Practice Resurrection: Be believing!

Caravaggio

Be believing*

(John 20:19-30)

Later on
that day / the dark room
was enough
to concoct buttoned down,
in our minds.

While we lingered bolted-in,
shut-up / You
breezed past barricade as One
hole-pocked / exhaled
absolution, a hot gust
peace be with you;
materialized new --
as Yourself / awake & alive
after the woman's claim
you spoke her name.

afraid / our fingers
traced your split side
'til we inhaled
Your closer breathing,
our truer air.

*I wrote this poem a few years ago, inspired by the form Luci Shaw used in her poem Ascending.

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What do you need help believing to be true about the resurrected Christ?  What fears are hindering you from receiving his offer of peace?

7 quick takes on 7 great links

source

| 1 | This Is What It's Like at Austin Channing 

"Now usually, I would let you post what you want (within reason) in the comments. But you should know that anything that justifies the treatment of this child will be deleted without response. I am not entertaining debates on this one. You will respect the body of this little girl or you will have to go converse elsewhere with someone else. I can't protect her safety in real life, but I will protect it here."

I watched this video on my small phone screen without sound during a layover in the Detroit airport.  Somehow without sound made the whole thing more clear and disturbing.  The physicality of that officer, those kids, the bystanders shout louder than whatever audio I was missing.  I tried to imagine my own body in the chaos.  I hope I would have at the very least sat down on the ground next to one of those kids until their own momma showed up.  I will pray that to be true of my heart. (hat tip to my friend Krista)

| 2 | Is Anglicanism Catholic or Reformed? at Anglican Pastor  

"Most American evangelicals experience a church world that is either protestant/reformed or catholic. You have to be one or the other. For many ‘catholic’ means “Roman Catholic”; ‘reformed’ means “calvinist”; ‘Protestant’ means “Not Roman Catholic.” The Orthodox churches are kind of silently off to the side in most of these schemes. Anglicanism, however, had a unique history that wreaks havoc on these neat labelling systems."  

 I found this brief overview of the relationship Anglicanism has with both Roman Catholicism and Reformed traditions. When I shared the link on Facebook my Roman Catholic friend (rightly) pointed out the absence of King Henry VIII's role in the birth of Anglicanism.  You can read our exchange here.  My friend also mentions several other complicated characteristics of the Anglican communion which we refer to with phrases like "big tent" "via media" and "two integrities".  I've been contemplating adding a few more posts to my On Becoming Anglican series as we draw nearer to Brian's ordination and, perhaps, these idioms will show up here again.

| 3 | {pretty, happy, real weddings} at Like Mother, Like Daughter 

It's wedding season around here for several family and dear friends AND for our son and future daughter-in-law.  This series of posts is full of reasonable and meaningful advice for everyone involved in celebrating a new marriage.  A couple favorites so far:  Timeline of the Indispensable Bridesmaid & How to Get the Wedding Reception You Really Want .

| 4 | 30 Perfectly Timed Photos of Dogs 

Just because these truly are perfectly timed and quite hilarious.  And here's a picture of our scaredy-dog Leopold McGarry, or Leo on most days.  Bonus points to you if you can tell me what character he's named after! (hat tip to my friend Margaret)

| 5 | Works With Soul: Luci Shaw at Ruminate Magazine 

"So, my poetry discipline? Listening, paying attention, getting an arriving poem or image into my journal and onto my computer screen—that’s my discipline. It’s never work. It’s pure delight! I read voraciously and often a word jumps off the page at me, demanding to be used. I’ve written four new poems this week just by catching some images mid-flight and finding the words to fulfill the image, which takes off in unexpected directions. What I write writes me. I scan the morning paper forAssociated Press headlines that ask to be poems—“Comeback for snowy plover.” “New sea star babies offer hope amid mass die-offs.”

