More on Jesus, Demons, and Pigs

Nathan Aaberg —  August 23, 2019 — 2 Comments
Medieval illumination of Jesus casting out demons and into pigs

A medieval illumination of Jesus exorcizing the Gerasene demoniac from the Ottheinrich Folio. You need to look carefully to see the pigs.

Almost exactly one year ago, I wrote this blog on the story we find in Mark 5:1-20 about Jesus, demons, and the pigs. The standard interpretations assume the pigs are mere dumb animals whose deaths are meaingingless. I explored a different way of reading it.

I thought I was balanced in what I presented and liked what I wrote. Other people have found it interesting as well. Only my post about Solomon has been read more. This suggests that the Bible story of the demon and the pigs is troubling for many people. They are looking for a way to reconcile the story with a loving Savior and Creator God.

Very recently, another blogger – Raymond Hermann – also wrote a piece about the same story and referenced my piece. You can find his thinking – “Demons, Jesus, and the Pigs” – here. It’s worth reading.

You’ll find that Hermann disagrees with me that there is a possibility that the pigs committed suicide rather than live in possession by the demons.

Here’s what Hermann writes:

I’m sorry, but I can’t buy that answer; pigs can’t think and reason like humans. It makes a lot more sense that, considering what the demons did to the two men, the pigs were just overwhelmed and went berserk (another word for being possessed by a demon), therefore causing their own death. Or maybe Jesus directed them to do so, as part of a lesson.

There is certainly no scientific consensus that animals can intentionally commit suicide.And I realize my proposition that the pigs might actually have done so is highly speculative. The insanity-by-berserkness approach seems possible.

Further Thinking

Hermann’s piece, however, compels me to make several points.

First, I encourage you to read Pig Tales: An Omnivore’s Quest for Sustainable Meat by Barry Estabrook. If you are open-minded, the book will expand your estimation of pigs and their intelligence. You’ll even read of pigs beating young children in video games.

What’s more, I’ve come to realize the real question at hand is not the reasoning intelligence of pigs. It is whether they, like us, have heart in the Biblical sense of the word.

If we have open minds, we will find that a surprising number of animals seem to have something that I would call heart. In an early blog post I shared the story of a group of elephants who traveled for up to 12 hours to stand outside of the home of Lawrence Anthony who had just passed away. He had helped them, protected them, and rehabilitated them over many years.

Or check out this story from San Francisco in 2005. It tells how a humpback whale showed appreciation to each of the six divers that had helped to free it from crab pot lines that had become wrapped around its body and threatened to drown it.

Second, while there is no definitive scientific consensus, that doesn’t mean that animal suicide does not happen.

By chance I’ve just finished reading Giants of the Monsoon Forest by Jacob Shell. It’s a fascinating book about the centuries-long use of Asian elephants for forestry and transporation in northern Burma. The relationship between the elephants and their riders (mahouts) is far more complex and nuanced than I had realized.

Shell shares this disturbing incident:

I heard of an awful story of another elephant, a mother, found dead one morning. She was still standing, her forefeet crushing her own trunk. Evidently she had committed suicide. I didn’t understand how this was possible. Surely, as she lost consciousness from lack of oxygen, she would voluntarily breathe through her mouth, or the trunk would jerk free.

Science, as we know, is a powerful human tool for understanding the world. But it has limits. It assumes that if something does not act in ways that provide consistent evidence through our senses, then it does not exist. This assumption causes Science to tend to dismiss explanations of animal behavior that suggest complex volition. It also causes Science to dismiss the idea of a Creator God who interacts in complex ways with people and the rest of Creation.

In fact, Science would tell us the idea of believing in the possibility of demons, much less Jesus interacting with supernatural creatures, is absurd.

So we need to carefully consider the judgments of Science regarding animal volition and will.

Shell relates a moving incident during World War II. A convoy of elephants ridden by mahouts were making their way with rice and other food supplies to British and American soldiers in a remote area of Burma. After a tragic miscommunication, a number of mahouts and elephants were killed. Shell writes:

While the surviving mahouts regrouped and debated what to do, some of the surviving elephants picked up their dead mahouts and carried them all the way back to the mahouts’ families in Chowkham, some sixty miles away.

