So, as part of my Ministry in Media Culture class I'm supposed to blog on glimpses of grace. When I first thought about it, I thought this will really mess with the continuity of the blog. Then I remembered that A) there is continuity in my blog, and B) no, it won't because grace permeates. Yesterday I was talking with a friend (actually I overheard her talking and jumped in) who mentioned visiting Kenya and speaking with some women who were peeling and cutting carrots. They asked what it was like in America and my friend said that in America we can buy carrots already chopped. The Kenyan women laughed, saying that Americans are so lazy.
Lazy, perhaps. But that's not what bothers me. What bothers me is that we are actually rather busy in different ways, but each of these ways disconnects us from creation. We are tied up in computers, television (multimedia of all sorts). Hey, we even have classes on Ministry in a Media Culture. Hello! Here's the problem as I see it: when we become disconnected from our food and from laboring in creation we become less and less connected with God. Now this is not some neo-pagan, pantheistic argument. No. Yet, God is intimately present in actual labor, and I'm afraid we just don't do that anymore.
Wendell Berry is probably the foremost purveyor of an agrarian philosophy/theology and his work is wonderful. Check out him here.
Frank, this is such an interesting pondering and makes a lot of sense. Your thought that "when we become disconected from our food and from laboring in creation we become less and less connected with God," makes me wonder, how do we go about changing this.
ReplyDeleteI know at PLU this sort of theological and philosophical argument was one of the justifications for the establishment of a community garden. I also know its led to similar gardens at a number of churches in the Pacific Northwest. But something tells me, more can and should be done. Where would you start?