Consider what it might mean to practice resurrection | Voices of Faith
Within the Christian liturgical calendar, this is the season of Eastertide. This is the time between the triumphal celebration of the power of love over the powers of death on Easter and the outpouring of the spirit on the day of Pentecost.
Much of my experience with this season connects with ideas requesting conviction in the literal resurrection. The Scriptures appearing on the weeks following Easter Sunday often center on those who are not yet believing (Thomas) or recognizing the resurrection that is within the world (road to Emmaus). So many sermons and liturgies compel a commitment to the death-defeating power of God offered uniquely to one, Jesus of Nazareth. Eastertide seemed to be the space utilized by the church to ensure dogmatic affirmation so that we could all be clear on how the story goes. This was how I proceeded into it, until I stumbled upon a holy idea from Wendell Berry: “practice resurrection.”
This invitation appears in his poem, “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front.” After naming the temptations and desires of the world, “love the quick profit, the annual raise … want more of everything ready-made… be afraid to know your neighbors and to die,” Berry pivots to the sound of the genuine. There is a call to be free of culture’s formulas and algorithms, and live faithfully to the integrity of the soul.
“Do something that won’t compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Take all you have and be poor … Plant sequoias. Say that your main crop is the forest that you did not plant, that you will not live to harvest … Be joyful though you have considered all the facts … Practice resurrection.”
How beautiful. This personal agency had never emerged within the tradition I had known (or perhaps more honestly, I just wasn’t paying attention!). Resurrection was always something done by God in the past, and here was a saint not only offering the practice, but sharing a generous list of ideas to begin with.
What could be more faithful than allowing the convictions of the tradition to become enfleshed within our midst? What could testify more to the wonder of resurrection than offering some act of love, faith and hope within a time when its effort may appear futile? Eastertide seems to be a right time to not only affirm such convictions, but to practice them. Whether you stand in the Christian tradition or not, the world has a rich heritage of faiths, spiritualities and experiences where love has been wholeheartedly offered within dire times and to hopeless causes. It has never been wasted. It has never been forgotten. It has always been worthy.
So whether this is the time to practice a sort of resurrection by calling the representative you are certain won’t listen, reaching across the line to the other you swore you never would again, offering yourself in solidarity with the many being marginalized by power, or planting trees for the forest “you will not live to harvest,” consider what it might mean in your experience to “practice resurrection.”
Part of the beauty of this season and this tradition is that resurrection is not a singular event within the course of the world; it is a feature of its being and ours. May you find joy, goodness and community in the practice.
The Rev. Chris McCreight is minister of Hiram Christian Church and chaplain of Hiram College.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Consider what it might mean to practice resurrection
