Post 37/2020 Sunday 22 November My cup is full and running over today. We joined worship with The United Benefice of Carbis Bay and Lelant (Cornwall, United Kingdom) via Zoom (6am here, 11am there). It was Christ the King Sunday, reflecting on God’s intent to bind up the injured and strengthen the poor. To the earthly kings trampling God’s courts the message is, “cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.”

We then joined the virtual worship service at College Mennonite Church and a Zoom presentation by Kate Lind on she and her husband’s longstanding sustainable greens and vegetable growing business. To conclude we all muted ourselves and joined in singing, “God, whose farm is all creation.” Stanza 1: “God, whose farm is all creation, take the gratitude we give. Take the finest of our harvest, crops we grow that all may live.” (John Arlott, BBC Hymn Book, 1951).

A bite of lunch? I had an orange and half a slice of bread spread with Marmite. Yes, that yeast extract fortified with B vitamins food that you either love or hate. I’m leaning to the love side of that divide, even if I grimace at the first bite. Marty will not touch it, so the tiny jar will go a long way. Sorry you cannot yet drop in for a taste.

Last week we drove on nearby backroads, catching a glimpse of rural life as we traveled to walk in area county parks.

Country roads

LaGrange County

Pine Knob Park

Oliver Lake

Edna W. Spurgeon Preserve

Before all else

The College Mennonite Church online bulletin listed this prayer request from Mennonite Mission Network: “In many North American Indigenous cultures, every day is Thanksgiving Day. For the Onondaga People around Lake Ontario, the morning begins with the Thanksgiving Address, known as the ‘Words that Come Before All Else.’ Join Mennonite Mission Network in thanking God for the good gifts that sustain us even in difficult times.”

Kate Lind referenced a quote from John Philip Newell concerning guarding the unity of life. Thank God for the unity and diversity that life offers. I think this prayer is by by Newell, in Celtic Prayers from Iona: “You are the life of the growing earth. You are the strength of the waves of the sea. Speak to me this night O God. Speak to me your truth. Dwell with me this night O God. Dwell with me in love.”

-John