you what to do."

A year later the businessman went back to the pastor and brought his wife and children with him. The man was in a new custom-tailored suit, his wife in a mink coat, the children shining. The businessman pulled an envelope stuffed with money out of his pocket and gave it to the pastor as a donation in thanks for his advice.

The pastor recognized the parishioner and was curious. "You did as I suggested?" he asked.

"Absolutely," replied the businessman.

"You went to the beach?"

"Absolutely."

"You sat in a beach chair with the Bible in your lap?"

"Absolutely."

"You let the pages rifle until they stopped?"

"Absolutely."

"And what were the first words you saw?"

"Chapter 11."

 

 

 

 

Pakistani Kima

This is the last dish I am posting for this Lenten blog. I expect to do some more blogging throughout the year, though. If you would like to receive notice of the next series, please respond to this post. Of course there will also be notices on the church website and in the Sunday bulletin.

As I read through the More-with-Less Cookbook, I was impressed with the number of international dishes. But it is understandable when one realizes that Doris Longacre (the book’s author) wrote to Mennonite friends around the world asking for economical low-meat recipes that would help North Americans reduce consumption by eating less animal protein and fewer highly processed foods. I think her approach has more merit than ever.

If you’d like to explore the cookbook and the community that developed through using it on the internet, you’ll find good information at: http://www.worldcommunitycookbook.org/more/

This is a website hosted by the Mennonite denomination and has recipes from its other successful cookbook, Simply in Season.

I won’t say that I saved the best for last, but this had a certain Wow! factor. I doubled the amount of curry and gave a generous dash where just a ‘dash’ was called for in the recipe.

Pakistani Kima

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons butter
1 chopped medium onion
1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 lbs. ground meat

1 can tomatoes (15 oz)
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 dash each: cinnamon, ginger, turmeric

2 cups diced and peeled potatoes
2 cups frozen peas or green beans
1/8 teaspoon ground cumin  

Method:

Sauté all spices in butter in a large skillet over medium heat a few minutes. Then add onion, garlic and ground meat and continue to stir mixture until slightly browned. Then add the stewed tomatoes and potatoes. Cover and simmer for 25 minutes over medium- low temperature. Add frozen peas or beans last and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.
Serve over rice.

From More-with-Less Cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre. Copyright © 1976, 2000, 2011 by Herald Press, Harrisonburg, VA 22802. Used by permission.

Sunday Chicken Dinner

The Joy of Eating Sunday Chicken

There was a time when the usual main course for Sunday dinner in many segments of U.S. culture was chicken. The meal was usually after church and was the largest meal of the day. It often involved guests. It seems that Sunday dinner has more or less passed from the scene these days. However, we continue it on Easter and a few other times of the year when we have family or friends over. I’m not lamenting the passing of Sunday dinner, but I do like the notion of a big meal once a week mid-day. Upsetting the routine of our meals, by changing time, setting, or menu gives us a chance to pause.

The following recipe, “Honey Baked Chicken”, from The More-with-Less Cookbook, would be a great Sunday dinner dish. The chicken cooks perfectly — the tender, moist meat falls off the bone with every prod of the fork, making a more civilized approach to its ingestion certainly an option. It is simple and easy to make.

Honey Baked Chicken

1 3-pound chicken, cut up (I used legs and thighs)
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup honey
2 tablespoons mustard
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoon curry powder

Arrange the chicken pieces in a 9 x 13 pan.

Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the rest of the ingredients, stirring until combined. Pour the warm sauce over the chicken pieces.

Bake the chicken, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 60-90 minutes, periodically spooning the sauce over the chicken pieces. The chicken is done when it is nicely browned.

Serve with rice.

Perhaps Dan Masterson’s poem “Sunday Dinner” could be read as a table grace.

Sunday Dinner

Linen napkins, spotless from the wash, starched
And ironed, smelling like altar cloths. Olives
And radishes wet in cut glass, a steaming gravy bowl
Attached to its platter, an iridescent pitcher cold
With milk, the cream stirred in moments before.

The serving fork, black bones at the handle, capped
In steel, tines sharp as hatpins. Stuffed celery,
Cut in bite-sized bits, tomato juice flecked
With pepper, the vinegar cruet full to the stopper
Catching light from the chandelier.

