The link for the Zoom gatherings is available in our weekly E-news, in our Facebook group St. Dunstan’s MadCity, or by emailing Rev. Miranda: .
THREE WAYS TO USE AN ONLINE BULLETIN…1
1. Print it out!
2. Open the bulletin on one device (smartphone or tablet) while joining Zoom worship on another device (tablet or computer).
3. On a computer, open the bulletin in a separate browser window or download and open separately, and view it next to your Zoom window
The Transfiguration of Jesus is our Gospel for the last Sunday in Epiphany every year.
It gives us – looking on with his disciples – a glimpse of Jesus’ divinity, his God-self, as his journey turns towards the cross; and as we turn towards the journey of Lent.
Let’s note that we’ve jumped twelve chapters in Matthew’s Gospel; the lectionary will circle us back to some of what we missed, in the summer and fall.
But for now we are suddenly fairly late in the story.
Jesus is headed towards Jerusalem, and anticipating the part of his mission where he gets arrested, condemned, and killed.
Just a few verses later he tells his disciples “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised.”
The disciples are greatly distressed by this… as you would be.
But Jesus is very clear that doing and saying the things he is doing and saying is going to make the powers that be seize him and crush him.
I wonder what they were talking about, Jesus and Moses and Elijah – or whoever these mysterious beings are, whom the disciples think are the great prophets Moses and Elijah.
In his Gospel, Luke says that they were speaking about Jesus’ departure that he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Meaning: his death.
Which makes sense – that this is a time for Jesus to take counsel, and perhaps comfort, before facing the hardest part yet of his earthly mission. A conversation about what’s ahead, and about how to stay the course.
I’ve had conversations a little like that – not with people who anticipate being arrested and killed, but with people getting ready to do a hard thing, and trying to prepare themselves, and work out how to do what has to be done as well as possible.
Maybe that’s what’s happening here.
It’s the understanding and teaching of our church that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine; and I can’t imagine that any amount of divinity makes it easy for a human to willingly face mortal danger.
Jesus following his path towards death paved the way for a lot of other people to follow Jesus towards death.
The apostle Stephen was the first Christian martyr, stoned to death in the seventh chapter of Acts for preaching the Gospel.
But many followed.
There were waves of persecution that led to many Christians being imprisoned, and some killed, because they refused to participate in the Roman state religion.
(Saint Valentine, for example!)
The early church came to hold the martyrs in very high regard, as having made the ultimate sacrifice for Christ.
Martyr is a funny word. M – A – R – T – Y – R.
You may be familiar with it in secular language, meaning of someone who appears to enjoy suffering for the sake of others.
But that’s a distortion of its earliest and simplest meaning.
It’s a Greek legal term, meaning a witness, as in a court of law.
It took on its religious meaning as early Christians bore witness to their faith – gave testimony to their convictions and hopes – under threat of torture and even death.
Those early generations of our faith-ancestors understood martyrdom as a way to respond to – and even emulate – Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross.
(Source: https://cmsw.mit.edu/reconstructions/definitions/martyr.html)
It became less common for Christians to die for their faith, after the year 300 or so, but it was by no means uncommon.
Yet in the mainline churches like the Episcopal Church, we don’t tend to talk a lot about the Christian martyrs – ancient or modern.
I’m not sure why not.
Maybe it seems a little dramatic. A little indecorous. Excessive.
There’s a tiny little section in our hymnal for feasts of martyrs – Hymns #236 through 241 – but I didn’t grow up singing them.
Sometimes we talk about the martyrs of the Civil Rights movement – Jonathan Daniels, Dr. King.
Sometimes we talk about the martyrs of World War II – Dietrich Bonhoeffer is probably the best known.
But today I want to talk about Sophie.
Sophie Magdalena Scholl was born in 1921, in Ulm, Germany, the fourth of six children. She was part of a lively, loving family, and was a smart, curious, loving child.
The Scholls were not particularly religious, but were people who thought deeply about ethics and values; her father was a pacifist and had been a conscientious objector in the first world war.
When Sophie was 11 or 12, something started to happen in her country – a new movement, with a new leader. His name was Adolf Hitler.
At first it was exciting! Everybody was talking about a new chapter for Germany, with unity and prosperity for everyone. There were clubs for kids to join to celebrate being German. Sophie joined one, and became a leader. They marched and sang and went on outings; it was fun! Everyone felt caught up in the hope and energy of the moment.
But this new movement in Germany wasn’t for everybody. The leaders said that only some kinds of people count as real Germans. Others don’t belong – especially the Jews.
There had been Jews in Germany for a long, long time, and some of the best music and poetry and writing in Germany came from German Jewish musicians and poets and writers.
But the Nazi movement said: All of that is no good. Sophie’s brother Hans found out he wasn’t allowed to sing his favorite songs. Sophie learned that her favorite poet, Heinrich Heine, was off limits. And the young Scholls started to look more critically at this new movement.
Deep down inside, Sophie’s heart began to turn. She couldn’t just go along with things anymore.
Sophie finished school; by then World War II had started and Germany was deep in wartime. Hans and all her male friends had to become soldiers. Young women had to work for the German cause too, before they could start university or take another path. During those difficult years, Sophie kept in touch with a group of friends who shared thoughts and feelings about the war and the Nazi regime.
An elderly Roman Catholic priest and scholar befriended the group and influenced their thinking, bringing Christ and faith into their reflections on how to live in such times.
In 1942, Sophie’s brother Hans and his friends started a secret resistance network at the university where he was studying. It was called the White Rose Society. They wrote essays urging ordinary Germans to resist Nazi ideas. They printed thousands of copies of their essays, and secretly sent them all over their city and country.
When Sophie found out, at first she was shocked – but then she asked to join them. She knew that because she was a girl, and looked young and innocent, it would be easier for her to get away with buying supplies and distributing leaflets.
It was dangerous work, but Sophie knew that. She knew that terrible things were happening – and even more terrible: ordinary people were standing by and letting them happen. Sophie and Hans knew that they were doing and saying things that might make the powers that be seize them and crush them. And they went ahead anyway.
On February 18, 1943 – eighty years ago, yesterday – Sophie and Hans were on a university campus in Munich, leaving leaflets for students to find. Sophie had a few papers left, so she threw them over a balcony into an open area. But a janitor saw her, and reported her to the Nazi secret police.
Sophie and her brother Hans were arrested by the Gestapo. They were tried the following Monday, sentenced to death, and executed later the same day. Sophie was 21 years old.
On the last day of her life, February 22nd, 1943 – eighty years ago, this Wednesday – Sophie said, “The sun is still shining.”
When we reflect on the lives of the blessed martyrs, we might feel like they must have been a different kind of person – a different kind of Christian – than our ordinary selves. Surely their faith was stronger, their inner vision clearer, to lead them towards the cross in such a way.
