the great banquet

On Tuesday Emme and I went to the Farmer's Market in downtown Concord. As usual, Todos Santos Plaza was filled with fantastic produce and a large diversity of people. Many of the homes for the mentally challenged bring their residents every Tuesday to sit on the grass and listen to the live music.

After Emme and I got our lunch, we sat down and savored our tamale (for her) and falafel (for me). We noticed that several people from these homes were dancing out in the middle of the grass. As I watched them, I saw the uninhibited joy in their faces. I watched the caregivers dancing with them, wiping their faces after they ate and taking picture after picture. And I thought of the parable of the Great Banquet from Luke 14:12-24:

He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” Then Jesus said to him, “Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for everything is ready now.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.’ Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.’ Another said, ‘I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ And the slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’ Then the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’”

Here it was in front of me... the Great Banquet! Emme and I began to talk about the people there and she said, "So if you're not very smart, then you dance?" And I said, "No Emme, the ones dancing are the smart ones. It's those of us who are just sitting here that aren't very smart." She sat thoughtfully for awhile longer and then she handed me her tamale, got up and said, "I want to dance." She timidly went to the dancers and one woman was blowing bubbles so Emme started to chase the bubbles. For about 15 min she chased them and our new friend kept blowing and blowing. We said thank you and walked away, glowing from our acceptance of the invitation to dance.

grace

ponder this definition of grace from the lyrics of a Sara Groves song...

"And this is grace... an invitation to be beautiful."

For me, that pulls grace right out of the religious abstract realm and right into the place we live and how it might function in the midst of the ugliness and injustice in the world and in our own hearts.

Her prayer for herself, "I want to add to the beauty."

fava beans

Tonight Emme and I shelled and cooked 2 pounds of fava beans. About four years ago, I discovered this amazing spring delicacy.  To me, these are one of the most fantastic and funny foods ever created.  Easily confused with lima beans, they are anything but drab. Each pod is thick, nobby and downright ugly but inside is a white velvet lining which cushions the beans like they are the queen's jewels.  But the protection doesn't end there... the beans in the shell have a second lining around them.  After briefly boiling the little beans, the outer grayish green lining peels off to reveal a bright green delicate bean.  Perfectly cooked, it has a slight crunch and a very mellow taste.  I can't say what it tastes like except that it tastes like spring and is best prepared with other delicate spring flavors... green garlic, asparagus, and english peas.  Below is my favorite recipe for fava beans... kind of a fava bean pesto.

These fava beans reminded me of the sheer pleasure of preparing food, of sharing local, organic produce bought from the farmer's market with my daughter. I was reminded that it is this connection to the earth that is life-giving for me, my family and creation. I was reminded that these fava beans are a lot like people and me in particular... a little lumpy, misshapen and irregular but whose heart is tenderly held and nurtured, and when given over to grace, able to nourish others. I needed this reminder today.

Fava Bean Tagliatelle

1.5 -2 lbs fresh fava beans
1.5 cups coarsely chopped fresh basil
2 stalks green garlic or 2 cloves, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil (preferably extra-virgin)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
8 ounces tagliatelle or fettuccine
1/3 cup freshly grated pecorino Romano cheese

Shell the beans and cook beans in large pot of boiling salted water until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer beans to large bowl. Reserve water in pot. •Combine approx. 3/4 cups beans, 1 cup chopped basil and garlic in processor. Using on/off turns, process until beans are coarsely chopped. •Transfer mixture to bowl with whole beans. Add remaining 1 cup basil, olive oil and fresh lemon juice. Stir to blend. Season bean mixture to taste with salt and pepper. • Meanwhile, cook pasta in same pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite. Drain pasta, reserving 1 cup cooking liquid. Return pasta to pot. •Stir 1/4 cup reserved cooking liquid into bean mixture. Add to pasta. Add 1/3 cup grated pecorino Romano cheese and enough remaining cooking liquid to moisten. Season pasta to taste with salt and pepper and serve.

Makes 4 first-course servings.
from farmfreshtoyou.com

today i had lunch with a fabulous woman who is on a difficult journey... questioning the faith of her childhood and choosing to struggle even though it would be much easier to either reject it altogether or accept it blindly.  that is courage.  

this is one of my favorite poems and i kept thinking about it while we were talking...

The Journey

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice–

though the whole house began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles.

"Mend my life!" 

each voice cried.

But you didn't stop. 

You knew what you had to do,

though the wind pried 

with its stiff fingers

at the very foundations, 

though their melancholy 

was terrible.

It was already late

enough, and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones.

But little by little, 

as you left their voices behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly 

recognized as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do–

determined to save

the only life you could save.

Mary Oliver, New and Selected Poems, Vol. 1

so tonight i am praying for my new friend and all the rest of us who are edge-dwellers... who can't not question and who struggle with truth and knowing and the unanswerable questions of life. may life in the margins draw us to others that are in the margins economically, socially, physically and emotionally and may God give us the courage to follow Her where She leads.