Once-a-week corduroyed plates with yellow trim,
A huge mound of potatoes mashed and swirled.
Buttered corn, side salads topped with sliced tomatoes,
A tall stack of bread, a quarter-pound of butter
Warmed by its side. And chicken, falling off the bone:
Crisp skin baked sweet with ten-minute bastings

Homemade pies, chocolate mints and puddings,
Coffee and graceful glasses of water, chipped ice
Clinking the rims.

Cashews in a silver scoop, the centerpiece a milkglass
Compote with caved-in sides, laced and hung
With grapes, apples, and oranges for the taking.

Dan Masterson

from All Things, Seen and Unseen. © University of Arkansas Press, 1999

More-with-Less Cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre. Copyright © 1976, 2000, 2011 by Herald Press, Harrisonburg, VA 22802. Used by permission.

Nixtamalization

You’d probably never guess the meaning of the word I’ve chosen for the title to today’s blog. So to save you the trouble of consulting dictionary.com I’ll explain. ‘Nixtamalization’ is the term for the process used to turn field corn into hominy.

My wife, Bethyl, and I have been looking for simple pozole recipe that we could make in the crock-pot. When we have had this soup in restaurants we have always commented on how much we like it. Growing up, hominy wasn’t exactly a staple in our home, but we did have it from time-to-time and I enjoyed it. Unfortunately The More-with-Less cookbook doesn’t have any hominy recipes so I have adapted a recipe from the newspaper. It was perfect during the waning cool days of winter. And if you have a good recipe using hominy pass it along.

 

Ingredients

1 tablespoon canola oil

1-2 lbs boneless pork loin cut into 1 inch cubes

1 15 oz can enchilada sauce

1 15 oz can white hominy

1 onion chopped

¼ cup green chilies diced

2-3 cloves of garlic

1 teaspoon oregano

¼ cup cilantro

Heat the canola oil in a skillet over high heat. Add the pork; cook and stir just until meat is browned on all sides, about 5 minutes.

Place the meat in a 4 quart slow cooker. Pour the enchilada sauce over the meat. Top with the hominy, onion, chilies, garlic, and oregano. Pour in half cup of water.

Cover, and cook on High for 5 to 6 hours. Stir in the cilantro and salt. Cook on Low for 30 minutes more. Sprinkle with some chopped cilantro after dishing up.

Serve with warm corn tortillas and garnishes; such as chopped cabbage, sour cream, lime juice and green onions. 

Primitive Physic

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, had very wide ranging interests. Those interests extended to healthy living and healing. He wrote a very popular book entitled Primitive Physic, which was basically a collection of home remedies. The book went through many editions. He offered cures for an unbelievably wide range of disorders. I include the following from the book as an example:

The Gout in any Limb
378.  Rub the part with warm treacle [molasses*], and then bind on a flannel smeared therewith.  Repeat this, if need be, once in twelve hours.
- This has cured inveterate Gout in thirty-six hours.
379.  Or, drink a pint of strong infusion of elder-buds dry or green, morning and evening.  This has cured inveterate Gouts.
380.  Or, at six in the evening, undress and wrap yourself up in blankets.  Then put your legs up to the knees in water, as hot as you can bear it.  As it cools, let hot water be poured in, so as to keep you in a strong sweat till ten.  Then go into a bed well warmed and sweat till morning. --- I have known this cure an inveterate Gout, in a person above sixty, who lived eleven years after. --- The very matter of the Gout is frequently destroyed by a steady use of Mynsicht's Elixir of Vitriol." (Wesley, Primitive Physic, 69-70.)

Gout is caused by too much uric acid in the blood, which causes deposits of uric acid crystals in the joints, legs and arms, causing swelling. Even now it is thought to be triggered by rich foods, meat, and alcohol.  It is considered to be a disease of a highly civilized lifestyle, and has a genetic/hereditary component.  Wesley believed its discomfort could be decreased if it was hereditary, and cured if it was not.  Both John and his mother, Suzanna had it (Madden, Deborah A Cheap, Safe and Natural Medicine' Religion, Medicine and Culture in John Wesley's Primitive Physic (232-33, 270). One of the ways to get rid of the uric acid  is to increase urination. 

#380 Therefore, hot bathing would stimulate urination of toxic chemicals and also relax arthritic inflammation. (Root-Bernstein, Robert and Root-Bernstein, Michele.  Honey, Mud, Maggots and Other Medical Marvels: The Science Behind Folk Remedies and Old Wives' Tales (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997),

#379 Elder bud tea is helpful because it not only is a diuretic which makes people excrete urine, but it also has a tranquilizing effect (Madden, Cheap, 233).