But I’ve spent some time in the past week reading excerpts from Sophie’s letters and diary, and there’s so much that is, as we say, relatable.
She struggled with having to live through difficult times, writing in a letter to her sister, “Sometimes, and especially of late, I’ve felt that it’s grossly unfair to have to live in an age so filled with momentous events.” (145)
She found consolation in music, as so many of us do. She writes at one point about hearing something on the radio that stirred her and helped, in her words, “distance me a little from the turmoil around me, with its resemblance to glutinous, hostile mush.” (189) She continues, “Music represents neither more nor less than the air that enables a flame to burn more brightly.” (190, winter 1942)
She found solace and escape in nature – again, as I know many of us do. She wrote in 1942, “I’ve always felt, and I still do now, that I can hear the most consummate harmony resounding from field and forest…” (204)
And the night before her arrest, she wrote a letter to her sister about looking forward to spring, saying, “You can’t help rejoicing and laughing, however moved or sad at heart you feel, when you see the springtime clouds in the sky and the budding branches sway, stirred by the wind.” (280)
Sophie questioned her own motives and felt like she should be doing more. As perhaps many of us do.
In June of 1940, she wrote to her boyfriend, a soldier, about the need for clarity of conscience in complicated times – but went on to say, “Very few of my actions correspond to what I consider right… Weariness keeps me silent when I ought to speak out… I know what I’m like, and I’m too tired, lazy, and bad to change.” (75, 77, 1940, to Fritz)
In January of 1943, just a month before her arrest, she wondered whether she’d ever done anything out of truly good motives, or just to look good or keep up with others she admired. She wrote, “It’s beyond me that some people have moments of temptation only. I have moments of greater lucidity, and I’m grateful for them, but the rest of the time I’m paddling around in the dark.” (268)
Sophie struggled with prayer – as perhaps many of us do at times. Late in 1941 she wrote, “When I try to pray and reflect on whom I’m praying to, I almost go crazy, I feel so infinitely small… I get really scared, so the only emotion that can surface is fear… I can’t pray for anything except the ability to pray.” (176-77)
In June of 1942 she wrote of praying desperately against becoming numb: “Teach me to pray… better to pray for pain, pain, and more pain, than to feel empty, and to feel so without truly feeling at all. That I mean to resist.” (207-08)
Later that summer she wrote, “I too often forget the sufferings that ought to overwhelm me, the sufferings of mankind. I place my powerless love in your hands, that it may become powerful.” (209)
In October of 1942, four months before her arrest and death, she wrote, “Whenever I pray, the words drain out of me. The only ones I can remember are, “Help me!” I can’t offer up any other prayer….. So I pray to learn how to pray.” (249)
She writes about feeling like she didn’t know how to approach or name God. Like she was too bad, too small, too distracted. She describes wanting to fall to her knees at an Easter service – and feeling too self-conscious and inhibited. (194)
And yet: There is no question, reading her diary, that it was her faith and her conscience that drove her to join her brother in resisting the Nazi evil, and thus to her death.
There is no question that Sophie Scholl is a Christian martyr.
In my sermon last week I said: Choosing good is hard, for lots of reasons. We are often conflicted, confused, self-deluded, weak and weary.
It can help to have a community, people in it with us.
It can help to have a season like Lent to invite us deeper into it.
Maybe it helps, too, to have people we admire and honor to show us what it looks like to choose the good when it’s hard.
In weakness, weariness, confusion.
Perhaps part of the work of this season – of Lent, of this season of the world – needs to be reckoning with what matters to us deeply enough to stand up for it, to work for it, even when it’s costly.
We aren’t in the depths of World War II. But we live in profoundly uncertain times. Threats to democracy, civic strife, the deepening climate crisis… We probably feel some recognition of Sophie’s “glutinous, hostile mush.”
I can’t help thinking about Sophie from the perspective of a parent and friend of young people. When her father, Robert Scholl, tried to get into the courtroom for Hans and Sophie’s trial, the guard told him, “You should have raised them better.”
Sophie and Hans are both a worst-case and best-case outcome for a parent: young people of courage, resourcefulness and conscience, who stood up to evil and paid the price.
Part of me wants to urge the youth of our parish to dwell deeply with the stories of people like Sophie, to help form their hearts and souls for struggles ahead.
Part of me wants to say, Look away. Never mind. Stay home. Stay safe.
But it’s not up to me.
From one perspective, the White Rose was a failure. Ordinary Germans did not rise up against the regime, as they hoped.
Sophie believed their deaths would spur a student revolt, but it didn’t happen. People were either too comfortable or too scared.
But their lives and witness remind us that there are things we do because we have to. Because they are necessary and right, regardless of whether they work.
That there’s always an alternative to standing by, or looking away.
That sometimes all we can do is place our powerless love in God’s hands, and trust that somehow it will become powerful.
Diary and letter excerpts are from the book At the heart of the White Rose, edited by Inge Jens.
You can read today’s lessons by clicking here!
Today’s lesson from Deuteronomy in the Old Testament is one of the parts of the Bible that makes it sound like choosing right, choosing good, is very straightforward.
You just do the good thing and not the bad thing.
You do the thing God tells you to do and not the thing God tells you not to do.
How hard can it be? It’s simple.
It’s not simple.
We are complicated, and the world is complicated.
We don’t fully understand ourselves, let alone others;
and we don’t fully understand the motives or consequences of our actions and choices.
Doing good – choosing good – is hard.
Our Psalm names that in one evocative line:
Oh, that my ways were made so direct
that I might keep your statutes, your commandments!
To paraphrase loosely:
If only my path were clear enough, and my steps steady enough,
for me to consistently follow God’s ways!
Deuteronomy says, Just do what’s right!
Psalm 119 says, I wish it were that simple.
And then … there’s today’s Gospel.
Oh, Lordy.
Believe me, if most preachers could make our peace with just skipping this chunk of the Sermon on the Mount, we would.
The divorce stuff is extra tough but all of it is tough.
The idea that if you hate your terrible co-worker, that has profound consequences for your soul?…
Jesus is using hyberbole and exaggerated language to make his point, here, as he does elsewhere.
He likes to use big images that really get people’s attention.
I don’t think we’re being faithful to his intentions if we try to take all this literally. I’m very sure that he doesn’t really want people to cut their hands off. And I’m pretty sure he doesn’t mean that you’ll go to hell for hating your worthless jerk of a co-worker.
Let me take a brief detour here to talk about Hell.
The phrase Jesus actually uses here is “Gehenna of fire.”
Gehenna or Hinnom is a valley south of Jerusalem, just outside the city. Its name in Hebrew means Valley of Lamentation.
It seems to have been a place where the garbage of the city was thrown, over the centuries, and sometimes burned.
