Dear Friends,
I was so inspired by Bryan’s sermon last week in our continuing series on the Bread of Life that I pulled my long unused sourdough starter out of the fridge and began feeding it again, in hopes of making a (hopefully) beautiful loaf this weekend.
Bryan preached beautifully on the invitation to knead and be still as we allow time for God to do God’s work within us, strengthening our belief, showing us that we can find life in the bread that is Jesus.
Bringing sourdough starter back to its bubbly, puffy, voluminous mass happens through the process of fermentation. I love watching my starter (which turned 4 years old in April) begin to grow and bubble over the course of a couple of days, excitedly eyeing it when I get home each day for optimum readiness. I eagerly anticipate that yeasty, sourdough smell filling the kitchen as the starter ferments. Meghan Murphy-Gill, priest of the diocese of Chicago and author of The Sacred Life of Bread (which Bryan also referenced last week) tells the story of cookbook author, Peter Reinhart, telling a baking class that “fermentation brings the dead back to life.” “A sourdough starter,” Murphy-Gill writes is “the breath of life added to unliving clay.”
Jesus tells the crowd and us in this week’s gospel that he is the living bread come down from heaven, and that those who eat of this bread will live forever. We will continue to gnaw on John’s Bread of Life discourse this Sunday and reflect on Jesus’s proclamation and it’s meaning for our own lives.
In the meantime, as summer produce abounds in farmers’ markets and home gardens, as school supply lists populate refrigerator doors, and final summer vacation plans are made, I wish you all the joy of beautiful and peaceful summer days.
All my best,
Courtney+