Rector’s Ramblings – August 1, 2024

One of the things I love to do but rarely make the time for is baking bread. Don’t get me wrong – I am far from a master baker, but I really enjoy it. I even tried to make my own sourdough starter in the spring. It didn’t get going, and I didn’t have time to try again before my summer events, but it’s on the agenda for the fall. At Christmas, I got some Paul Hollywood baking books, along with some new rolling pins and accessories. Calleigh and I always watch the Great British Baking Show, where some of the inspiration comes from. She got me a Paul Hollywood handshake coffee mug, which I use most mornings – the only handshake I’m ever likely to get from him.

My mother can bake bread. It’s nothing fancy but always delicious. She made a quick white bread whenever we were snowed in as kids. There are few things better than fresh, warm bread with butter. My grandmother was a serious baker, although she primarily baked sweet stuff like cakes, pies, and cookies. She also learned to bake bread at a time when you made your own every day; there was no buying bread at the store for them on the farm. And Donna is a baker, too, as many of you know. She also tends towards sweetened baking and can also bake bread, though she doesn’t do it often, apart from most Fridays when she makes the pizza dough for our weekly pizza dinner (I might make it one out of five weeks). 

There’s just something about making bread that I like. The simpleness of the ingredients. The time it takes as it just sits there. The tactile process of kneading and shaping. The aroma of the bread as it bakes and rests. It’s not hard to make a basic bread. Things can certainly get complicated quickly for those who are adventurous, especially with sourdough, but anyone can bake bread if they want to. To my palate, even a mediocre home loaf is superior to much of what I typically find at the grocery store. 

August is a month for bread. As I mentioned in Sunday’s sermon, the Gospel lessons for every Sunday in August are centered on the Bread of Life discourse, starting this Sunday. We dive right in this week with one of Jesus’ “I am” sayings: “I am the bread of life.” This comes right after his feeding of the five thousand, as he makes the case that the people (and we) might be hungry for the wrong things. Granted, there’s no way around earthly hunger; it comes with the human territory. But, in our scrabbling to meet our ongoing physical needs, we can get confused about the need for and how to satiate our spiritual hungers.

Much like baking bread, it’s not too hard; spiritual ingredients are actually relatively abundant. At its core, our spiritual life need not be complicated either. It does take time, however, and we can certainly choose to take more complex routes – if that’s what works for us. Studying the bread of life this month might help us learn a bit more about what we can find in our faith and our Lord. There is a richness waiting to be rediscovered, like remembering how that fresh bread our grandmothers tasted. It’s never as far away as it seems.

During the month of August, we will be using real bread at our celebrations of the Eucharist. Each Sunday will include bread made from a different recipe – recipes that will be shared with anyone who wants them. The hope is that we might all experiment with a bit of baking of our own, and even share what we bake with others. The invitation will be to prayerful baking in the hopes that spending time with bread in a very tangible way will help us connect to this month of the spirituality of bread, too. Happy baking!

Tom+

Divine Culinarian who brought forth the Bread of Life and Cup of Salvation, With gratitude, we celebrate the bakers in our midst. Through the work of their hands, they create edible masterpieces that neighbor can share with neighbor. Their offerings bring peace to the ones looking for comfort food. Their offerings bring joy to the young people celebrating birthdays and the couples joining their lives together in marriage. The bread they bake sits on communion tables as your children are reminded to “take and eat.” The pastries created by them will bring people together in our fellowship halls when worship ends. Bless their hands in the rolling of dough and the ovens as breads rise and bake. Bless the hearts who laugh together in the kitchen as they decorate cookies or finish pies. Through the work of their hands, we partake in fellowship and see the presence of the Christ in our midst. Amen.

A prayer for  by Michelle L. Torigian, at michelletorigian.com

Photo credits: dough and bread via dreamstime.com subscription.