bierkergaard

Well, today I did my laundry, made bread, cooked gumbo with the okra from our CSA (what else the heck is one supposed to do with okra?), baked oatmeal cookies, and brewed some beer. All but the last are decidedly of the fairer gender, guess I am just a girly man . I like cooking because it is tangible. I cook, we eat. Simple. My occupation by day is decidedly more open-ended. I'm a little worried about the beer...the first time out into the land of Homebrewing. If nothing else, brewing beer today keeps me from being called a total fairy. No, I did not sew curtains, though. God makes even the pragmatic (we have to cook, we have to eat) beautiful in that the aesthetics of creation such as color, taste and aroma are so much more than necessity.

A little while back my old computer, that I did most of my doctoral degree on, went from life support to brain dead. More recently, Matrix-like, it had been operating as the host for my printer...its sole job, connected to my laptop via Windows XP networking. I knew it was time. Time to put it down. I took it out back and smashed the hard drive to fragments. People talk of bittersweet. This was not that. It was pure joy. Soon followed by a trip to the city dump. The reality was that I should have destroyed and thrown out the old ragged computer years ago. Instead, I made do. When Jesus came, he spoke of putting new wine in new wineskins. He offered life but many preferred the old dying ways. Like me...with my computer.

Well, I was meeting my buddy for coffee at Higher Grounds coffee shop in Mt. Joy on Saturday. I was in one of those scenarios where I was coming back from another place further along the same route and to go home and back to Mt. Joy would have just burned gas and an additional 40 minutes spent driving when I instead could of been walking around on a beautiful Saturday. Mt. Joy is not exactly NYC, so I decided to walk up and down the main drag. On the walk, I encountered about the lamest two table Farmer's Market ever, and one of the dudes was selling candy. It is so easy when we drive to miss things because all is a blur. Walking is so much more informative and interesting. Further down, I came across this used book store which carries books about art, architecture, food, and wine. I bought Lina, the Foodie, a History of Food book by some French lady (translated into our base English). I bargained with the proprietor from $ 25 down to $ 20. Although I knew Lina would like the gif...

Yesterday, I was out for my four mile run to Lake Grubb and back. On a narrow and busy (for semi-rural Lancaster County) stretch of road, an old dude sitting in a chair smoking a cigarette on his front porch shouted out to me as I huffed and puffed my way by: "Hey, this road is kind of dangerous. If you ever need to run on my grass to get out the way of a car, please do so." How refreshing. It reminded me that charity is usually small acts done consistently. Most people would tell me to get the hell off of their yard. He is telling me to get the hell on it.

Today in church it was Communion Sunday. As Presbyterians, it is a monthly observance. It probably should be weekly. Not sure why it isn't besides the people maybe in pews getting antsy. Anyway, the Communion unleavened bread piece, more like a cracker, that I picked out of the Communion tray was elongated and jagged and it reminded me of one of those pieces of the World Trade Center sticking out of the rubble. Forgiveness itself is elongated (takes time) and jagged (a difficult process). People can be flippant about forgiveness. Until, they get hurt badly. It is appropriate to have the Communion bread be roughly hewn. For Christ's body was broken for us. I have had Communion bread before that was liked cubed Wonder Bread. Could be a metaphor for non-substantive teaching. All air and platitudes. No, the bread should be hard, rough, and looked like it was broken by force. How the bread has become a symbol of forgiveness rather than wrath is something Christians are called to em...

Eze 18:20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. Deut 5:9 Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them; for I, Jehovah, thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me. Critics of the Bible like verses like these two because they seem contradictory. But, hold on ye would-be Feurebach, let us think about this a little more deeply. The Bible is a profoundly realistic book. Here these verses articulate the difference between the legal/judicial AND relational consequences of the father's sins upon his progeny. The relational sins of the father will almost always have a negative consequence on his children. If he is a drunk, an adulterer, a thief, a murderer, or a...

I live in Lancaster County and work in York County, and never twain shall meet (to steal a line from Rudyard Kipling ). "Oh, East is East and West is West, and never twain shall meet, Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat ." When I work, I work. When I am not at work, I don't want to any in any sense feel as if I am at work. Like run into my students at the supermarket. Or the mall...not that I go to the mall anyway. I love the bifurcation by bridge of my life. For nearly twenty years I have tried to leave my home burdens on the Lancaster side and my work burdens on the York side like some psychological umbrella. Some might classify this a schizoidal but it works for me on a conscious level. One umbrella is red, the other white, and when I use them, is determined by day or night. The Houses of York and Lancaster....some ancient monarchy issue of where loyalties were, symbolized by a red or white rose. Subconsciousnessly, I probably am always ...