Getting Involved with God: Rediscovering the Old Testament by Ellen Davis
- Chapter 16 – “Good-faith Springs Up from the Earth: Learning Ecology from the Bible”

Thesis – The Bible equips us theologically to think ecologically about the world.

Overview

The Old Testament, and the creation narratives in particular, have a prophetic call for the church around the ecological crisis of our day. Ecology is the “study of relationships” (185) and the OT is all about our relationships – human, divine, and creation. We learn that we are humans made of humus and as such have a unique responsibility with and for the soil.  We are to “work” and “watch over” (192) the earth.  This is a call to righteousness – or right-living and right relationship – for the sake of others, particularly those who are dependent upon us.  Our right relationships then have direct implications for how we grow and eat food.  There are, not surprisingly, props given to Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson.

Quotables

“The Bible can teach us or (better, perhaps) help us to understand all the fundamentals of ecology.  The Bible can enable us to graps the depth dimensions of the ecological crisi because the ecological crisis is essentially not a technological crisis, but a theological one.  It is a massive disordering in our relationshi with God, the Creator of heaven and earth.” (185)

“The religiously resonant language of this first job description from Eden suggests the remarkable teaching that in showing proper regard for the fertile earth, we meet the two great goals of all Torah observance: serving God and protecting the week.  This indeed is Torah of the earth.” (195)

Notoable References

Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson, eds., Meeting the Expectations of the Land (San Francisco: North Point Press, 1984).

Implications

First, I need to say that reading this one chapter makes me really want to read the rest of the book.  I have a growing respect for how God interacts with Israel and creation in the Hebrew Bible.  My hunch is that this book would provide both a great overview of the OT and the implications for ecology theologically composed.  I’ve also come to hold Ellen Davis in the same mental category as Walter Brueggemann and John Goldingay as preeminent and helpful scholars and guides for the OT.

Second, I this chapter is a great foundational piece for how to conceive of our relationship to God and creation – all within the framework of a careful reading of the Bible.  One would be hard pressed to assume that this is simply a liberal, left-leaning diatribe about “saving the earth.”  Our care and tending of creation – the soil, in particular – bespeaks of our core values and beliefs in much the same way as our checking account is a theological statement about what we really believe and value.

Opening Night – Stations 1-7

Opening Night – Stations 8-14

First off, as soon as I opened the book I realized that Bonhoeffer was foundational (can I use that word?) for Rollins’ premise.  So, I stopped by 1801 Mills and grabbed a couple relevant books - Bonhoeffer for Armchair Theologians by Stephen R. Haynes, Lori Brandt Hale and 2 of Greg Boyd’s books, Repenting of Religion and God of the Possible (mainly the first, but have been wanting to read the other one too).

Sadly, I’m not up on my Bonhoeffer, so I’ve got some work to do.

Now, as I read the first couple chapters of Insurrection I could tell this book was the following:

• a) the real deal
• b) surprisingly accessible (more so than How (Not) to Speak of God)
• c) Explosions in the Sky would be an appropriate soundtrack to the book

That said, the push (because that’s what it feels like) to “religionless Christianity” that Bonhoeffer and Rollins are advocating is deeply compelling.  I admit that I’m still struggling to grasp the tangibleness of what that could look like.  But the drive toward peeling back the layers of accumulated religion is a good one, but one that I fear too often ends too quickly in some kind of sentimentality.  By which I mean, the nostalgia of “restorationism” that doesn’t actually restore nor move us forward.  I recognize this isn’t whatRollins (or Bonhoeffer, I reckon) are doing, but my concern is that that is how it will be appropriated by others (myself not withstanding).

The last bit to share for now is the sense that this move to Insurrection is a deeply human (that’s a good thing) endeavor.  Too often our “religionFULL Christianity” does not leave room for grief, pain, suffering, brokenness, or the like.  If the move that Rollins is driving toward would allow for this I would be very grateful.  Again, I’m wondering what that would look like in practice (in the mainline, liturgical, and mega/evangelical).

That’s it for now… more to come….

Oh, also reading (and very much enjoying) Sean Gladding’s, The Story of God, the Story of Us!

a parenting moment

When 2010 clicked over to 2011 lots of folks were making Top Ten lists.  Sarah and I were pondering what top ten parenting books we’d recommend to new parents or parents with small children (like ourselves).  Here’s our list.  What would you add?

1. Happiest Baby on the Block – seriously, the 5 S’s saved all of our lives (swaddling, side/stomach position, shushing sounds, swinging, sucking)
2. The Baby Book by Dr. Sears – and anything by the Sears family – the basics, great primer for attachment parenting
3. Siblings without Rivalry - yes, yes you can.
4. Raising your Spirited Child – for the kids who are MORE of everything!  Transitions, transitions, transitions…
5. Relationship Empowerment Parenting – We had the Balswicks for a class at Fuller.  Big takeaway – parent like scaffolding…
6. Myth of the Perfect Mother – not just for moms, we’ve seriously messed up the notion of what mothering is and can be.  This book helps frame the question and offers a new perspective.
7. No-Cry Sleep Solution – big thanks to the Odens for recommending this.  You DO NOT have to let kids “cry it out” – it ain’t healthy, normal, or more godly to do so.
8. Attachment Parenting – like I said, we’re big Dr. Sears fans.
9. Positive Discipline for Preschoolers – discipline is about learning, not power or punishment.
10. Growing Strong Daughters – got girls?  Read this.

