A manual for life
The Farm by Wendell Berry
Poetry with a focus outside the self.
Simultaneously a user manual for a farm and for being human. Simple, practical observations and advice, which strike deep.
The corn ground, plant the corn.
And now you are committed.
Wait for the seed to sprout,
The green shoots, tightly rolled,
To show above the ground
As risen from the grave.
Then you must cultivate
To keep them free of weeds
Until they have grown tall
And can defend themselves.
A Sabbath for the land,
Rest and enrichment, good
For it, for you, for all
The ones who’re yet unborn;
The land must have its Sabbath
Or take it when we starve.
Work done in gratitude,
Kindly, and well, is prayer.
You did not make yourself,
Yet you must keep yourself
All scripture is God-breathed
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. – 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV)
A few weeks ago, the Discover the Word Bible study program welcomed back a former group member, Alice Matthews, to examine how to read the Bible. One of her propositions was that scripture can be divided into two categories: prescriptive and descriptive, with prescriptive being for all people at all times and descriptive being of the time. Even granting that scripture is of a time and place, with its content colored by the personality of the human author, the proposition was troubling. First, it seemed contrary to the declaration that all scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction and training. Second, the analysis required to categorize some example passages ran dangerously close to rationalizing a desire to disregard uncomfortable content. Instead, would it not be better to take it all as put there by God for all people at all times, then to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit to know why and to properly read the prescription?
We must always be mindful that God’s Providence did not end when the original author put down the pen but was sovereign during every transcription and translation. That means we must not only ask ourselves why God included each passage, especially those difficult and perplexing ones, but also ask why He allowed a particular error or mysterious addition or deletion. Looking at scripture both with and without a passage, phrase or word may provide an even richer, dynamic understanding.
Take for example the Gospel of Mark, with the ambiguity over the point at which it ends. With the end at the empty tomb we feel the shock of the women, looking at Jesus story without the benefit of resurrection hindsight. The extended story is the view looking back in more complete knowledge and understanding. God giving us both views to feel and contemplate the impact of the change in perspective yields another level of knowledge and provides a demonstration that the breath that delivered all scripture is not static or past but “living and active, living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12, ESV).
Echoes of the Fall
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. – Genesis 1:28-31a
This past week the United Nations released a report from a team of scientists, which painted a very bleak picture of the state of “the fish of the sea…the birds of the heavens and…every living thing that moves on the earth.” The report places a great deal of the blame on the rapid expansion of humankind and its prosperity. It further calls for some redefinition of prosperity to reverse the tide. Perhaps in between the lines is a call to reduce population growth. Instead, what about looking at the situation from God’s perspective and from his very first command to man, namely to have dominion over creation as caretaker for God? “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over…every living thing…on the earth.”
Beyond that, who pays the greatest price for our failure to fulfill our call to care for God’s creation? Is it not “the widows and the orphans”? How does that square with James’ reminder that “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction” (James 1:27a, ESV) or Jesus call to “love your neighbor as yourself” as the second great commandment (Matthew 22:38b, ESV)?
So, as saved and transformed children of God, members of the family that owns Creation, what will we say to God when called to account of our role of caretakers of His creation, His creatures and our neighbors? What should we do to get back to the basics of our role in creation and silence yet another echo of the Fall?
Lost the Paradox
“It is hard for us to realize this today, but when Christianity first arose in the world it was not called a religion. It was the non-religion.” – Timothy Keller, The Prodigal God, 2008.
Keller’s reminder of the counterculture origins of Christianity reveal how we have lost the paradox that is the Gospel. The more Christians have railed against the world and those diluting the faith, the less we have remembered our own prodigal wanderings and the more we have become Pharisees threatened by the power of the Gospel.
Don’t judge a book by its cover
So I learned then, that gold in it’s native state is but dull, unornamental stuff, and that only low-born metals excite the admiration of the ignorant with an ostentatious glitter. However, like the rest of the world, I still go underrating men of gold and glorifying men of mica. Commonplace human nature cannot rise above that.
Samuel Clemens, Roughing It
Naive hope
One major point of disagreement between Protestant reformers and the Roman Catholic Church was the role of works in salvation. Rome held that faith plus works is the way to salvation, while Protestants generally believed that faith alone brings salvation, with works the inevitable outward manifestation of saving faith. Protestants would go on to say that people can NOT do good without having first been saved. They point to the apostle Paul having said to the Roman Christians, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” (Romans 7:19 ESV)
Even after his transformation on the road Damascus by none other than Jesus himself, Paul was plagued by “sin that dwells within me,” which reinforced his claim that “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:10b-12 ESV)
So, then, where does Pope Francis’ recent statements that young people should “believe in a new humanity” stronger than evil and that God “demands of us real courage, the courage to be more powerful than evil, by loving everyone, even our enemies” fit? Are we to believe in humanity or in the power of God to transform humanity, so that humanity itself is no longer evil. Does God “demand” we “be more powerful than evil” or does he enable us to overcome evil, which is in all of us, through the transforming power of the gospel and the in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit? If people are evil, then how can they overcome evil?
Consider the conversation in Matthew 12 between the Pharisees and Jesus. In it the Pharisees said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man [Jesus] casts out demons.” (Matthew 12:24 ESV)
Jesus replied by pointing out “And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?” (Matthew 12:26 ESV)
Humanity is not stronger than evil, since humanity is evil. Only God can overcome evil, including that within humanity. Perhaps adding a few words to the Pope’s call will make it a more possible hope, “believe in [God, who can bring about] a new humanity.”
This transforming God who calls us to love our enemies is not just any god, but the only God who “raised Jesus from the dead, having before raised Israel from Egypt.” (Jensen, R. W. (2001). Systematic Theology: Volume 1: The Triune God. Oxford University Press.)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/pope-francis-humanity-stronger-evil-141510754.html?nhp=1
“Is” not “have”
“One’s body is not one’s prison, one’s shell, one’s exterior; rather, one’s body is oneself. A human being does not “have” a body and “have” a soul. Rather, one “is” body and soul.”
“From the dust of the earth,” I Want to Live These Days with You: A Year of Daily Devotions by Dietrich Bonhoeffer –
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The only continuity
“The biblical God is never the creation; he is always the Creator. He is not the substance of nature, and there is no continuum that connects and unites him with his work—except for his word. “Then God said …” (Gen. 1:3). The only continuity between him and his work is the word; that is, in creation itself there is no continuum. If the word is not there, the world loses its foundation.”
– “God spoke,” I Want to Live These Days with You: A Year of Daily Devotions by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Wandering thoughts
“Why is it that my thoughts wander so quickly from God’s word, and that in my hour of need the needed word is often not there? Do I forget to eat and drink and sleep?”
– “A necessary daily exercise, ” I Want to Live These Days with You: A Year of Daily Devotions by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Gregorius vom Stein 
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