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Who Moved My Cheese?

by Nadia Bolz-Weber 12-03-2008 | 8:00pm
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"The cheese is gone, someone came in and stole the cheese."

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I looked at Sheralee unsure what this sentence might actually mean as it was not the one I anticipated coming out of this woman's mouth. Sheralee had found our church recently and was becoming a lovely and regular fixture after having been a bit gun-shy after the hurtful collapse of a church plant she was committed to years ago.

I wasn't expecting her to say "someone stole the cheese" for at least two reasons: 1) Everyone else was saying "congratulations," as this was, after years of study and examination and hoop after ecclesial hoop, my ordination into the office of Word and Sacrament ministry in the ELCA, my Lutheran denomination. 2) After a long, beautiful and very HIGH CHURCH ordination service, I was starving and really looking forward to some sliced Swiss that I just knew was waiting for me and my guests downstairs at St. Paul Lutheran church in downtown Denver.

Instead, both platters of sliced cheese that my community had painstakenly arranged in precious little spirals had been stolen during my ordination, along with one of the vegetable trays. The thing is

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by: mscynthia

12-11-2008 @ 3:15pm

The most requested gift card for people who turned in their guns this year in LA was for the Ralphs Supermarket. Not the Toy Store.

by: BuckeyeDon

12-05-2008 @ 3:22am

Nadia:

Cheese or no cheese, congratulations on your ordination to ministry of Word and Sacrament in the ELCA. Our son just had his ordination two months ago, during a similarly "long, beautiful and very HIGH CHURCH ordination service." I'd put up some pictures of him with our bishop if I could. I'm sure your service was a great moment for all your friends and family members.

May God be with you as you begin your service to God's Church.

Peace

by: mscynthia

12-11-2008 @ 3:15pm

The most requested gift card for people who turned in their guns this year in LA was for the Ralphs Supermarket. Not the Toy Store.

by: DITE

12-04-2008 @ 12:23pm

A person far more cynical than myself might say that the person that stole the cheese could now spend the money he or she would have spent on food on drugs and alcohol.

by: DHFabian

12-09-2008 @ 4:43am

It's always sad to come across those who imagine that our poor consist only of alcoholics and drug addicts, though it does make a good excuse to refuse to help people in need. (There is the option of "vouchers", which lists what the person may purchase; using one is like carrying a banner saying, "I'm a loser who is too stupid to make a purchasing decision on my own", so is painfully demeaning...perhaps as a "disincentive" for "choosing" to suffer poverty.)

The fastest growing group of homeless Americans in this high-job-loss, post-welfare era is women and children. Most of the very poor WERE working-to-middle class, having discovered that poverty and the streets is only one illness, one job loss, away.

The need for help far surpasses what (little) help is availble to people in crisis. These people are in crisis through no fault of their own. They "worked hard and played by all the rules", then lost everything through no fault of their own. Most of those who must beg for help are ordinary people who once looked down on the poor, berating them as lazy, addicted, inferior, etc.

by: BuckeyeDon

12-05-2008 @ 3:22am

Nadia:

Cheese or no cheese, congratulations on your ordination to ministry of Word and Sacrament in the ELCA. Our son just had his ordination two months ago, during a similarly "long, beautiful and very HIGH CHURCH ordination service." I'd put up some pictures of him with our bishop if I could. I'm sure your service was a great moment for all your friends and family members.

May God be with you as you begin your service to God's Church.

Peace

by: DITE

12-04-2008 @ 12:23pm

A person far more cynical than myself might say that the person that stole the cheese could now spend the money he or she would have spent on food on drugs and alcohol.

by: DHFabian

12-09-2008 @ 4:43am

It's always sad to come across those who imagine that our poor consist only of alcoholics and drug addicts, though it does make a good excuse to refuse to help people in need. (There is the option of "vouchers", which lists what the person may purchase; using one is like carrying a banner saying, "I'm a loser who is too stupid to make a purchasing decision on my own", so is painfully demeaning...perhaps as a "disincentive" for "choosing" to suffer poverty.)

