Wild Boar Hunt

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

Psalm 8

Romans 5:1-5

John 16:12-15

Beautiful, wonderful, generative, gratuitous and abundant is the life that the Trinity breathes into the world. He is utterly giving and blessing, full of hope for the world and providing for its flourishing. John says through the Spirit the life of the Trinity is given to us. And yet I am reminded of how seldom I live and lead out of this kind of self-giving abundance.

Just got off the phone with a friend who is caught in "church politics," both disappointed by the decisions of his church and responsible to represent them. I am reminded of how often church has been a let-down. We are so addicted to our own piety; we pass blame to others, "spiritualize" situations to alleviate the weight of our responsibility for good leadership, and ignore real needs and issues in order to
maintain positivity and optimism. All of these proclivities over time most often lead to a consolidation of leadership to one person who has been left with both the control and the burden of ministry. The life of the church which was intended to reflect the gratuitous life of the Trinity so often becomes a simple system, a monad, a sanitized environment where freedom is quenched, abundance is frivolous, and gratitude has been forgotten. 

I was talking to another friend last night who has become tired of the bible studies at his church, where the pastor teaches a lesson and the students respond with the right or wrong answers regarding various theological topics. In discussions, students criticize the theological answers of other churches, drawing a small circle around themselves. "No es de Dios (It's not of God)," said my friend of the competition between churches. "Estudiar la biblia no es responder. Es preguntar (To study the bible is not to answer. It's to question)."

I have to believe that his theology was shaped by his experience growing up in the jungle. He would wake up at two in the morning with several men from his village and spend the next twenty hours running who knows how many miles through the selva hunting wild boars. 

I wonder if the reign of God is a jungle. And we run into it together as on a hunt, with trepidation of the wild unknown and an appetite for a feast, willing to lose ourselves in verdant mystery. I wonder if, like the environmentally disastrous practice today, we have sought to level this wild jungle in order to raise tame cattle.

Is it more efficient for me to give out answers rather than open the floor to hard questions? Is it more practical for me to leave complicated decisions to myself rather than involve the discernment of the wider community? I don't want to end up in situations that are out of our control or comfort. Maybe I wouldn't seem so smart. After all, hunting wild boars is a lot harder than slaughtering cattle. 

In Proverbs, Wisdom revels in the wild abundance of creation, and with the ecstasy of the hunt on her lips, recounts with glee the first moments of life: she got to be there. Today on this ordinary day, aeons from that moment of Trinitarian creation, I stand at the precipice of a jungle with boar tracks leading me further in (or, maybe, I am in a small clearing and invited further out). I resist - I want to carry on with my day as usual. But I also want to say that I got to be there on the hunt, losing myself deep in the jungle of God's reign.