Wild & Chaotic Creativity

"Tohu va Vohu" - wild and chaotic - is how the Hebrew Bible describes the world in the first moments of creation (Genesis 1:2).  Unlike other creation myths where chaos dies and order triumphs, Genesis leaves chaos intact.  This is the source of both suffering and creativity.  A completely ordered world would be like a paint-by-number landscape: everything is scripted and nothing new can happen.  Actual creation is like a Jackson Pollock painting where chance and chaos are part of the creative process.  Only in a world of "tohu va vohu" is there the possibility for new life, great art, innovative science, and ever-expanding wisdom.  If God is an artist, God is closer to Jackson Pollock than paint-by-number.

                                                - Rabbi Rami

"Thank You For this Chicken" pt. 2

A few posts ago I shared about our family's participation in a local farm. I came across this clip from Portlandia and had to share it.

God of Creation

That God created the world means that all material things reflect God’s glory and power. The incarnation cements this connection. Christ’s eternal and glorified new humanity means that human life is now enmeshed in the life of God. God’s story and the creation’s story come together in Christ, making things more than mere bits of matter, and opening our eyes tot their ultimate transfiguration. Creation, incarnation and the ultimate re-creation of the cosmos reveal a God for whom matter matters, and material things open our eyes to the One who is above and beyond all things.

Jesus Christ, God incarnate; God as matter, stuff, body, flesh and blood, has forever bridged the divide of creation and creature. In Christ’s incarnation, God now fully participates in the life of creation, and his creatures are represented before his throne with the ascended Lord. Christ is the primary and ultimate sacrament. By virtue of Christ’s taking on flesh, God is no longer a distant creator, but now, in Christ, "This is my Father’s world," and "he shines in all that’s fair." Christ, the sacrament of God made flesh, can again make the whole creation a sacramental place.

Leonard J. Vander Zee Christ, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper

Thank You For This Chicken

Recently at the dinner table our son Luke offered the prayer before dinner and surprised me with his words, “Dear God, thank you for this chicken, the farm it came from, and please look after all of the other animals.” In this prayer Luke reminded us of some things we had forgotten.

Our food comes from somewhere.

This may seem like a no-brainer, but with all of the instant “food” so readily available to us, it becomes easy to forget (or even know) where our food comes from.

In being reminded that our food has an origin, we’ve begun asking: “Where does our food come from?” Asking this question has been a bit like opening Pandora’s Box. “Just exactly what kind of plant grows a Twinkie?”, “Do these cookies really come from tree-dwelling elves?”, and “If this apple is labeled, ‘organic’, then what kind of apple is this?… ‘Industrial’?”

Our questions have led us to make some changes in the food we purchase. Each Tuesday Misty stops by Grassfields Farm on her way home from work to pick up milk, eggs, and whatever meat they have available (we started back in January). After our first experience we instantly appreciated the taste and quality of the food but even more have grown to appreciate being able to build a relationship with those who grow/raise our food. Participating in this local farm has reminded us that we are part of a bigger creation and that we have a responsibility (and privilege) to steward what God has made.

I recognize it is in part due to our “affluence” that we have the opportunity/choice to purchase food from a local farm. Not everyone has the means of transportation to connect them to locally grown food (we live in a part of the country where farms are still common, unlike many of our cities which have become “food deserts”). Further, fresh/clean/whole food is more expensive (a cheeseburger from McD’s is 99 cents, and a head of broccoli costs close to 2 dollars). As a result, we’ve had to make some choices in the food (and amount) we purchase.

Instead of buying 2lbs of beef from the grocery store we purchase only 1 lb. at the same price from the farm. In buying less food we have begun to look at what we eat differently. Don’t get me wrong, we have plenty to eat, but having to purchase less food means that we cannot afford to think of food in terms of “mindless consumption”, instead food, animals, and the farms they come from become a “gift”.

Another gift of purchasing local food has meant that we’ve had more prep-time in preparing meals. At first this may sound more like a chore (we are all busy with the hurriedness of life) however, purchasing ingredients to make our meals has caused us to slow down. Lilly, peeling carrots for dinner, has developed a deeper appreciation for the food we eat and Caleb, chopping lettuce for salads, has caused him to be more curious about eating “leafy greens”. Instead of Mom “heating up dinner” our meals have become a family affair, full of conversation and meaning.

Is this something we do each night? No. We still have evenings where soccer games and gymnastics cause us to eat on the run, but those times are becoming less and less. We may never be able to fully live off of locally grown food however our hope is that as we do our part to steward the food resources in front of us we are able to create better, more intimate connections with our community, our kids, and our Creator.

That is something to be thankful for.

Our Role In the Rescue

When Christians talk about "saving souls" they miss the full hope of the Gospel. The beautiful hope is that God will one day restore all of creation. Our role as followers of Jesus is to build for the kingdom.

NT Wright puts it this way: "God longed, in other words, to reestablish his wise sovereignty over the whole creation, which would mean a great act of healing and rescue. He did not want to rescue humans from creation any more than he wanted to rescue Israel from the Gentiles. He wanted to rescue Israel in order that Israel might be a light to the Gentiles, and he wanted thereby to rescue humans in order that humans might be his rescuing stewards over creation." Surprised By Hope

As followers of Jesus this has important implications. It means that what we do, now/today, echoes. It beckons us to see salvation on a larger scale: a radical healing of all creation. It means that when we care for our created world, spend time looking after the sick, or advocating for the oppressed we do so not to gain leverage in attracting/getting people to believe what we do about God, but rather that God somehow uses our work of mercy, love, and justice as building blocks for his kingdom; a kingdom that is both, in some manner, already present (visible through the work of his Church), and yet to come (in fullness with the Lordship and victory of Christ).