by Christine Sine.
We are in the process of creating a resource list on sustainability but there is one organization that stands out for me as a leader in this field because they provide practice resources for families and communities to reorder their lives around what really matters. They really seem to have caught hold of a new dream. They have resources on how to cut back waste, build community connections and reduce consumption. In the process they encourage people to have more fun and buy less stuff while bringing about change in their communities.
I highly recommend their resources including:
Community in Action Challenges
So Kind – an Alternative Gift Registry
As we work on this new resource list we would like to highlight other organizations that are working towards the sustainability of our ways of life. What organizations do you recommend? How do you feel we can live more sustainably in our world?
When we think about sustainability, Wendell Berry is one of the people who immediately springs to mind. His writing and environmental advocacy have had a huge impact on my life and on those of many others around the world. He has written more than 50 books and numerous poems, and as we begin our focus on sustainability, this wonderful poem immediately comes to mind. I particularly love the words So, friends, every day do something that won’t compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. It ends appropriately with the words “practice resurrection“. I hope you will take time not just to read this poem but to reflect on the powerful message it conveys.
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.
Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” from The Country of Marriage, copyright © 1973 by Wendell Berry
by Mary Harwell Sayler —
The Kingdom of God is at hand
and foot, and I
am
an animated muscle of animal,
the mineral of blood and bone,
a vegetation of sleep until
You arouse me,
breathing on.
by Christine Sine
Yesterday was Easter Sunday – the central celebration of our faith and the culmination of our walk through Lent. But where fo we go from here? How do we sustain the practices that the season of Lent planted in our lives?
Surprisingly when I posed this question to a friend yesterday he responded: No one has ever asked me that before. It is as though Lent is an end in itself and once Easter is over it is back to life as usual. Yet the celebration of Easter is not for a day – it is 50 days long, longer than Lent, longer than advent and longer than Christmas. That should tell us something about how important it is for our faith. Through Christ’s resurrection, God’s new world has broken into ours. There is much to rejoice in and even more to participate in.
Living Into A Sustainable World
On Godspace our theme for the season is Living Into a Sustainable World. In a world of climate change, environmental degradation, gun violence, injustice and persecution, how do we live into and sustain the glimpses of God’s new world that are breaking into ours? There are four types of sustainability we talk about – human, economic, social and environmental. My hope is that this season will give us much to reflect on in all these areas, and bring awe inspiring glimpses of God world of justice, equality and abundance – from practical ways to reduce waste, shop more responsibly and help preserve God’s creation, to suggestions on how to become more engaged as instruments of generosity, mercy and love. Keep an eye open for the new resource lists we plan to post too.

Easter resurrection garden
My own celebration for this season began with the creation of a new contemplative garden. This time I didn’t dismantle my old garden, I transformed it, allowing myself to enter fully into the power of transformation that Easter represents.
As I looked at my garden this morning, I realized that over the season of Lent transformation has already occurred. I have had a grow light shining on it and as result several of the plants which once looked green are now tinged with red and yellow. The light has transformed them and their true colours have emerged. But to keep those colours the light needs to shine.

Let the Light Keep Shining
That’s it, I thought. To grow the practices I planted during Lent I need to keep shining the light of Christ on them. There are three practices I planted that this applies to – one in my personal life (to be more focused in my contemplative practices) one in my relational life (to respond with kindness rather than irritability) and one in my concern for the environment (to reduce my waste that goes into the landfill by 20%). I have written these in my Easter journal and will let you know how I grow these practices over the next few weeks.

easter Altar
Establish a New Altar.
The place I realized this morning that I needed to start was with redesigning my prayer altar for the season too. I took off my Lenten table cloth and replaced it with my favourite Celtic cloth. I added a new photo, one that is more celebrative than the rather somber artwork I used during Lent and pulled out some of my favourite painted rocks. I chose to do this rather than creating new ones because I wanted to emphasize my need to recycle and reuse rather than adding something more to my collection. I also set up a collage that my friend Joyce Winthrow gave me several years ago. Its joyful colours give my whole contemplative corner a wonderful Easter feel. It’s getting a little crowded but I also added a small chalice that I picked up at Goodwill a couple of weeks ago. It will serve as a gratitude jar for the season, a place for me to collect reminders of all that I have to thank God for.

