Meditations

In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Hebrews 5:12

“José Miranda says of this remarkable prophetic claim: “Yahweh is known only in the human act of achieving justice and compassion for the neighbor.” Such justice and compassion will well up in and through mature materiality. This is now an urgent gospel mandate in a culture that is at work dismissing the claim of the neighbor. It is crucial that the church not collude with that predatory dismissal of the neighbor. Mature materiality is a venture and a passion that refuses the predation of a commoditized society. Mature materiality requires solid food beyond milk on offer for babies.”

Walter Brueggemann in Materiality As Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World (Louisville: WJKP, 2020), 79.

Today marks the last post from this great book. Download it freely here.

Miranda offers a beautiful statement about our God: “Yahweh is known only in the human act of achieving justice and compassion for the neighbor.” Then Brueggemann reminds us that the future of the gospel is at stake.

We have an urgent gospel mandate to live with mature materiality “in a culture that is at work dismissing the claim of the neighbor.” Notice how he continues.

“It is crucial that the church not collude with that predatory dismissal of the neighbor.” What this booked aimed to do was raise our awareness to ways we collude with the culture. We must not do it.

We must refuse “the predation of a commoditized society” And instead demonstrate mature materiality showing we have fed aon the solid food in the Word of God, which nourishes us to teach others how to live, give, serve, and love.

This relates to generosity because it speaks to our role on this round ball called earth. We are not here for ourselves and what we can consume but for God and for showing care to our neighbor.

I have had a nice visit in Florida with my parents. We went on a relaxing boat ride. We got to see a couple alligators and many birds. There’s a gator about three feet long in the middle of the photo in  Why do this?

It gave us time to enjoy the beauty of God’s creation, and it provided a nice distraction from his recent cancer diagnosis. Then near the end of the day, God moved up his next appointment from 13 October 2025 to 2 October 2025.

We don’t know what the future holds, but we have peace and gratitude in our hearts. And enjoyed the gift of special time together and dinner with three of their neighbors.

Those who say, “I love God,” and hate a brother or sister are liars, for those who do not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 1 John 4:20

“This present study in no way denigrates or undercuts an ancient accent on spirituality. I have no doubt, moreover, that from an honest gospel-focused attentiveness to mature materiality, a fresh and vibrant spirituality will emerge. We are led to see that a mature, obedient materiality is indeed a glad response to the creator God who has come bodied in Jesus of Nazareth. Thus we may address the dualism that has for much too long vexed the modern church.

We know of the affirmation of 1 John 4:20: “Those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.” We are commended to love both God and neighbor. We dare to judge that these two loves are in truth one love. The way we love God is to love neighbors in their full materiality.

In commenting on the good king Josiah, Jeremiah can aver: Did not your father [King Josiah] eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Is not this to know me? says the LORD. Jeremiah 22:15–16

The prophet does not say that if we know God, then we will do justice for the needy. Nor does the prophet say that if we do justice for the needy, then we will know God. Rather than either of these, he asserts that love of neighbor (brother, sister) is itself the way we know God.”

Walter Brueggemann in Materiality As Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World (Louisville: WJKP, 2020), 78-79.

In the conclusion to this book (I am sad it is drawing to a close), Brueggemann keenly teaches us by echoing Jeremiah that “love of neighbor is itself the way we know God.” Soak in that truth.

To ignore matters of materiality is to abandon the path of desiring to know God. If we follow the ways of the world and the patterns of our culture, they do not lead us to righteousness and justice, but wickedness and oppression.

I am taking today off to be with my father and mother in Florida today. Thanks for your prayers for a special time with my parents and with my father as he embarks on a journey to treat prostate cancer.

He Himself granted that some are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. Ephesians 4:11-14

“If we are to embrace such disciplines and practices, then almost all of us require guidance and support. As a result I propose that church leaders, specifically pastors, might think of themselves as “directors of materiality.” I have a hope that we may consider this role as a parallel to the long-standing practice of “spiritual direction” that helps so many of us to embrace the skills, disciplines, and sensibility for our spiritual life. We also require such direction for our faithful materiality.

If we heed the summons of the Epistle to the Ephesians to “equip the saints” for “maturity to the measure of the full stature of Christ,” it follows that it is the work of ministry to evoke the skills and faculties for discernment and action in the arena of materiality. If and when pastors willingly take on the role of directors of materiality, in turn curricular studies may emerge that focus on materiality. In the long run I anticipate that theological faculties that educate clergy will offer programmatic study for directors of materiality.”

