In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m sort of a Wendell Berry fan. Here is a link to Sojourner Magazine interview from 2004 that I found very interesting. There are some good comments about living “locally,” rural poverty, and economics. I especially think Berry’s comments about language and its particularity are worth reading. Enjoy.
Author: Matt Judkins
The Coaching Carousel and Pastoral Itinerancy
Like many folks, I love to watch the coaching carousel go ’round and ’round waiting to see who gets a dream job and who gets booted for yet another losing season. Billy Gillispie is going from Texas A&M to the University of Kentucky. Bob Huggins has fled Kansas State for his home state in West Virginia. Surprise of surprises, Billy Donovan has chosen to stay put down in Gainesville, saying that happiness is more important than money. Sports radio is consumed by all the changes taking place this time of year, and I follow right along.
Even though it doesn’t make ESPN, the evening news, or talk radio, similar talk happens among United Methodist clergy. We want to know who’s going where, who “took a cut,” and who has gotten their “dream church.” It’s enough to make me wonder if the same things fuel both conversations.
Presumably, we’re fascinated with coaches because we’re fascinated with success. The Billys of the world, Gillispie and Donovan, are to be rewarded for doing a great job at what they do. Both Billys won at traditional football powers and were offered jobs at one of the powerhouses of college basketball, Kentucky. We see this as an affirmation of their skills. They are getting the chance they earned, their achievements measured in the win-loss column.
Perhaps we think the same thing with pastors. Rev. Smith-Jones down the road really turned that congregation around. Isn’t it about time she get a raise and transfer? When will “First Church” come calling? Of course with pastors we talk more about gifts and graces than win-loss records, don’t we? Maybe.
I don’t really have much more to offer on this, because I want to know who’s going where too. Are these two conversations fueled by the same desires and motives? Should they be? Is it just innocent curiosity? What do you think?
My Inner Church Father
Just took the test at The Way of the Fathers (h/t Gavin & Andy B.), and looks like I’m St. Justin Martyr.
“You have a positive and hopeful attitude toward the world. You think that nature, history, and even the pagan philosophers were often guided by God in preparation for the Advent of the Christ. You find “seeds of the Word” in unexpected places. You’re patient and willing to explain the faith to unbelievers.”
Is it any surprise that three MethoBloggers can take the same six question quiz and get three different results? Of course not!
Easter Quote of the Day
American theologian Ron Sider was once chatting with German theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg about Jesus’ resurrection. Pannenberg repeated at least twice in the conversation, “The evidence for Jesus’ resurrection is so strong that nobody would question it except for two things: first, it is a very unusual event; and second, if you believe it happened, you have to change the way you live.” (h/t Wikiletics)
Complaint Department Closed
I’m sure you’ve heard of the church in Kansas City that is striving for a complaint free world. It’s been featured in People Magazine, on Oprah, and just about everywhere. Anyway, my congregation thinks this is a great idea, so I’ve ordered a few bracelets to give out to those who’d like them. They’re free, but they’re accepting donations to help with the costs. I’m not really sure what I think about this theologically, but don’t we all have a few people (perhaps including ourselves) that we’d like to subtly hand these out to?
Tony Campolo Interview
I’ve never posted a youtube clip before, and frankly I think they’re a little ugly. But, I still wanted to post this interview of Tony Campolo who’s promoting his book, Letters to a Young Evangelical.
It’s interesting to watch the way this interviewer responds when faced with Campolo’s presentation of the gospel. My read is that he hasn’t heard the gospel put this way, it’s making a claim on him unlike presentations he’s encountered before, and he seems to try to deflect that quite a bit through the interview. I’d love to know what he’s really thinking!
A Poem for Easter by Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry is one of my very favorite authors. So, as we prepare for Easter, here is one my favorite poems he has written.
Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
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.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion – put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
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. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.
Making Me Think Before 8AM
Here is the Sermon on the Mount rewritten “American Style” (h/t Chuck Gutenson). It will certainly make you think a bit, even if it’s before 8AM.
Grinding the Face of the Poor Since 2004
In November 2004, Oklahomans passed state question 705 approving the lottery. Of course, much of the money is allocated for education. On top of this, we have Native American casinos popping up like maggots everywhere you look.
It doesn’t matter what time of day or week you drive by these large casinos; the parking lots are full of people. And believe it or not, the people at the casinos aren’t driving their Lexus or Cadillac down for a few tugs on the old slot machine. The problem is terrible in Southeastern Oklahoma. Families are struggling to make payments on houses and loans while still faithfully making their trips to the casinos and buying lotto tickets trying to hit it big.
A friend and I were discussing this some time ago. What can the United Methodist Church do about these things? We can do what we often do and pass another resolution, but we thought it might be better to do something proactive.
My suggestion was to purchas billboards that communicate the connection between the lottery, casinos, and the poor with our biblical mandate to do justice and love kindness (Micah 6:8). In fact, I thought the reference in my title would be a great billboard. Imagine, in the background is a big lottery ticket and a picture of a casino. In the foreground of these pictures are these words, “Grinding the Face of the Poor Since 2004. Isaiah 3:15). Underneath that we could place a number to gambling addiction services, and below we could have the words The United Methodist Church, a Micah 6:8 community.
Yes, it’s ambiguous. But, I think it might make people ask questions and try to imagine why we were connecting the two things. Do you think this would work, or should we just pass another resolution?
Sweet Hitchhiker
Today, I did something I’ve never done before. I picked up a hitchhiker. Yes, yes, I know…you can’t be too safe. What was I thinking? Well, I’ll tell you.
I saw this man standing just outside of a town I was driving through, and I thought to myself, “Hmmm…then the King will say to you, ‘When I was hitchhiking, you gave me a ride,’ and the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord when did we ever see you hitchhiking?'”
So I started on my brakes, and then all the thoughts of safety went through my head. Of course, it wasn’t long ago that a friend and I had a discussion about safety and the Cross…nice. So after letting up on the brakes, I hit them again and backed up down the highway about forty feet.
The man, I’ll call him “Jim,” was a forty or fifty year old Creek Indian. He told me a little about his story, the work he had been doing, and a little bit about his fears for the Creek Nation. He didn’t ask me what I did; I didn’t tell him. He just asked my name and where I was from. When he got out at his girlfriends house (about a mile off the main highway) I started to say, “God bless you Jim,” but I didn’t. Instead, I said a silent prayer for him and drove off. That’s it.
mattjudkins.com 