“Most of us think of waiting as something very passive, a hopeless state determined by events totally out of our hands. . . . But there is none of this passivity in scripture.  Those who are waiting are waiting very actively.  They know that what they are waiting for is growing from the ground on which they are standing.  That’s the secret.  The secret of waiting is the faith that the seed has been planted, that something has begun.  Active waiting means to be present fully to the moment, in the conviction that something is happening where you are and that you want to be present to it.”

Henri Nouwen, “A Spirituality of Waiting”

Naturally, we’ve had a couple great BBQ meals and checked out the coffee scene in KC.  Speaking of the coffee scene, Church of the Resurrection (COR) has a great coffee/espresso bar right in their hospitality area.  I met Lance, the bar manager and he and I are going to chat about coffee and ministry sometime this week.  I’m continuing to look for ways we can engage our students in Radical Hospitality and Social Justice by way of excellent coffee.

We’ve also connected with Rob Webster, Director of Video Production, at COR.  I’m looking forward to learning more about this area of ministry from Rob that I’d love for us to grow into.

We’re looking to visit the International House of Prayer and KC Boiler Room

I’m posting some photos on my Flickr account as a visual record of our trip.  Check them out here.

Lots of great stuff happening… so exciting!

Why am I fed up? There are three basic reasons.

1. Too distracting!

2. Too polemical!

3. Too consuming!

So what am I going to do about it? I’m going to spend the month of December pondering the place of social media in my life. The specific proposition that I’m considering is something of a social experiment.

What would my life and ministry look like if I abstained from social media (specifically Facebook & Twitter) for one year? The WF has a wonderful new intern (Bethany Daniel) who will become queen of WF social media communications, so that arena will still function in my absence.

I’m hoping I will be able to write more (blogs, articles, book?). I’m hoping to be less distracted, more present, less polemical, more nuanced, less consumed, more discerning.

Can I do it? Is it even possible to function in 21st century society without accessing Facebook? Sure, I could do away with all digital media, like I do for one month a year. But can I still email, text, and blog without utilizing explicit social software? How will it effect our ministry with college students?

I’ll be considering all that and my reasons for quitting during this month. I’d love feedback too, because while I question the veracity of social media I still value being social.

Here’s my contention.  We don’t know squat about Community.  We just don’t.  We are, myself certainly included, dumb when it comes to Community.  Not only is our Civic Community in disarray, but we have almost no idea what it means to live in Christian Community.  Those two, Civic and Christian Community, by the way, aren’t the same, but overlap like a good Venndiagram.  We live as Technomadic Monads, but are designed to live as Pneumasomatic Triads.  Let’s unpack that shall we…

Even as a self-professed technophile I find it disconcerting and frustrating the emotional and spiritual distance created by the 24/7, always connected, digital world.  That’s the “tech” part of the phrase.  The constant barrage of technology streaming and screaming all around us effects us, even if we don’t think we’re paying attention to it.  At the minimum it changes our perception of life.  When I ride my bike I notice things that I would never even see if I were driving.  Likewise, we’re nomadic.  We flit from this to that like bees in a clover field.  We trick ourselves into believing that proximity or placefulness doesn’t really matter.  We assume that social media connection is qualitatively the same as a meal together.  I’m not saying that a social media connection has no value, just not the same as a slow meal together with friends and family.

We’re also monads.  A monad, of course, is a single, solitary, isolated, unconnected unit.  It is, by definition, not in relationship to something else.  It is the cult of the individual.  It is me, myself, and I and the rest of the world goes blind – or might as well, since we don’t really notice one another whilst we text in the car at 60 miles an hour.  Again, I’m not saying that individuals or individuality doesn’t matter.  It does.  It just isn’t the end all, be all of my existence.

I’m convinced that we’re really supposed to be living as Pneumasomatic Triads.  A pneumatic drill is a drill powered by air.  We are designed to be powered by the Spirit.  We are spirit-ual beings, but we are not disembodied spirits.  We have a “soma,” a body.  Psychosomatic disorders are a

bodily ailment or symptom, caused by mental or emotional disturbance, in which psychological stresses adversely affect physiological (somatic) functioning to the point of distress.

Conversely, a Pneumasomatic person is a healthy, holistic Spirit-embedded, flesh and blood, human.  But we’re not health, holistic (or maybe even Spirit-embedded) if we aren’t in relationship with one another.  That’s the Triad part – We are in a divine dance with God, one another, and even ourselves.  Much like the Perichoretic nature of the Trinity itself, we hold life in a common connection with God’s self and the other.

So, instead of mediating our lives in isolated cubicles massaging our eyelids with “screens of distraction” (to use Wendell Berry’s phrase), we are meant to live in dynamic and creative tension with our sisters and brothers and God.  We are meant to be Spirit-embodied Communal creatures – Pneumasomatic Triads – instead of Technomadic Monads.