awakening: Good FridayIf we don't mind, I'd like to think and write about the connection between this Christian tradition/celebration and Wendell Berry's "Agrarianism" of the previous post. Reading Berry's essay today stirred up some strong ties to (if I may say it) Christ's "work" on the cross. Please indulge the following thoughts pertaining to a most unthinkable and mysterious love and purpose of God.
Berry writes,
"I have never doubted for a minute the importance of the hope I have tried to serve: the hope that we might become a healthy people in a healthy land."On this Good Friday I believe that is also a message of the cross. Remember the "WHY" of Jesus?
"I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" - John 10:10.Berry goes on to provide a perfect articulation of agrarian farming :
"farming as the proper use and care of an immeasurable gift."On this Good Friday I cannot help but think to the gift of God's own Son. And I may be looking too far ahead, but I begin to ask myself, "what will you do with this gift? what use will it be in & for you?" If I am to be a healthy person, in Christ, what will be the "proper" use of the "gift" I've received? Remember the gift of God?
"For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many." - Romans 5:15But I do not want to merely speak of the "use" of a gift. The memory of Good Friday is itself an important action. Berry states,
"If we believed that the existence of the world is rooted in mystery and in sanctity, then we would have a different economy. It would still be an economy of use, necessarily, but it would be an ecomony also of return. ... Mostly we take without asking, use without respect or gratitude, and give nothing in return."Today, I think about the economy of the cross. How can I be sure to ASK? How do I gratefully respect this day, this God-man, and His gift? And, how/what will be given in return?
Jesus says,
"And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me." - Matthew 10:38-40Friends, is His gift not immeasurable? Is its use and return not the measure of all our lives?
-s.o
3 comments:
s.o.,
amazing. and there is a period there and not an exclamation point only because i'm still too stunned to exclaim anything.
the economy of the cross. the use and return of His gift as a measure of our life. that language is fascinating and challenging to internalize.
what sort of economy does our relationship with Christ and with our neighbors resemble most? an industrialism that exploits by its very nature? capitalism hell-bent on hyper-consumption with "me" at the center of everything? or is it a patient agrarianism that "involves a return of propitiation, praise, gratitude, responsibility, good use, good care, and a proper regard for the unborn."
the proper use and good care of a mysterious gift is not the sort of skill i was brought up practicing. i did not grow up learning how to be an agrarian, but rather, a capitalist. and so, on a regular basis i can see the ill effects of approaching delicate and mysterious gifts with a mind towards getting what i want instead of cultivating what it needs. mysterious gifts like: a wife, being a role model for 130 kids, a younger sister, a wooden privacy fence, a lawn, a body...and certainly, the privilege of being able to communicate with the creator of the universe. a creator so good and so concerned with the proper use and care of a gift, that he came so that we "might have life, and have it to the full."
I too appreciated your words s.o. Well said.
Shaun, thanks for making this connection between Agrarianism and the Cross.
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