Sweet Corn from the Pastor
By Lowell Uda
()
About this ebook
On July 1, 1998 I began my pastorate at the Olathe United Methodist Church on the western slope of Colorado. I was initiated into the Olathe community, an agricultural town of about 1500, rather quickly. A week after I arrived I had a funeral service to do, and then another, both for old-timers so I had quick exposure to the community. Then, barely settled into the parsonage with my dog Ipolani, I began hearing about the Olathe Sweet Corn Festival, how on the first Saturday in August the town expected 25,000 people to descend upon the community park for free "Olathe Sweet" sweet corn which grew in the fields around the town. The one-day event featured food and drink concessions, craft booths and music by local performers all day long. The big draw beside the free sweet corn was a rock and roll concert by the Kansas Band when the sun went down followed by a fireworks finale.
My first reaction was: Twenty-five thousand people! That many people in this small town? I found it hard to believe.
But I became a believer that first Saturday morning in August, as I helped to judge floats in the Sweet Corn Festival parade and watched the cars parked every which way on Highway 50 and people--young and old, whole families with children--streaming into the park to sit on the grass before the bandstand and eat the delicious roasted and boiled sweet corn. I sat with them, too, and learned to eat sweet corn dripping with butter and peppered, not salted.
Where did all these people come from? I wondered. It was then that I got the idea for the name of my pastor's column for the church newsletter: "Sweet Corn from the Pastor." This collection includes a number of articles I wrote for "Sweet Corn from the Pastor." It also includes excerpts of sermons as memoirs. I have always been interested in memory, especially in our memory of God, and I have long thought of my sermons, for better or worse, as memoirs.
Lowell Uda
A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, I have taught English at the U. of Hawaii and the U. of Montana, and worked in Montana state government. After that I became a United Methodist minister, pastoring churches in Colorado and Montana. My short story, “The Cherry Tree,” won first prize in the 2011 Common Review Short Story Prize contest. Stories, poems, and creative nonfiction of mine have appeared in literary and other magazines, including The North American Review, the Hawaii Review, the Chariton Review, and, most recently, A River and Sound Review, Written River, The Whirlwind Review, 5x5, Assisi, In Our Own Voice, Divide: Journal of Literature, Arts and Ideas, Poems Across the Big Sky, Moonrabbit Review, and The Other Side.Sincerely yours,
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Book preview
Sweet Corn from the Pastor - Lowell Uda
Sweet Corn from the Pastor
by Lowell Uda
Published by Rice Universe Publishing at Smashwords
Copyright Lowell Uda 2013
Cover Design by Lowell Uda
Cover Photo by Lowell Uda
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Dedication
To the members of the Olathe United Methodist Church
for the wonderful years you embraced me as your pastor
Table of Contents
Dedication
Introduction
Take Time to Experience the Journey
Is the Moon Dead or Alive?
Waiting for God
Waiting with God on a Gurney
Exhaling Forever
Do You Love Me?
Dances with God
Stewardship as Clowning for God
Therefore, Evangelize!
The Trees in my Life
Consider the Hermit Crab
From Shoulder Stand to Plow
Abiding in His Love
Brief Bio of the Author
Other Books by Lowell Uda at Smashwords
Where to Find Lowell Uda Online
Sweet Corn from the Pastor
Introduction
On July 1, 1998 I began my pastorate at the Olathe United Methodist Church on the western slope of Colorado. I was initiated into the Olathe community, an agricultural town of about 1500, rather quickly. A week after I arrived I had a funeral service to do, and then another, both for old-timers so I had quick exposure to the community. Then, barely settled into the parsonage with my dog Ipolani, I began hearing about the Olathe Sweet Corn Festival, how on the first Saturday in August the town expected 25,000 people to descend upon the community park for free Olathe Sweet
sweet corn which grew in the fields around the town. The one-day event featured food and drink concessions, craft booths and music by local performers all day long. The big draw beside the free sweet corn was a rock and roll concert by the Kansas Band when the sun went down followed by a fireworks finale.
My first reaction was: Twenty-five thousand people! That many people in this small town? I found it hard to believe.
But I became a believer that first Saturday morning in August, as I helped to judge floats in the Sweet Corn Festival parade and watched the cars parked every which way on Highway 50 and people--young and old, whole families with children--streaming into the