The fastest growing group of homeless Americans in this high-job-loss, post-welfare era is women and children. Most of the very poor WERE working-to-middle class, having discovered that poverty and the streets is only one illness, one job loss, away.

The need for help far surpasses what (little) help is availble to people in crisis. These people are in crisis through no fault of their own. They "worked hard and played by all the rules", then lost everything through no fault of their own. Most of those who must beg for help are ordinary people who once looked down on the poor, berating them as lazy, addicted, inferior, etc.

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by: DITE

12-04-2008 @ 12:23pm

A person far more cynical than myself might say that the person that stole the cheese could now spend the money he or she would have spent on food on drugs and alcohol.

by: DITE

12-04-2008 @ 12:23pm

A person far more cynical than myself might say that the person that stole the cheese could now spend the money he or she would have spent on food on drugs and alcohol.

by: BuckeyeDon

12-05-2008 @ 3:22am

Nadia:

Cheese or no cheese, congratulations on your ordination to ministry of Word and Sacrament in the ELCA. Our son just had his ordination two months ago, during a similarly "long, beautiful and very HIGH CHURCH ordination service." I'd put up some pictures of him with our bishop if I could. I'm sure your service was a great moment for all your friends and family members.

May God be with you as you begin your service to God's Church.

Peace

by: BuckeyeDon

12-05-2008 @ 3:22am

Nadia:

Cheese or no cheese, congratulations on your ordination to ministry of Word and Sacrament in the ELCA. Our son just had his ordination two months ago, during a similarly "long, beautiful and very HIGH CHURCH ordination service." I'd put up some pictures of him with our bishop if I could. I'm sure your service was a great moment for all your friends and family members.

May God be with you as you begin your service to God's Church.

Peace

by: DHFabian

12-09-2008 @ 4:43am

It's always sad to come across those who imagine that our poor consist only of alcoholics and drug addicts, though it does make a good excuse to refuse to help people in need. (There is the option of "vouchers", which lists what the person may purchase; using one is like carrying a banner saying, "I'm a loser who is too stupid to make a purchasing decision on my own", so is painfully demeaning...perhaps as a "disincentive" for "choosing" to suffer poverty.)

The fastest growing group of homeless Americans in this high-job-loss, post-welfare era is women and children. Most of the very poor WERE working-to-middle class, having discovered that poverty and the streets is only one illness, one job loss, away.

The need for help far surpasses what (little) help is availble to people in crisis. These people are in crisis through no fault of their own. They "worked hard and played by all the rules", then lost everything through no fault of their own. Most of those who must beg for help are ordinary people who once looked down on the poor, berating them as lazy, addicted, inferior, etc.

by: DHFabian

12-09-2008 @ 4:43am

It's always sad to come across those who imagine that our poor consist only of alcoholics and drug addicts, though it does make a good excuse to refuse to help people in need. (There is the option of "vouchers", which lists what the person may purchase; using one is like carrying a banner saying, "I'm a loser who is too stupid to make a purchasing decision on my own", so is painfully demeaning...perhaps as a "disincentive" for "choosing" to suffer poverty.)

The fastest growing group of homeless Americans in this high-job-loss, post-welfare era is women and children. Most of the very poor WERE working-to-middle class, having discovered that poverty and the streets is only one illness, one job loss, away.

The need for help far surpasses what (little) help is availble to people in crisis. These people are in crisis through no fault of their own. They "worked hard and played by all the rules", then lost everything through no fault of their own. Most of those who must beg for help are ordinary people who once looked down on the poor, berating them as lazy, addicted, inferior, etc.

by: mscynthia

12-11-2008 @ 3:15pm

The most requested gift card for people who turned in their guns this year in LA was for the Ralphs Supermarket. Not the Toy Store.

by: mscynthia

12-11-2008 @ 3:15pm

The most requested gift card for people who turned in their guns this year in LA was for the Ralphs Supermarket. Not the Toy Store.