Coffee
I love coffee. Not the cheap stuff made of sawdust and and whatever came to hand at the factory, but real, good coffee. I buy whole beans, and grind them as I need them.
I've done a lot of reading about coffee over the years, and have learned some things.
First, coffee apparently started out in 9th century Ethiopia.
Second, there are two species that are grown commercially: coffea robusta and c. arabica. The first is bitter, but ultimately very inexpensive. Nobody sells pure robusta beans that I'm aware of, as the beverage would be too nasty to drink. Rather, they are used to blend with the more expensive arabica beans to cut the price/increase the profit margin.
Third, and more to the point, the really good coffee is pure arabica, but not all arabicas taste the same. You see, even though they all are the same species, differences of soil, micro-organisms, climate, season, altitude, harvesting, and preparation techniques give different flavors. They're all coffee, all arabica, yet culture makes them somewhat different.
Jesus compared God's message about the kingdom to seed in Matthew 13. If I may employ my coffee metaphor, the coffee bean grows coffee, but the culture causes the flavor of the coffee to vary. The cultural variation doesn't make it not coffee.
Further, if I try to grow coffee in Mexico, and make it exactly the same as coffee in Kona, Hawaii–or 9th century Ethiopia–I'll probably not have good results. At best, I'll have some twisted plant that, with a great deal of effort, only approximates the goal; at worst, I'll have a dead coffee plant with no fruit. If, instead, I plant the bean in Mexico, and cultivate it in the local environment, I'll have a coffee plant that is impacted by that culture, and whose beans have a unique, local flavor. But, it will still be coffee.
I've done a lot of reading about coffee over the years, and have learned some things.
First, coffee apparently started out in 9th century Ethiopia.
Second, there are two species that are grown commercially: coffea robusta and c. arabica. The first is bitter, but ultimately very inexpensive. Nobody sells pure robusta beans that I'm aware of, as the beverage would be too nasty to drink. Rather, they are used to blend with the more expensive arabica beans to cut the price/increase the profit margin.
Third, and more to the point, the really good coffee is pure arabica, but not all arabicas taste the same. You see, even though they all are the same species, differences of soil, micro-organisms, climate, season, altitude, harvesting, and preparation techniques give different flavors. They're all coffee, all arabica, yet culture makes them somewhat different.
Jesus compared God's message about the kingdom to seed in Matthew 13. If I may employ my coffee metaphor, the coffee bean grows coffee, but the culture causes the flavor of the coffee to vary. The cultural variation doesn't make it not coffee.
Further, if I try to grow coffee in Mexico, and make it exactly the same as coffee in Kona, Hawaii–or 9th century Ethiopia–I'll probably not have good results. At best, I'll have some twisted plant that, with a great deal of effort, only approximates the goal; at worst, I'll have a dead coffee plant with no fruit. If, instead, I plant the bean in Mexico, and cultivate it in the local environment, I'll have a coffee plant that is impacted by that culture, and whose beans have a unique, local flavor. But, it will still be coffee.
posted by TWD | 16:21
6 Comments:
So true. I brewed some of my Starbucks breakfast blend, and I planted some in my back yard. Wouldn't you know it, the coffee plants that grew looked just like dandelions.
You can dig up the dandelion roots, roast and grind them, and brew a hot beverage that approximates coffee, but isn't coffee. It works for chicory, and some other plants, too. There might be an application in that...
That causes me to think of dandelion wine. One of the most difficult things about making dandelion wine is getting the dandelion flowers and picking off the petals. Lots of people look at your carefully cultivated field of dandelions and just see weeds. That means you have to defend the dandelions so that they are not mowed over or sprayed with RoundUp or some other broad-leaf herbicide. The same plant that is precious to a maker of dandelion wine is seen as a threat to those wanting a putting-green lawn.
What some people treasure, other people despise.
There are, of course, limits to what can be explained in a blog, due to space and privacy constraints.
One analogy, if you will, is an earthquake. Tension builds and builds along a fault line, but everything looks quiet. Tension releases suddenly, and makes lots of rumbling, in an earthquake. There may be aftershocks for a while. Tension is releaved by the quake, and all settles down again for a while.
There are lots of sources of tension, especially in a congregation with a wide range of viewpoints. This is not the first earthquake, nor is it likely to be the last.
Some important things to remember are these:
* We all are seeking to what we believe God wants us to do.
* We are all on the same side, even though we may disagree on some things.
* Unity comes from being children of the same Father, not from lock-step conformity.
* We still love each other.
* God can use turmoil to further the Kingdom.
I think many of our issues are linked to the switch from wine to grape juice.
Never forget the statistical validity of the healthy benefits humor has in marriages. I know the benefits are not limited to marriage, nor will I allow them to.
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