If you've visited here much in 9 years I've been blogging you probably figured out I have a poet crush on Luci Shaw.  This interview by Angela Doll Carson captures Ms. Shaw's spirit quite nicely.  I felt like I was visiting with an old friend.


| 6 |  Allison Backous Troy: Livelihood and the path between vocation and work at Duke Divinity's Faith & Leadership blog 

"Work's shadow side is not just about being treated unfairly. It is about having and losing opportunity, about watching ourselves be stretched thin by the clock and the contract's stipulations. It is about doing what keeps our bills paid while waiting for a response to our hundredth job application. It is about what we lose when work that once made us glad is stripped of its vitality. What we lose when work that we love -- and need -- is taken from us."

Allison Backous Troy's insightful review of Nancy Nordenson's Finding Livelihood is the sort of review that makes me want to re-read the book I already enjoyed once.  This is a good review on a subject so familiar to so many of us that I think we forget to hold it up under the light of truth and grace.  

Here's my summary of Nordenson's book:  5 Favorite Reads in May


| 7 | Joy Williams on The Civil Wars and Her New Album, VENUS at Medium 

"How would you describe VENUS? For me, it’s my coming-of-age album, becoming the woman I’ve always wanted to be. I think over the course of the last couple of years making this album, I finally felt that I stepped into my own skin. I’ve spent my whole life trying to be the best version of myself, and I’ve finally let myself just be me."

Such a good interview. I can't stop listening to the singles released from this album. And, you guys, have you LISTENED to this song?  This is the best definition of "woman" I've ever heard.  Yes, yes, yes.

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Hoping for a good and content weekend for us all, friends.

Peace....

*Linking up with other 7 Quick Takers.*

Five Favorites: Books I Read in April + great online finds this week

a favorite image from the week

beautiful Passover Seder with dear friends

Five Favorites: my 2014 reading list

-- 1 --

11  A Prayer Journal by Flannery O'Connor: (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013. 40 pages plus photocopies of the author's journal pages) 

The more I read about her, the more dear she becomes to me.  These earnest pages of prayer were recently discovered among Flannery O'Connor's papers in Georgia.  I thinks the impact might be similar to the response we gave to the posthumous words of the likes of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and the Hebrew King David - doubt, anxiety and fear are a normal part of a life shaped by love for God and others.  With Ms. O'Connor they also come with a love for writing:

"Dear God, I am so discouraged about my work. I have the feeling of discouragement that is. I realize I don't know what I realize. Please help me dear God to be a good writer and to get something else accepted."

-- 2 --

12  Staying Put: Making a Home In A Restless World by Scott Russell Sanders: (Beacon Press, Boston, 1993. 194 pages) 

I don't quite remember where I discovered this title, but I enjoy reading those who value the meaning of place. Sanders writes from the perspective of one who has lost and now found the peace of living in place with a family he loves, finding peace in rootedness.  While I enjoyed the book, I found myself wishing the author would occasionally take himself a bit less seriously.  

-- 3 --

13  The Wild Braid: A Poet Reflects on a Century in the Garden by Stanley Kunitz with Genine Lentine, photographs by Marnie Crawford Samuelson: (W.W. Norton & Company, 2005. 142 pages, including full-color photographs)

April put me in a gardening mood. I spent more time reading about gardening than actually working in one, but we managed to get a small plot in the ground. At the time of this book's publication award-winning poet and master gardener Stanley Kunitz was planning his 100th birthday.  This book was lovingly conceived by those who admired his long years creating beauty in words and soil.  A lovely, relaxing read even though I occasionally felt sad for one so well-acquainted with beauty to seem so unfamiliar with it's true Source.

-- 4 --

14  St. Francis of Assisi by G.K. Chesterton: (Image Books Doubleday, NY,NY. 1990. 158 pages)

Both Saint Francis and G.K. Chesterton are enigma to me -- in all of the most appealing ways.  The two -- one in his saintly excess, one in his saintly ascetic -- are perfectly suited literary journeymen.  Frankly, I can't follow all of Chesterton's turgid description but I soaked it all in with pleasure anyway.  As for the paradoxical monk, I'm glad to know him through the distance of centuries.  And hope to be just a tiny bit more like the best parts of his love for peace and the creaturely sacredness of our world.

