Thursday, December 9, 2010

Wendell Berry on Abundant Life

“In an age of materialist science, economics, art, and politics, we ought not to be much shocked by the appearance of materialist religion. We know we don’t have to look far to find people who equate more abundant life with a bigger car, a bigger house, a bigger bank account, and a bigger church. . . . Abundance, in this verse (John 10:10), cannot refer to an abundance of material possessions, for life does not require a material abundance: it requires only a material sufficiency. . . . Jesus is not proposing to free us by making us richer; he is . . . talking about life. . . . The way to more abundant life is the way of love. We are to love one another, and this love is to be more comprehensive than our love for family and friends and tribe and nation. We are to love our neighbors . . . we are to love our enemies. And this love is to be a practical love; it is to be practiced . . . . To be free of the insane rationalizations for our desire to kill one another – that surely would be to have life more abundantly.” -- Wendell Berry, The Burden of the Gospels (2005)