With that rather lengthy introduction let me pass on the recipe for a barley/cabbage soup, from More-with-Less, which I think would meet with Wesley’s approval as a good choice.

• 1/4 cup pearl barley
• 4 cups meat or vegetable broth (I used beef bouillon)
• 1–2 tablespoons oil
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 3–4 cups green cabbage, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup parsley, chopped (optional)
• 4 tablespoons flour
• 4 cups milk
• 4 chicken bouillon cubes
• 1/2 teaspoon celery salt

Directions:

1. Combine pearl barley and broth in a kettle and simmer, covered, for 2 hours.
2. Sauté onions, cabbage, and parsley if using it, in oil. Cook until soft, but do not brown.
3. Make a white sauce with the flour, milk, bouillon cubes, and celery salt.
4. Add white sauce to barley and broth.
5. Stir in sautéed cabbage and onion.
6. Check seasonings. Serve sprinkled with bacon bits, chopped ham, or croutons.

From More-with-Less Cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre. Copyright © 1976, 2000, 2011 by Herald Press, Harrisonburg, VA 22802. Used by permission.

Curry Flavor

            Over the years, I have grown to love curry. So for a Meatless Monday, I used a curry recipe from More-with-Less. Curry powder, as you probably know, is not a single spice the way cinnamon or anise is, for example. Rather it is a blend. Most curry powder recipes include coriander, turmeric, cumin, fenugreek, and red pepper in their blends. Depending on the recipe, additional ingredients such as ginger, garlic, fennel seed, caraway, cinnamon, clove, mustard seed, green cardamom, black cardamom, nutmeg, long pepper, and black pepper may also be included. In fact, my favorite vegetable curry recipe, from the Moosewood cookbook, is just such a mixture. However, I have printed the simpler recipe for Garden Vegetable Curry from More-with-Less below.

Ingredients

·                   3 T oil

·                   2 medium organic onions finely chopped

·                   2 cloves garlic minced

·                   2 T curry powder

·                   1 t tumeric

·                   1 t whole cumin seed

·                   1 c chopped tomatoes

·                   1 medium head cabbage chopped

·                   3 medium carrots diced

·                   4-5 small potatoes cut into cubes

·                   3 c green beans

·                   1 T lemon juice

Heat oil in a 3-4 qt. saucepan on medium heat.  Add onions and garlic and fry lightly for 4-5 minutes (do not brown).  Add curry powder, turmeric, and cumin seed.  Continue frying 3-4 minutes.  Add chopped tomatoes and cook briefly until a thick sauce begins to form.  

Add vegetables.  Stir until everything is mixed well.  Reduce heat and simmer 30-45 minutes.  Add water any time the sauce is below 1/3 depth of vegetables.   

15 minutes before serving, add lemon juice and salt to taste.  Continue to simmer until ready to serve over rice.

I adjusted this to three tablespoons of curry powder and 2 cups of green beans. I also substituted cauliflower for the cabbage.

St. Paul, were he cooking today, might use curry powder as an image for the church. You can read why I say that in I Corinthians 12:12-31. After all, no one would want an all- cardamom curry.

Tofu

     Although this recipe isn’t from the More-with-Less cookbook, it's in keeping with the spirit of the book’s low cost and international flavors. The recipe itself is from a slow cooker cookbook and one that I had wanted to try for several weeks. We used it on a meatless Monday. I know you are thinking, "Is chorizo meatless?" It is if you use Trader Joe’s Soy (Tofu) Chorizo. (This tofu chorizo is very close to the pork chorizo we use in our breakfast burritos). The recipe was fantastic, with just the right amount of spicy flavor. We paired it with a homemade bread.

        Split Peas with Chorizo Soup

 

1 pound of split peas

8 cups liquid (water or chicken broth)

12 oz soy chorizo

1 and ½ cups diced carrots

1 cup chopped onions

1 cup chopped celery

2 cloves of garlic (minced)

2 bay leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions: Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. Remove bay leaves; season with salt and pepper. (From the foodnetwork.com)

            If you are familiar with tofu, you have probably heard people say it takes on the flavor of the ingredients it's cooked with. I suppose that may be true to a certain degree, but I don’t usually find that to be the case.

