rekindling redemptive imagination...

                                            ( image courtesy of Chris Briley )

Wendell Berry’s critique of western progress is always staggering. As always, he procures incredible insight with a sort of blunt wisdom that reaches beyond rhetoric and our flimsy presuppositions. We , all creation, find ourselves in a profound space of uncertainty. We've climbed as high as we can climb on the myth of certainty. We teeter back and forth in the space frozen in fear, grasping to the breaking pieces of certainty. We watch the hope that we might save ourselves break away in our hands. These words, from poet and prophet Wendell Berry...

The world is babbled to pieces after
the divorce of things from their names.
Ceaseless preparation for war
is not peace. Health is not procured
by sale of medication, or purity
by the addition of poison. Science
at the bidding of the corporations
is knowledge reduced to merchandise;
it is a whoredom of the mind,
and so is the art that calls this “progress.”
So is the cowardice that calls it “inevitable.”

 Written decades ago, the poem is incredibly poignant, mystical, and even prophetic:

When I hear the stock market has fallen, 
I say, “Long live gravity! Long live 
stupidity, error and greed in the palaces 
of fantasy capitalism!” I think 
an economy should be based on thrift, 
on taking care of things, not on theft, 
usury, seduction, waste, and ruin. 
My purpose is a language that can make us whole, 
Though mortal, ignorant, and small. 
The world is whole beyond human knowing.

Jesus asked questions, good questions, unnerving questions, re-aligning questions, transforming questions.  He leads us into liminal, and therefore transformative space, much more than taking us to a mountain, the myth of certainty. He subverts up front the cultural or religious assumptions that we are eventually going to have to face anyway.  He leaves us betwixt and between, where God and Spirit can get at us, where we are not at all in control, where divine imagination gives rise to something beyond. Hope. Maybe this is why we have paid so little attention to Jesus questions and emphasized instead his seeming answers. They give us more a feeling of success and closure. We made of Jesus a systematic theologian, who walked around teaching dogmas, instead of a pilgrim, engaging transformer of the humanity, the redemptive imagination of God...the reality of new creation.

Jesus always reminds us that God is all wisdom, we had best not try to concoct our own hope by providing ourselves with pat or immediate answers about great and intentionally unanswerable questions. 

I'm reminded of the story of the " rich young man." The young man asking Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. We too, may think we have given everything away, that we too are good. But we still, cling to one thing...our " wealth " of human knowledge. Here comes that challenge. We have a history in which we've climbed a mountain to the myth of certainty. We have amassed great knowledge, and yet, we've come to the tip of it, and teeter dangerously...ready to fall. And, Jesus asks us to sell all we possess...and follow him into the reality of life.

Sadly, we want Jesus to answer, to reassure us of our certainty, of the hope in our knowledge. Jesus is so much mystery, and so many questions. I used to have lots of answers, lots of knowledge, but I've had to give it all away. Jesus is the biggest mystery in my life, and in it, I have found the radical scandalous redemptive imagination of God. And in the mystery, the questions and the unknown...is the Hope of all creation.

The church needs to re-kindle the mind of Christ...the language of divine redemptive imagination, to a new creation, the Kingdom. This is our only hope.

Comments

[Sabio Lantz]

Even as an atheist or a Buddhist, I think we can hold ignorance and humility at our base. From their we can reach out with compassion into our own life and those of others.

That may not sound like your Jesus story, but the core to me sounds very similar.

[ron cole]

Sabio, I think you offer some beautiful wisdom into the conversation. The last while I've been reading the sacred texts from other faiths. We all have our stories of compassion, humility, hospitality...and grace. Maybe this is another imagination that needs to be re-kindled. Shared stories are the fabric of life, that connect us, to help us understand one another. When one understands, there is less fear...and more hope.

[Randy Hein]

Sabio, I just spent the last 20 minutes on your site and I really enjoyed it and feel the utmost respect for where you are coming from. When I find the time, I'm looking forward to a little dialogue.

In the meantime, may we all abide by the 'debaters golden rule' and become genuine unsanitary 'explorers'.

Sorry for taking space on your site to do this, Ron (I know I can get away with it because you are such a man of grace).

[ron cole]

" In the meantime, may we all abide by the 'debaters golden rule' and become genuine unsanitary 'explorers'."

Hey, Randy your quote is the essence of grace. Do mind if I use it in the header of my blog. I also spent some time on Sabio's site, he's had quite the journey through the world of "religion."

[Sabio Lantz]

@ Ron
Thank you for your hospitality. I will keep visiting. I enjoy your style. Do add comments to my site. I love challenges and different perspectives -- they stretch me. Meanwhile, I hope to be stretched by your writings as I keep visiting.

@ Randy
Glad you enjoyed. Do feel free to comment on my site. I am laughing how your got into my jargon right away!