-- 5 --

15  Adventure of Ascent: Field Notes from a Lifelong Journey by Luci Shaw (InterVarsity Press, 2014. 174 pages)

A warming Saturday morning read that, at times, felt more like a front-porch conversation with a woman in my grandmother's generation.  Luci Shaw is one of the writers I hope to emulate -- not in word only, but also in deed.  I'm glad she wrote this honest, yet hope-full, reflection on the act of aging toward inevitable death -- her adventure of ascent.  

A few favorite passages:

"Sometimes these changes feel volcanic and worrisome, as when my bladder doesn't heed my command to hang tight and I'm caught, embarrassingly, rushing for the nearest public bathroom in town and leaking along the way. Is this to be expected, and what am I to do about it? 

Oh, I know. Talk to my doctor about this or that prescription for "overactive bladder," a euphemism suggested to help one feel less mortified about bodily urgings: it's my bladder, not me, that needs help."

..... 

"Yet with Job, with Handel, I am learning to affirm, 'For though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God' (Job 19:26, as rendered in The Messiah).  I can hear the composer's tune in my mind. Is this what we can look forward to? No limited horizons, no more hearing loss, bloody noses, partisan politics, obstacles, canceled flights, stink of sweat, time limits, cracked bones, methane gas, sagging, underarm hair, global warming, wrinkles, aches, flue, yellowing teeth, floods, adipose tissue, tumors, tsunamis, cataracts, betrayals, myopia, hurricanes, irregular heartbeats, diverticuli, road rage, dementia, spider veins, erectile dysfunction, purple bruises, developmental defects, moles, anxieties, thinning hair, shame, delusions of grandeur, scars, lost socks, bald heads, unfulfilled dreams, longings for truth, oil spills, contracts, credit cards, debts, highway gridlock, meanness of spirit, discords, deserts, doubts, blizzards, deadlines... 

Dead-lines?"

*Go to my Book Pile page to see my reading lists from previous years.*

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Other good words online this week

• The iconic Boston bombing photograph isn't about my legs -- it's about a rescue by Jeff Bauman at The Guardian: "One year later, I've still only seen the Wheelchair Photo once. But it still proves that two losers can't beat three heroes."

• Bans on Sharing Food With the Homeless Persist at  Reason.com:  "Serving the needy[] is something we should reward, not criminalize..."  (This baffling issue is one I wrote about for Think Christian.)

• Easter With Flannery O'Connor by George Weigel at First Things: "O’Connor’s sense that ours is an age of nihilism—an age suffering from by a crabbed sourness about the mystery of being itself—makes her an especially apt apologist for today: not least because she also understood the evangelical sterility of the smiley-face, cheap-grace, balloons-and-banners Catholicism that would become rampant shortly after her death."

• Let's Not Get the Hell Out of Here by Timothy George at First Things: "Within the framework of redemptive history, it is also a chance to tweak the beard of the Evil One and remind him that his kingdom has been rattled: He is un roi prétendu. Despite the devil’s worst doings, God still reigns, Christ is risen, love conquers, and hilarity happens."

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A book-filled weekend for us all, dear ones.

For more Five Favorites, visit Moxie Wife!

Third week of Eastertide with bread as art, fisherman as fisherman, me as a poet and the Gospel of John as our text

Trap Boat Fishing for Scup with the V.I.O. POV.HD from VIO on Vimeo.

John 21:1-14

English Standard Version (ESV)

Jesus Appears to Seven Disciples

21 After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way.² Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. ³ Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

⁴ Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. ⁵ Jesus said to them,“Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” ⁶ He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. ⁷ That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. ⁸ The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.

⁹ When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. ¹⁰ Jesus said to them,“Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” ¹¹ So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. ¹² Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. ¹³ Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. ¹⁴ This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

Food installation artist Jennifer Rubell creates Reconciliation at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. (2009).  Guests participated in the artwork by sitting at table and sharing from the 1,500 baguettes layed out on plywood tables.  No serving utensils were provided so guests had to literally "break bread together" as a re-enactment of the simple gestures of reconciliation.

.....

A Poem: in which I adapt from work by Luci Shaw 

Recognizing the Bread of Life

No, He is too quick. We never 

got to say thanks. He was there

closer breath than our mourning prayer.