By Jesus’ time the word Gehenna has taken on other meanings. It’s not just a trash-polluted gully but a symbolic place of dread, of punishment and perhaps of purification.
What we need to understand about Gehenna is, first, that this term does NOT mean Hell, an underworld of eternal punishment ruled over by Satan.
That is a later idea built upon some fairly thin Scriptural foundations.
And, second, that we don’t really know what this term meant to Jesus. He only uses it a few times.
Bible translator and theologian David Bentley Hart says that in other writings from around the same time, Gehenna seems to have had many varied meanings – historical or cosmic; eternal or temporary; punishment or renewal.
Given all that, we just don’t know what Jesus has in mind here, or how his original audience would have heard it.
Hart also points out that there’s basically nothing about Gehenna, or eternal punishment in general, in our earliest Christian texts, the letters of Paul.
He himself found that his close study of the New Testament, among other things, led him to universalism – a belief that everyone will be saved.
That’s a sermon for another day!
The point right now is that these references to Gehenna or hell seem to be more a way to convey the seriousness of the subject than an actual statement about ultimate destinations.
What Jesus is talking about here, in this difficult passage, is the fact that being good is hard – and that one reason it’s hard is that insides matter just as much as outsides.
We know this.
We know that we are kidding ourselves if we think that hating our jerk co-worker doesn’t matter, as long as we are polite to them in public.
Or that any other toxic or life-sapping relationship or situation is FINE as long as we all keep showing up and getting on with things.
Hear me clearly: I am not saying that changing stuff like that is easy or light or even safe!!!
I’m just saying what I think Jesus is saying: Insides matter.
What we’re thinking and feeling matters, even if on the surface everything looks fine or at least OK.
Our Isaiah text from last week was about the same issue with respect to humans and God. People were complaining: God, we’re doing all the stuff we’re supposed to do, why aren’t you blessing us? And God says through the prophet: Look! You’re using your religious observances as an excuse to argue with your neighbor and oppress your workers.
Your insides don’t match your outsides.
Your goodness, your rightness, is only skin-deep.
Jesus knows – as Isaiah knew – that we can meet expectations about correct or appropriate behavior on the surface, while all kinds of messy or deeply corrosive stuff is going on underneath.
Oh, that my ways were made so direct
that I might keep your commandments!
I waffled on whether to include this in the sermon but I decided a concrete example might be helpful.
A couple of weeks ago I went to a local faith-based summit on the housing crisis, to educate us and help us start to imagine ways that faith communities could help.
I knew we had a housing crisis, in Dane County, in Wisconsin, nationwide, but I learned that it’s much worse than I realized.
And of course it’s hardest for the poor, for people of color, for people with any kind of spotty employment or credit history, and for young folks who want to move into stable housing and build their lives.
One thing I learned at the summit is that Dane County has a lot of good jobs, and people WILL move here for the jobs, whether there’s housing or not.
If there isn’t housing close, they’ll live farther out – even in the next county – and commute.
So to deal with that reality, we can either build more dense housing near jobs and along public transit routes; OR there will be more and more people with long commutes – with negative impacts on their quality of life, our traffic, and the environment.
Here in Madison, the Council recently passed some new zoning that will allow construction of duplexes in formerly single-family home neighborhoods along certain transit routes.
It’s intended to help add some more entry-level housing, and to reduce traffic and the environmental harm by making it easier for folks to use transit.
And we heard some pushback about that.
Some people who live in those neighborhoods were pretty upset about the way this might change the character of their neighborhoods.
They don’t like the aesthetics, they’re worried about their property values, and I think there’s probably also some concern about who these duplex-dwellers are going to be.
As I sat in the housing summit, I thought about those folks and their discomfort and anxiety.
I’m sure they are mostly people with genuine concerns about the wellbeing of less affluent community members. They don’t want young couples or lower income families to be unable to find homes.
And I’m sure they are mostly people who really care about climate change, and about driving less.
I’m not an expert on urban design or transit or real estate.
But I do have some training in matters of soul and conscience.
And I think what those folks are facing is a difficult situation of choosing good.
They have competing values within themselves.
Maybe they haven’t thought it all through, laid all those values and hopes and desires out on the table; but even if you do that, even if all it’s really clear in your head, sometimes the right action remains unclear.
Sometimes – maybe often – we are conflicted. Our values and intentions and wants and needs can be at odds.
It’s hard work to untangle it all and decide – discern – what to weigh most heavily in a given situation.
Hard work – but such essential work.
Doing good, choosing good, knowing good is complicated.
If we want to be clear with God and honest with ourselves, and get things square with other human beings, let’s acknowledge that our insides and intentions matter.
And they matter – in the words of Christian writer Kathleen Norris – not because “God is a great cosmic cop, eager to catch us in minor transgressions, but simply because God loves us.”
God isn’t profiling us as likely sinners, looking for any excuse to pull us over.
God loves us, and what matters to us matters to God.
God loves us, inside and out, including our messy and conflicted intentions and needs and desires and hopes.
Let me take another brief detour – about divorce.
It seems like the historical Jesus took marriage pretty seriously, and didn’t like the idea of a marriage ending.
It’s true that he was concerned with the vulnerability of abandoned women, but I don’t think that’s all that’s going on.
It wasn’t the main thing for him by any means; he talked about other things much, much more.
But this is heart- and life-stuff for many folks in this room, so even though it’s small in the Gospels, it may feel big to you.
Matthew’s source here is the earliest gospel, the gospel of Mark. In Mark Jesus is talking specifically about remarriage, and this teaching reads more like a warning against leaving your spouse for somebody you like better.
Matthew drops out the remarriage aspect, which makes this sound live more of a blanket condemnation of divorce.
But even if we read this teaching of Jesus as, “Don’t leave your partner for somebody new,” it’s not easy to take on board.
I bet most grownups know somebody who was betrayed and deeply wounded by a partner who fell in love with someone else.
I bet most of us also know somebody who left a difficult or life-sapping relationship and eventually found a new partnership that has brought them renewal and joy.
I definitely have some questions for Jesus about all this.
But I also think that the main upshot of this whole passage is that we should try to live with clarity and integrity.
And that probably means bringing our conflicts and hurts and grudges and unmet needs out into the open, and trying to deal with them as clearly and kindly and fairly as possible.
And sometimes the clearest and kindest outcome is that a relationship ends.
My Jesus understands that.
Oh, that my ways were made so direct
that I might keep your commandments!
Being good, doing good, choosing good is complicated.
That’s why we named Turning as one of our core discipleship practices, back in 2016 – and in fact Turning is also one of Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s Ways of Love.
The Way of Love materials say: “With God’s help, we can turn from the powers of sin, hatred, fear, injustice, and oppression toward the way of truth, love, hope, justice, and freedom. In turning, we reorient our lives to Jesus Christ, falling in love again, again, and again.”
