Peter Rollin's is his latest book " Insurrection " is asked if he believes in God. His answer...he aspires to believe in God. Resurrection life is a mode of living that embraces and clings to " life " in all it's doubt, complexity, and unknowing...it affirms life, and accepts our responsibility in transforming this world into his Kin-dom. On Earth as in Heaven... its this apocalyptic cosmic divine redemptive collision. Resurrection is violent...it is the relentless violence of an all consuming Love. It's violence of Jesus, of Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr...it's a crazy love that one's life gets lost in. Resurrection confronts systems that seek to oppress, destroy and bring death. It is the battle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, the authorities, against the powers of this dark world that dares to cast it's shadow across humanity...blinding all imagination and hope.
Resurrection people are not overwhelmed, for once you have seen this new subversive alternative world...nothing in its reality seems to small. No matter how small Resurrection people roam the world, the neighborhood, back alleys, gutters, ditches, corporate board rooms, the empires palace...looking for bits, and pieces, shattered pieces of life. They begin to put in back together in the image of the Kin-dom, the world upside down.
Peter says, he aspires to believe in God. Because the truth is we only believe in God by how much we love. If love is not tangible, if it is not the gravity that connects me with everything...well, I don't believe. If our faith does not throw us in the arms of the world, if it does not lead to our experience of responsibility, love, compassion, hospitality...our absolute commitment to transformation. Then what ever we call it...it has nothing to do with Jesus, the gospels and the profound redemptive scandalous imagination of his Kin-dom. So I agree with Peter...I aspire to believe in God.
Practicing Resurrection
Practice resurrection
…in a world of quick profits
…and everything ready made.
Practice resurrection
…in a world of obligated consumption
…and generals and politicos.
Practice resurrection against all the odds.
“Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.”
To practice resurrection, my friends,
…we need to be able to see just beyond the range of normal sight,
…we need to expect the end of the world … and laugh,
…we need to do something that will not compute,
…we need to love the Lord,
…love the world,
…work for nothing.
We come together at Practicing Resurrection because we have considered all of the facts,
…or at least enough of them.
We know what real profit is
…and we know enough to abandon that which does not profit.
We know that while sometimes wisdom cries out at the street corners,
…just as often she whispers in the carrion,
…sighs as wind blowing through trees,
…sings in the planting of crops and their harvest,
…rejoices when people break bread together.
We have come to practice resurrection.
…We have come to embrace the new birth,
…we have come to say to the darkness, “we beg to differ,”
…we have come to ask the important questions:
……Will this satisfy
………a woman satisfied to bear a child?
……Will this disturb the sleep
………of a woman near to giving birth?
…Do you really want to interrupt that ten second nap between contractions?
…Can we live our lives by such standards?
…Are our decisions about dinner up to that kind of life bearing responsibility?
Welcome to Practicing Resurrection, my friends.
Welcome to a community of discernment.
Welcome to a conversation about wholeness.
Welcome to “Urban Agriculture and the Peace of the City.”
Welcome to the party that has already begun.
From the birds and the bees
…to urban forestry and foraging for weeds;
from community gardens and Sabbath economics
…to scripture and solar energy;
we’ve got it all.
But we can only practice resurrection
…if someone rolled away the stone.
We can only practice resurrection
…if the power of death has been broken.
We can only practice resurrection
…if Jesus shows us the way.
Resurrection is new creation.
Resurrection is the restoration of broken relationships.
Resurrection sets the captive free,
…binds up the broken,
…establishes justice and mercy.
We can’t practice resurrection alone.
…Not even Jesus can do that.
…He needs Mary to mistake him for the gardener.
…He needs the women to tell the fearful men.
……So long as women do not go cheap
……for power, please women more than men.
There is no resurrection without a body.
…The body of Jesus,
……bruised, broken, pierced, risen.
…We are called to that body.
…We who have died in Christ have risen in Christ.
…So practice that resurrection.
( Brian Walsh, September 2010 )
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