In this month’s blog, Bishop David Bard shares some thoughts on how the resurrection gives us energy to love in a world where hatred and death threaten to disrupt and rob us of life.
BISHOP DAVID ALAN BARD
Michigan Conference
I recently finished reading Rebecca Goldstein’s book “The Mattering Instinct.” The author, novelist and philosopher Rebecca Goldstein, argues, “The longing to demonstrate that we do indeed matter — the mattering instinct — is one of the cornerstones of our humanness and a key to our flourishing. The other cornerstone is our connectedness to others” (p. 31). As her title indicates, Goldstein’s book focuses on the human need to matter. “Whenever human life is pursued, so long as the thresholds for such fundamental needs as nourishment and health, safety and security, connections with others and opportunities to think and imagine for ourselves are being met, then there is a life being shaped by the longing to matter, the same for all of us” (pp. 95-96).
Along the way, Goldstein discusses the second law of thermodynamics, the law of entropy. This law states that the total entropy (disorder, chaos, randomness) in an isolated or closed system increases over time. A simple example is the hot cup of coffee I pour for myself that cools as it sits on my desk. Goldstein writes, “to be alive is to be in resistance to entropy” (p. 5). In a more complicated paragraph, she explains that entropy is a law of probability, where disorder is more probable. “The overwhelming probability of disorder over order is the difference that holds the answer to why all living systems must devote so much energy to resisting the entropic transformation from within. All life, all flourishing, depends on capturing energy (from sunlight or food) and applying it in local anti-entropic resistance” (p. 57). “Almost all the things worth doing in this world — learning, loving, creating — require our resistance to entropy” (58). Living things, including you and me, are not closed systems. We can take in energy from outside ourselves to resist entropy, but not forever. Eventually, disorder takes us all. We call it death.
Goldstein links our resistance to entropy to an instinct for mattering, and I think she is right about our need to matter. Further, she offers a typology of ways of mattering, and here she is less convincing, if still insightful. You did not come here looking for a book report or review, so why did I offer one? As I was reading, I couldn’t help but think about Easter. “But the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised’” (Matthew 28:5-6a, NRSVUE). Easter is anti-entropic — but please don’t put that on your church sign.
Metaphorically, Easter, the resurrection of Jesus, is energy from outside our lives that helps us resist chaos, disorder, and randomness. Think of the first disciples of Jesus. With his resurrection, they went from despondent to energized, from hiding behind locked doors to proclaiming the good news openly, from complete disbelief that this one in whom they knew the presence of God was killed and that was it to belief, even if tentative, that he lives and the world is different because of that.
Christ is risen, risen indeed, and new possibilities emerge. The resurrection of Jesus does not put an end to the second law of thermodynamics. Chaos, randomness, and disorder remain in the world. Death has not been dispatched. Yet, with Easter comes the promise of a life that swallows death. The energy of the resurrection is intended to give us energy to love in a world where hatred threatens to disorder, the energy to work for peace in a world where the chaos of war looms so large (with a new war begun since my last blog here), the energy to work for justice in a world where rising inequality threatens our social fabric, the energy to work for freedom in a world where authoritarian governing strategies are on the rise, the energy to create beauty, the energy to be compassionate, the energy to risk reaching out to others across socially created barriers, the energy to confront in ourselves the ideas and attitudes that get in the way of beloved community, the energy to be more thoughtful and less reactive.
The poet Wendell Berry gave one of his poems a rather pretentious title: “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front.” While the title is meant to be tongue-in-cheek, the contents of the poem are serious. It is a poem about resisting entropy and contains two of my favorite lines of poetry: “Be joyful / though you have considered all the facts.” Anti-entropy. The final line of the poem is simple: “Practice resurrection.”
As we sing “Christ the Lord is risen today,” as we raise our voices as Easter people, may we be filled with new energy from the living Christ as persons and as communities of faith. Let’s let Easter be truly anti-entropic. Our lives need new Easter energy. The world needs the church to bring new Easter energy. Practice resurrection. Easter blessings.
The ministry of our bishop is made possible thanks to generous financial gifts from local United Methodist churches in Michigan through Ministry Shares. Thank you! Learn about the impact of Ministry Shares on mission and ministry in Michigan and around the world.
Last Updated on April 6, 2026