Practising resurrection

I once came across a poem by Wendell Berry entitled “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front”, an intriguing title.

“Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay. Want more of everything ready-made. Be afraid to know your neighbours and to die. …

“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. …” He goes on to say: “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.” And he concludes: “Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction. Practise resurrection.”

There is the catch line, a surprising phrase: “practise resurrection.” Somehow I think that is what the Gospel writers are trying to convey, the practice of resurrection. That does not mean the practice of resuscitation, that is, trying literally to raise someone from the dead. For resurrection is much more than that and it has to do more with how we live and what we do with our lives here and now, rather than confining resurrection to the afterlife. In Greta Vosper’s book “With or Without God,” she touches upon a basic truth with her subtitle: “Why the Way We Live is More Important Than What We Believe”. I would think we would all agree that the way we live, the way we practise our faith, the way we practise resurrection, is a powerful part of what it means for us to be following the way of Jesus. So, what does the practice of resurrection include? Here are only a few brief answers: The Advent candles provide us with four clues: hope, love, peace and joy, and those clues permeate the various resurrection stories which the Gospel writers tell. The practice of resurrection also involves being in right relationship with all of life, all that we deem sacred and holy, all of creation and every part within.

Another practice of resurrection is recognizing and experiencing the power of the spirit of life within us, the very breath that gives life to us, the breath that was breathed into us at the very moment of creation.

Then there is forgiveness, not the seeking out of personal salvation, but rather our willingness to practise forgiveness as a way of life. Doubts are also part of the practice of resurrection, our willingness to question even basic tenets of our faith so as to more deeply understand our own connection to the sacred and to the spirit of life itself. Joyce Boyce-Tillman in her hymn “We Shall Go Out With Hope of Resurrection,” says we “share our joy with those who still are weeping, raise hymns of strength for hearts that break in grief; we’ll leap and dance the resurrection story, including all in circles of our love.”

Practise resurrection.