Practice Resurrection 6

The last line of Wendell Berry's poem "Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front" is "practice resurrection.

It's a poem not about church or theology, directly, certainly not in the traditional sense. It’s about land, agriculture, the cycles of planting and harvesting, and the risks we ought to take in life. 

But Berry reflects on these elements in God’s good creation and sees them as signs of divine activity in the world. They are emblems of hope, extensions of God’s mighty work familiar to us throughout the pages of scripture.  

It's that closing line that always resonates with me, especially at this time of year. We are in one of those “in-between” seasons of the liturgical calendar. 

• We are well past Easter’s empty tomb 
• but not quite to Pentecost, with its promise of good news for the people of all nations.

It's in these "in-between" seasons that we often wonder, "What now?"

The "what now" is... "practice resurrection". 

Our call is to make resurrection touchable and real, with acts of justice and mercy, blessing and grace.

Easter is not merely a day in history commemorated by our annual celebrations and songs. It is a proclamation to all corners of creation. Christ is risen. This truth we confess as the core identity of our lives. It is not something stuck in a dusty old theological book. 

The confession we declare is "Christ IS risen." The present tense of that verb echoes loudly— and not in our churches alone.

The reality of risen-ness makes a difference in the who, and what, and where of our days. It is to resonate in our own Galilees… precisely where our risen Lord told his disciples they would find him. 

• Galilee is the place familiar to us. 
• It’s the place we work and call home.
• The place where we attend class and where we shop for groceries. 
• Galilee is where we pay our bills, cut the grass, do the laundry,
  have the hard conversations,
  and learn to forgive someone when we’ve been hurt. 
• This truth matters in Galilee if it is to matter anywhere.  

In learning to practice resurrection: 

• we keep our eyes open
  to the places in our world desperately seeking new life;
• we keep our ears tuned
  to the cries of those pleading for restoration and renewal; 
• we make our hearts receptive
  to the lives around us, longing to be blessed, encouraged, equipped, and able to experience the fullness of resurrection possibilities.  

Today, amid all the political nonsense and upheavals and wars and economic turmoil and everything else happening in our world... today is not a time of passive words. 

We are living in days of action, days of a love that stubbornly refuses to remain hidden in tombs. These are the days of practising what matters most.

Practice is not something most of us love. We don’t like the drudgery and repetition. We much prefer the lights and the crowds, people cheering on our performance.

But practice is where the actual work takes place. It is the place of growth and discipline, of failure and second chances. Practice is where we learn to do what makes a difference.  

Annie Dillard in "The Writing Life" wrote, 

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” 

The days matter.
The moments count.
And every minute of practising resurrection breaks another brick in the wall of the failed approaches competing to be first in our lives.    

Practising resurrection is about more than showing up on Easter Sunday with bright new clothes and then falling back into lives unchanged by this miracle. 

• We are called to be those who speak in a particular way.
• We are called to be those who love in a specific way. 
• We are called to be those who give in this tangible kind of way so that our communities are graciously aware that new and everlasting life is what Jesus proclaimed.

We practice resurrection.

Book Review: The God of Monkey Science

title: The God of Monkey Science
author: Janet Kellogg Ray
date: 2023
publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Janet Kellogg Ray's book "The God of Monkey Science" examines the history of science denial and anti-intellectualism in USA Evangelical churches beginning with the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 through its contribution to modern-day denial of evolution, climate science, vaccines and masks, and stem cell research. 

Ray covers a lot of ground. I think she does an excellent job connecting the history of science denial in USA white evangelicals over the past 100 years, beginning with the Scopes Monkey Trial to the rejection of evolution, climate science, vaccines, masking, and other evidence-based COVID-19 treatment and prevention measures. 

Since this is the same demographic that largely aligns with patriarchy, Christian Nationalism, and far-right-wing politics, it would be interesting to explore these associations, which cannot be explained merely by the science denial initiated by the Scopes Monkey Trial. 

This is an important book to read, even if the ones who most need to examine these issues will probably not read it. "The God of Monkey Science" is easy to read. Ray communicates well. 

The bigger issue that is in the background throughout the book is the perceived (by some) conflict between science and faith, which is often a reason given for leaving the church. 

What is refreshing is her emphasis that this isn’t simply a battle of facts; it is a question of trust. 

• Who do we believe when science shifts or evolves? 
• Whose story gets centred? 
• Who mediates reality—pastor or professor?
  Politician or peer-reviewed journal?

Ray understands that this is as much about formation as information. The North American evangelical mind has been shaped by decades of messaging around the threat of evolution. It's not as simple as saying “just follow the science.” Ray reminds us that even saying that phrase has become politicised.

So Ray, she offers not just critique, but tools: discussion prompts, condensed and understandable explanations of core scientific principles, and gentle questions meant to spark real conversation. 

