Nonconforming
| This note from our sister Paige Weston makes me want to slow down and read Wendell Berry’s poem again and again. I hope it blesses you as well. -Renée I think often about the instruction in Romans 12:2: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—God’s good, pleasing and perfect will.” Over the years I’ve put a lot of energy into nonconformance with the pattern of my world. Often so much energy, I haven’t had any left with which to listen for or test, let alone act on, God’s will for me. And what happens to me when I surround myself with other nonconformists? Do I just conform to my community’s nonconformance? I worry about stuff like that. So this week when I encountered Wendell Berry’s “Manifesto” from the Mad Farmer Liberation Front (the MFLF), I got goosebumps. Ask questions that have no answers? Check. Be joyful though I’ve considered the facts? Check. Make more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction? Check and check. In Renée’s absence, may this poem bless you as it has blessed me. pw “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” by Wendell Berry 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 millennium. 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. |
| Bulletin: 3/31 Order of Service: 3/31 Sermon: Celebrate Crossing: Church Clarity Verified |