Monday Meditation

let your speech be plain

Today is the birthday of the poet, novelist, essayist and farmer, Wendell Berry, born in 1934. In 1987, when I arrived in Lexington, Kentucky as a newly ordained Presbyterian pastor, Berry was teaching English literature at the University of Kentucky. I figured out his office hours and one day, with fear and trembling, knocked on the professor’s door. He welcomed me in for conversation, expecting a student not a Presbyterian pastor. We talked about literature and he was curious about my current reading. I was mostly tongue-tied in presence of someone I’d admired for years. I asked if I could audit a class with him - reading Shakespeare, among others. Then he dropped this on me, with a wide grin and a sly look in his eye: “instead writing English lit papers, how about you submit three sermons a semester for me to read and comment on.” I could count on one hand the number of sermons I’d preached in my life. Squashing my fear, and eager to learn, I agreed. I saved those sermons with his generous and thoughtful comments written in red ink. Among his comments one has stayed with me the longest: “let your speech be plain, avoid clichés, and practice what you preach.” As I left his office he asked of me two things: read the English poet George Herbert, and read the King James Version of the Bible. I followed his advice on the former but not the latter.

Later, I had the opportunity to visit with him at his farm in Port William, Kentucky. We corresponded for years, most recently over this new book: The Need to be Whole. Wendell Berry is not only a wise man and one of the finest American writers. More importantly, he is a man with a generous heart who lives by what he writes. Happy birthday, Wendell.

Here is one of his Sabbath poems.

_______

Teach me work that honors thy work
the true economies of goods and words,
to make my words compatible
with the songs of local birds. 
Teach me patience beyond work, and,
beyond patience, the blessed Sabbath
of thy unresting love
which lights all things
and gives rest. 

Wendell Berry
Sabbath Poems 2001