Third, Hermann offers another explanation for why the pigs didn’t swim. He writes, “Or maybe Jesus directed them to do so, as part of a lesson.”

The text does not suggest this at all.

Fourth, referencing a commentary, Hermann shares another interpretation:

Or perhaps this is another possible example of a miracle that has a visible lesson—the point being that the deliverance of one man (or two) is worth the destruction of many pigs.

That conclusion reflects a self-focused way of looking at how God works. Clearly, within the story’s logic, Jesus didn’t need to grant the demons’ wish. Jesus could have destroyed the demons without using the pigs. So the deliverance of the man wasn’t dependent on the demons moving to another host.

Fifth, our tendency, and one that Hermann seems to go along with, is to intently look for distinctions between us and Creation. That informs how we understand what Jesus meant when he said we are worth more than sparrows in God’s eyes, it doesn’t register at all that Jesus was also saying that sparrows are worth something to God.

We seemingly can’t help but see things in a binary way. If we matter, we wrongly think, then the rest of Creation does not. We think, also wrongly, that if Creation matters then somehow our standing is diminished.

In fact, in this story, God’s living creatures and humanity clearly share something significant in common. Dark forces can possess both of us. And that possession causes us both misery and suffering.

Pigs and the Restoration of All Things

In Acts 3:21, we read of Peter saying of Jesus, “For he must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through his holy prophets.”

I’m convinced “all things” means “all things.” And “all things” will include pigs.

It will also include the restoration of our respect and right relationship with all of God’s Creation. That is very good news indeed.

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Preaching It – Sunday, July 14th

Nathan Aaberg —  July 5, 2019 — Leave a comment

I’m happy to report that the North Suburban Mennonite Church in Libertyville, Illinois, has asked me to speak on Sunday, July 14th, during their service.

One of their members (and a good friend), Linda Wiens, had joined our second gathering earlier this year. After hearing me share some thoughts and insights there, she encouraged her congregation to invite me. This is the first time I’ll speak to a whole church. I’m looking forward to it.

And, well, “speak” is actually not the right word.

One of my observations about the typical worship service I’ve experienced is that the sermon and other elements can make people too passive. So I plan to break up my presentation into three parts. After each part, I will ask a question of the congregation and have a dialog with them around that question. My hope is that these dialog segments cause them to engage with my thoughts more actively in their hearts and minds.

I’m calling my presentation “Your Life of Faith and God’s Earth.” You will not be surprised to know that my core message is that a Christian’s life of faith is not whole if it doesn’t include God’s earth.

And by include I mean several things. God’s earth should be part of our core idea of what the story the Bible communicates with us. God’s earth and even God’s universe are part of what Jesus redeems. The ultimate future God will include a renewed earth. God’s earth communicates vital things to us about God. Our lives of faith (and faith is not faith if it is not lived!) must include God’s earth. And, in fact, our lives of faith are enriched and deepened by being attentive to God’s earth and by being good shepherds of it.

In short, we cannot say we love God and love our neighbors if we deplete, diminish, and trash God’s earth.

And the corollary to that is this – being a good shepherd of Creation as part of our individual and community lives contributes to the abundant life Jesus offers us.

As I work through the content of what I share, I’m wrestling with several challenges. One is that there is so much I want to share. The last five years or so have opened my eyes to an incredible variety of topics, connections, and insights. But one of the golden rules of effective speaking is to not overwhelm. Presentations, like our lives, often benefit from subtraction, not addition. So I will be working hard to share just the essentials.

The other challenge is the question of how the members of North Suburban Mennonite Church (and, by extension, any church and any Christian) should live out a whole faith that includes God’s earth.

On one hand, overwhelming peope with long to-do lists can be entirely unproducive. Conversely, it’s far too easy to give answers that are facile and shallow.

How do we navigate that tension?

Above all, I’m grateful for the opportunity to figure that out and to get feedback from a congregation I know is civic-minded and big-hearted.