Here’s what we said about turning in our discipleship practices: “We follow the teaching of Jesus Christ by being open to repentance, transformation, and call. The word “turning” springs from the New Testament word “metanoia,” meaning a change of mind that bears fruit in a changed life.”
Turning is a foundational Christian practice.
It’s like a fractal, the same shape at any scale – there are tiny opportunities on a daily basis, and great big life-transforming moments and seasons too – for individuals and institutions alike.
Being open to repentance, transformation and call is always part of Christian life, but we are approaching the season of Lent – it begins in about a week and a half.
And our Sunday lessons are starting to lean towards it.
Lent is the season when the church prepares for the mystery of Easter, and it has long been observed as a season for self-examination, reflection, and intentional turning.
Often people try on some disciplines or practices that they hope will become habits that make their lives more fully reflect their values and convictions.
Now is a good time, actually, to give that a little thought and prayer, if you feel called to take on a Lenten practice this year.
Let me know if you would like a conversation partner.
Choosing good – for ourselves, others, the world – often is not straightforward.
If there’s anything I can wrestle from this difficult Gospel, it’s that we have to try to be as honest with ourselves as we can about what’s going on inside us – our sometimes-conflicting values and desires, intentions and needs.
It can help to have a community, people who are in it with us.
Maybe it helps to have a season like Lent that invites us to acknowledge that we all have stuff we’re figuring out and working on.
And it helps to be kind – to ourselves, to one another.
In our Epistle today, Paul says: You are God’s field, God’s building.
Paul is talking about how the church in Corinth – like every Christian community, like every individual Christian – is a work in progress. A growing field that’s been planted and watered, but is still needs lots of sun and rain and time to reach maturity.
A structure that’s being built up slowly up from the foundation – that’s in the next few verses beyond today’s text – and needs a lot more stone and mortar and work and care to be complete.
It’s okay that we’re unfinished, imperfect, still working on it.
We’re still growing, still being built. Each and all.
And we belong fully to God in our incompleteness, our working-on-it-ness: God’s field, God’s building, God’s work in progress.
Let’s hold that as we turn together towards Lent; towards wherever God is calling us. Each and all.
Amen.
The link for the Zoom gatherings is available in our weekly E-news, in our Facebook group St. Dunstan’s MadCity, or by emailing Rev. Miranda: .
THREE WAYS TO USE AN ONLINE BULLETIN…1
1. Print it out!
2. Open the bulletin on one device (smartphone or tablet) while joining Zoom worship on another device (tablet or computer).
3. On a computer, open the bulletin in a separate browser window or download and open separately, and view it next to your Zoom window
Today we are celebrating Candlemas!
Its other name is the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, which is the Gospel story we just heard.
This holy day comes deep in the winter, at a time of year when people are longing for spring and the return of longer days.
So over the centuries – especially as Christianity moved into more northern regions with longer, darker winters – the holy day became a festival of light and a time to bless candles, to be burned in times of peril, storms, or sickness.
Candlemas is a minor feast of the church, falling on February 2.
We bring it into Sunday church here because there’s a Candlemas story about St Dunstan, the saint of our church, and that makes it special for us.
The story goes like this…
It happens about eleven hundred years ago!
In the western part of England, where winters were long and cold and dark and sometimes stormy.
And it wasn’t just the winters that were hard.
It was a time of violence, poverty, sickness, corruption, and unjust rulers.
It was Candlemas Eve, and everyone in the village was at church. In the crowd was a young woman named Cynethrith. She was married and was expecting a child.
She was a woman of deep faith, and she prayed every day that her child would grow up to be someone who could help her country and her people.
So, everybody came to church for Candlemas, and they brought their candles to bless.
This was before electricity, so they didn’t have flashlights or lamps with bulbs… just candles, and little lamps that burned oil or fat, and the fireplaces in their homes.
Imagine a little stone church full of candlelight! It must have been beautiful.
But! There was a big storm that night…. And suddenly, in the middle of the praying and singing, a gust of wind blew through the church and blew out everybody’s candles! Every single one!
The church was in total darkness! Adults cried out. Children wept. The priest begged everyone to stay calm.
Nobody had lighters or matches – they didn’t exist yet!
But then, suddenly, there was light again.
The candle that Cynethrith was holding had lit – all by itself.
As if by magic. As if by a miracle.
She shared that holy and mysterious flame to her neighbors, and the light spread until the whole church was lit up again.
The lighting of Cynethrith’s candle was a sign of what her baby would become: Saint Dunstan, monk, friend of kings, founder of monasteries, and Archbishop of Canterbury, a leader who would share and spread Christ’s light in difficult times.
And it was a sign of her own role as the mother of a saint, kindling God’s light in her son’s heart.
Dunstan shined his light in the difficult times when he lived.
Just like Jesus says in our Song of Faith today: Be light! Be salt!
This is part of a big sermon Jesus preached.
We heard the beginning last week: A big crowd had gathered, so Jesus went up on a hill so people could see and hear him, and preached to the crowd.
The people in that crowd weren’t rich or important or special.
They were ordinary people from the villages and countryside.
Matthew just told us that Jesus was healing people who were sick or disabled or hurt, so the crowd probably included a lot of people who were sick or disabled or hurt, and their loved ones.
And Jesus starts his sermon off with a big surprise for everybody:
It’s not the people who are rich and important and special in their own eyes who are really on top of the world.
People who are grieving or struggling, people who feel hopeless, people who are full of frustration and yearning for a better world, people who take time to be kind instead of always pushing to get ahead, people who are bullied and bothered for doing what is right – those are the people who are especially held in God’s love.
Those are actually the people who really matter in the world, no matter how it might look on the surface.
Then he goes on to tell this group of ordinary, unimportant people, including kids and old people and sick and disabled people and all kinds of folks – he tells them:
You are the salt of the earth!
You are the light of the world!
I want us to hear those words, that thing Jesus is telling us about ourselves – and I do think he’s speaking to us as well as that original crowd.
What does it mean to be salt and light?
Salt and light are both things where a little bit can make a big difference.
Let’s start with salt.
When food is flavored just right, it doesn’t just taste like salt, right?
Salt brings out the other flavors. It doesn’t dominate.
But you can really tell the difference between food that has just the right amount of salt – or not enough – or too much!
And this stuff Jesus says about salt losing its saltiness?
That’s not a thing. Salt is very simple.
It’s a sodium cation and a chloride anion. NaCl. It doesn’t go bad.
There are two ways we can read what Jesus says here:
Either he is surprisingly uninformed about salt,
Or he’s intentionally saying something that can’t happen.
Like, if salt just refuses to be salt, then sure, it’s basically sand, and the best use for it is to scatter it on an icy spot.
But it is salt’s nature to be salty.
Jesu says we can trust our God-given saltiness and just let ourselves get mixed in and spice up the world.
