'Practice Resurrection'

Wendell Berry's Poem Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front ... introduces this oft quoted line 'practice resurrection'. This phrase is provocative and generative in the pairing of these two words. This Easter season, we are going to come at that phrase from a variety of angles and perspectives to see what it yields for apprenticeship with Jesus. Let the poem guide you into some initial thoughts about what that looks like.

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

by Wendell Berry

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.

Prayer of Catharine of Siena

This prayer of Catharine of Siena often comes to my mind. It is a brilliant integration of the Incarnation and the Atonement which grounds the events of Good Friday, this most weighty of events in Christian time. 

And you, high eternal Trinity

acted as if you were drunk with love,

infatuated with your creature.

When you saw that this tree could bear no fruit

but the fruit of death

because it was cut off from you who are life,

you came to its rescue

with the same love

with which you had created it:

you engrafted your divinity

into the dead tree of our humanity.

O sweet tender engrafting!

You, sweetness itself,

stooped to join yourself

with our bitterness.

Catharine of Siena

A Glimpse of the Mystery

When all is said and done, what the world needs from the church is not so much instruction about the nature of the mystery as a glimpse of the mystery itself operative in us.

It already knows its own passion, and the vastness of the shipwreck of history; it waits for us to show it the power of the Christ’s passion and to lift our agony to his.

Robert Farrar Capon

For Anyone

Some organization out there (I don't know which it is) uses this phrase: 'we may not be for everyone, but, we are for anyone.' Yes! I think that really captures the Two Rivers Church vibe. We are not a conventional church by any stretch of the imagination, but we are exactly what some people need and are looking for.

To name one's community as inclusive is tricky because it seems that so many words these days become tinder to ignite people's immediate categorization of you within their pre-conceived notions. You also set yourself up to be judged on whether you are actually walking the talk (probably not!).

So, let's just say that whether we are achieving the standard we desire or not, I'm happy to claim that our intention is to be 'for anyone'. The only way that you will find out if it's true, is to get to know us. No web-site statement or symbol is a guarantee of anything; it only hints at the beautiful possibility of Jesus in us engaging the whole world in his love and his name. GS

Missing You as Accountability

The research is real - people don't trust institutions! But people still really want to belong to something that connects them to others.

The research also shows that they want to belong somewhere that allows them to participate in social transformation, personal transformation, creativity, relationship, having purpose, and accountability.

That last one really caught my attention. We tend to think of accountability as a top down, authority structure concept. But here's a contemporary description of that accountability: “ If I don’t show up, I want people to notice that I’m not there, and I want to be held to that."

Wow! What a different way of thinking about it. Not as burden or shaming, but, as a hope that people will desire your presence enough to say we miss you, we need you! What would Two Rivers Church (or any organization) look like if we all gave permission to each other to exercise accountability by saying 'we miss you!’? GS

Corinthians 4 : 7-8

I am taking encouragement from this snippet of Paul's second letter to the Corinthians in the NLT translation of 4: 7-8:

We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.

We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed.

We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.

We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God.

We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.

Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.

There are those days when you don’t have the words, and Scripture gets it perfectly right for the occasion. Thanks be to God. GS

Jesus went before us

Whether we gaze with longing into the garden or with fear and trembling into the desert, of this we can be sure - God walked there first! And when we who have sinned and despoiled the garden are challenged now to face the desert, we do not face it alone; Jesus has gone there before us to struggle with every demon that has ever plagued a human heart. Face the desert we must if we would reach the garden, but Jesus has gone there before us. James Healy

A New Prayer Plan

At the beginning of Covidtide we established a daily prayer office, sent out four times a day, to keep the Two Rivers community aligned and connected. This was well received, but the technological requirements proved unsustainable (thanks to Jim for all his effort to persevere through this).

I miss it. I also learned something, it was a little ambitious in scope!

Therefore, as we begin Lent, I am proposing a simpler project; to pray a single line twice a day at a prescribed time. I am inviting you all to set your device notifications for 9:00 AM & 9:00 PM and pray this line from Psalm 51: "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love."

This will suit for the Season of Lent, and we can change it up at strategic times going forward. The hope is that the joining of our prayers will sustain the connection we have with each other and with God, for the sake of the world.

