Crumbly Bread

The barley bread came out just as I wanted it to - crumbly, dense and hard to eat.

While I was writing my last non-sermon post, I had the barley bread rising. Well it didn't really rise. I have had this problem before with bread not rising, but normally in the winter when the air temperature in the kitchen is too cold for the yeast to really activate, not in the middle of a muggy summer day. Since the recipe only calls for a baking time of 15-20 minutes I thought I would let the bread continue to rise while Bob and I went to a friends house for the evening.

When we got back a few hours later, the bread still hadn't risen much so I went ahead and baked the sucker. And this is how it turned out looking

And a close up of the top so you can see how it didn't rise..

During the sermon I used it to show what a loaf of barley bread looks like and then knocked on it so we would hear how dense it sounds (like a board) and then broke it so show the crumbliness. After worship we had it out at coffee hour so people could try some (most went to the birds). Some comments included: "I wouldn't want to go swimming after eating that" "That would be great to soak up some water with...I think I have some water in the basement that I could use that with."

So overall while it was a pain in the butt to make, it was a great sermon illustration. But I think next time I make barley bread I will mix the barley flour with white or wheat flour in order for it to be a little more edible.

White Bread and Fish Sticks

This sermon is on the gospel text for Sunday John 6:1-21

My dad is a wonderful baker. Growing up we would often have fresh baked bread with our dinner and I can remember more than once when my family was going out to dinner but we devoured a loaf of bread just out of the oven before we even left the house. I grew up eating whole wheat, Challah, rye, and birdseed bread, just to name a few. The remarkable thing about my dad’s baking is that he gives away most of the bread that he makes. Starting in early November he starts making double batches of his German Christmas stolen and by the time the New Year has arrived, he has given away close to 100 loaves to his friends, co-workers, neighbors and family. And for the last few years he has volunteered two loaves of bread a month for an auction item at a fundraiser at his church and has made a probably close to a thousand cinnamon roles to raise funds in order to send bicycles to doctors in rural areas of Africa.

And as wonderful as my dad’s bread is, being a busy father, he would only have a chance to bake every few weeks. And growing up in a family of five, often our sandwiches were made with store bought white and wheat sliced bread. Now I’m not knocking store bought bread, but nothing really compares to fresh out of the oven bread made in small batches in your own kitchen so the entire home smells of that wonderful aroma.

So whenever I have heard this story about the feeding of the 5,000 I have always imagined a loaf of my dad’s fresh baked bread, whether in the form of a baguette, free formed artesian loaf or from a bread pan with the nice crusty sides. And in each mental picture I have of Jesus feeding the 5000, the bread always has the cuts in the top of the loaves which show just how much they have risen.

The bread Jesus used, these five small loaves of barley bread from the young boy, probably did look something like a handmade loaf of bread today, but they were actually the equivalent of generic store bought 99 cent loaves sliced white bread today. Barley was the cheap bread of the times, the hard to eat, tough, crusty, chew and chew and chew and chew bread of Jesus’ day. Most people, even the working class would be able to afford wheat flour which made a slightly lighter loaf of bread and had a nice nutty flavor. Barley was what the poorest of the poor could afford. Barley bread was dense, un-flavorful and tough to chew.

Boy, have things changed in 2000 years. Now a nice loaf of barley bread (which is often made with white and wheat flour mixed in) sells for at least $6 to $8 a loaf at an artisan bread shop. And the bread of the poor is the massed produced pre-sliced white bread, that to me at least does not have much flavor, and without the many unpronounceable ingredients, quickly becomes stale.

And what about the fish? Well I can tell you for sure it was not two large salmon filets grilled over a wood fire. No the fish were probably small, maybe the cast aways caught in a fishers net. Too small to be sold at the market, they were probably dried and without much meat on the bones. So if I were to pick a modern food to represent these fish today, I would not go to the seafood section of the local grocery store, no I would head straight to the frozen food section and grab box fish sticks.

