Organic Faith

Organic Faith Holy Week 2012

Yesterday marked the beginning of Holy Week.   Holy Week is the last week of the Church season of Lent where the Church takes time to remember the last week of Jesus' life.  This involves going to church a lot: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday.  And then, next Sunday, is of course, Easter, when we people go to Church, again, to celebrate Jesus' Resurrection and ongoing victory over death and decay.  

Here at Organic Faith, we are going to observe Holy Week in our own unique way.   This Saturday, we'll be making bread and soup, and then handing it out to people at the downtown Greyhound station.  Join us at 12pm at 700 Lexington Avenue Buffalo,NY to help with the soup making.  A little after 1pm we will pack everything up and head downtown.  If you want to join us earlier in the day, we are going to begin making bread around 10am.  Feel free to join us then and help out. 

We're doing this as our Holy Week/Easter celebration because this is what resurrection looks like.  New life is possible in this world when we care for those in need, when we bring joy to joyless places (like a Greyhound bus station).  

Recap of Spring Retreat: Rebirth, Renewal, Resurrection

This past weekend was Organic Faith’s Spring Retreat.  A group of 10 of us journeyed down to Lake Chautauqua Lutheran Center and spent Friday night and Saturday night enjoying the company of community and the time to search our lives for the places we need renewal, the places we see rebirth, and the places where we experience the Resurrection.  

The incredible thing about a retreat is that, for a brief period of time, you actually share life together with the people who have gathered.  For the length of the weekend you are living together with those who are on the retreat.  

Here is what is particularly interesting about sharing life together.  This is exactly what the disciples did following the Resurrection of Jesus.  After they experienced the power of Jesus’ victory over death they began to live together, to share their property with one another, and to continually remind one another that Jesus is Lord and has risen from the dead.  

As our retreat progressed we began to realize that this is what the Church is all about.  To be the Church means to gather together around the Resurrection and to recognize again and again the ways that God, through Jesus Christ, is bringing life where death once was.  

As Organic Faith continues to grow and strives to do a better job of being The Church we are aware that it begins by simply gathering together around the Resurrection.   Our call is to be people who believe in Jesus’ Resurrection and who look for signs of that victory over death in the our lives, in community, and in the world.  

If you, or someone you know, is looking for a community to share life together with, please let us know, we’d love for you to be a part of our community of Rebirth, Renewal, and Resurrection.  

Experiencing The Resurrection

I think my favorite moment of the last month came on April 18th at about 11:30am.  Myself and four other members of Organic were on our way back from the Buffalo River Clean-up that we had participated in earlier that morning. 

The five of us along with three other Organic Faith members spent the morning cleaning up the paths and the riverbank of Ellicot Creek.  We had all worked really hard and gotten more than a little dirty in the process.  We properly disposed of bottles, papers, cans, tires, car batteries, candy wrappers, and everything in between.   We were tired.

Due to our exhaustion and the temperature that beautiful spring day we drove the entire way home with the windows open.  Sunlight poured in from all angles, the breeze cascaded into the car and on my car’s CD player the music of Nickel Creek played as the five of us exited the parking lot of Amherst Veterans Canal Park.   I don’t know who said first it, but at some point during the ride home we all came into agreement that at that moment life was very good.

In light of the Easter event that we celebrated over the past month I can’t help but reflect on the ways that I experience the resurrection today.   Ever Easter we talk about the resurrection of Jesus Christ – his victory of death and subsequently our victory over the death of our sins.  This is certainly a powerful and exciting message, but what about the ways that we continue to experience the ways that our God can bring life from death. 

Despite all the death in this world, despite all the fear, doubt and worry we are still blind-sided by moments when, quite simply, “Life is Good”.  These are the moments when the power of life overcomes the many-faced powers of death and we experience the power of the resurrection here today.

I went to church on Easter Sunday, twice.  However, I experienced Easter so much more fully a week later when as a community Organic Faith brought new life to Amherst Veteran’s Park.   And even more fully when the jumbled soup of good music, sour muscles, spring sunshine, and a job well done all worked together against all deaths in the world to declare life is good.