Ray closes not with certainty, but with invitation:

As disparate as world religions are, people of all religious faiths agree on this one point: science doesn’t have all the answers. What are followers of Jesus contributing to the conversation?

As Christians, we are called to truth. Speaking it. Defending it. Living it. Why be afraid of science? If God is truth, all truth is God’s truth, including scientific truth.

Christians are called to have the mind of Christ. Noll describes this as a mind for Christ, thinking like a Christian across the spectrum of modern learning, from economics to history to the arts. What does it mean to have a mind for Christ, specifically in a world of modern science? What, besides denial, are we adding to the conversation? Are there things that the Bible simply does not speak to? How can we approach these things with a mind for Christ?

Science and faith are not enemies. Science does not have all the answers. With a mind for Christ, may we live as people of faith in a modern scientific world. [emphasis mine]

I recommend this book. 
The church needs to do better in this area, and reading this book is a great place to begin.

This book was provided free of charge by Speakeasy and Mike Morrell.

The views expressed here are my opinion.

Bill 5 is an Attack on Civil Liberties, Indigenous Rights, & the Environment

Advocates from civil liberties, treaty rights and environmental organizations have been gathering at Queen’s Park to oppose the Ford government’s proposed Bill 5.

Bill 5 would give the Premier and his cabinet unprecedented control over the province: including the ability to exempt individuals and corporations from provincial and municipal laws and bypass consultation with Indigenous communities.

If passed, Bill 5 would:

• Allow the premier and cabinet to designate “special economic zones” in which “trusted proponents” would be given the authority to undertake projects without regard to provincial and municipal laws;
• Exempt developments from archeological assessments if the Ontario government is of the opinion that an exemption “could potentially advance one or more of the following provincial priorities”: transit; housing; health and long-term care; other infrastructure; and such other priorities as may be prescribed. Archeological assessments often trigger the duty to consult with Indigenous communities and First Nations governments;
• Repeal Ontario’s Endangered Species Act – ending most meaningful protections for endangered, threatened and special concern species and their habitat; and
• Terminate comprehensive environmental assessments for two projects: the proposed Eagle’s Nest mine in Northern Ontario and the proposed Dresden Dump. The environmental assessments for both projects were put into place to provide forward-looking understanding of environmental and socio-economic conditions and impacts of planned developments to government decision-makers, Indigenous communities as well as members of the public.

If this omnibus bill is passed, Bill 5 will open the door to lawless “Special Economic Zones” [defined by the cabinet, without public input] where basic worker protections could be stripped away. Bill 5 will expand strong mayor powers.

The powers proposed in Bill 5 are extremely broad, raising concerns that the government is avoiding public accountability and shielding itself from civil liability. The bill includes protection against lawsuits for anyone involved in a project within a special economic zone. 

This is NOT good for Ontario... 

Contact your MPP

If you are in Simcoe North - It's Jill Dunlop

Premier Doug Ford

Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks: Todd J. McCarthy

Practice Resurrection - 5

The only requirement for resurrection is that we be dead. Not just "mostly dead" as in this classic scene from The Princess Bride.

But in coming to Jesus, we often see ourselves as "mostly or partly dead". 

• We think of our sin as minor.
• We need a little fine-tuning.
• We need some minor adjustments.

But no.
We were dead.

Paul writes in Ephesians 2:4-6

because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus NIV

Robert Farrar Capon, in his 1997 book, "From Between Noon & Three: Romance, Law & the Outrage of Grace" writes:

Grace cannot prevail until law is dead, until moralising is out of the game. The precise phrase should be, until our fatal love affair with the law is over—until, finally and for good, our lifelong certainty that someone is keeping score has run out of steam and collapsed. As long as we leave, in our dramatization of grace, one single hope of a moral reckoning, one possible recourse to salvation by bookkeeping, our freedom-dreading hearts will clutch it to themselves. And even if we leave none at all, we will grub for ethics that are not there rather than face the liberty to which grace call us.

It is only when we recognize that we were dead apart from Christ, that we can be filled with the life that is in Christ. 

And then we can practice resurrection, because Jesus is in us.

Ethiopia & Uganda

As many of you know, Janice & I spent several weeks in East Africa earlier this year. 

First of all, in Ethiopia, with G in the Afar. Simon from SIM and Gerald and Cas from Gentle Shepherd Community Church in Fleserton, ON (another Vision Ministries Canada Church) were also on the team.

We began by ministering at a pastor's and leaders' conference. It was great to connect with these folks who have become passionate about reaching the Afar. 

When I first met some of these folks, several years ago, they were not sure the Afar could become Christian, because of their reputation for being a violent people.

Now they are actively reaching out.

One of the things we heard from many Christians was: 

As long as we hated and were afraid of the Afar, they rejected the Gospel.
But when we started loving them, they are open to hearing the message.

