Pastors Message

Dear Friends,

As I am writing this letter, I am thoroughly enjoying Tucson. When I was living here the reduction in traffic in the summer was an indicator of how many people would head north to escape desert summers. It is indeed hot, but there are some rewards for staying in town. One is the season of the monsoon, a blessed break from the over 100 degree temperatures and the mouth parching dryness.
You can tell when the rain is on its way when suddenly the air becomes earthy and pungent. It is an iconic desert fragrance, a gift from the creosote bush, a plant which can be found on 35 to 46 million acres in the desert southwest. It is a visually unspectacular bush, though when in bloom, it does have lovely tiny yellow flowers with fuzzy blossoms, a favorite of pollinating bees and other insects. And its age is amazing, Estimates vary from a few thousand to more than 11,000 years, likely the oldest living organism on the earth. (These estimates refer not to the age of individual plant stems which live 100 to 150 years, but to clones stemming from a single root system.)

I believe that the creosote bush has a few lessons for us, lessons on life, and struggle and even thriving in the midst of challenge.

The plants longevity is due to evolutionary adaptations. It only breathes in the morning. The problem all plants face is that they must “breathe” in carbon dioxide through openings on the underside of their leaves called stomata, but doing so means they lose water. This becomes a big problem when it is especially hot and dry as it always is during the day in the desert. The creosote bush only opens its stomata in the mornings when the humidity is relatively high and the loss of water is the lowest. It is during this time that it undergoes photosynthesis, and shuts it down when the sun rises higher. This is also why it always faces southeast. Since the plant photosynthesizes only in the mornings when humidity is highest, it needs to maximize the amount of sunlight it receives during that time. Its branches and leaves grow in a shape meant to capture as much morning sunlight as possible. As the sun gets higher and the air drier, it will close its stomata and shut down its photosynthesis. While this may seem like not using the sunlight is wasted potential, it is in fact a smart move since it saves water. And in the desert it is always water, not sunlight that limits plant growth.

The first and overarching lesson is on adaptability, but besides being adaptable, its lessons for us as individuals and as a community may include taking it easy, taking care of one’s self, knowing when to conserve energy, when to breathe and to always look toward the light.

Also, the creosote bush grows in different shapes depending on what it needs. A cone shape allows it to channel rain down its stems so that the water goes deeper into the soil and the roots have more time to absorb it. It can also grow into a hemisphere, an upside down bowl shape that allows leaf litter and other organic material to collect beneath its branches. And this adaptability creates an island of fertility that allows other plants and animals to live underneath, creating a rich soil that is full of nutrients for others and for the creosote bush itself. The creosote is considered a nurse plant that facilitates the growth and survival of surrounding vegetation. And so too it is considered by some to be the single most widely used and frequently employed medicinal herb in the Sonoran Desert.

So another lesson is to be adaptable with the potential of becoming an “island of fertility” where others also may thrive.

And its roots run both broad and deep. Most are shallow, to intercept any water that falls on the soil surface, but in deep sandy soils it can also produce tap roots to obtain water from deeper in the soil.

Another lesson: it is good to have deep roots, but also to be willing to branch out, to seek out opportunities for enrichment, for life and for service.

And the scent of the bush is not only an indicator of the blessed monsoon, its scent is also a warning to take cover, because that same monsoon may also prove deadly.

Perhaps that lesson is that we need to be awake and to pay attention to the world around us. How often the Bible reminds of that!

The creosote bush is one of my favorite desert teachers. But I have found that despite heat and drought, the desert is filled with survivors and thrivers, ranging from geckos to hummingbirds, saguaros to paloverdes, scorpions to bobcats.

I am reminded of the times that Jesus escaped to the desert and I wonder if it was not only to commune with God, but to learn some lessons only the desert can teach.

I invite you to consider how the lessons of the simple, unspectacular creosote might inspire you, and how it might point this church in the direction to which it is so surely being called.

Peace,
Pastor Beth

Dear Friends,

It is hard to believe that we are already in the middle of 2018. Our long cold winter and our reluctant spring are suddenly behind us and we find ourselves in the hot hazy days of summer. Many are planning vacations, times to get away, to be refreshed, and invigorated. Some are making lists of books for leisurely summer reading. For myself I have found the best of summers combine both relaxation and opportunities to learn about something of which I had little or no previous knowledge. Difficult to do in the busier months of the year and so far this year life at First Pres has been busy.

The PNC, the Pastor Nominating Committee, has completed significant tasks, The Property Committee has been hard at work with ongoing projects. You wrapped up two successful ministries to the greater community with your Pancake Breakfasts and your Rummage Sale, and Ann Slowik is making her vision for Shared Blessings a reality (see article on page 3). You spent time at the Annual Picnic sharing your broad visions for the future. You are thinking “outside the box” as you become aware of the need in the wider community. Could we say any ideas were unrealistic, or even crazy?

In our reading of Mark a couple of weeks ago we heard the critics of Jesus say he was out of his mind as he performed miracles and healed the sick. Crazy is what they were saying. Michael Curry, the presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, believes that in this time in history we need more crazy Christians.

Christians crazy enough “to follow the radical way of the gospel. Crazy enough to believe that the love of God is greater than all the powers of evil and death. Crazy enough to believe, as Dr. Martin Luther King often said, that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

We need some Christians crazy enough to believe that children don’t have to go to bed hungry; that the world doesn’t have to be the way it often seems to be; that there is a way to lay down our swords and shields, and crazy enough to believe that every human being has been created in the image of God, and we are all equally children of God and meant to be treated as such. *
I challenge you to continue to be just a little crazy as you envision our church’s future and what it means to be a Christian in the world today. And I recommend that you add Michael Curry’s book, Crazy Christians A Call to Follow Jesus, to your summer reading list.

It could also be the topic for a summer Study group. Let me know if you are interested.

Happy Summer!
Peace and Blessings,
Pastor Beth

*From a sermon by Michael B. Curry, We Need Some Crazy Christians