Walter Brueggemann in Materiality As Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World (Louisville: WJKP, 2020), 78.

We as Christian workers cannot direct people in the good and right way with regard to materiality unless we ourselves have walked the path. That’s sums up aptly the aim of my exploration: to call God’s servants to grow in the aspect of materiality to help others.

And I have come to learn that this direction sometimes takes shape as asking questions and suggesting practices to raise awareness or invite people tossed to and fro to experience a new way of being and functioning.

It seems that the answer is not to separate from society or follow the flow from society but live differently in the midst of the mess attended to God and care for neighbor. From there our job links to directing others to this path in a spiritual and curricular way.

Speaking of curriculum, this represents just what we did in Colombia. We developed a contextualized curriculum to help workers in the coffee world of Colombia, both indigenous and non-indigenous live with accountability and generosity.

If you want a copy of my trip report, click for English or Spanish. And pray for me as I make a quick trip to Florida. Pray for my father. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer and I am taking a quick trip to go see him and pray for him.

And I will take you for my wife forever; I will take you for my wife in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will take you for my wife in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord. Hosea 2:19–20

“A study of Christian materiality exhibits a convergence of two realities. On the one hand, the Bible itself is preoccupied, as I have shown, with matters material. It is a misreading of the Bible to imagine otherwise. On the other hand, our lives are preoccupied with matters material that claim most of our energy and imagination and that evoke for us, variously, hope and anxiety. To imagine otherwise about our lives is an illusion. The convergence of the materiality of our lives and the materiality of the Bible commends us to think honestly, critically, and faithfully about the material dimensions of our lives according to the purposes and promises of the God of the gospel.

We can readily identify five key terms of covenantal fidelity that fully characterize the way in which we may love God and love neighbor. God’s self-giving vow to God’s covenantal partner, Israel, goes like this: I will take you for my wife forever; I will take you for my wife in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. I will take you for my wife in faithfulness; and you shall know the LORD. (Hosea 2:19–20; italics added)

This vow voiced by God, albeit in deeply patriarchal terms, pivots on five words. In this text these five terms—righteousness, justice, steadfast love, mercy, and faithfulness — indicate God’s way with us. But the same terms pertain when we respond to God. We are to practice justice, righteousness, steadfast love, mercy, and faithfulness as an act of fidelity toward God.

When we consider this as a way of loving neighbor, however, it is clear that we show this way of fidelity through the material dimensions of our life together. Thus mature materiality is the practice of justice, righteousness, steadfast love, mercy, and faithfulness with the neighbor with reference to such matters as money, food, bodily health, time, and place. In order for this practice to be durable intentionally, honestly, and knowingly, it is essential that we develop disciplines and practices that will sustain this way of being in a culture that is elementally adverse to such a practice.”

Walter Brueggemann in Materiality As Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World (Louisville: WJKP, 2020), 77-78.

A study of Hosea reveals a picture of God’s relationship with humanity. He married Gomer, the harlot, and demonstrated all manner of goodness toward her, despite her brokenness. That’s you and me.

Brueggemann, a prolific Old Testament scholar who went home to be with the Lord earlier this year, shows us clearly that with regard to materiality. We are Gomer, the unfaithful harlot, for following the world’s ways.

Yet, God loves us. He wants more for us. He wants our lives to demonstrated justice, righteousness, steadfast love, mercy, and faithfulness toward our neighbor as He has shown those amazing traits toward us.

Ponder as you start a new week, the disciplines and practices God wants you to cultivate to live in a culture that is “elementally adverse” to such practices. Perhaps pick one of the five words?

Ask God what it would look like for your materiality to demonstrate maturity in justice, righteousness, steadfast love, mercy, or faithfulness. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you live out this change for the glory of Jesus.

And I am safely home from Colombia. Wait a day for the trip report as my coworkers stayed slightly longer to wrap things up.

Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. There was a Levite from Cyprus, Joseph, to whom the apostles gave the name Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”). He sold a field that belonged to him, then brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet. Acts 4:32-37

“Mature materiality requires that one be alert to one’s role as citizen, that is, having active responsibility for the public good… I should add a note about the right place being variously rural or urban. It is an easier case to make one’s practice of habitation as heir, neighbor, partner, and citizen in a rural community where institutions are more accessible, where the population is more likely to be homogeneous, and where face-to-face interactions are more readily available. Such a portrayal of rural habitation may be tempted to romanticism. But to refuse romanticism about rural life (as Wendell Berry refuses) one must recognize that rural life is not on offer for everyone. Many persons will, for a variety of reasons, be urban dwellers. In densely occupied urban habitats, the same call to be heir, neighbor, partner, and citizen is sounded. Only there it is more complex and in some ways more demanding. But these same markers for the right place pertain, even if on a different scale. In urban settings one can more feel detached from such a summons. For that reason the insistence of the urban church on right habitation is all the more important. The church community can vouch for a narrative of responsible habitation and be a body of companions engaged in good work for the “right place.”

Walter Brueggemann in Materiality As Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World (Louisville: WJKP, 2020), 73-74.

We read this Scripture together when building the Palmful of Coffee contextualize curriculum. I never get tired of reading it. Notice the priority of the common good. See no needy person among them. Celebrate the sharing of stewards.

In modern times, this way of living comes into view as caring citizens who live as heirs, neighbors, partners, and companions with others in both urban and rural settings. Each one has its own challenges.

I have been in rural Colombia. Find Armenia on the map. The cool part is, whether in tiny Armenia or big Bogotá, when we live as a community of companions, we help the homeless find a home and we demonstrate responsible habitation.

The launch event far exceeded our dreams and expectations. Stay tuned for access to a trip report. We will wrap it up today before we travel home. Thanks for your prayers for safe travel for our team of 13 from 6 countries.

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit. Jeremiah 17:7-8

“Mature materiality requires that we inhabit our right place as partners with the place. Thus rather than the place belonging to the “owner,” in partnership the place and the owner belong to each other and are cast together in a long-range destiny. It follows that the owner is assigned to a purpose not of maximizing production, but rather of enhancing the well-being of the home place. Wendell Berry writes of “kindly use” of the land that depends upon intimate knowledge of the terrain of the property. The purpose of such “kindly use” is the prospect of durability in the right place, an assumption that coming generations may inhabit this right place. Thus the owner of the right place is not the final occupant but in fact belongs to a long chain of those who have inhabited and who will inhabit in time to come.”

Walter Brueggemann in Materiality As Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World (Louisville: WJKP, 2020), 73.

Imagine if every follower of Christ aimed to enhance the well-being of the place God planted them instead of focusing on maximizing production. We would appear as “partners with the place.”

I was walking through the market in Centro Bogotá before dinner two nights ago. Many t-shirts said, “parce,” and I asked, “What does that mean?” My Colombian friends said, “Partners.”

They echoed Brueggemann. They said, “We are partners in this place.” It means that we serve each other to help each other stay green, bear fruit, and flourish. But they admitted, there is not much flourishing in Colombia.

They said with the rollout of Palmful of Coffee, we will not just be “partners with the place” in word, but we will do it in deed. What would it mean for you to serve as a partner with the place where God has you in deed?

To live this way, to abandon the focus on maximizing production, to act as stewards and not owners, and to demonstrate the kindly use of the land calls for us not to assimilate to culture but to live radically differently.

For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:14

“The right way to inhabit one’s right place is as neighbor. The role of neighbor pertains not only to next-door folk with whom we may feel comfortable. It means also to recognize all the inhabitants of the community as companions in a common enterprise. It means to acknowledge gladly that they are entitled to respect, safety, and viability that are guaranteed by
common concern and common investment.

In a commoditized economy, there are no neighbors with whom we can make common cause. There are only isolated individuals who live private lives and who are at bottom rivals and competitors for scarce goods. Neighborliness refuses every part of that formulation: not isolated, not rivals, not competitors, and not scarce goods. The neighborhood depends on an expectation and practice of generosity and a readiness to share what one has for the sake of the common good.

Such generosity pertains not only to those whom we like and with whom we feel comfortable. Such sharing, moreover, consists not only in face-to-face generosity, but in sustainable transformative charity and, beyond that, in acceptance of taxation that is appropriate to the needs of the neighborhood.

The mandate to “love your neighbor” (Lev. 19:18; Mark 12:31) is defining for mature materiality. This commandment, Paul declares, is “the whole law [Torah] summed up” (Gal. 5:14). The biblical tradition, moreover, continues to expand the scope of “neighbor” until it includes all the vulnerable, for whom “widow, orphan, and immigrant” are representative persons.”

Walter Brueggemann in Materiality As Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World (Louisville: WJKP, 2020), 72-73.

