What does it mean, I wonder, to encounter a burning bush, flaming but not consumed, and hear nothing? Beauty manifests God, but what if God does not call your name out of the flames? Only silence. No appointment with destiny. You admire for a moment and walk on by.
People were doing this. Churches were organizing community gardens and small farms, trying to combine faith practice, community, discipleship, health, justice. Healing land and community at once, reconnecting faith to place.
Farm Refugia and Church on the Edges Read More »
Michigan, nature, spirituality
Questions of what more-than-human creatures are worth, what they mean, what is their ultimate value—these questions become more urgent as the species extinction crisis accelerates.
Lately I’ve been feeling a lot of emptiness. Deus absconditus. This darkness is evidently nothing new, seeing as there’s a Latin name for it. Where are you?
Come, Then, Lord Jesus, Come Read More »
climate change, liturgical year, spirituality
And here we were, camping out in the wilderness for the weekend with people fleeing the church of empire and searching for what we might call the church of refugia. They were looking for community, hope, and sustenance, a place of healing and resilience. Maybe that’s what this conference was: one sliver of the church of refugia.
Water in the Wilderness: The Evolving Faith Conference Read More »
spirituality
It’s disturbing to recognize that in the Noah story, God does the same sort of thing that the Babylonian gods do in their flood story.” That’s what she said, this bold and thoughtful student in world lit class. We had been pondering the flood story in the ancient Sumerian/Babylonian epic Gilgamesh, sorting out the differences from
Word of the Lord, Thanks Be to God Read More »
college life, spirituality
I’ve been working this summer on a podcast based on the idea of “refugia.” I wrote about this idea here at The Reformed Journal blog last May. Thanks in part to the encouragement of my colleague Dave Koetje, Professor of Biology at Calvin University, I’ve been exploring the idea further through interviews with people from a range
Little Pockets: Refugia Basics Read More »
climate change, nature, spirituality
I realize we’re planning way ahead here, but if you happen to be in charge of an Easter Vigil service next spring, you should definitely order a big beeswax candle for the occasion. Why? Because in the ancient liturgical prayer for Easter Eve, called the Exsultet, there’s a cool part where the priest/presider acknowledges the
Learning about Gratitude from the Onondaga Read More »
nature, spirituality, theology
When Mount Saint Helens erupted in May of 1980, it lost 1,300 feet of elevation and gained a new mile-wide crater. The debris avalanche and ashfall from the volcanic blast devastated the mountain and its surroundings, crushing, burning, killing, and coating everything in ash. Everyone assumed life could return to this apocalyptic death-zone only very
Dear Luke, Thank you for sending me your manuscript. I’ll try to respond honestly, as you requested. Those lyrical opening chapters: fantastic. Beautifully paced, full of poetry. Along with Zechariah and Mary and Simeon, I was dazzled by angels visitant and wowed by prophetic utterances, and I shared high hopes about this Jesus. However, by
Disappointed in a Disappointed Jesus Read More »
spirituality