I hope you will join in. GS

Christian Meditation

Signs of life at TRC these days includes a burgeoning interest in Christian Meditation. From our early days we have encouraged and practiced contemplative prayer and activity (Ignatius walks, retreats, cloud gazing, Lectio & Visio Divina, etc). We would bring in Spiritual Director Tarcia Gerwig to teach us how to practice these things, we brought Dan Veldhuis on staff to guide the prayer project in its various dimensions, and one of our 7 basic practices is Prayer. Given that grounding, it's not surprising that some have wanted to go deeper in exploring the part of prayer which involves meditation.

I confess a mild trepidation in talking about this knowing that Jesus taught his followers to not practice their piety before others (Matt.6), but, I feel it's important to report on what I'm observing as an encouragement. We talk a lot here of becoming aware of what God is up to, and joining in on what is happening, so, this is happening! The other language we use from time to time is being a missional/monastic community. The practice of Christian meditation is not solely for the benefit of the individual, or to create isolated spiritual superstars, rather, the deeper connection to the heart and prayer of Jesus releases more fruit for the sake of others, the whole creation, and God's reconciling activity. You're welcome to join in and give it a try. GS

Wisdom from John Main OSB

This wisdom from John Main OSB is offered to a gathering of monks at Gethsemani Abby. When he says ‘all of us’ it is addressed to those who have dedicated themselves to the contemplative life. That being said, ’all of us’, it seems to me, applies to anyone who is thirsting for a deeper life in God:

”But at the centre of our being I think all of us know the truth of what Jesus means when he invites us to lose our lives so that we may find them. At this same centre we, all of us, feel the need for a radical simplicity, a moving beyond all our activities to the unitary principle of activity itself: the cause and end of movement. In other words, we all know the need we have to rejoice in our being at its simplest, where it simply exists with no reason for its existence other than that it gives glory to God who created it, who loves it, and who sustains it in being. And it is in prayer that we experience the sheer joy that there is in simple being”.

- John Main OSB

A Used Book

The Sacrament of the Ordinary is a regular feature at Two Rivers Church Living Rooms and occasionally at Liturgies.

I ordered a used book from an independent Bookstore in the US the other day, and when it came all nicely wrapped in brown butcher paper and string inside it’s mailing envelope, I was already feeling blessed (no Amazon bubble wrap!). Then when I opened it, it was in very good condition and signed by Margaret Murphy.

Here’s the thing, it was printed in 1972, but, had a bookmark tucked into it of Jesus the Good Shepherd, with these words inscribed on the back: "To Mom, with love and affectionate thoughts on Mother’s Day. Diane ’64”.

Then I thought that if Margaret was the Mom, she had kept this thin paper bookmark for at least 8 years, to remember and connect her daughter Diane, Jesus the Good Shepherd, and the profound thoughts of John Main on Christian meditation. What happened to Diane and Margaret? I’ll never know, but, it all came to me intact in 2021. There was so much there that seemed ordinary and beautifully rich at the same time - and my heart was warmed. Have a great week! GS

Word of the Year

Some of the folk here at Two Rivers engage in the practice of finding and attending to a word for the year. Alan Jacobs weighs in on his word for the year from his blog Snakes and Ladders:

The chief point is this: I received a gift today, in the form of a post by Ian Paul. That post is about the Greek word hypomone(ὑπομονή), which means “patient endurance,” “the capacity to hold out or bear up in the face of difficulty, patience, endurance, fortitude, steadfastness, perseverance.” The associated verb, hypomeno (ὑπομένω), means “to stay in a place beyond an expected point of time, remain/stay (behind), while others go away”; “to maintain a belief or course of action in the face of opposition, stand one’s ground, hold out, endure, remain instead of fleeing.”

Love, St. Paul says, “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” — panta hypomenei (πάντα ὑπομένει). That’s 1 Corinthians 13:7, and I think I’ll make it my verse for 2021. My prayer for myself is that I will have the patient endurance, this year, to maintain my beliefs, my core commitments, “in the face of opposition”; to stand firm and defend what I care most about “beyond an expected point of time … while others go away.” 

I declare 2021 The Year of Hypomone.

Lockdown

Lockdown is a heavy word.

We feel the weight of the powers that govern us in these decrees, and recognize that we are small and subject to authority. That being said, many welcome the restrictions because the intent is to protect our society, especially those most vulnerable.