            This Saturday I will host a new member orientation. The participants will come, each bringing his or her faith journey from a variety of places in the United States and even from Africa. Some will be familiar with United Methodism; others less so. I always try to help new members get an understanding of who we are as United Methodists. I think I’ll say we are the tofu of denominations we take on certain flavors around us but do have some distinctive characteristics. Do you have a better food metaphor or image in mind for who we United Methodists are?

Mess of Pottage

This title may be recognized by some of you as coming from the story of Esau selling his birthright to his brother, Jacob. Esau sold his birthright for a ‘mess of pottage.’ That language comes from the 15^th century, so it is more than a little dated.  Pottage is an older English word for 'stew.' The story is recounted in Genesis 25:27-34. In this case, the Bible tells us the stew was red lentils. Now I would be reluctant to say the Baked Lentil and Cheese dish I made would be worth trading away an inheritance for, but it was good. I didn’t expect too much from baked lentils, but the recipe was actually flavorful, and like most recipes in the book, it is inexpensive and healthy.

I have reprinted the recipe "Baked Lentils and Cheese" in the photo to the right.  One thing I truly love about More-with-Less is that the way a meal is prepared is just as simple as the ingredients and the dish itself. It is nice that everything is mixed and cooked right in the baking dish. After making this dish, I had three things to wash–a wooden spoon, a cutting board, and a knife--no mixing bowls or pots or pans. We served the dish with applesauce. I’d be hard pressed to think of a wine to pair with this dish, and it would hardly be in keeping with the spirit of Lent. (No pun intended.) We substituted some mozzarella cheese for some of the cheddar. The spirit of the cookbook is to use what is on hand and adapt to your taste. I did both.  This recipe is for six good-sized servings. I suspect it could successfully be cut in half. This is a great meatless dish for vegetarians and those of us keeping a meatless day during the week. A last suggestion is to use it as a filling for a vegetarian burrito.

A final word about lentils: in Jewish mourning tradition, lentils are traditional as food for mourners, together with hard-boiled eggs because their round shape symbolizes the life cycle from birth to death. And isn’t this a good beginning point for us in our Lenten reflections as we consider the life, death and resurrection of Jesus?

From More-with-Less Cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre. Copyright © 1976, 2000, 2011 by Herald Press, Harrisonburg, VA 22802. Used by permission.

More-with-Less

During Lent I will be blogging about a favorite cookbook: The More-with-Less Cookbook. My plan is to create each week a few of the recipes from the book, one or two of which I will share. Bethyl and I are going for a Meatless Monday each of the seven weeks, and the cookbook has several meatless recipes. I’ll post pictures of the dishes, reprint the recipes, and use a few slow-cooker recipes that are in keeping with the spirit of the book.

I was in my first appointment when introduced to the cookbook by the senior pastor’s wife, Jenella Smith. When first published in 1976, The More-with-Less Cookbook, by Doris Janzen Longacre, struck a nerve with its call for every household to help solve the world food crisis. Now with more than 850,000 copies around the globe, it has become the favorite cookbook of many families. Full of recipes from hundreds of contributors, mostly Mennonites, The More-with-Less Cookbook offers suggestions "on how to eat better and consume less of the world's limited food resources."  The subtitle of the book is “Live simply, so that others might simply live.”

The More-with-Less Cookbook includes a number of unique features. Interspersed throughout the text are inspirational inserts and interesting personal remarks about certain recipes. The introduction itself offers great reading material for Lent. The one-third of the book not devoted to recipes contains a lot of valuable information. Useful tables detail daily food requirements, the nutritive content of commonly used foods, and the comparative costs of foods.

            I read not too long ago in the Arizona Republic that the use of recipes is on the rise and likewise the sales of cookbooks. According to the article, one motivation is to “eat well for a lot less money.” I’m expecting to have delicious, simple, and wholesome meals, and I invite you to cook along with me. As you cook, you might want to put a recording of Aaron Copeland’s “Appalachian Spring” on the stereo and recall the words of “Simple Gifts”:

            “Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free

Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.”

Mike Pearson

Recipe for Success

Find below a letter from the book Letters from Maybe.  I hope it helps us get to thinking about cooking, recipes, and how our actions often come back to us, ("Cast your bread upon the waters. . . . " Ecclesiates 11:1 )   The Lenten Posts will based on recipes from the More-with-Less Cookbook  and will start on Ash Wednesday, February 13th.