Collage by Joyce Withrow
Work Towards New Practices
Resurrection is about a new way of living – a transformed way of life that has the ways of God’s kingdom at the centre. So I know I need to establish some new practices, practices that help me sustain the life that God has renewed within me. For me that means evaluating my morning and evening routines, a practices I highly recommend to you
- Prayerfully consider – what would your ideal morning and evening routines look like? To do this we need to make sure we are asking the right questions. It wasn’t the empty tomb that impressed people as they listened to the reports of Jesus’ resurrection, it was the transformation they saw in his disciples’ lives. How has Jesus resurrection transformed your life? your relationships? and your responsibility to this wonderful world God has gifted us with?
- Routines need to cover all aspects of our lives. Think about how to incorporate contemplative and reflective times as well as physical and creative activities that stir your senses and draw you into God’s presence. Morning and evening might be too much for you to consider. Be realistic. Work out what time of the day you would most like to use for your intimate time with God and for other exercises that draw you close to your Creator. Then think about the ways you should be reaching out. This is probably not part of your morning or evening routine, but what you do in the morning and the evenings is the soil and the fertilizer that makes it possible for you to go out into God’s world as a servant disciple.
- Evaluate your present routines – once you know what the strengths and weaknesses of your present practices are it will make it easier to change where necessary.
- Decide on a plan – write down what you think your routines could look like and take the next month to experiment. You might find that a journal or planner will help this process and in fact assist you to map out your whole routine.
- Set some goals for the coming month. Don’t try to bite off more than you can chew. Sustained growth is slow and incremental not all at once.
- Implement your plan. Jesus’ disciples plunged into a new way of life even though they were afraid and unsure of the consequences and we need to too. This is not a time for making excuses. Following Jesus requires commitment and discipline. Now is a good time to start.
What Is Your Response
Prayerfully consider how God would have you respond in this easter season. What seeds have been planted in your life that need to be nurtured, grow and bear fruit? May God guide you in your journey.
Hidden deep within the mists of time, where our spiritual ancestors dwell yet within the stories of our diverse faiths and peoples, there leaps and peers and heartily laughs the most powerful archetype of human belief – the Trickster.
Imbued with the power to cross all prescribed social boundaries, the Trickster has the ability to shape-shift between communities, species, genders, generations, elements and perspectives. The Trickster’s ability to transform itself reveals the Trickster’s greatest power — to transform reality. Thereby, the Trickster is the catalyst for social change, providing creative insight to cultural visionaries who (guided by the Trickster’s unique brand of wisdom) discover the power within themselves to change the world.
Tricksters are reviled by those in power and, in the stories, are frequently vilified by those threatened by their message and their rebellious disregard for social conventions. Tricksters have a tendency to laugh with joy when what is carefully boxed up by the powerful few is freed for the entire world to gain. By those without social power, the Trickster is perceived as playful. By those who cannot comprehend its purpose, the Trickster is perceived as foolish. By those who have the most to lose if the Trickster is successful in its quest, the Trickster is perceived as cunning and incredibly dangerous.
Ultimately, if the Trickster is killed or dies, it then performs the greatest trick of all. The Trickster doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do — it doesn’t stay dead. Rather, the Trickster simply shape shifts, usually sharing the knowledge of transformation in such a way as to nurture and sustain the People. The Trickster is all about liberation, by setting human society on its head. Through a willingness to appear culturally foolish and risk its own current form, the Trickster is a both a force that destroys old ways of being while empowering the rise of new ways of being.
In many traditions of indigenous peoples, the actions of the Trickster are essential for connecting the human community with the Sacred. As a cultural hero, Tricksters (such as Coyote, Spider, Clown, and Raven) possess significant powers of transformation, resurrection, and strong medicine. Their powers mirror those of the Creator, to whom they are responsible and by whom they are empowered. Coyote of the Plaines Peoples releases the Buffalo (from one who keeps them all) so that all may hunt and eat. Raven of Southeast Alaska releases the Sun and Moon to bring light to the People. Spider of the Lakota connects their diverse People through language (communication), common ritual, and shared games. Among the sacred Clown dancers of the Pueblo Peoples, are those responsible for bringing rain to nourish the crops of corn and maintaining crop fertility – additionally, the Clowns critique the socially powerful as well as the status quo.
Trickster stories teach every generation about the power and necessity of transformation within the dynamics of society and Creation. Within the context of powerful social forces, Tricksters illuminate the collective urgency to strive for balancing the greed of the few with the need of the many, balancing the reality of loss with the urge for renewed life, and balancing societal oppression with culturally adaptive change for long term survival.