If you’re in the area and would like to attend, it would be great to have you. The North Suburban Mennonite Church holds servcies at the Civic Center in downtown Libertyville, which is located at 135 W. Church St. They hold fellowship at 10 a.m. and the service begins at 10:30 a.m. Please let me know if you are coming. I’d certainly appreciate the support.

P.S. Speaking at this church is a homecoming of sorts. My family and I attended the congregation for about a year earlier in our lives. Learning about Mennonite history and theology and experiencing their close community expanded my ideas of what Christianity can and should be. I pray my message will be of value to them.

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Dig In for God’s Earth!

Nathan Aaberg —  June 26, 2019 — Leave a comment

People standing and planting in former farm field

Over the weekend I joined about 20 other volunteers in helping one small corner of God’s earth make progress towards renewal. I want to encourage you to seek out opportunities like this in your own life. They’re out there.

In the photo above, you can see what we were doing – planting thousands of young prairie grasses where corn and soy beans used to be grown.

The Libertyville Township Open Space District has long owned this 44-acre parcel of land. For the last number of decades a farmer farmed it. Soil eroded, harming local waterways. Wildlife, including butterflies, found no food or sanctuary there.

The Open Space Disrict has begun restoring this field to prairie and oak savanna. In the first step, contractors removed 5,500 linear feet of drain tile from the field to allow water to more naturally infiltrate the land. But until diverse prairie vegetation can be established, preventing erosion is critical. This is why you see the erosion-preventing, bio-degradable mesh blankets in the photo.

And into that fabric volunteers are planting 10,000 young prairie grasses over two weekends. Specifically, we are planting prairie cord grass.

This is a favorite prairie plant of mine. Prairie cord grass likes its “feet” a bit wet. It also spreads quickly through energetic rhizomes. Pretty soon you have a thick, beautiful stand of green waving and undulating in the wind. Below the ground you have a thick, anchoring root system. This makes it perfect for erosion control.

For nearly three straight hours, we used hand-spades and even just our hands to create small gaps in the fabric. Once we had access to the soil, which was usually somewhere between being moist and water-covered muck, we dug a thin hole. Into that hole, we inserted the prairie cord grass plant. We then pressed the soil close around it.

If you don’t like sun, breeze, dirt on your hands, living things around you, and the chance to talk and even banter with people around you, then you should definitely avoid this kind of thing.

But I’m guessing you’re someone who would enjoy the experience. And, like it did for me, it would do your heart good. By the end, I felt tired and yet very alive and satisfied.

Being part of these kinds of projects is a way to honor and serve our Creator God. This is a natural part of a whole Christian faith. We should do what we can on as large a scale as we can to enable God’s earth to be as alive as possible and to recover from the wounds we have inflicted on it.

And doing so is a spiritual growth experience.

Look for opportunities like these. Non-profit land trusts and nature conservation organizations near you are a good place to start. Agencies like conservation districts, park disricts, and departments of natural resources are also well connected.

Dig in!

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Where Are the Christian Greta Thunbergs?

Nathan Aaberg —  June 10, 2019 — 2 Comments

Have you had the experience where dealing with a problem couldn’t just be one of a million things on your to-do list?

Perhaps it was a loved one getting seriously sick. Perhaps it was a crisis at work. Perhaps a rising river threatened to flood your community. You joined in with others building walls with sandbags for hours on end. You had to do something about it above all else. The rest of your normal routines had to fall away. Bills and sleep could wait.

When an issue is urgent, tangible and very specific, we respond to that issue with all that we have. We put everything else aside.

It’s much harder for us to respond that way when the causes of the challenge are broad and hard to see and when the impacts are incremental. This sums up the general human experience with things like national debt, education system dysfunction, cultural decline, and crumbling infrastructure.

This is even more true of problems for the rest of Creation. Our civilization dams up rivers, creates dead zones, depletes fisheries, degrades soils, and destroys and fragments habitat. Where God’s living things once lived there is only silence and stillness. If we’re aware at all, we may feel bad, but our lives carry us along.