Remembering

backward, we can not imagine how

we did not recall His voice.

Even if we heard back then
those three years plus seven miles of teaching

how would we retell the new-breathed meaning His

words made Word raised upward in the air

with all His strong bones executing

every law letter? or the strange

bright tales sprouting

through crusted-over faith

like just-activated beads of yeast?  Who could

preach the words into man's heart

as the Spirit comes close enough to raise

to life the decaying rot inside?  Who will 

diagram the hermaneutic

of redemption, the cadence of re-birth?

or digestively analyze rhetoric

made flesh?  or chew through
propositions as they moisten in the cup
passed 'round?   Will anyone sit beside
the broken loaf? and stir the bloody
grapey liquid? and explain
the symbol or substance
telling truth that no sermon made us recognize?

Enough. Refrain.
Digest a finished work. Repeat.
Today -- another wordless sermon -- the ingested
doctrines of our faith made plain
the Christ we need to know.

.....

Monday Mixtape: [secret trees edition]

Each week, usually on Monday, I compile a metaphorical mixtape, a few "tracks" of art I can't keep to myself and am very excited to share with you.  It might help you to know that tracks are loosely related by theme and very much influenced by whim.

This week I'm giving you a collection I've been hoarding for months and months, waiting for just the right moment to break out of the mixtape vault.  Since I'm a day late for this week's mixtape, would you please consider this an extra special gift from me to you?

I read Luci Shaw's The Secret Trees several months ago and the title poem, "Behind the walls", especially, embedded itself in my imagination.  I began looking at trees and houses and construction sites with new eyes.  The idea of the habitats cultivated from the life-giving source of trees holds layers of meaning rooting themselves into so many of my everyday observations.   Try it for yourself and let me know what you see.

Won't you take off your shoes and stay awhile?

track 1:  visual art

Source: Uploaded by user via Tamara on Pinterest

Scene ,1997

Michael Raedecker

Acrylic and Thread on Linen

track 2: music

track 3:  poetry

Behind the walls

Along the street a new house

is going up among the trees.

The open air of Wheaton 

is being boxed in there, closed off

from rain, birds, light, leaves,

Day by day another kind of space

is being defined

by upright beams of pine, narrow

yellow in the morning's sun,

sentenced to the long darkness.

Months from now, when it is all done,

I shall walk by. Where others

notice siding, shutters, paint,

I shall see behind the walls

the secret trees

standing straight and strong

as pines in the free groves outside.

                 -- Luci Shaw, The Secret Trees

track 4: film

Source: blog.fnac.ch via Tamara on Pinterest

Most likely, many of you have already seen this Oscar-nominated film.  We watched it several months ago and my only regret is that I wasn't able to view it in a theatre.  The visual aesthetic is gorgeous (a pivotal scene shot at Barton Springs pool even!), storyline compelling and acting on-target.  (especially loved Jessica Chastain)  

So how could I not include The Tree of Life in the Secret Trees mixtape?!?

And, just in case you were hiding under a rock last year and never saw the film trailer, I'm including that here for you.

Source: youtube.com via Tamara on Pinterest

track 5: links

• My essay on the meaning of land, water and a very special tree: On the Subject of a Place

• My friend Andrew Shipman's beautiful photograph of a tree called Life and Death + an Easter poem conceptualized on the subject of a tree:  Monday Mixtape - Easter Monday

• The secret treehouse in which I climbed in flip-flops and played with words: Playing At Words

bonus track:  visual art

Source: jonathanandersonpaintings.com via Tamara on Pinterest

Construction (no.6), 2009, 

Jonathan Anderson

oil on oak panel, 48" x 72"

Look through Anderson's entire Constructions gallery.  It feels to me as if he's read Luci Shaw's poem, too.

Grateful to the life-giving connections all around us today.

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Before I go, I should tell you that I love to hear what poems, pictures, songs and reasonable words you are enjoying.  Please do stop by the comment box and share a bit with me.  

Hoping that  you find your common days aflame with good books, pictures, poems, songs, words and ideas!