Though I did not know what the commoditized economy was, for many years it characterized my existence. I did not even know the name of my neighbors. Think about it. How can we live as neighbor if we don’t even know our neighbor’s names.

Perhaps today’s application for some people is to learn your neighbor’s name? For others it takes shape as growing participation in charity or including people you don’t like in your giving. For some it means accepting the paying of taxes for the common good.

As we near the end of our exploration of materiality as resistance, we discover that God wants us to live differently than the consumeristic culture and live generously toward our neighbor.

Sit with the Lord. Follow God’s leading in taking steps toward growing in neighborliness and generosity.

And pray for our team today. We travel from Bogotá to Armenia in the heart of the Coffee Triangle, to do a Palmful of Coffee launch event with 100+ pastors and ministry workers in the Quindio department tomorrow. Thanks.

Some time later there was an incident involving a vineyard belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite. The vineyard was in Jezreel, close to the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. Ahab said to Naboth, “Let me have your vineyard to use for a vegetable garden, since it is close to my palace. In exchange I will give you a better vineyard or, if you prefer, I will pay you whatever it is worth.” 1 Kings 21:1-3

“The intention of mature materiality is to identify and enact more appropriate forms of habitation. Here are four markers for such responsible habitation:

Mature habitation of one’s right place is as an heir. The son in the Prodical Son parable was an heir, but he had forgotten that as an heir he not only owned the land but the land owned him. He belonged to the land. When he forgot his role as an heir, he could depart into a far country. When he returned to his father, however, he reentered his legacy and knew, from that moment, that he belonged to the land and it was his place of being and belonging.

In his narrative, Naboth is an example of a responsible heir (1 Kings 21). The royal power couple, Ahab and Jezebel, regard Naboth’s vineyard as a fungible piece of property for buying and selling. They think about every place through the lens of commodity. Naboth, however, knows better.

He knows that his vineyard property is not fungible. It cannot be “transacted” but, as he asserts, it is his “ancestral inheritance.” It has always been the home of his family. It is where he belongs. He must work and protect the vineyard because he belongs to it. This narrative is a stark example of two modes of habitation that clash.

Here, in this narrative as almost always, the force of commoditization seems to have the upper hand, a fact that makes habitation as inheritance difficult. The narrative attests, however, that the God who gives a livable place is fully on the side of such habitation that can so readily be overturned by usurpation…

Mature materiality requires a full commitment to such regard for one’s right place and equal regard for the right place of the neighbor, including the vulnerable neighbor. In our society it is the aggression of gentrification that most readily puts vulnerable inheritance at risk.”

Walter Brueggemann in Materiality As Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World (Louisville: WJKP, 2020), 71-72.

Notice how the person in power, Ahab, displaces the vulnerable person, Naboth, with corruption. We read this and claim that we have not committed such horrible atrocities. Sadly, have we. Each of us is guilty.

You can stop reading if you like, or even unsubscribe. God be with you. But an honest assessment of the global economy shows that the economic powers that be represent Ahab, and much of the world appears as Naboth.

Since I spend more time each year in the majority world, I tend to hear the cries of the displaced poor and needy people who have no land or place and come into view as victims of the global consumer economy.

This book has given structure to the distinctly Christian response to the global challenges I see linked to money, food, the body, time, and place more than any book I have read in recent history. Download it freely in PDF form here.

And think about what it means to inhabit a place as an heir. It means to live with roots and help others have roots. It means to respect the space and place of others and not try to have more than you need.

It means our footprint and impact aim to help people flourish around us rather than fold. We help people experience thriving rather than troubles. We love our neighbors as ourselves. God help us do this.

Keep praying for us in Colombia. The design lab continues to progress nicely to create a curriculum that will make Christ known and unleash accountability and generosity among the indigenous throughout the coffee region of Colombia.

“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” Luke 15:31-32

“Mature materiality, like that of the son in the parable, knows that a faithful life requires participation in, attentiveness to, and loyalty to a place. The son came to know this; upon his return he finds his rightful place defined by adequate food, festive welcome, and a gracious safe-making father. Embrace of such a life-giving place presents us with two generative questions about place.

First, where am I supposed to be? To ask this question is already to acknowledge that there is a “right place” to be that should not be confused with the bright lights of a “far country” of utopia (“no-place!”) that is anti-human. A vacation in utopia may be in order but, as the son discovered, it cannot become one’s “continuing city” (Hebrews 11:14; NRSV “homeland”).