Greta Thunberg, a 16-year old girl from Sweden, is challenging all of us in this regard. She is a rare person who won’t accept the collapse of the commons.

She has stopped going to school in order to protest at the Swedish Parliament and to bring attention to the dire threat that is global climate chaos. She is now speaking around the world. The world is paying close attention.

Like a prophet, Greta speaks powerfully and directly. Diagnosed with Aspergers, her intense focus and directness are sometimes disconcerting. She believes, in fact, that her Aspergers has driven her to become an activist. It has been a gift.

“The politics that’s needed to prevent the climate catastrophe—it doesn’t exist today,” said Greta in a New Yorker article about her. “We need to change the system, as if we were in crisis, as if there were a war going on.”

You should watch her speech to the United Nations. Her example is prompting other students around the world to start school strikes and protests as well.

So where are the Christian Greta Thunbergs?

Climate change chaos is causing tremendous disruption and harm for people around the globe, especially the poor. Farmers around the world are becoming increasingly desperate. It is also accelerating the extinction crisis to a new level.

Greta learned of all this and couldn’t believe people weren’t in crisis mode and acting at all levels of life. She stopped speaking. Eventually, she began a new path of life.

How do we as Christians not raise the alarm and jettison our normal routines as well?

Why aren’t there new Christian prophets completely devoted to urging commitment to God that will translate into better ways of living at the individual level and at the community and national level? What is wrong with Christian culture that many Christians don’t care or worse? Are we not paying attention? Or have our hearts not been changed by our faith? Can we love God and love our neighbor and yet pretend all of this is not happening?

Three things come to mind as I consider those questions.

First, my impression is that Christians don’t have a good track record of taking care of God’s earth. We have tended to go along with the dominant culture in which we find ourselves. If Christian Greta Thunbergs emerged and Christians responded to them, it would be the first time in history Christians stepped forward as a whole body of Christ based on the conviction that God’s earth mattered.

Why is this? I’m going to be writing occasional blogs as a way to dive further into this topic. There are, I believe, multiple reasons.

Second, two verses from the Bible come to mind. In Luke 14:5 we read this: “Then he asked them, “If one of you has a child or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull it out?””

Being deeply devoted to keeping the Sabbath was one of the central features of the Jewish faith-culture. Jesus was making clear that nothing should stand in the way of compassion for people and non-human life we have responsibility for. Ignoring the cries of one’s child and the moaning of an ox while going to worship God would be completely contrary to who God is. It would also be an indication that the state of our heart is rotten. Following the routine, even the routine of holy worship, would be wrong.

Consider, too, Proverbs 21:3: “To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.”

Today, through communications, we better understand what is happening around the world then ever before. Our economies are more interdependent than ever before. In some ways, due to the development of technology, the condition of the earth is collectively ours more than ever before. The systems we are part of shape and reshape other places around the world. So when we hear of pain and destruction to people and life beyond our family, I would suggest the core principles at hand are the same as what Jesus asked in Luke and what we read in Proverbs.

Third, I can’t help noticing that, despite my convictions, I’ve largely gone along with my normal routine.

If I’m aware of all of these issues and have these convictions, why haven’t I done more of what Greta Thunberg has done?

The excuses and rationalizations have loud voices in my head. I have a family. My parents are failing. Someone else will surely do something. This is when I realize I sound alot like the people in the Gospels who wouldn’t follow Jesus because they had obligations to life as usual.

The whole Chrisitan faith-life includes putting your faith into action and your life on the line in pursuit of what God desires.

So do I really believe? Am I really committed to following Jesus? What would I do if I was?

And why do I feel alone struggling with these questions?

 

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A Calling to Honey Creek – Part 3

Nathan Aaberg —  May 27, 2019 — Leave a comment
People using shovels to fill in grave in the woods

Familiy and friends pitch in during a burial (photo courtesy of Honey Creek Woodlands).

In two previous posts (here and here), we have been sharing the story of Joe Whittaker. He played a pivotal role in the founding of the Honey Creek Woodlands green cemetery on the grounds of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia. It was, I’m convinced, his life calling.