                                                                                               

            Dear Mike,

            Well, church got out late on Sunday.  I didn’t get too much out of the last half of the sermon. What is it Carl says, “The difference between an audience and a congregation is and audience listens and a congregation doesn’t.” I will say this August more than ever I’ve been in favor of air-conditioning the church. They say it is unhealthy to sleep in stuffy rooms.

            T.S. Elliot may believe April is the cruelest month, but I’m here to say it is August. At least for those of us who still enter items to be judged at the county fair. And this August was the worst ever for me as I was completely shut out of the ribbons in every category. Of course there’s a good reason why, but there I’m getting ahead of myself.

            In late July I did my usual accounting in the cellar. As I plan out what I’m going to put up I always take my cookbook down with me. That way I can look at the recipes and see, for example if I’m putting up the 24 points of bread and butter pickles, how much vinegar or sugar I’ll be needing. Doing the math and making notes as I go.

            At any rate as I was checking the shelves the phone rang so I hurried back upstairs. In the conversation with Coralie I forgot all about my precious cookbook still in the basement. I think I’m about up to “Z” in Alzheimer’s already.

            A few days later when I needed to look up a recipe I went back downstairs looking for it and got the shock of my life. It was gone! And I mean gone!!

            Well, perhaps recycled is a more accurate description.  A field mouse evidently decide my cookbook would make ideal nesting material and had literally torn it to shreds. I believe it would have been more fitting ending if it had just eaten it.

            Carl said you don’t usually think of a cookbook with and unhappy ending. But this was much more than a cookbook. It was my history book. I’d kept it since I was a teen-ager. And it was gone. Several of my mother’s recipes were in it, written in her hand, including her birthday cake with caramel icing. Something I still make and fortunately have entrusted to memory by now.   

            Also gone were my Pillsbury Bake off recipes. These are the recipes that over the years people have told me, “This is the best I’ve ever eaten!” or I must have the recipe for this, Elizabeth.” Now you know I’ve never won with any of them and at first I was quite disappointed with the judges lack of discernment. Now of course I’ve come to realize that Pillsbury was using the same judges that McDonalds has been using for their Monopoly game.

            How well I still recall my first rejection letter on a sour cream cake. (Mike, you’ve eaten that cake yourself and told me how good it was). I was so agitated that quick as a wink I whipped up some basic white bread dough and fashioned a Pillsbury doughboy.

            “Into the fiery furnace,” I said as I put him into the 350 degree oven.

            Once done and cool enough to handle he was drawn and quartered, with butter. But not before I’d bitten his head off.

            And now Mike, I’d not only lost the sour cream cake recipe- but the basic white bread recipe too. You can see why I cried for two days.

            Of course, many of the recipes I’d used for the county fair were lost as well, including the aforementioned bread and butter pickles. Most of the fair entries I’d made notations on date or dates entered and which ribbon if any they’d won. The list of things I lost could fill, well - a cookbook.

            Coralie actually got me on the road to recovery. She stopped by the following Saturday with a pecan coffee cake, which I realized was a recipe of mine. Along with it she’d brought the recipe and surprisingly about 30 more, that over time she’d gotten from me.

            That Sunday she put out the word at church asking for people who had recipes they’d gotten from me to make copies and return them. On Monday she put the word out through town. Rex, the cook at the Busy Bee said he had over forty, which I am sure is an exaggeration. But it nice to have the recognition of your peers. I’d say 1/2 dozen former 4-H kids brought recipes from when I taught cooking and nutrition skills.

            Well, by the end of the month, it was worse than a having your name at the top of a chain letter. And if truth be told many of the recipes I was receiving weren’t mine to begin with. But what a tribute that I was considered author or creator of so many good recipes. (And a few duds.) I actually believe I ended up with more that I started with.

            Coralie bought me a new notebook and Carl printed up a cover that said “Seasoned With Love.” Yes, I cried for two more days. And yes, I got my basic white bread recipe back. And if you’re wondering, I couldn’t resist baking up a Pillsbury doughboy.

            When he’d cooled enough, I grasped him firmly in my hand and said rather calmly, “Now I’ve got you, and now I’m gonna eat you.” and with those word I bit off his head, drew and quartered him and slathered him with butter.

            Anyway, by the time I’d rebuilt the cookbook the deadline for the fair had long past so I had to content myself with dreaming about next year.

            I better get this in the mail before Mr. Hurley gets here. We’re praying for you and that new congregation.

                                                                                                Love to all,

                                                                                                Elizabeth