Practicing resurrection¹ begins with a radically new way of seeing. The truth of the resurrection of Jesus, the reversal of fortune for the despairing or defeated, and the revivifying of all reality brings about a transformed worldview. Practicing resurrection sometimes means that, like the mystic, we see more than meets the eye. Sometimes it means that, like the prophet, we realize that what meets the eye is in fact not the deepest or most enduring truth. But a post-resurrection way of seeing doesn’t simply mean that what we see is different but rather that we embody a different way of seeing. In one way or another, this new way of seeing involves looking through at least one of three lenses: the lens of faith (perhaps better translated here as trust), the lens of hope, and/or the lens of love. We might call these our spiritual trifocals or our resurrection specs. This new perception of reality involves viewing life from a divine perspective. This is the vision of the reign of God.

We begin to “see” that the reign of God (or the kin-dom of God) is not a material object that we look upon (like a city off in the distance) so much as it is a truth that we look through to discover and understand the dream of God for all persons and all creation. One tangible and new way of living that is informed by the vision of the reign of God is practicing simplicity. Simplicity is one important dimension of this new way of seeing that is part of the ethic of the kin-dom of God. Said another way, for the born-again and again and again, simplicity born in resurrection reveals to us (not theoretically but actually) what is essential and what is not, what matters and what does not, what is worth giving our lives to and what is not.

Simplicity helps us to see what is essential. As we learned in H&H last year, beatitudinal people (the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those persecuted for working for the kin-dom of God) enact a spirituality of simplicity that brings clarity to their soul’s task, motivation, way of being, and ultimate purpose.

When I worked as a chaplain in the ER and the ICU units of an inner-city hospital in south Philadelphia, I witnessed day after day the sudden and certain transformation of what people deemed important or of real value. Abruptly confronted with the reality of dying and death, what seemed to matter only 30 minutes or an hour ago was suddenly of no concern to people whose loved one was just rushed into the Emergency Room. Now what mattered most to loved one’s of the terribly sick, the critically injured, or those dying without warning became very simple and very clear. Odd how that works.♦

Reflection:

Let’s not wait for tragedy or trauma to wake us up to our heart’s deepest desire and to what or who is essential.

Simple Blessings, Dan

¹ NB: The Almond Tree began as a poor man’s epistles sent by email attachments to members ofThe Human & the Holy (H&H) spiritual formation community which I began in 2003 in Orange, CA. I started sending these reflections more regularly in 2009. Each year of H&H had a theme and each monthly gathering a sub-theme. I was writing as the spiritual guide of the community and the tone reflects this. If you are wondering why I’m writing about Practicing Resurrection in Autumn and Winter it is because it was our 2009-2010 theme.