a beautiful mess

A SMALL THEOLOGY / wendell berry

“With God all things are possible”—
that’s the beginning and the end
of theology. If all things are possible,
nothing is impossible.
Why do the godly then
keep slinging out their nooses?

–

here’s a call to the church: a call through the streets of the kingdom: to return again to a small theology of our great god, YHWH.

if more of us within the church and this great kingdom would put down the stones and quit slinging out our nooses, what a kingdom we would be! if we could find the courage to trust this small theology, perhaps more people could trust us…and come to trust yeshua himself.

and i recognize, it’s not because i am perfect that i proclaim this message: it’s precisely because i am not. in the words of aaron gillespie,

i’ve been / dirtier / than you / want to know

my only hope in this life rests on the one who comes to me in my brokenness, kneels to meet me in the dirt, looks into my eyes, and promises that all things are possible: restoration, redemption, and resurrection: forgiveness, fellowship, and freedom: grace, mercy, and love.

[selah]

few poets can move so quickly and with such grace as wendell berry.

i was first introduced to berry as a sophomore at cornerstone university – my philosophy prof was a big fan; even taking a week off from school to drive to kentucky, meet with the farmer-poet-teacher, turn back to grand rapids and learn us in the ways of ole wendell!

anyways. if you have a pulse and at least a sliver of a piece of a tiny shred of a desire to learn from those who have and are still going before us, then you need to invest some time in becoming acquainted with wendell berry.

i leave you now with berry’s thoughts on church leadership given by way of a brilliant analogy: that of a farm and a farmer.

When one buys the farm and moves there to live, something different begins. Thoughts begin to be translated into acts…. It invariably turns out, I think, that one’s first vision of one’s place was to some extent an imposition on it. But if one’s sight is clear and one stays on and works well, one’s love gradually responds to the place as it really is, and one’s visions gradually image possibilities that are really in it…. Two human possibilities of the highest order thus come within reach: what one wants can become the same as what one has, and one’s knowledge can cause respect for what one knows. … The good worker will not suppose that good work can be made properly answerable to haste, urgency, or even emergency…. Seen in this way, questions about farming become inseparable from questions about propriety of scale. A farm can be too big for a farmer to husband properly or pay proper attention to. Distraction is inimical to correct discipline, and enough time is beyond reach of anyone who has too much to do. But we must go farther and see that propriety of scale is invariably associated with propriety of another kind: an understanding and acceptance of the human place in the order of Creation–a proper humility…. It is the properly humbled mind in its proper place that sees truly, because–to give only one reason–it sees details.

is anyone else familiar with wendell berry? and what are some practical ways that we, as the body of the son of man, can “quit slinging out our nooses?” as we declare with a cry of victory: “all things are possible.”? how do we get to that place of “proper humility” that we may see truly and see the details?

–

despite my unbelief, i believe that who i am is a son of the only living god & king, YHWH [blessed be his name]. a son of the resurrection. a son of the wind which bends all things.