2nd Sunday after the Epiphany

2nd Sunday after the Epiphany / Martin Luther King Day 

14 January 2007

Bread Words

Lectionary Texts:  Isaiah 62:1-5; Psalm 36:5-10;

1 Corinthians 12:1-11; John 2:1-11

 

One of the benefits of using the Lectionary texts as the basis for liturgy is that all of the passages will be re-visited every three years.  With each cyclical encounter, a different part of the texts will emerge as significant.  This week when I read the Gospel passage from John, it was this verse describing the Wedding at Cana that captured my interest: "When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom."  (John 2:9)  After initially recalling the scene from "Zorba, the Greek" when the character played by Anthony Quinn substituted wine for the water in the urns at the hillside monastery, I recognized this passage is one example of Jesus having first revealed the miraculous to those who were marginalized by the dominant society, of how Jesus brought signs of hope to the poor and disenfranchised.  On this Sunday when Martin Luther King Day is observed, it is important to recognize the ways in which the ministry of the young African-American pastor from Georgia mirrors the ministry of the young prophet from Nazareth.

The shape of the bread for Communion is inspired by the stories of how Martin Luther King, Jr. commited his life to breaking the chains of bondage binding African-Americans to the reality of separate-and-unequal status while also whacking away at the arrogant supremacy of the dominant white class.  Black and white.  Yellow and brown.  We need each other!  If one among us is demeaned or harmed, each of us suffers.  "Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.  To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.  To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.  All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses." (1 Corinthians 12:1-11)  There's not one word about the color of our skin.  Not one word about our gender or sexual orientation.  Each one has special worth and value.  But as long as humans subscribe to the notion of the "other," we are bound by the chains of our predjudices.  Our potentials are doomed.

And so, the Communion bread for this week is formed into a chain, a chain symbolizing the bondage to which we subscribe and submit.  Racism.  Sexism.  Classism.  It's a chain made just like the one made with a crochet hook--very strong and enduring--but one that will be unravelled with the steady perseverance of committed Christians willing to pull at the vulnerable strand until it is broken and cast off. 

The bread dough is made from a simple recipe, divided into two different colored portions which are twisted together to make the chain.  If it seems too complicated to make the bread from a single recipe, the shape can be readily created from two separate bread recipes, one for white bread and one for dark bread.  The reason that I prefer to make the two shades of bread from a single recipe is because the bread will properly bake at the same temperature.

White and Tan Bread

1 3/4 cups milk, heated

1 Tablespoon active dry yeast

2 cups unbleached flour

Sprinkle the yeast over the surface of the warmed milk.  Let the yeast dissolve and then stir in the unbleached flour.  Stir for two minutes.  Divide the mixture into two equal portions, about 1 3/4 cups each. 

In one bowl, add:

1/4 cup honey

2 Tablespoons softened butter

2 cups unbleached flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

Mix the ingredients and then turn out onto a floured surface.  Knead for about five minutes.  Place in a greased bowl and let rise for an hour.

To the other bowl, add:

1/4 cup molasses

1 ounce of dark chocolate

2 Tablespoons softened butter

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups of whole wheat flour

Mix together and then turn out onto a floured surface.  Knead for five minutes.  Place in a greased bowl and let the dough rise for an hour.

Deflate each of the doughs and then roll each dough into a rope about 5 feet long.  Twist the two ropes together.  On a well-greased baking sheet, shape the twisted ropes into a simple chain, leaving both ends free.  So that the loop in the chain would remain "open" during the rising and baking process, I placed a small, greased ceramic cup in the loop;  I don't think the result is effective and I will skip that detail the next time I make this bread.  (Rather than wasting more words attempting to describe how to loop the dough, the pictures below will be more instructive.)

Let the shaped dough rise for about one hour.  Bake at 375-degrees for 25-35 minutes.  Let the bread remain on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.  Though there isn't much difference between the dark and the light doughs on the outside crust, the two kinds of dough can be distinguished--but they are inseparable. 

       

Comments

[Antuanne]

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