There are Afar who are asking for prayer, because, as they say, "We know your God hears your prayers."

Even some Imams are asking for prayer. God is at work!

We also had the opportunity to visit an IDP [Internally Displaced Peoples] camp. These are people who have had to be relocated because of the tectonic activity [earthquakes, new hot springs, steam vents, and mud volcanoes]. 

The camp we visited, which is funded by donations to FSA, housed about 600 families (close to 3500 people). 

FSA [Friendship Support Association] work in conjunction with WFP [World Food Programme], WHO [World Health Organisation], UNICEF, MSF [Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières], and others, to provide care and support to these families. 

Then we spent time in Uganda.

We started with Tim and Janessa Cyper and Cultivate Discipleship.

I had a week with two groups of previous students. This was a refresher, renewing week for them. They have all gone through meeting for a week together, once a month, over the course of a year. They are now living in various villages and towns in northern Uganda. During their time at Cultivate Discipleship, they start a small Bible Discovery group, with the goal of seeing that group multiply and start additional groups. One of the young men from 3 years ago was very hesitant about starting a group. He shared that he was able to start 3 groups, and those groups have now started 10 additional groups. Disciples making Disciples who make Disciples. God is at work.

They also teach some farming methods that are less labour-intensive and produce a larger crop. They use this as a way of connecting with their neighbours and communities.

We then moved into Gulu for a pastor's conference with ILA - I Live Again Uganda. Simon, Rob and Matthew from Pemborke were with ILA while we were at Cultivate Discipleship. We overlapped for a few days.

On our first Sunday in Gulu, I was not scheduled to preach, but Rob was sick, so I preached at the last moment.

Janice had the opportunity to visit our sponsored child, Faith, with World Vision. That was certainly a highlight for her. 

While she went there... a several-hour drive, involving an overnight stay, I taught, for the 3rd year, at the pastor's conference. There were some pastors from previous years and some new pastors to meet. I love teaching and interacting with these men and women (there were only two women this year) who serve in tough places - Acholi Quarter slum in Kampala, resettlement camps with South Sudanese, and rural churches in northern Uganda. Many of these pastors and their congregations deal with trauma. 

It's hard to communicate all that we experienced and the privilege of connecting with people who are on the front lines in ministry.

Here is a video of our report to Orillia Community Church. 

You can give to ILA Uganda through SIM Canada. If you include a note to the "finance office" for "Pastor's Conference" it will go to that annual ministry and follow-up.

To give towards ministry in the Afar, you can do it through this link at SIM Canada.

Practice Resurrection - 4

We are a Resurrection people, and Alleluia is our song. 

• Are you singing? 
• How do you greet the day?
• How are you a bearer of God’s amazing grace throughout the day?
• How do you end the day well?

What might it mean for us to live as if:

• each breath, 
• each choice we make, 
• and, every encounter is infused with the Spirit?

How would we go about 

• washing the dishes, 
• making our to-do lists, 
• caring for our homes,
• living in our neighbourhoods,
• raising our children,
• interacting with our school and work colleagues, 
• our involvement with your barista, the grocery store attendant, or that cashier at Home Depot?  

As we consciously put on the mind of Christ and open our hearts to God’s presence and love, what might we notice? 

If we saw creation as a vital part of how God speaks and our bodies as temples of the Spirit, how might we treat them? 

Are we extending to others what we have and are receiving of God’s goodness and generosity?

On Easter Sunday, John 21 reminds us that the resurrected Jesus appears to his disciples. Resurrection is revealed in the simplest of everyday actions. 

• Going fishing. 
• Eating breakfast. 
• Being with each other in grief and gathering with joy. 

Resurrection is seeing beyond the surface of things. It is remembering when our eyes were opened and our deepest hurt healed by God’s love, and sharing the blessing.

The Easter mystery of Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection invites us to renewed being and life. God’s calling on our lives and our response is an ongoing process. Jesus' presence is never far, offering communion, forgiveness, and encouragement. We can never grasp the fullness of God’s love and mercy; we can only live in awe. and gratitude. and boldness of faith.

Resurrection - 3

A post-Easter reminder...

Don't stay in your grave...
when God is hauling you out...

We live in a world of individualism.

• Individualism is the growth-stunting, maturity-inhibiting habit of understanding growth as an isolated self-project. 
• Individualism is selfism on steroids. 
• The individualist is the person who is convinced that they can serve God without being in relationship with God.

God is, as I said above, "hauling you out" of the grave of individualism, into the community (and all that that entails).

Community, and specifically church, is the context in which we grow up in Christ to maturity, as Paul reminds us in Ephesians. 

But church is difficult. Because relationships are difficult; because what God calls us to can be difficult. But that doesn't mean that we don't learn to live in it.

