Ramblings on life themes and being kosher

It’s been a busy week. Besides the funeral for Mabel Bell on Monday morning, the chaplain called sometime before 8 AM to let me know that I had three people in ICU. I already knew about two others in the local hospital, plus 3 in St Cloud. Other than a couple of pastoral contacts, a Finance Meeting and getting to part of Nicks swim meet, Tuesday revolved around moving in a desk and credenza that had been donated to the church for my office. I was looking forward to the new office look but wasn’t quite prepared to deal with 9 years of “stuff” that had been stuffed in corners and drawers I was now emptying.

But now I'm stopping to think and blog. Back to Mabel’s service. She was 96 years old....you can’t possibly summarize a person’s life. But I spoke of three great themes that seem to emerge: faith, family and music. And they were intertwined. They really weren’t separated from each other. The prominent family memory was being together, singing songs with Mabel usually on piano, singing the faith. We played a couple tape recordings of them doing exactly that. It made me wonder what themes my life might be sorted into. Most of us would probably want family and faith in there, but what else. My wife, Beth, would certainly have education, kids and learning in there as a larger life theme with the first two. How about you? Or me?

Then, another thought in this morning ramble: I enjoy Jeff Reed's blog that I have linked. He points me to what I would called environmental spirituality or holistic stewardship and does it with an informed science mind. Obviously from his recent post, I need to learn more about corn in our economy... My ministry context with farmers in past years has mostly just been reports about crop yield, moisture content and prices.
But Jeff Reed's insights makes me think we should reconsider the Jewish kosher concepts. What we eat, what we use, and how we do it does matter; as a matter of faith. Holiness does have implications for kitchens and clothing. Can you imagine if we looked at every object that we are involved with, every bit of food, and stopped to consider what it is, where it has been, and how it came to us? What sense of awareness and appreciation or alertness might be involved? To take nothing for granted! Gratitude, purposefulness, and holiness! Think of the special effort Jewish kosher practices involve: separate stores and cafes; reading labels! My first impression is that it must be so complicated, but another view might say that life is simpler when some options are just "off the table"
I had a small taste of kosher living when I traveled to Israel with a Jewish based tour group in 2001. Could it be done without that kind of determination and dedication? Maybe we need a larger , shared Christian kosher discipline that guides us with more eco-friendly food practices and more directly brings our spiritual values into our daily consumption. Of course all kinds of economic justice issues would come to light as well. You can't talk about food and clothing without taking about people and politics! I know Barbara Kingsolver wrote about her family’s experience of trying to grow their own foods and purchase more local goods. I think we are hungry for this kind of living . And I am not saying anything new here. Just trying to remind my self again. And remembering that with the kosher practices there was an insight that I best not abandon. I may not practice the same set of kosher rules prescribed in Jewish practices but I should probably listen to Peter's dream -vision in the book of Acts that everything of God's creation is holy, and am called to treat it, use it and love it as such!
The Bishop has a blog post going on now about the "Year of Living Biblically” and maybe we could take a tip from that on living “Biblically”...”ethically” in consumer practices. it wouldn't be a bad life theme to be remembered for; but where to begin, and more importantly will I?