Examining the New Testament –particularly the stories of Holy Week – through the lens of the Trickster archetype reveals the ultimate power hidden behind the mask of Jesus (the Divine in human form). As a Trickster, Jesus is a challenge to social order and form, a danger to many, a destroyer of old ways and old powers, and a life giving force that has been set loose by the Creator to transform the world, free the People and cultivate new life.
In keeping with the characterization of Tricksters as “foolish,” even those closest to Jesus wish he would shut up about his apparently defeatist preoccupation with his impending death. Rather, to them, Jesus is supposed to fulfill their traditional beliefs of what a Messiah was said to be. For many of his followers, Jesus is potentially an insane embarrassment, even a disgusting excuse for the anticipated, all-powerful Anointed One of God. As the Messiah, Jesus was supposed to bring about social change and freedom through violence, war, and death to the enemy. However, instead of wielding a flaming sword of judgement and retribution, Trickster Jesus comes, instead, with very strong spiritual medicine – the ability to bridge diverse peoples and perspectives, the ability to heal bodies and communities, the ability to provide vision, the ability to set ALL people truly free through the transformative power of love.
Trickster Jesus leads his People on a journey to Jerusalem, which most of his followers believed was a journey towards their own deaths, a fool’s errand, a pilgrimage to nothing. They were led by a man whom they loved but in whom they no longer actually believed. Yet, there’s the Trickster power revealed to us – love! They went into Jerusalem, because they were motivated by love for a man who had become their friend, in whom they had entrusted their greatest dreams and who loved them because of their inescapable human weaknesses. Even as with each step they entered into the darkness of their fears, they also tread upon that road for the sake of love, towards a seemingly unavoidable meeting with death and defeat.
Drawing attention to himself by entering the Temple Mount, turning over the tables of the money changers, challenging traditional practices and centuries of belief, shaking a verbal fist the corruption of societal powers was all so very, very foolish. Yet, the foolishness of love would prove to be the far greater power, which even Jesus’s diverse community of friends did not expect.
Trickster Jesus broke the hearts of those who followed him, because those hearts needed to be broken – their hearts had been as hard as stone (no more receptive than those who oppressed them). The story of the rolling away of the stone from the tomb, to find it empty, is itself a symbolic narrative of how the human heart must be resurrected from its stony emptiness in order to find true life outside of itself. Only from having encountered our own emptiness through such a truthful vision are we made ready to be filled with the light of God’s love, for all the world to see – that there is no death within us.
If the light of God’s love dwells within us, then we, who would be Christ’s body in the world, are called to illumine the light of Divine Compassion upon the world through the lamp of our own eyes. As Christians, each of our unique and diverse faces simply serves as a mask for Trickster Jesus, who yet dances and teaches and heals and weeps and laughs in the market places and streets of a hungry and wounded world, which is yet so very beautiful and precious in the eyes of God.
Every person who chooses to follow Christ must reflect that they are choosing to follow a Divine Fool and that each of us is being called through the power of God’s love to be foolish, too. We must not be like those who live in the world to gain social power for our own sake, to gain material wealth at the heedless expense of Creation, to contribute to the alienation and marginalization of other peoples and species. Rather, our Trickster Jesus winks at those who thought him dead once and for all. He winks at corrupted power every time we help someone one need, on each occasion we use our voice for those who are silenced, and in every moment we respond to division with the strong medicine of understanding.
The human community is only genuinely foolish and assures its own demise when it does not yield to the Divine Wisdom of the Trickster, who did not come into the world to condemn the world but to save it. We must be prepared to be seen as foolish, to be perceived as a danger to the unjust status quo, to be ridiculed for our apparent naiveté and our collective vision of a God’s Kingdom. For the Fool’s Followers, how the world could be and ought to be resides within us as a blueprint etched upon our souls, like some kind of spiritual DNA that we are driven to create and to build and to make real through our societal relationships and global connections. Whenever we communicate the power of love and peace in the face of powers of hatred and war, we speak the Word of God. We heal what is wounded. We bridge what is divided. We reveal what must be seen. We give new life to those who believed themselves dead. We transform the world – one moment, one life at a time – just as our spiritual ancestors did. With them, let us go to Jerusalem, as fools for our love of Christ.
This April 1st, Easter Day, we again behold the empty tomb. We know that Trickster Jesus is not to be found there. He has shape shifted into another form.
He is us.
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