 

dorothy day

On this International Workers Day (May 1), here are some quotes by Dorothy Day. Today marks the 91st anniversary of the publication of the first issue of The Catholic Worker in 1933. Dorothy, her brother John, her daughter Tamar, and a few others distributed the first run of 2,500 papers in Union Square for a penny a copy and by the end of the year, circulation had grown to 100,000. 

From this little paper sprouted houses of hospitality, soup kitchens, co-ops, and farms which have offered spiritual and corporal works of mercy.

Here is an excerpt from her editorial in that first issue of The Catholic Worker.

For those who are sitting on benches in the warm spring sunlight.
For those who are huddling in shelters trying to escape the rain.
For those who are walking the streets in the all but futile search for work.
For those who think that there is no hope for the future, no recognition of their plight, THE CATHOLIC WORKER is being edited. It is printed to call their attention to the fact that the Catholic Church has a social program.
It’s time there was a Catholic paper printed for the unemployed. The fundamental aim of most radical sheets is the conversion of its readers to radicalism and atheism.
Is it not possible to be radical without being atheistic?
Is it not possible to protest, to expose, to complain, to point out abuses and demand reforms without desiring the overthrow of religion?
In an attempt to popularize and make known the encyclicals of the popes and the program offered by the Church for the constructing of a social order, this news sheet was started.
…The price of the paper is one cent a copy, in order to place it within the reach of all. And for the unemployed it is distributed free to those who wish to read it. Next month someone may donate us an office, who knows? It is cheering to remember that Jesus Christ wandered this earth with no place to lay His head. The foxes have holes and the birds of the air their nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. And when we consider our fly-by-night existence, our uncertainty, we remember (with pride at sharing the honor) that the disciples supped by the seashore and wandered through cornfields picking the ears from the stalks to make their frugal meals.

Practice Resurrection - 2

 As people of the resurrection, we are to live in light of and in the power of the resurrection.

It's easy / easier to see this in spring... how else do you understand and live as a resurrection person? 

Eastertide

Eastertide is not a word we use very much, especially in evangelical circles. We barely use Advent and Lent. 

Eastertide is the liturgical season in Christianity that celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. It begins on Easter Sunday and lasts for 50 days, ending on Pentecost Sunday. 

Over this season, I want us to celebrate resurrection.

Over these next 6 weeks (from now until Pentecost), will you join me in focusing on Resurrection in our everyday lives? 

• It can be as simple as a special candle you use for your meals during Eastertide 
• or as elaborate as travelling across the world to meet new people. 

Whatever it is, will you show us a picture and tell us about it in a few words? 

• Plant spring flowers (maybe a new variety this year)? Show us! 
• Get up to see the sun rise on a Sunday morning? Tell us about it! 
• Take a new route to work or school (maybe taking more time than necessary in honour of the mad farmer)? Share it!

3 simple steps to this:

1. Add something to your day that helps you practice resurrection. (1day or 50 days - it doesn't matter)  
2. Take a picture and write a description in 1-50 words.  
3. Share it with me via an email, Facebook.
   I'll share some of your photo-stories with everyone here each week.

Practice Resurrection - 1

Wendel Berry’s poem "Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front" is one of my favourites. 

The last line of this beautiful poem calls us to “practice resurrection.” Yet the calling to practice resurrection fits inside the context of present-day culture.

Our world entices us with shiny things that have no long-term, lasting value, Berry asks us to invest our time differently. He entreats us: spend your lives following God, building strong communities, and remembering what matters.

When Berry says, “practice resurrection,” he asks us to remember that Christians are the witnesses to Christ’s one-time resurrection. We demonstrate the power of God’s redemption of the world in how we live and love. Practicing resurrection is obeying Jesus’s call to love our neighbours and our enemies.

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands. 

Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.

Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.

Listen to carrion — put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.

So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

“Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” from The Country of Marriage, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. 1973. Also published by Counterpoint Press in The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry, 1999; The Mad Farmer Poems, 2008; New Collected Poems, 2012.

John's Gospel - feet

When you read larger sections of scripture in one sitting, connections between passages can stand out.

We often look at these two passages (John 12:1-11 and John 13:1-17) separately.  

But did you notice that both of these passages have the act of washing of feet in them?

• In John 12, Jesus' feet are washed with perfume by Mary.
• In John 13, Jesus washes his disciples' feet.
• In both passages, the disciples are present. I wonder what they were thinking. I wonder if they made a connection. 

Worship and service are connected. They are not to be divorced from each other. It's not one or the other - it's both.

• We worship. And worship costs something. This is part of why the author of Hebrews tells us to "continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise" [Hebrews 13:15].
• We serve. And service costs something. In Luke's Gospel, Jesus tells people to count the cost: "those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples" [Luke 14:33]

John 12:1-11

Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary [this is not Mary Magdala] took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him.

John 13:1-17

It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.