April 6 , 2008
GOD NEVER RUNS OUT OF EASTERS
Last Sunday afternoon in the heart of Horry County, the extended family of
Bessie and Jacob R. Jones participated in the service of death and
resurrection of Nancy Lynn, the youngest child of eleven.
Living in Denver for many years, Nancy had requested her ashes be brought
back home to the place of her birth.
The event was truly a family affair. Everyone from aunts, uncles and
cousins assisted. From arranging transportation for Nancy’s children and
grandchildren, organizing and leading the service to burying her ashes, it
was an image of resurrection of life in the midst of death.
In 1998, two brothers ran the Cooper River Bridge 10K Race, the largest of
its kind in the world with over 30,000 participants. They ran it in honor
of their dad, who was dying in the local hospital. Borrowing a couple of
hospital gowns from their father’s ICU nurse for the race, they were cheered
at their odd sight along the race path. “How’d you guys escape? The
brothers laughed and said: “Our dad’s in the hospital. This one’s for
him.”
In the face of more death than these two brothers knew how to handle, they
ran for life.
They ran for their father’s good life, and for a greater life, God’s life in
us. Resurrection life.
It is in the midst of failure, weakness, sickness and death that we are
given the power to practice resurrection.
Might we remember these words from poet, farmer and prophet Wendell Berry:
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 . . .
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias. . . .
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable.
Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.
Go with your love to the fields. . . .
As soon as the generals and politicos can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it . .
Practice resurrection.
Wendell Berry, Collected Poems (San Francisco: Northpoint Press, 1985), pp.
151-2.