A little salt can change and improve the flavor of the whole dish.
And a room with one candle in it – or a sky with one star – is so different from total darkness.
Who grew up with the song?
“This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine!…
Hide it under a bushel? NO! I’m going to let it shine!
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine…”
In my research this week I learned a fun fact.
Think about a lit candle in the dark.
If you were in a wide open, dark space, and you turned around and started walking away from that candle, and looked back at it now and then, how far away do you think you could still see it? …. Two physicists studied this question, and they found that it’s about 1.6 miles.
They did it by comparing it with the visibility of stars from earth!
At about 1.6 miles, a candle flame is about the same brightness as some of the stars that we can just barely see from earth.
1.6 miles is a lot farther than I would have guessed!
For those who know the local terrain: From here at St. Dunstan’s, it’s about 1.6 miles to the intersection of University Avenue and Whitney Way.
Even a single candle can shine its light pretty far!….
In a commentary on today’s Gospel, The Salt Project says, “Like salt and light, God made you as a small thing that can make a big difference for a larger whole. God made you to spice things up — not to overpower the dish, but to enliven it… And likewise, God made you to shine, as only you can: a flame that can light up an entire room, or help guide a lost traveler home… But we do have to claim and embrace and live out these gifts. We do have to actually be salty and luminous… [In the Sermon on the Mount,] Jesus does not say, Follow these instructions and you’ll be blessed. Rather, he says, You are already blessed with gifts for blessing the world — so go and bless! Spice and shine!”
I love that. Spice and shine, dear ones!
But I want to explore one more thing before we move on.
Light is one of the big themes of the season of Epiphany.
It’s in our songs and prayers and Scriptures all over the place.
Over the past few years I have been trying to pay attention to how we talk about light – and especially how we talk about darkness.
I read an article a couple of weeks ago by a Christian songwriter who’s been thinking about this too – Steve Thorngate.
First, he lays out some of the tensions and complexities.
He writes, “There is a long history in the church of using words like light, white, bright, and fair to [suggest] goodness in a straightforward way – and words like dark, black, shade, and dim to [mean] the opposite. Most instances… were not written for explicitly racist purposes (though some were). Still, this language has thrived alongside racism in White-dominated church contexts. And language—especially ritual language, repeated again and again—has great power among those who speak or hear it, [beyond] the intent of its creators. So there is a compelling case to simply avoid this whole family of descriptive language at church, [because] it can be and has been used to bolster White supremacy.”
On the other hand, he says, “The Bible is chock-full of light/dark imagery, with much (though not all) of it presenting light as the positive side of the coin.”
Furthermore, he says, “[Light and dark] language, after all, is more than biblical: it’s elemental. It names a fundamental experience of all living things. The earth’s days and seasons are defined by the planet’s relationship with the sun’s rays…These cycles of darkness and light have shaped creatures, ecosystems, and communities across generations and continents, and the depth of this shared reality makes it a rich source for [Christian symbolic] language. This universal experience of time and of the created order… is fundamental to Christian [worship].”
That’s an especially salient point here at Candlemas.
You might know at least two other celebrations on February 2nd.
Can anybody name one? … (Groundhog Day; Imbolc.)
February 2nd is important, is named and celebrated in all these ways, because it falls halfway between the winter solstice – the shortest day, the longest night – and the spring equinox, when the night and day are the same length; after that the days start to get longer than the nights.
So February 2nd is a human way of naming a planetary waypoint, a particular moment in the interaction of the Earth’s tilted turning in relation to the Sun.
And we humans, observers and meaning-makers, have layered on all these feasts that are different ways of saying that we are yearning for light and spring and rebirth.
Light and dark really do have this elemental, fundamental meaning. But that doesn’t free us from responsibility to be thoughtful in using this language, with its history of harm.
Steve Thorngate writes that he has decided – for now – to keep using these images in his songs, but carefully, and with a few guidelines.
For example: Think about what we mean when we talk about light. “Light can mean illumination, vision, transparency, openness, the revealing of secrets.” Those meanings stay close to the literal function of light.
But let’s be careful about layering on more moral or value-laden meanings, like innocence, goodness, cleanness, purity.
He also suggests that we be very cautious about using negative language for darkness – and look for opportunities to say positive things about darkness, too. He writes, “Fertile soil is dark. A dark sky without light pollution promotes healthy rest and… visibility. Secrets and mysteries aren’t always bad things.”
And he urges us to work on broadening and diversifying the language and imagery we use in worship – the ways we talk about God and about our Christian vocation.
I wonder what it would be like to spend a whole Epiphany exploring salt, instead of light? There would have to be lots of snacks!
Thorngate’s essay summed up a lot of things I’ve been thinking about – and I’ve been trying to follow similar guidelines for a while. But I am still thinking and wondering about it all.
I invite you to think and wonder with me.
How we can use these images that are so central in our Scriptures and that are so natural to us as human beings who live on a planet that spins from dark to light, dark to light again; but also who live in a society with a deep and persistent history of sorting and ranking people based on their skin color, and using darkness to stand for ignorance or evil?
I invite you to wonder and notice with me… and if you have ideas or questions or noticings, let’s talk about it.
SOURCES
The Salt Project’s commentary on this Gospel:
About candle flames and distance:
https://www.technologyreview.com/2015/07/31/72658/how-far-can-the-human-eye-see-a-candle-flame/
Steve Thorngate on light and dark imagery:
https://www.christiancentury.org/article/features/should-we-avoid-liturgical-language-light-and-dark
The link for the Zoom gatherings is available in our weekly E-news, in our Facebook group St. Dunstan’s MadCity, or by emailing Rev. Miranda: .
THREE WAYS TO USE AN ONLINE BULLETIN…1
1. Print it out!
2. Open the bulletin on one device (smartphone or tablet) while joining Zoom worship on another device (tablet or computer).
3. On a computer, open the bulletin in a separate browser window or download and open separately, and view it next to your Zoom window
St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church is seeking our next part-time Director of Music Ministry. The position is 12 hours/week with initial compensation of $23 – $25/hour, depending on experience and qualifications. The only fixed hours at present are Sunday mornings (9AM – 12PM); additional hours are flexible or TBD based on availability. St. Dunstan’s is a warm, lively and inclusive congregation with both in-person and Zoom (online) worshipping congregations. The Director of Music Ministry supports our worship life by selecting music, playing piano or organ in worship to support congregational song, working with singers and musicians within the congregation to prepare special music, collaborating with the Rector to plan special liturgies, and continuing to develop our practices of shared music-making for all ages. As a staff member involved in liturgical leadership, the Director of Music Ministry contributes to an atmosphere of welcome and warmth in the life of the congregation. Our musical repertoire at St. Dunstan’s includes both the full range of the Episcopal hymnals (from medieval chant though modern hymnody), “paperless” music, and sacred music from various folk traditions and from around the world. We are striving to build a parish musical culture that makes room for everyone from the highly trained to the untrained-but-enthusiastic to participate in music-making. We are looking for someone creative, collaborative, skillful and playful to join us in this work. Our ideal candidate may or may not be a trained church musician, but will be someone collaborative and curious, who will get to know us, learn the music and ways of music-making that are important to us, and help us grow, explore, and build.
