Salted Cashews and the Price of Fish

I love salted cashews. I could sit (or stand, it doesn't matter) and eat a whole container of 'em without thinking about it. In fact that's why I don't often buy them. Santa puts them in my stocking every Christmas. But that's usually it for the year. For some reason my wife, Susan, brought some home from the store yesterday. She said it was because the store had such a great price on them. But, there must be some other reason. She's resisted such temptation before. At any rate, I've been nibbling cashews since. There are still some left in the can, but not many.

This past Sunday I was intrigued by the story in the Gospel account from John of the gathering of Jesus' first disciples. John recorded that Jesus invited Andrew and another unnamed future disciple to spend some time with him. He didn't say what they talked about or what they did. He just mentioned that they spent the rest of the day with him.

I find myself wondering about such things. What did they talk about? Did they pray together? Did they share life stories? Did they sit in silence? Did they talk about the price of fish (they were fishermen, after all)? We don't know.

It all leads me to consider the balance of the sublime and the ridiculous, the whimsical and the the existential, the commonplace and the profound that makes up life. A simple conversation over a few hours sitting under a shade tree or around a campfire was all that was needed for Andrew to know that Jesus was the Messiah. (I wonder if he had some salted cashews on which to munch as they talked.) I guess what I'm saying is that I do need to be serious. In fact I am serious (I'm told) much of the time. But I also like whimsy. I enjoy dallying, day dreaming, spending unfocused time doing...well...almost nothing.

And so, I stand by the kitchen window looking out on the backyard covered in freshly fallen snow, eating my salted cashews. The problem is that I can never do this for very long. The "price of fish" (or the cost of discipleship, if you will) encroaches into my reverie. So, here I am thinking and writing about some more serious stuff.

The Environment

This past week I attended the annual gathering of the Middle Atlantic Region of UCC Conference staffs. The Middle Atlantic Region Conferences (MARC) consist of the four Pennsylvania Conferences, the Central Atlantic Conference and the New York Conference. We rotate hosting responsibilities among the conferences. This year it was the turn of the Penn Northeast Conference to host. We met in a lovely retreat and conference center overlooking the Delaware River a few miles south of the Delaware Water Gap.

The host conference chose the Environment as the theme of our discussions. There were some speakers from some Pennsylvania environmental groups that spoke to us about global warming and how we might encourage churches (and conference offices) to become "green". We also heard two national UCC staff persons, Jan Resseger and Rose Wright-Scott, speak about environmental justice issues.

I have to admit that I'm lagging a bit behind on environmental issues. Although I fully accept the reality of global warming, I've been rather slow to adopt many measures to reduce my CO2 "footprint". I do drive a car that gets a little over 30 miles a gallon. But, when I bought my last car in 2005, I chose the roominess of a Camry over the 20 extra miles per gallon that the Prius gets.

This MARC meeting has inspired me to get started, at least. I went out and bought some of the new environmentally friendlier light bulbs. I've checked out waterless hot water heaters. I went on line to begin and "Goodsearched" some available resources and took my CO2 footprint test on the National Conservancy website. (Goodsearch is a "search engine" that gives money to your favorite charity every time you use it.) My household of four produces an estimated 79 tons of CO2 per year. It's better than the average of 100 tons for Americans but much worse than the international average of 22.

I also found some helpful resources to share. The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago has put out a Training Manual for the Green Congregation on the website http://www.webofcreation.org/.

UCC Justice and Witness Ministries has several resources on environmental justice. http://www.ucc.org/justice/environmental-racism/ for the link to "Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty 1987-2007" and other resources. And, I found a group called New York Interfaith Power & Light, that provides education and advocacy information for faith communities across the state. Their website is http://www.nyipl.org/

Global Ministries

Swaziland

Bob Shebeck, on the staff of Common Global Ministries, sends out a weekly Global Ministries update newsletter. Among other items, he included an article on the decreased populations totals in Swaziland. It's very unusual for a developing country to experience a loss in population. But in a recent census there are over 17,000 fewer persons compared to the last census. Demographers are wondering the cause of this unusual event. Was it a faulty census? Or could it have to do with the higher than average occurrence of HIV/AIDS in the country. In the article, "Where have all the Swazis Gone?", author Stephanie Nolan writes:

"A toxic mix of factors combined to make the epidemic so bad here: a highly infectious and virulent strain of the virus circulating in the population; a culture that condones promiscuity and polygamy in men, while denying women the right to refuse to have sex or insist on the use of condoms; a limited economy that relies on sending workers away from home for long stretches to work in highly infected South Africa; and a government, led by a playboy king with an ever-expanding stable of wives, that has denied the scale of the problem, and,while people were dying, poured funds into luxury-car purchases and highway expansions. Once the epidemic had dug in, in the late 1990s, Swaziland's grossly understaffed and underfunded health system collapsed under the pressure. As a
consequence, only achingly slow progress has been made in getting anti-AIDS drugs to the sick. So Swaziland has experienced a rate of death that would appear to have outstripped even the high birth rate and the growth of the young population.

This country has the world's highest rate of infection: 26 per
cent of adults, 43 per cent of pregnant women, a staggering 49 per cent of young
women between the ages 25 and 29. Life expectancy has fallen from 60 in 1997 to
31 in 2004, the lowest rate in the world. Only one in four people will live to
the age of 40."

Such realities are so disheartening (as well as deadly). And, my heart goes out to our sisters and brothers there. Last year I was part of a group from the New York Conference that visited Wayne and Ingrid Wilson, our missionaries in Swaziland at the time, and our partner church the Kukanyi Okusha Zion church, headquartered in Matsapha. (Read the entire article about Swaziland by clicking on this link. http://www.globalministries.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2098&Itemid=371

Kenya

Please continue to keep the entire country of Kenya in your prayers. Lawrence Gilley shared the following newsbrief in an email that he sent out this morning.

"Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I hope that this email finds you well. Yesterday, the two rival leaders in Kenya met with Kofi Annan, and we were all hoping that Kenya was on the road to recovery. Unfortunately, last night, severe violence broke up in Nakuru, and it continues to this moment. My mother, three of my sisters, and many relatives and friends live in Nakuru. I am very worried about them and other Kenyans. Please pray for their safety. There are reports that many of those injured last night are unable to get to the hospital, because of the violence. If help doesn't come soon, some may bleed to death. People have already been killed, and others kicked out of their homes. Your prayers are deeply appreciated.

Thank you,

Pauline Muchina, Ph.D.Senior Partnership
Advisor UNAIDS 1825 K Street, NW, Suite 701Washington, DC 20006202-223-7613"

Nicaragua

On another note I learned that New York Conference folks donated $685 to Disaster Response in the aftermath of Hurricane Felix that devasted many communities on either side of the border of Honduras and Nicaragua. The Conference sent this money to UCC Wider Church Ministries designated to our new Global Church Partner, Mision Cristiana. Thank you for your generosity.

The Wider United Church of Christ

The Advent initiative of the UCC Collegium of Officers to gather 100,000 petitions signatures to end the War in Iraq, send 100,000 prayers for our soldiers serving there, and donate $100,000 for the resettlement of Iraqi refugees was hugely successful. Individual prayers have been appearing online since John Thomas, General Minister and President, began the initiative on Thanksgiving. In addition over 100 prayer books, compiled by local churches across the denomination, were dedicated in the Amistad Chapel in the national offices and sent to chaplains serving in Iraq. Well over $100,000 was raised for the resettlement of Iraqi refugees. We're still shy of the 100,000 signatures, but we're closing in on 80,000. Read about all this by clicking on this link. http://www.ucc.org/news/prayer-journals-dedicated-at.html

The New York Conference

Good news from Carol Giodano, the New York Conference Minister of Stewardship, Management and Development. Contributions from our local churches to OCWM (Our Churches' Wider Mission) is up over last year. I'm very happy to say that Oneida and Susquehanna Association churches gave more than 105% in 2007 compared to 2006! We were also able to send $20,000 more to the national UCC than we budgeted.

Now how about that for the price of fish! I'm weary. I think I need some cashews.

Blessings

Rick Cowles