We as a church believe most emphatically in the practices of honouring and serving our neighbours, so, we are on board with living responsibly and respectfully of laws that do not contradict the reign of Christ. We might also welcome them because Jesus teaches us that smallness and constraint are not things to be feared, but embraced when it comes to cultivating wisdom and maturity in our lives. Experience has taught that it is exactly within these places of being humbled that fruit is produced which may surprise us.

I look forward to sharing amongst ourselves what those surprises may be. GS

2021

Put your head down, the happy new year of 2021 comes crashing in upon us. Two things: first, if anyone is surprised by the chaotic events of the last couple of days, it would be naive to assume that things are worse now than ever before; we are simply more regularly (incessantly) exposed to the human darkness that rears its ugly head. C.S. Lewis says essentially the same thing here: “The war creates no absolutely new situation: it simply aggravates the permanent human situation so that we can no longer ignore it. Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice. Human culture has always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important than itself. If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure, the search would have never begun. We are mistaken when we compare war with ’normal life’. Life has never been normal. Even those periods which we think most tranquil, like the nineteenth century, turn out, on closer inspection, to be full of cries, alarms, difficulties, emergencies”. CS Lewis - Learning in War-Time.

Which leads to the second thing: while the world raged around us, Two Rivers folk told stories at Living Room in December about how their families celebrated the birth of our Lord, symbolized by Christmas artifacts that were used, and continue to be used, in their homes. These photos posted here represent some of the artifacts shared at Living Rooms. We engage the war in different ways: sometimes in protest and prophetic naming, and sometimes in quiet sharing of, and listening to, stories of goodness and grace. GS

A Christmas Hymn

Richard Wilbur has drawn together two events from Luke’s gospel, to form his profound and beautiful poem “A Christmas Hymn’. I will reflect briefly on this at our Christmas Eve service:

A Christmas Hymn - Richard Wilbur

And some of the Pharisees from among the multitudes said unto him,

Master, rebuke thy disciples.

And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that,

if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.

St. Luke XIX, 39-40

A stable-lamp is lighted
Whose glow shall wake the sky;
The stars shall bend their voices,
And every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry,
And straw like gold shall shine;
A barn shall harbor heaven,
A stall become a shrine.

This child through David’s city
Shall ride in triumph by;
The palm shall strew its branches,
And every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry,
Though heavy, dull, and dumb,
And lie within the roadway
To pave his kingdom come.

Yet he shall be forsaken,
And yielded up to die;
The sky shall groan and darken,
And every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry
For stony hearts of men:
God’s blood upon the spearhead,
God’s love refused again.

But now, as at the ending,
The low is lifted high;
The stars shall bend their voices,
And every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry
In praises of the child
By whose descent among us
The worlds are reconciled.

Advent Is About Invitation

Come Lord Jesus. Christians have created a season in which to restrain the impulse we have towards completion in order to inhabit the not yet (although we haven’t been very successful at it). The guest has not yet arrived, but, we have set the table and prepared the feast. Some have learned that there is a deep wisdom and deliciousness in planned waiting that is fulfilled when the feast is finally engaged.

Covidtide has discouraged us from invitation, and has put boundaries on our hospitality, in fact, it has squelched it! So, we have learned habits of dampening our enthusiasm for guests, and sought comfort in isolation. This will not be sustainable! May we seek even more diligently to exercise creativity in invitation. May we begin with a hospitality that makes room for the coming of Christ in our hearts. Then in a hospitality that sees him in the guests that we are missing, but, so desperately need at our tables: friends, neighbours, strangers, and even enemies. Let us find new ways to invite and host, that will be different, but no less critical for the growth of the Kingdom. Come, Lord Jesus! GS

Watch The Goodness Project Video — Stories of Our City: Tragedy Ann

Local musicians, Tragedy Ann, discuss their origin, the reciprocal nature of connections in the artistic community, their latest album, the friendships they've formed through their music, and where they find inspiration.

. . . and a Malcolm Guite Sonnet today

An Advent antiphon (one of seven), O Radix, by Malcolm Guite calls on Christ as the root. The poem is referring to the image of the tree of Jesse the family tree which leads to David, and ultimately to Christ as the ‘son of David', but the title radix, goes deeper, as a good root should. It goes deep down into the ground of our being, the good soil of creation. God in Christ, is the root of all goodness, wherever it is found and in whatsoever culture, or with whatever names it fruits and flowers, a sound tree cannot bear bad fruit said Christ, who also said, I am the vine, you are the branches.

