"If the Earth were small" by Olaf Skarsholt

If the earth
were only a few feet in
diameter, floating a few feet above a
field somewhere, people would come from
every where to marvel at it. People would walk
around it marveling at its big pools of water, its little
pools and the water flowing between the pools. People
would marvel at the bumps on it, and the holes in it, and they
would marvel at the very thin layer of gas surrounding it and the
water suspended in the gas. The people would marvel at all the
creatures walking around the surface of the ball, and in the water.
The people would declare it precious because it was the only one,
And they would protect it, so that it would not be hurt. The ball
would be the greatest wonder known, and people would come
to behold it, to be healed, to gain knowledge, and to know
beauty and to wonder how it could be. People would love
it, and defend it with their lives, because they would
somehow know that their lives, their own
roundness, could be nothing without it.
If the earth were only a few
feet in diameter.

Discovering God (in nature)

When people talk about becoming a Christian, the term sometimes used is 'finding Jesus' as though Jesus were hiding somewhere and one only has to look in the right place to find him. In fact, a number of cartoons have illustrated this possibility, with Jesus hiding somewhere behind a curtain or a couch.

Putting the emphasis on Jesus indicates that the only way to 'find' God is by 'finding' Jesus. You may feel spiritual, you may seek to know God, but until you 'find Jesus' it is actually you who is lost.

The other thing this term does is make 'finding Jesus' a one-off event. When you find something, you've found it. No further looking is required. Of course, you may lose it again and then have to find it for a second time. But there are times when you have 'found' something and times when you haven't, with no middle ground. You can't half find something and once you've found it you don't keep looking. It's either found or not.

Despite the claims of many born-again Christians, I don't believe that 'finding God' can be so neatly differentiated into a before and after stage. Rather than a game of hide'n'seek, it is an ongoing journey. We are continually seeking and continually finding. The word 'discovering' therefore seems more appropriate to me than 'find'.

Furthermore, God is not just discovered by Christians, but people who aren't Christians are continually discovering him too. This includes not just people of other religions - but also agnostics and even atheists - although they may not recognise what they have discovered is God.

In The Mind of God, Paul Davies[1] says: 'even hard-nosed atheists frequently have what has been called a sense of reverence for nature, a fascination and respect for its depth and beauty and subtlety, that is akin to religious awe.’ That to me sounds very much like the process of discovering God.

And while I believe God can be discovered in many different places - in religion, in relationship, in receiving kindness from others, in feeling solidarity with others, in feeling compassion for all living creatures, in seeking to correct injustice - it is in nature that I believe many people do find God.

Nature is incredibly beautiful and incredibly complex. That in itself often causes people to think about the reason behind it all. While not everybody will come to the conclusion that that 'reason' is God, many will - even if they reject religion. And even those who do not believe that God had anything to do with it, the very act of thinking about that 'reason' is part of discovering God.

If I stand in front of the Mona Lisa, and I think about the one who painted it, I am at least partly discovering Leonardo Da Vinci - even if I come to the conclusion that the painting occurred by someone accidentally throwing paint onto a canvas which just happened to land in such a way that the Mona Lisa face appeared.

Secondly, the beauty of nature often is so breathtaking that all we can do is stand in awe. To stand in awe of what God has made is to discover God. To feel wonder and delight and joy while looking at God's Creation is to feel part of the same wonder and joy and delight that God feels. Although, as finite beings, we will only feel that wonder and joy and delight on a limited scale, when we are truly captivated by nature I believe we sense for just a moment a tiny portion of what God feels. It seems we are raised just a little bit above our finitude and humanness.

Something else we often sense in nature in peace. Partly, this is because nature is soothing. There is a reason why when people want to relax, they listen to CDs of bird calls rather than CDs of bulldozers. Discovering that peace is part of discovering God.

So too is the recognition that we are not just individuals but part of the community of Creation. Nature often brings peace because it helps us forget about ourselves. We are lost in the moment and our own concerns are either forgotten or become less significant.

It is hard to discover God when we are solely focused on ourselves. Being in nature often turns our focus outward. The 'I' as an individual is enveloped in the 'we' of Creation. We are then able to see not just that we are part of a larger picture, but how we might act in ways to help that larger picture. Discovering God is not just about saying, 'Yes, I've found Jesus' and now I can put him on the mantelpiece along with my rock collection to stare at. It is about discovering his will, not just in our lives, but in the whole of Creation, and helping to see God's will be done.

I don't think God can ever be 'found'. Human beings will never be able to completely understand him or completely know him. We can't put him in a box, label him and store him somewhere safe so we can't lose him again. But we can catch glimpses. We can come close. We can have moments when we seem to rise briefly above our human nature. And we can keep looking and discovering, knowing the journey will never end, that there will always be new things to find and new things to search for - and that's what makes the faith journey so exciting.

Davies, Paul. The Mind of God; Science and the Search for Ultimate Meaning. Maryborough, Victoria: Penguin Books, 2008.

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[1] Paul Davies, The Mind of God; Science and the Search for Ultimate Meaning (Maryborough, Victoria: Penguin Books, 2008).