As I wrote earlier, two elements of Joe’s story compel me to share it. First, for Creation to be healed and renewed in any significant way, we need to integrate a commitment to God’s earth into our culture. The burial of our loved ones offers a great opportunity to do just that. Burial intimately connects us with Creation. It also brings us back to the humility and radical Creation kinship of dust to dust. 

Second, when God calls you to make a difference for the future of God’s earth, you will need to step outside of your comfort zone. You and I can learn about the challenges and rewards of answering that calling from Joe.

In this last segement, you’ll learn more about the burial services at Honey Creek Woodlands, what Joe will remember from his time there, the wildlife this green cemetery supports, and what Joe is doing now.

Burials at Honey Creek

“We pride ourselves on the fact that every service is a little different,” says Joe. “The modern American funeral can start to have a little bit of a cookie cutter kind of a feel to it.”

“The pine box burial is probably the most common in terms of what people are going to be buried in,” says Joe. “Those are a nice canvas for people to express their feelings and their loss and their love. We see a lot of painting on caskets and writing and decorating of caskets. That’s something that you wouldn’t see at most modern cemeteries.”

“The family is usually heavily involved. We’ve had families help dig the grave. We’ve had families help fill in the graves. I’d say the vast majority of the time it’s actually the family that is lowering the body.”

Group of people fill grave of friend

Community burial at Honey Creek Woodlands (photo courtesy of Honey Creek Woodlands).

“I told my clients, “You can sit there and watch us do everything just like any other funeral. But we just want you to know that you are welcome to do as much as you’d like.””

“Often it’s basically a family burial. They take care of everything themselves, which in a bygone era used to be the norm. It can be a little dicey sometimes, because they don’t have a whole lot of experience doing this. But typically it’s very moving, very touching.”

Meaning and Stories

When I asked Joe, what he has going to hold onto from his time at Honey Creek Woodlands, he said it would it would be the people he’s met and the strength he’s seen in them.

“I wish every person I’ve buried would have lived a nice long life and just kind of faded out at the age of 95 or something, but that’s not the case,” says Joe. “You bury men who die at 40 and leave behind children. You bury children. You bury teenagers from car accidents. You bury suicides. You bury drug overdoses. You’re dealing with moms and dads.

“It’s hard to watch what they go through, but it’s just awesome to see the strength that people have.”

“I remember early on there was a very young man that came to see me in June of 2008, the first year we were open. He was a musician in Atlanta, and he had lung cancer. His friends brought him. They were all in their twenties, and one of the friends pulled me aside pretty early on. She said, “Look, he doesn’t have any family and doesn’t have any life insurance or any money, but don’t worry – we’re well connected with the musicians in the Atlanta area. We’re going to have a fundraising concert, and we’re going to get the money.””

“So I met with the young man. He was in pretty rough shape as he was in hospice at the time. We put him in a golf cart to take him out there. We picked him a spot. I don’t think a week went by before I got a phone call that he had passed. The person who called me was the same person who had assured me about the money. She said, “Well, we haven’t done our benefit concert yet. We thought he had more time.””

She promised, however, that even if it took until after the burial to do the benefit that they would get Honey Creek Woodlands the money. Joe trusted her. The burial went ahead.

“So they put the word out on social media that this guy had died. Money poured in from musicians from all across the country. A lot of money came out of Chicago, all the big cities. And this wasn’t like a well-known musician. He was just with a garage band.”

“By the time we buried the guy, his friends didn’t just have the money to bury him, they also made a very substantial donation to the monastery and to the hospice where he had been. And this was all pulled off by twenty-somethings.”

A Cemetery with (Wild) Life

Thanks to being managed for natural habitat, Honey Creek Woodlands is full of life.

“We see an awful lot of wildlife,” says Joe. “I’ve probably taken it for granted the amount of wildlife I’ve seen.”

Honey Creek Woodlands has owl, hawks, and all varieties of other birds. It also is a home for turtles, lizards, snakes, and amphibians.

