Kale Chips

“What am I going to do with all this kale?” That’s the question that ran through my mind when I inspected the contents of this week’s half-bushel crate of vegetables from our community produce co-op. The green beans, tomatoes, red onions and eggplant were destined to end up in familiar dishes. But kale? I’m not exactly a foodie. I’m more of a traditionalist when it comes to my culinary tastes. Having recently reached my 50th birthday, are my taste buds really likely to change at this point?

I couldn't stomach the thought of throwing away this green leafy stuff without giving it a try, so I did a google search to see what I could make with kale. I quickly found an article that proclaimed kale to be “over” as a trendy food because it has become so mainstream. “Well, if kale is no longer hip, maybe it’s safe for me to try it,” I thought. 

I found an easy recipe for kale chips and got to work. At first, the smell of the baking kale leaves wasn’t exactly appetizing. It was as if a brussel sprout had crawled behind our range and died there. But the smell improved as the leaves began to brown at the edges. The end product – a batch of light-as-air, crispy kale chips – was intriguingly edible, at least to me. Dorry wasn’t impressed, Wes wouldn’t even try them, and Adrienne spit hers out after a mere moment of chewing. Our dog, Sparky, on the other hand, wolfed down the one kale chip that I offered him to see if he would eat it. “Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?” I said to myself – more in reference to me than the dog, who is only a year old.

Phil's First Batch of Homemade Kale Chips

I don’t think kale chips had been invented while my father was alive, but a man who enjoyed such edible oddities as cup cheese and red beat eggs would not have shied away from eating a baked kale leaf. Dad didn't believe that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. He wrote that this old saying “suggests that after a certain point in life a person becomes fixed and rigid. He or she can no longer absorb new information or adopt new ways of living and looking at things. The cement of the mind has hardened and there is no longer any way of making new impressions on it. Now I don’t know if you believe that or not, but I don’t. It might be true about dogs, that you can’t teach them new tricks, I don’t know. But I know that it is not true about people.

One of the wonderful things about the Gospel as Jesus first proclaimed it and as the apostles continued proclaiming it is that it always assumes the ability of the hearers – no matter how young or old – to change and to grow. This is the meaning of the Gospel. ‘It is the power of God unto salvation.’ It is the power of God to change a life – any life – and make it full and rich and wonderful. No one is beyond the change that the Gospel offers because the change does not depend on the person himself. It is a change that God works in us. It is by God’s power that we change. As Paul said, ‘It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.’

And this change that Christ offers us is a change of the whole person. A new vigor of body, mind and spirit is felt by coming into harmony with God’s will.

Nor is the process of change something that occurs once, and then it’s all over. We are not just ‘saved’ and that’s that. This change, this salvation, is an ongoing process. We are constantly being saved from our old self-centered ways. As the apostle Paul put it, ‘we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.’

And so, while it may be true that old dogs can’t learn new tricks, our Christian faith makes it abundantly clear to us that change, learning, moving from the old to the new is always possible for the child of God. When we are filled with the Spirit of God, our minds and hearts are always open, sensitive, receptive and supple – ready to receive new blessings that God has in store for us at any minute.”

Perhaps kale chips can serve to remind me of an important truth -- that faithful Christians are open to the life-saving power God has in store for us in new directions, new ventures, new friendships, new ways of drawing closer to God. “And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’” Revelation 21:5 (NRSV).

A Message at the Lititz Home

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 3:18-4:18

Preached July 19, 1972