Read the full job description here below!
To apply, send a cover letter and CV to .
JOB DESCRIPTION: DIRECTOR OF MUSIC MINISTRY
Effective 2/1/23
TITLE: Director of Music Ministry
REPORTS TO: Rector, St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church
HOURS: 12 hours/week: 9AM – 12PM every Sunday; additional 9 hours/week on average of planning, collaboration (possibly including a regular weekly practice time), and communication weekly, on average. Additional compensated hours may be negotiated for other special services, events, or trainings.
COMPENSATION: $23-$25/hour, depending on experience & qualifications.
STATUS: Regular Part-time, Non-exempt
POSITION SUMMARY
Under the supervision of the Rector, the Director of Music Ministry supports the worship life of St. Dunstan’s Church by selecting music, playing piano or organ in worship to support congregational song, working with singers and musicians within the congregation to prepare anthems and other special music, collaborating with the Rector to plan special liturgies, and continuing to develop our practices of shared music-making for all ages. As a staff member involved in liturgical leadership, the Director of Music Ministry contributes to an atmosphere of welcome and warmth in the life of the congregation.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES
The Director of Music Ministry shall:
* A note regarding instruments: The primary instrument used to support congregational singing and smaller ensembles at St. Dunstan’s is a grand piano. We also have a small Allen electric organ and we enjoy hearing its voice now and then, but there is latitude for someone to take some time to learn to play the organ for occasional special pieces and occasions.
II. Work with musicians and ensembles within the congregation to prepare special music (30%)
III. Participate in Planning the Musical & Liturgical Life of the Parish (20%)
The Director of Music Ministry shall:
IV. Maintain the parish’s Music Library, licenses, and instruments (10%)
The Director of Music Ministry shall be responsible for the following tasks, either as part of their work or in collaboration with volunteers:
Note: This description is not intended to include all responsibilities, as additional duties may be assigned and existing duties may be adjusted at any time.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
Qualifications
Previous experience supporting or leading vocal ensembles
Accompaniment & keyboard skills
Requirements
References will be required if selected for an interview.
Our Annual Reports are an overview of many of our ministries and their recent projects and priorities. It’s a good way to know what we’re up to. Note that not all ministry groups send in an annual report! NOTE: We don’t post email addresses on the website, but use our Contact Us form or talk to Rev. Miranda to get connected with any of these ministries.
MINISTRY REPORTS, JANUARY 2023
MINISTRIES OF FELLOWSHIP AND FORMATION
Children’s Formation
Sunday school
Sunday school is back to our pre-pandemic schedule of meeting twice a month during 10AM in-person worship. (Most of our kids are participating in church in person, though StoryChurch is one online kid-centered offering, and we are open to others as needed!) We have two Sunday school classes, one for ages 3 through first grade and one for second grade through fifth or sixth (whenever kids decide they’d prefer to stay in church). In the younger classroom they are working through a set of core holy stories, using materials from the Godly Play and Diddy Disciples books. In the older classroom we are patching together our own curriculum from various sources, based on the Sunday lectionary. In the new year we may start integrating some of our Scripture drama work as part of the schedule for that class. Interested folks welcome as teachers and helpers – talk with Rev. Miranda!
Drama Camp
Our summer kids’ camp in 2022 was a Drama Camp, focused on building kids’ skills and engagement with various aspects of drama and theater. About 25 kids participated over the course of the week, including some guests from the wider community. The younger group worked on using their bodies, faces, and voices to express different feelings, played with costumes, and developed a performance of the story of Jonah. The older group explored lights and tech, makeup, props and set design, voice and expression, and much more, while preparing a performance of the Biblical story of Tobit. It was a great week and we are carrying some of those skills into our Scripture drama and pageant work during the year!
Youth Ministry
The Youth Ministry Program has undergone one significant change this year: hiring a dedicated staff person. Isabelle had a number of big goals coming into this position, but there are three in particular that have seen marked improvement.
First, expanding communication regarding youth activities with the wider parish has been successful by the utilization of monthly “wrap-up” emails and increasing day-to-day visibility through frequent Facebook posts. The parish has been able to receive updates on the annual Treinen Farm visit, the Halloween and Christmas parties, Friday night craft projects, and other service events.
Second, youth ownership of the youth program has been strengthened by seeking input on Friday night activities, monthly events, and service opportunities. The GSAFE bake sale was requested, priced, and staffed by the youth themselves, resulting in a $593 donation. Coming up at the end of January is an almost entirely youth-organized overnight retreat (Holy Creations: Self Love & Care) where the youth will get to explore topics they’ve expressed both and interest and need for. A similar approach is being taken for spring programming and summer service trips.
Lastly, youth programming has made only as many adjustments as befits the wants and needs of the youth themselves. To maintain tradition and smooth the transition process, Fall and Spring bonfire days are still going strong! To make space for the artistically inclined, one Friday a month has had a dedicated seasonal craft. In upcoming months, the youth hope to have multiple Lent Madness get-togethers, movie nights, a murder mystery dinner party, and an open house art gallery in the Parish Center.
As far as need goes, Isabelle is still trying to find/establish a best practice for Friday night second-adult volunteers. You could help greatly in that process by signing your name & volunteer preferences to this link: https://forms.gle/619m9yikuv1uoCgW9. Finally, if you have ideas for events, crafts, games, demonstrations, or destinations, please contact Isabelle to initiate some collaboration! Thanks much for reading, and the kids hope to see YOU on an upcoming Friday night.
Building & rebuilding community
Moving into the fall of 2022, parish leadership heard and perceived a need to focus on building and rebuilding community. One endeavor in that direction this fall is the new Aging Together group, which meets about once a month on Friday mornings on Zoom. We’ve had some meetings focused on particular topics, like loneliness and the disorienting effects of grief; others have been focused just on sharing and mutual support. Some people have started meeting on Zoom most Fridays because connection feels good!
Another new endeavor was a small group that met on Zoom for four sessions focused on practical tools for raising faithful kids. Out of that work came a plan to have monthly evening Zoom meetings for parents, for check in and mutual support, similar to our previous Spirituality of Parenting group.
We’re also working on returning to some of our pre-pandemic fellowship opportunities, like regular young adult meetups and crafting gatherings. If you’re interested in any of this, talk with Rev. Miranda to learn more – and in some cases, perhaps help make it happen!