Tiger swallowtail butterfly on flower of shrub

A tiger swallowtail butterfly at Honey Creek Woodlands. I would hope to be buried in a place like this that is full of wildlife. (Photo courtesy of Honey Creek Woodlands)

“We also have an unbelievable number of butterflies,” says Joe, “which is such a great thing for us because it’s symbolic of the resurrection.”

“I love the analogy that the caterpillar has no idea that it’s going to be a butterfly. It’s just going along being a caterpillar. And then all of a sudden, it’s a butterfly. I think that kind of has a parallel with us just living our lives the way we do not even knowing that when we’re done being this person that there’s something even more amazing yet to do.”

In fact, Honey Creek Woodlands holds the Georgia record for the number of butterflies found on a single day at one site. It helps that they have some of the best-trained butterfly counters in the Southeast.

“When we do the counts twice a year,” says Joe,  “we routinely either set a new record for ourselves or try to break the record for the state of Georgia for the number of butterflies found.”

In the chapter in Sacred Acts about Honey Creek Woodlands, the reader learns, too, that Father Francis Michael, a leader in the monastery’s decision to proceed with Honey Creek Woodlands, has identified 52 species of dragonflies on the monastery’s grounds.

The staff at Honey Creek Woodlands and visitors see a lot of deer, turkey, squirrels and chipmunks. Signs of coyotes are also about.

“We know we even have bobcats, but I’ve yet to see one,” says Joe. “People really love that wildlife is here,”

Stepping Back

While the work for Honey Creek Woodland has been a satisfying and deeply rewarding experience for Joe, it’s also been a challenge.

“It’s been very challenging for me being that I don’t live in Georgia. I’ve been going back and forth for years, and I didn’t start this project thinking it was going to be a ten year project for me.”

When he first started, his wife needed to give ever more care for her aging mother, so Joe and his wife agreed that he should work for Honey Creek Woodland despite the separations it would require for them. She would be able to focus on her mother without feeling neglectful of Joe. Joe could pursue his life mission.

But then when his wife’s mother did pass away about four years ago, they had to make a big decision about what to do. They ultimately decided that Joe should continue at Honey Creek Woodlands. since she had four more years of teaching before she retired. Still, Joe makes clear these last four years have been the hardest on them.

His wife retired on June 6, 2018. Joe officially ended his time at Honey Creek Woodlands the day before on June 5. They are enjoying their next season of life together.

I’m happy to report that Joe continues to serve Honey Creek Woodlands as an advisor and consultant. But even after his consulting work ends with Honey Creek Woodlands, his life will eventually reconnect with the place in which he invested so much of his life. Joe has recently made the decision to be buried in Honey Creek Woodlands.

“I’ll be the first member of my family not buried in South Carolina,” says Joe, “so it was a big decision. My family’s kind of scattered in a bunch of different cemeteries, so there wasn’t one that was a family cemetery. I no longer live in Charleston, which is my hometown.”

“It just seemed like more people would know me, and I would be surrounded by more friends at Honey Creek Woodlands in Georgia.”

Covered burial site in a light-filled woods

(Photo courtesy of Honey Creek Woodlands)

One last note. The numbers of green cemeteries are growing, and there is likely to be one or more in your state. I would encourage you to be discerning in choosing a green cemetery for yourself or a loved one. I totally believe in the green burial ideal, but I have seen green burial offered in woods that are clearly not being managed well for conservation. This is far better for Creation than the conventional burial, but it is not ideal.

The ideal situation is a cemetery that offers green burial as the burial method AND is managing the land of the cemetery and around it for conservation with long-term commitment and capabilities. It’s even more ideal if the land has some sort of permanent legal protection. Here’s a short piece that explains the distinctions between generic green burial and conservation burial. If you’re looking at a green burial option and have questions, I’d be happy to try to help you decipher whether it’s a good option. 

Last thought – it’s been such a delight to talk with Joe. I’d ask that you ask God to bless Joe and his wife. He answered a call and moved a better culture of living with God’s earth forward.

 

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