What makes a salad then? I hear you saying, why lettuce of some description, tomatoes and cucumber. This does make a nice salad, but what about the gibbons, avocados, courgette or carrot? Well of course, all this makes a great salad, but personally I would add peppers, raw mushroom, raddish, apple, olives, apricot, celery, strawberry and orange. It would be tasty then - proper tasty! I once went to a cookery demonstration on using melon - and yes, melon makes a good addition to a salad with broccoli, green beans chopped up and sugar snaps! I know those who like shredded red cabbage, or like me, love amongst my mixed leaves, some pea shoots, rocket and spinach leaves. Then of course there is the dressing......!
What is a salad really? When we make a salad in the Rectory it does contain all sorts and is a varied selection of flavours, colours and textures. For us, it must look appealing and show variety, but a salad - when I lived at home - was a far more simple a creation and just as lovely. My Mum never had hard boiled eggs in her salads as she wasn't that keen, but frequently cheese or fish. We tend to live on salads throughout the Summer season and grow what we can too. The family has always enjoyed salads especially exciting with plenty of variety and not just the same day in day out.
It made me think in our Christian life sometimes things can be quite bland and samey, but with a little variety and interest, it soon becomes more exciting, different and special. We often like the familiar because it is safe and we feel secure within it. However when things change our of necessity or circumstance, as now with the pandemic we are challenged out of our safe nook and there are many advantages. As a church at our core we proclaim Jesus is Lord, but we change and grow when we take on board other things as well. At one church I was at, a trip to the pub for a coffee or an alcoholic drink, was they way the church opened up to others and started to grow. People outside the church were pleased we mixed and we seemed a fun bunch, so they dipped in and started to explore. I tell you it was hugely popular! This was't earth shattering but very different from just going home after worship. I find now that as churches reopen people expect everything as it was before, and can be upset that it is different and has to remain so. However the reality of being open again, though quite different, is enriching and challenging for us and opens new doors of opportunity.
Back to our salads - variety is the spice of life and so too it is in the church! The fact we have done things a set way for many a year does not mean it has to stay there, set in stone. A salad with nuts might not please everyone all the time and in the Winter not all the fresh ingredients are available in our gardens, but we change and adapt, we grow and explore and salads, like church, are the richer because of it. Let us dare to live differently and dare to be open in our churches to what the Spirit asks of us with courage and excitement.
