GIVING LIFE

A person I have admired for a long time is Clarence Jordon (1912-1969) who founded Koinonia Farm. “Koinonia Farm was founded in 1942 in Americus, Georgia by Clarence and Florence Jordan and Martin and Mabel England as a “demonstration plot for the kingdom of God.” It is still very active and involved. One person of the Koinonia Farm community recently wrote:

“Following World War II, modern agriculture set out to feed the world. In order to produce more food, we adopted the use of synthetic herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides, unintentionally launching a war on the soil. The result has been massive loss of topsoil over an area the size of Africa. And because the remaining soil is depleted and lifeless, our food contains fewer nutrients. We (Koinonia Farm) practice biological, regenerative farming, using none of the “-cides” (from the Latin -cida, meaning “a killer”); all organisms, even weeds, are important.” (Plough Jan 2023)

Perhaps we have much to learn about not being ‘a killer’ in more ways than one. The common killer words for us are homicide, suicide or genocide as well as herbicide, pesticide and fungicide. There are dozens of others that are less used.

One of these lesser-known killer words is regicide: to kill a king. Regicide is what happened to Jesus at the cross. Pilate and the Romans hung a sign: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Regicide.

“And I say to you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!” Jesus