This is the equivalent of the bread and fish that Jesus used in order to feed 5000. Jesus did not take the food from the upper-crust of society but the food from the bottom crust (pun intended). Jesus used the bread and fish that many would have turned their nose up at or have eaten only when there was nothing else to eat. Jesus used the bread and fish of the poor who often did not have enough to eat and feed 5000 people in abundance. These people did not take just a nibble in order satisfy their hunger, but they ate as much as they wanted. Imagine 5000 people today dining on one small box of fish sticks and a loaf or two of white bread. This is the miracle that occurred. And once everyone who ate was satisfied, they collected the leftovers and had enough to feed many more people.

Jesus made the ordinary extraordinary!

Even when the disciples thought feeding all those people were impossible, Jesus feed them. Even when it seemed like there would not be enough for a five people to eat, Jesus feed 5000. For Jesus made the ordinary extraordinary!

And Jesus still makes the ordinary extraordinary. In the simple meal of bread and wine we will share together in a few minutes, we are reminded of Jesus’ death and resurrection and we received tangible symbols of God’s forgiveness towards us. In that ordinary bread, baked by Jennifer and that ordinary wine, that comes from a bottle just like the wine you serve at home, we received God’s extraordinary forgiveness.

And in the ordinary water of the baptismal font, water that came from the tap just a few feet away, we are given a symbol of God’s grace that has been poured out upon us. In that ordinary water we have been made children of God marked with the cross of Christ forever and that is something extraordinary.

And Jesus takes us, ordinary individuals, just regular people, who have come together to worship, an extraordinary little church. We, and really I should say you since I have not been here that long, have feed the hungry through donations of money and gifts to the food pantry which may I say always impresses Gail from Redding Social Services because we do more than some of the larger churches in the area. You have given medical care and basic health care to those in need with health kits and cleaning supplies, and you have given many children an opportunity to learn though the gifts of school supplies. And through these gifts and through our work together, people have grown in their faith and have come to understand the Bible and what God is doing in their lives even more. Jesus has taken us, this ordinary group of individuals and made us into an extraordinary church that has defied many odds and I am so looking forward to seeing how else God continues to make the ordinary extraordinary.

Grind and Grind and Grind Some More

The Gospel lesson for this Sunday isJohn's version of Jesus feeding the 5000. While this story appears in all four Gospel accounts, only in John does it mention that the five loaves of bread were made from barley. And this got me thinking.

My dad is a wonderful bread baker. He won a blue ribbon at the MN State Fair a few years ago when he submitted his honey whole wheat bread, and he has a few recipes published in a cookbook written by one of his bread club buddies. Therefore growing up we had all sorts of bread; whole wheat, challah, rye, pumpernickel. But I don't think I have ever had barley bread.

Now being that I am my father's daughter, I have taken up my father's joy in bread baking and I thought I would try my hand at making some barely bread for a sermon illustration. So I went to my three trustiest bread cookbooks. Total I think there were five recipes for barley bread and every one was mixed with fruits or nuts. So and internet search found me a few options and I went with this recipe. So off to the store I went to get barley flour.

And there was no barley flour, even at the healthy/whole food store. But there was pearled barley sold in bulk. So I bought some and came home ready to workout my food processor to get some barley flour.

And what a workout my food processor got. To make 2 cups of barley flour it took me over an hour and a half (granted I stopped for a half hour at one point in order not to burn out the motor)!

I can't imagine how long it would have taken by hand or with a stone mill to get enough flour to make five small loaves of bread. My guess is that it would take most of the day by hand.

No wonder why barely was the grain of the poor, it is so hard that it takes forever to do something with. Granted it was a really good grain to grow. According to my husband the near-eastern historian, barley does well in drought, flood, salty soil, and is overall a sturdier plant than wheat.

The barely dough is currently rising so we will see how it rises and taste. And while I have learned a little bit more about barely through this experiment I have also learned that I should by a coffee grinder or flour mill.

I'll post some pictures of the final loaf and a critic of the recipe after I have some tomorrow.