Saturday Book Club
The Saturday Book Group meets on Saturday mornings every 6-8 weeks, though less frequently during the summer. We generally alternate between fiction and non-fiction books. In 2022 most meetings were remote on Zoom. In 2023, we plan to hold hybrid meetings – in person combined with Zoom.
Books we read in 2021 were:
Speak to Peter if you’d like to know more. Please do join us.
MINISTRIES OF WORSHIP AND PRAYER
Contemplative Prayer
The contemplative prayer group finished its year in May 2022 (after starting in October 2021). We continued to meet online throughout the spring and experimented with several types of prayer together, including the examen, welcoming prayer, Ignatian contemplation, and lectio divina. In July, we gathered in person for a potluck lunch hosted by Susan Franks. Overall, we gained insight into new ways to connect with God and are grateful for the friendships we made with one another along the way! – Submitted by Jamie Smet
Music Ministries
St. Dunstan’s music ministries is a loose conglomeration of musicians (both vocalists and instrumentalists) who do help us sing, listen to, and play music for service; write special hymn lyrics; compose, transcribe, and engrave psalms, hymns, choral arrangements, and original music; provide special music on- and off-site in collaboration with wider church events; handle music library, technological, and licensing logistics; provide second-adult presences for children’s choir rehearsals; organize fellowship events; publicize off-site music events; and provide financial and material support.
2022 required continued adaptation of our musical activities to meet the challenges of the season, including Deanna’s reduced hours. Some highlights of what we accomplished include:
To all ensemble participants; guest musicians of all stripes; folks who manage the library and technology behind-the-scenes; donors; and the congregation: thank you for your continued support!
OUTREACH MINISTRIES
Outreach Annual Report 2022
St. Dunstan’s Outreach Ministries are many and varied, including gifts of time, service, and monetary donations. We gratefully acknowledge the many gifts of human and financial resources in support of Outreach from other individuals and ministries within the St. Dunstan’s family.
In 2022, the Outreach Committee used monetary donations and in person volunteer hours to address the following concerns: disaster relief, food insecurity, lack of shelter and housing, eviction prevention, refugee resettlement, LGBTQ+ rights/safety, and criminal justice reform.
The Outreach Ministries Committee holds meetings on the last Saturday of the Month. The meetings are currently held at 9:30am, via zoom. We welcome new voices and new concerns; please consider joining us! Contact Evy if you would like to be added to the Outreach e-mail distribution list we use to keep members informed about upcoming Outreach meetings and related activities. If you have issues you would like us to address or organizations you would like to support you can either email them directly to Evy or fill out the outreach input form at this link https://forms.gle/nUHzxa3wHHv5b1Ei6
St. Dunstan’s Outreach Allocations in 2022
Every year, St. Dunstan’s sets aside a percentage of the budgeted pledged income to be allocated to organizations locally and internationality that serve those in need. In 2022St. Dunstan’s Outreach Committee allocated $17997 to the following organizations and projects:
Middleton Outreach Ministry, Bread for World, MOSES, Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee-Newala, GSAFE (creating safer schools for LGBTQ+ youth in Wisconsin), East H.S. Food Pantry, Jewish Social Services/ refugee resettlement program, Second Harvest, The Beacon, Just Dane for Healing House, Mr. Bob’s Under the Bridge, Briarpatch Youth Services, Badger Needs Network, Grace Food Pantry, Tenant Resource Center, Mennonite Central Committee/Ukraine, Bstrong/Ukraine, and the Diocesan Haiti Partnership.
St. Dunstan’s Outreach Endowment Fund
This year the outreach committee sought congregational input on the distribution of grants from the outreach endowment fund. The fund was established in 1995, by the vestry and is managed by Diocese of Milwaukee Trustees of Funds and Endowments. Annually the outreach committee makes recommendations to the vestry for spending a percentage (aprx. 5%) of the fund to provide donations to organizations addressing basic human needs. 50 people participated in the voting process and the votes were very close. The organizations that received the most votes were The Road Home and Allied Food Pantry. Both organizations received $2,500 from the outreach fund.
Outreach Core Ministries and Volunteer Opportunities
There are several core ministries that St. Dunstan’s invests volunteer time and resources in on a continual basis. These are just a few of them.
Outreach MOSES Ministry
Since 2018, St. Dunstan’s has been a Member of MOSES – “Madison Organizing in Strength, Equity and Solidarity for Criminal Legal System Reform” – a non-partisan interfaith organization that works to promote social justice with a focus on ending mass incarceration. In doing so, MOSES seeks to deliver a message of hope, healing, and unity that reaches beyond the divisions of race, creed, and socioeconomic status. MOSES provides many opportunities for volunteer participation at various levels, such as helping at a MOSES-sponsored event; serving on a MOSES task force or committee; or making a tax-deductible financial donation to MOSES. In 2021 and 2022, St. Dunstan’s served as the host location for an annual rummage sale to raise funds for MOSES – over $2,700 was raised for MOSES at the 2022 rummage sale, thanks in part to members of St. Dunstan’s who supported this event by donating items and being present to help as needed. For more information about MOSES, visit their website at www.mosesmadison.org.
MIDDLETON OUTREACH MINISTRY
Middleton Outreach Ministry has been able to navigate many transitions during this past year. They have continued to provide food and housing assistance in a number of ways. At the end of August, MOM expanded to in-person shopping four days a week and continued the drive-thru, delivery and mobile services. This past November saw 100,000 pounds of food distributed along with 8600 pounds of clothing. They supported more families in the Connections housing program so they could move out of doubled-up living arrangements and into homes of their own. Currently 15 families involved in this program have received housing, and will continue to have one year of support from MOM. Also, MOM special events have provided needed assistance during the year—600 students received backpacks and school supplies through the Back to School Program; 432 Thanksgiving meals were distributed; and the Winter Wishes program provided over 500 households with gift cards. St. Dunstan’s Outreach
Committee has continued its support of these very important community services with monetary donations, volunteers, as well as participation in the past year’s Winter Wishes program. Thank you, St.Dunstan’s for helping us contribute in so many ways to provide the assistance needed to sustain the good works of Middleton Outreach Ministry.
Healing House
Healing House, located at 303 Lathrop Street in Madison, is an 8 bed facility, providing 24/7 recuperative care for homeless families who have been released from the hospital or who need care to prepare for a surgery or medical procedure. Families are cared for by medically trained staff and volunteers and can stay for up to 28 days. The Healing House provides clients with three meals a day, child care assistance, and case management to end the cycle of homelessness. St. Dunstan’s is a part of group of organizations brought together by The Road Home to provide meals to families staying at the Healing House. The next week St. Dunstan’s will be supplying food for Healing House is February 19 -25, 2023.