For good reason it is high praise to say of someone, “He never forgot where he came from.” Everyone comes from somewhere. Everyone comes from a particular place with its particular hope and particular resources and particular social protocols and particular foods. These particulars may be amended and critiqued, but they cannot be safely scuttled in a wholesale
way for the sake of rootless imagination.

Thus the “right place” to be is a place that is infused with particulars that impose costs, give gifts, and offer rootage. We are not meant to be and finally cannot be rootless, placeless occupants of “nowhere”; finally we must be obligated, contributing partners in a time and place.

The vow of “stability” taken by some monks is instructive. That vow means to spend one’s life invested “on location” without the illusion that elsewhere, any elsewhere, would be preferable. Thus a “place” is an actual human venue in which one puts down one’s buckets in durable ways. For many persons the liturgy of a particular religious community lends staying power to a place. This is true in Christian liturgy, and no less true in other traditions as well.

Second, we may ask about our right place, how is it that I should inhabit that particular place of home? Well, NOT as user, consumer, possessor, exploiter, or predator. These are models of occupation that are appropriate for a commoditized society in which those with “homeless minds” are unable to care about those with “homeless bodies.”

Mature materiality rejects and refuses all such convenient modes of habitation that are marked by indifference, apathy, fatigue, or selfishness. The intention of mature materiality is to identify and enact more appropriate forms of habitation.”

Walter Brueggemann in Materiality As Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World (Louisville: WJKP, 2020), 70-71.

Some people reading this may find themselves out of place or not where they need to be. Generosity generally does not flow from our lives when we are out of place.

Others reading this may find themselves in the right place but not inhabiting it rightly. I would argue most people would find themselves in this category as we always have room for improvement.

Let me explain. We tend toward locating the right place, but occupying it as a “user, consumer, possessor, exploiter, or predator,” instead of one who practices mature materiality.

Such people move from “indifference, apathy, fatigue, or selfishness” to compassionate care, attention to impact of living on others, and living unselfishly.

Sit with the Lord today. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you home if you are not in the right place. And ask for guidance on inhabiting that place in a manner that will optimize your generosity with mature materiality.

And keep praying for me and the team of indigenous workers and GTP staff as we continue the design lab to build a contextualized curriculum to grow generous stewards and activate the Palmful of Coffee vision.

We are asking God to help us evangelize the Coffee Triangle through this effort and engage them to participate in Christian mission in the whole world.

“Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father. Luke 15:13-20

“The son found a resolution to his abandonment. He went back home to his rightful place. He resubmitted to the reality of that place, to its requirements, to its expectations, to the expectations of his father, to the irksome presence of his brother, to a place infused with abundance and rootage, the very abundance and rootage from which he had fled. In order to start that return journey, however, he had to acknowledge his hunger; he had to abandon his utopian (“no-place!”) fantasy of being unfettered by his rootage. He had to recognize that his anticipation for a far country was in fact a lethal illusion. Until he came to that “consciousness,” he could not make a move back to a place of human viability. The wonder for him, of course, is that when he got home, he was welcomed. That was not what he had expected, because he had become inured to the callous indifference of the far country that never welcomed anyone and that made every relationship transactional. It turned out that his home and his homecoming radically contradicted his experience in the far country of homelessness of mind and body.”

Walter Brueggemann in Materiality As Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World (Louisville: WJKP, 2020), 68-69.

Some may wonder what the prodigal son story has to do with generosity. Everything. We all succumb to illusions. This story teaches us how to get back on track. And if we want to pass on this way of living to our children, then it means everything.

The world bombards them with a “lethal illusion” to abandon the abundance and rootage of home. If the word rootage sounds odd to you, join the crowd. It did to me too. It just means system of roots.

And interestingly, Brueggemann draws out that a utopian fantasy literally takes a lost person to no place. We could call it homelessness. That said, notice the unexpected welcome that also comes when he returns to the abundantly generous and deeply rooted home.

The lessons for us today are many. For each of us with homes, we want to create a welcoming environment of abundance and roots. Simultaneously, we must all ignore the lies that advance lethal illusions.

And we want our homes to appear as places that radically contradict the craziness out there. So our children and anyone who enter, find it as a place of generosity and vitality.

We do this not by hoarding wealth, but by living obediently and generously in a world filled with scarcity thinking and lies. We show the veracity of our faith through our generous living.

And that’s really what creating a contextualized generosity curriculum for indigenous workers in the Coffee Triangle is all about. Everyone, everywhere needs to put this thinking to practice.