O Radix - Malcolm Guite

All of us sprung from one deep-hidden seed,

Rose from a root invisible to all.

We knew the virtues once of every weed,

But, severed from the roots of ritual,

We surf the surface of a wide-screen world

And find no virtue in the virtual.

We shrivel on the edges of a wood

Whose heart we once inhabited in love,

Now we have need of you, forgotten Root

The stock and stem of every living thing

Whom once we worshiped in the sacred grove,

For now is winter, now is withering

Unless we let you root us deep within,

Under the ground of being, graft us in.

Watch The Goodness Project Video — Stories of Our City: Judith Yan

Judith explains how she fell in love with Guelph over the course of her 8 years conducting the Guelph Symphony Orchestra. She also shares a moving experience she had while conducting at the Basilica.

Nothing to Say

There is so much to comment on right now. If you run into someone on the street, or in the grocery store, even if you don't know them, it is easy to strike up a conversation, "How are you coping in Covidtide? Do you have that problem with glasses fogging up too? Can you believe the US political fiasco? Do you think the vaccine will get here soon?" Ad nauseam.

Right now, I feel like I don't want to say anything at all. Perhaps the only hope I can offer in this Advent time is to shut up and look someone in the eye and hold the thought that we are suffering together, and we both know it. Perhaps with the raising of an eyebrow, we can communicate that it's okay to have pain. If we can acknowledge it without having to probe the wound with trite words, then maybe we won't suffer as much. I don't suggest being rude or unkind or impolite, I'm just wondering if it would be ok to resist speaking.

Perhaps that's what Advent waiting will look like this year, being a people who convey Christ's love and gracious presence by having nothing to say. GS

Watch The Goodness Project Video — Thin Places: The Ward

The Ward is an old Guelph neighbourhood near the downtown that used to be a manufacturing district with housing for the factory employees throughout it. The area has many unique features including murals, repurposed old business and church buildings, and a community garden. The song playing in the background is a cover of "93 Million Miles" by Jason Mraz performed by Sember Wood.

Advent

Maybe more than ever, we need some hope right now; that’s what Advent is about.

It is the reminder that we can benefit from shifting our perspective from the details of survival that fill our gaze, to holding up those details to the light of the coming fulfillment of the kingdom; this puts everything into perspective. Suddenly, we are reminded that there is a glorious reality moving towards us ever so patiently, ever so lovingly, ever so hopefully.

We know something about the fate of the world which is opaque to many, all will be well. GS

Watch The Goodness Project Video — Stories of Our City: Arlene Slocombe

Arlene discusses the work of the Wellington Water Watchers, the unifying potential of water protection and the importance of listening to Indigenous voices.

Accompaniment

I love this word. Maybe because I’m an extrovert? Maybe because I love the Lord of the Rings? Whatever the case, many of us in Two Rivers are connecting with each other on walks these days. While I love a good walk in solitude, I am most happy when accompanied. It doesn't have to be chatty or profound in any measure; simply being in the presence of another reminds me that I am not on my own in this world. The other becomes the conduit of faithful presence, both human and divine.

Sometimes those who accompany us are given and sometimes they are chosen, but, in either case, attention needs to be paid to the space between. What is being nurtured in the (2 metre!) space between? Trust? Assurance? Possibility? Safety? Grace? The Holy Spirit is lavish with these possibilities if we are open to them.

Elton Trueblood once wrote a book called the Company of the Committed. This stirs my imagination, because it is an inspiring picture of the church - people who seek out companionship with others of the same purpose and choose to walk together into God's future. This does not mean conformity or uniformity, rather, a unity with diversity held together by a common calling and a growing understanding of the other. But it won't happen unless we create the space to receive and offer the gift of accompaniment. So, even as the cold air descends, let us keep walking together in the gift of accompaniment. GS

Watch The Goodness Project Video — Stories of Our City: Bob Moore

Bob Moore shares stories of delivery drivers’ generosity, how the city responds to needs, and the importance of creating homes with a supportive community for people without housing.