Pain

Brett and I laughed at the back of the Sullivan St. Bakery t-shirt yesterday. It reads – Pain Management. Pain is the French word for bread, and we’ve been immersed in the world of French bread making this week. Our teacher and companion along the way has been Alice Downs, and Episcopal priest here in Monmouth County, NJ. Alice also holds a Diplôme du Boulanger from the French Culinary Institute in NYC.

Brett Hendrickson and I met almost 15 years ago serving as young adult mission volunteers in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We became close friends, at times almost like brothers. More recently time, work, family, geography and such have meant we haven’t seen each other in a number of years. A time to reconnect and share in the baking and breaking of bread was a hope of my sabbatical, and these days have been wonderful.

On Tuesday, Alice Downs spoke with us about and we witnessed the work of the yeast in making of bread/pain. The yeast quietly pushes the rise, giving depth, complexity, texture and flavor to the bread. Though it is pushed down several times in the process, it continues to fight upward. However when placed ultimately in the heat of the oven, the yeast must die. You can clearly watch the dough fall – a visual reminder that life is not without pain and death. However what follows is truly new life, as what was once a sticky mess becomes a beautiful loaf. Pain.

I’ve been reading one of the post-resurrection accounts in the Gospel of John. We had to go through the pain of the Passion and the Crucifixion to get to this point. Now Jesus stands alone on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. His disciples don’t recognize him. A miraculous catch occurs, and only then do they see him. He invites them onto the shore. When they got out of the boat, they saw a fire laid, with fish and bread cooking on it…Jesus said, “Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught…Breakfast is ready.” Jesus then took the bread and gave it to them. He did the same with the fish. (Take a look at John 21.)

Peace…