Grocery Shopping for Refugees/ Jewish Social Services
Humanitarian crises in Afghanistan, Ukraine, and elsewhere have displaced millions of people. Some of these people and families who have been arriving to the United States under UN humanitarian parolee status are being resettled in Madison under the management of Jewish Social Services. We wanted to support them in a tangible way, something more than simply writing a check. To that end, beginning in August of 2022, the St. Dunstan’s Outreach Committee and a team of volunteers has been helping JSS with their important work by shopping for and delivering groceries for new households who are arriving in Madison. This fills an important gap between the time of their arrival and when their food benefits can be applied for and processed. The shopping list reflects the cuisine of their country of origin. So when they are going through so much stress as they settle into their new home, they have familiar foods waiting for them, in the fridge. The Committee allocated $1500 in 2022 to reimburse congregation members for buying groceries. Funds not spent on grocery shopping were sent to Second Harvest Food Bank. Since last August, we have had the privilege to assist 7 households from Congo, Afghanistan, and Syria as they have settled into our community.
Diaper Drive – Pantries are almost always looking for large-sized diapers. We held a diaper drive again this year, and were able to donate over 5900 diapers to pantries. A child needs approximately 6500 diapers between birth and potty training. Many families in our area are struggling financially, and they have to make tough decisions about whether to buy much-needed diapers or groceries or pay their rent. The Wisconsin FoodShare program (food stamps) does not cover diapers, other personal care items, or household cleaners. Decisions must be made all the time about how to spend the small amount of money coming in. Imagine wanting and needing to change your baby’s diaper because you know it’s dirty, but you only have a couple diapers left and no money with which to buy more diapers. Furthermore, families often don’t have the money to buy economy-sized boxes or the time to watch for sales.
This year, we donated diapers and wipes to the following organizations: Allied Drive Food Pantry, Karen’s Essential Center (a pantry in the Elver Park area), Healing House, and Reach Out Lodi (a pantry in Lodi). Thank you very much for your incredible generosity!
Creation Care Annual Report
St. Dunstan’s as a parish has carried a commitment to creation care since its earliest years, when the first rector Bob Childs planted exotic conifers around the grounds. In 2016 we gathered a Creation Care Task Force and created our Creation Care Mission Statement: https://stdunstans.com/our-grounds/creation-care-mission-statement/ . Here are some ways we are living it out this year….
This area of ministry currently has more energy than organization! We could really use a facilitator or co-facilitators for a Creation Care team, to gather us every couple of months to share ideas and updates, identify and move along various projects, and so on.
Installing Solar Panels
Installing solar panels on the main building (spring/summer 2023). Thanks to two major gifts and a small Solar for Good grant from RENEW Wisconsin, we are moving forward with this project, which should cover about 75% of our usual electricity use at the main building. (There will be additional costs, though how Inflation Reduction Act provisions apply to us is still to be determined so we don’t have exact numbers yet.) We’re really excited to be able to generate our own energy (and reduce our utility bills!) In this way.
The Walnut Syrup Project
Last year, starting in early February, we placed 8 taps into 4 trees at three different locations on the church grounds. It took a while before they started actually dripping sap, but over the full season weeks, we collected somewhere around 50 gallons of sap. We did some preliminary boiling indoors on a stove along the way to help in preserving the sap and reducing the volume we were storing, and on March 26, 2022 we had our first ever sap boil using a stove constructed from cinder blocks, a few bricks, a stove pipe and a steam tray pan. We ended up doing a second boil as well, and ultimately ended up with a little shy of 1 gallon of Black Walnut Syrup. 2 pints of the syrup went home with the makers. A small amount was offered as tasting samples at the church, some of it was used in some tartlets for the pie brunch this last fall, and a quart was given as a gift alongside the check that St. Dunstans made to the Wisconsin Inter-Tribal Repatriation Committee. The remainder of last year’s syrup will be available to have on pancakes at the Shrove Tuesday pancake supper.
– Submitted by Phil. Talk to Phil or Carrie about this project!
The Grounds Mapping Project
For years we have needed an up to date digital map of the property that shows particular features, including things like our permaculture plot and other useful plants. After getting conversant with the appropriate software in 2022, John L. plans to work on some mapping this year, including at least a basic map and a map that notes memorials on the property, such as trees and benches. If you have other mapping ideas, talk with Rev. Miranda or John!
This is an invitation that we’ve received, that may interest some of us as we move into the spring and beyond. In 2022 we drafted a parish land acknowledgment. We have given Amends funds to an organization representing the Wisconsin tribes.
We’ve also been on the lookout for some restorative actions we could take, too – not just words, and not just dollars, both of which can be abstract, but ways some of us can commit our time and energy and skill to doing the things that the Native peoples of Wisconsin and beyond would like their allies to do.
We’ve looked at lists of restorative actions from other organizations and have been preparing to develop our own – and in the meantime, we were approached and asked to consider something.
Governor Nelson State Park is kind of our neighborhood state park. It’s up on County M; its southern end is about an 8-minute drive from right here. At that southern end of the park there are a few effigy mounds – an animal shape, called the Panther Mound, and four conical mounds. These are mounds created by the Native peoples of Wisconsin, centuries ago; they are sacred places that need and deserve care. State agencies and the Wisconsin tribes have worked together to develop some very clear best practices for the care of mounds like these.
We are being invited to help care for these mounds.
At the most basic level, and perhaps to begin with, that would look like working with park leadership, with some guidance from tribal representatives, to help care for the Governor Nelson mounds in a culturally appropriate way. That might be a small-to-medium group of volunteers going out for two or three workdays a year to weed whip, remove woody brush, look for animal holes, and so on.
At the slightly more committed level: Maybe there is a cohort of us who would like to really get trained on the specifics of mound maintenance – which is different in small but important ways from how we care for our grounds here, or how you might work in your garden at home. Then we would be able to help out at park workdays by lightly supervising other community volunteers, making sure they’re abiding by those best practices. That would ease the burden on park employees and tribal representatives to keep explaining the guidelines, and could make it easier to use community volunteers without compromising the standard of care.
At the most ambitious level: Maybe our team could become part of a sort of Friends of the Mounds network – perhaps including interested folks from the other Madison Episcopal churches and other churches and community organizations with similar commitments. That group could go out as needed to help maintain mounds located on private property – for example, on farms out in the nearby counties. We have learned that that’s where the real need is – because the parks have willing volunteers they can call on, to some extent, and have been providing some level of care for their mounds already. Some of the mounds on private property need a lot of care, and it would be great to have a team that could go out on a Saturday, with the landowner’s agreement, and just do what they can.
We do want to stress that this can start small, and we can see what our capacity is. We believe this is an opportunity where a relatively small group of committed folks can be part of something important and worth doing.
The next likely steps are gathering a few folks, as soon as the ground is relatively clear, to go “meet” the mounds in Governor Nelson, and probably separately, an early-spring training on mound maintenance best practices.
If this interests you, contact Rev. Miranda or the office and we will loop you in!