An Arcadian Vision
Giving Form to Faith
by
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Sometimes it helps to take a practical view of the meaning of faith in the world and the importance of the church in the nurturing of such faith. Religious life as expressed through the church is faith quantified. The quality of faith may wax and wane in the life of an individual or in the life of the church as a whole. The church is the body of Christ in the world. As with Christ himself while he lived upon this earth, the church suffers all the pangs of humanity, because it is humanity. Various forms of spiritual and psychological distress, hunger, disease, the maladies of aging, and the grind of daily living including its persistent repetitions, assail the church. Its members must commit considerable energy to maintain minimal health in a world that attacks them on every hand.
But for all of this, the church remains. Its numbers are its measure. It is a great army that serves in the trenches of a broken and altered world. Its sores may fester, its sight may dim, its body may weary, but it is the church. It is all of us together in the great wave of humanity washed by the blood of the lamb. “I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne” (Rev. 7:9). This is faith quantified crying out in a loud voice “salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne” (v. 10).
The world is changed by the existence of the church. Broken and inadequate though it may be, while it exists the world is better. The attributes of faith reach into every aspect of every person’s life. Because of faith there is the possibility of tolerance, civility, respect and peacefulness among all people.
In these meditations, much has been said about the nature of faith. The concept of faith and the meaning of it have been discussed in many other forms of literature including, of course, the Holy Bible of Christianity. We learn that faith can be based on many things: power, authority, force, fear or deception. Everyone has had the experience of believing in someone or something and then “losing faith” in that person or idea. When this happens, we know that the faith we held was not properly grounded and turned out to have no meaning at all. When someone violates our trust we say that they have “not been faithful”. Even in the modern world where it seems many long-held values are questioned, faithfulness is still held in high regard. It is a primary virtue no matter what else one may believe.
In the Christian church, the communities of faith that make up the body of Christ know that faith has meaning if it is based on love. When faith springs from love, it is life saving and eternal. This is why we are reminded that, of the three great virtues (faith, hope and love), love is the greatest (1 Corinthians 13). People may put their faith in other things and, as a result, may even seem to accomplish great things. But in the end, it becomes clear that any foundation other than love, and especially love of God and love by God, is sinking sand.
The church exists in particular places. Jasper, Alberta, Canada is such a place. I have heard many people describe Jasper in an Arcadian way. They live their lives in it knowing they would not or could not be anywhere else. Many that don’t reside in Jasper visit it regularly to find the peace that it offers. For some, it is a holy place and within it there are places of power where they go to feed their spirit. I have heard it said that if God can’t be found in the mountains and river valleys of Jasper National Park, God can’t be found anywhere.
These, of course, are sentiments of appreciation for a place in the world that we imagine still retains some of the character of God’s original creation. I can tell you that the human condition is the same in Jasper as it is anywhere else and, of course, we would all expect that. Most of us are not fooled into thinking we can find or create a “tower” or a place of utopian wonder where sin no longer exists and our basest instincts are no longer at play. Left to our own devices, we tend to bring the places that we occupy to ruin. Often our places don’t elevate us – instead, we seem invariably to bring our places down. Such is the power of sin and the force of evil – unforgiven.
In fact, there may even be better places to see the face of God, or be touched by the spirits that emanate from God (those beings we sometimes call angels) than the few remaining gardens of God’s original creation. For example, we might be advised to frequent the prisons, hospitals, soup kitchens and fields of destruction resulting from natural disaster and human conflict. In these places, people often use God’s power rather than simply observe it. In these places, people may be far more likely to have Arcadian vision.
The Lutheran church that has existed in this Arcadian place for almost seventy years is experiencing its difficulties keeping the ministry going. Ironically, its physical location partially contributes to this malaise with its limited and transient population base and variable economy. However, it also suffers from the modern phenomena affecting many, perhaps all, churches. Many of the historical and cultural reasons for the existence of specific congregations no longer hold. And faith in God is fading as a motivation for living. Like the bay of my childhood, there are some places where the fish are gone or are going. They may come back or they may relocate in another place. That is the way of things in God’s world.
But wherever the church is, there is hope. And the church is in Jasper as it is everywhere. The joy of having had these moments of meditation in the mountain village of Jasper, Alberta is clearly the result of experiencing the faithfulness of a small group of people who share the love of Christ and of each other without assuming anything of it. They do not aspire to bigness or greatness in any way. Keeping the church going is sometimes a struggle, but no more than with any of the other struggles of life. They are people who know how to deal with life because they have faith based on love. They would probably deny that their faith could “move mountains” – especially the mountains soaring all around them – but it can and it does.
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About the Book
An Arcadian Vision is about spirituality and faith. Author John W. Ekstedt presents faith as something enhanced through the exercise of the spirit. Faith is imagined as a real quality of life that can be acquired and improved upon through spiritual growth.
Faith, as a gift of God and as an attribute of human beings, exists in time and space. People carry it with them wherever they are and exhibit it in the way they present themselves or in the actions they take. It is made better with practice, and many people go to specific places for the purpose of growing in it. An Arcadian Vision was written in such a place.
The original Arcadia was a retreat in the Peloponnese Mountains of ancient Greece. It was considered a place of great beauty and pastoral repose. Over time the word Arcadia has come to refer to an ideal “suitable for writing in poetry or prose”. To be Arcadian is to be a pleasing presence in an imperfect world.
An Arcadian Vision is prose emerging from a place for spiritual exercise in the northern Rocky Mountains of Canada. It is about church as a means by which people improve their faith. It examines how people do the exercises that give form to their faith.
About the Author
John W. Ekstedt's vocational life has been a curious mix of religious and secular experiences. John grew up in the United States and served in the U.S. Coast Guard. He attended Seattle Pacific University completing degrees in microbiology and public health, and Concordia College and Seminary acquiring degrees in liberal arts and theology.
John’s early training included positions at several hospitals working in medical microbiology and medical technology, as well as internships in education, mental health and penology.
In 1965, he was called to serve a large mission parish in north central Alberta, Canada. Following this assignment, he helped coordinate projects involving aboriginal people and public school teachers in the province of Manitoba. During this time, he served a church in the city of Brandon, Manitoba.
John and his family moved to British Columbia where he worked with young offenders and assisted with the chaplaincy program at the University of British Columbia. He worked in correctional administration and was eventually appointed deputy minister with the Attorney General. He began teaching at Simon Fraser University where he achieved the rank of full professor and served two terms as associate dean. John has taught at the University of Western Australia and was awarded a fellowship at the University of Edinburgh.
John and his wife Kay currently live in New Westminster, British Columbia. They have four children and five grandchildren. They have worked as volunteers with the Canadian Executive Service Organization including an assignment in the Philippines. Their most recent volunteer commitment was to serve in the pastorate at one of the churches in the mission parish to which they were originally called when they first came to Canada.