Snippet
“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 millenium. 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.”
― Wendell Berry
Scripture
So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” John 11:41-44 NIV
Song
Bellarive - Lazarus
Out of breath, a permanent condition
Taken by the night.
This bone and flesh could never find a reason
To breathe in again.
He said
Chorus:
Come out!
Come out from your hiding!
And just as you are,
Come out from the dark!
Even when the dead man’s sleeping,
Resurrection calls to restore.
Even here and now you are what he’s calling for.
So take a breath and break the night,
Stranger to the light.
Wind of God, dig up the graves
Breathe into this slayed.
Here for sure a permanent solution,
Swallowed up the night.
A voice so pure giving bones a reason
To breathe in again!
Well, he said
Chorus:
Come out!
Come out from your hiding!
And just as you are,
Come out from the dark!
Even when the dead man’s sleeping!
Resurrection calls to restore
Even here and now you are what he’s calling for.
So sleep no more!
So take a breath and break the night,
Stranger to the light.
The wind of God, dig up the graves
Came breathing into this life!
Came breathing into this life!
Breathe into this life!
Sentence Prayer
God of all consolation.
In your unending love and mercy you turn
The darkness of death
Into the dawn of new life.
Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ
By dying for us conquered death.
And by rising again, restored life.
May we not be afraid of death, but desire to be with Christ,
And after our life on earth.
to be with those we love,
Where every tear is wiped away and all things are made new.
We ask this through Jesus Christ. Amen (A New Zealand Prayer Book Pg. 823)