Social Justice and Consumerism

One of the problems with consumerism is we often don't see the stories behind the products that we buy. And with more and more of our products made and sold by multi-national corporations, with much of their manufacturing taking place offshore, those behind-the-scenes stories are becoming less and less visible.

Yet those stories are important. And this year's Social Justice Sunday, taking place on 30 September with the theme Peace in the Marketplace, reminds us that consumerism often contributes to injustices, inequities and suffering.

We need to be reminded of the harsh and unfair conditions that people in Third World countries work under in order to produce our goods. We need to consider the impact that our purchases are having on the environment. And we need to reflect on what consumerism is doing to ourselves, not just in terms of employment practices that maximise profit and leave employees worse off, but also in terms of seeing life through a framework that values individuals over relationships and community, that leaves people feel worthless because they do not earn enough money or own the right things and that leaves almost all of us in a constant state of dissatisfaction because the advertisers keep persuading us there is something else we need to be happy.

Social Justice Sunday also reminds us that, while many people in our society see economic growth and consumerism as desirable, that is not the only possible view. Considering the negative impacts economic growth has on the environment, on people and on communities, maybe it is time we looked for a new over-arching framework, a new way of living in and seeing the world.

The Church must be a prophetic voice in this consumeristic, growth-driven culture. It must be prepared to show how our economic structures are damaging the earth and hurting people. It must be prepared to say there are more important things than profit, growth, money and purchases. It must be prepared to challenge the power of corporations and the way they conduct business. And it must show the world a different way, a way that values relationships, communities, peace and wellbeing, a way that puts people before profits, the earth before purchases.

The bible shows us that God cares about unfair economic structures. Therefore, Christians should care about them too. It is not an excuse to say we didn't know. We must make it our business to know. And if we really do care about seeing God's will done on earth, then once we know, we must do something about it.

The National Council of Churches in Australia has a pamphlet and worship resources on its website (http://www.ncca.org.au/departments/social-justice) for Peace in the Marketplace, Social Justice Sunday, 30 September. This wonderful prayer, based on the Beatitudes, comes from those resources.

‘Blessed are you who are poor,

      for yours is the kingdom of God.’

God of the poor,

We hear your voice calling us to the reality of life in our land, in the country and in our cities.

The goodness of your creation has been twisted out of shape by the greed of people.

The land lifts up its voice in mourning, and the poor of the land cry out for justice.

Help us live out your just kingdom here in this part of the earth.

‘Blessed are you who are hungry now,

     for you will be filled.’

God of the hungry,

Our indigenous brothers and sisters still struggle with worse health

and lower life expectancy than the rest of our population;

asylum seekers still wait months and years for settlement in safety;

the elderly, ill and unemployed struggle to live on pensions.

Help us know how to share our resources wisely and generously

so that all may be filled.

‘Blessed are you who weep now,

      for you will laugh.’

God of the desolate,

Young girls are exploited to sell fashion clothes,

while women slave in sweat shops for minimum wages.

Men work long hours at dangerous jobs

and young people turn to drugs and alcohol to cover their hopelessness.

We in the developed world enjoy our luxuries

at the expense of those who struggle to make a living growing them.

Help us protect the humanity of those who produce the goods we use.

‘Blessed are you when people hate you,

     and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you.’

God of the marginal,

Governments appear to favour those with economic power,

instead of investing in education;

megastores drive small businesses to the wall;

people deafened by the strident call to consume

fail to hear the whispers of the homeless and hungry.

Help us to speak fearlessly for those with no voices,

and to remember that your grace is abundant enough for all to share.

‘Rejoice in that day and leap for joy,

     for surely your reward is great in heaven.’

God of joy,

We pray that we who follow the way of Christ might live by your grace,

modelling care and integrity in our business transactions,

courage and hope in our politics,

and love and reconciliation in our relationships.

May our lives be evidenced by generosity,

daring to live in hope,

that our life together might point beyond ourselves

to the One in whose image we are made.

In the name of Jesus Christ, who showed us how to live. 

Amen.

Acknowledgement: These worship resources have been compiled by Rev Dr Meryl Blair for use with the Social Justice Sunday 2012 resource Peace in the Marketplace.

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Matthew 25:31-46 - What we do for people matters (including those affected by climate change)

We can't just ignore the plight of people who will be impacted by climate change and environmental degradation. Matthew 25:31-46 doesn't give us that option. 

Matthew 25:31-46, I suspect, is a passage that we don't like to think about too much. It gets used when charities are trying to convince Christians to donate money or volunteer their time. But the focus seems to be very much on Matthew 25:45. We're more interested in giving ourselves a pat on the back for helping the hungry, the thirsty, the sick and imprisoned than we are about looking at what the whole passage actually means.

This passage shows us very clearly that what we do for other people matters. And it's not a case of just patting ourselves on the back when we do the right thing either. What we don't do matters too. Jesus says that what we do (or fail to do) for other people we do (or fail to do) for him. That in itself should make us take notice. But it's not like we just get a mild reprimand for failing to do the right thing either. Jesus says, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels' (Matthew 25:41). They're pretty strong words. They're not the kind of words that you can pretend just aren't that important.

So does that mean if we fail to sign up for hospital and prison visiting programs and donate money to every single organisation out there that feeds the hungry we're going to hell? Well, no. But at the same time, we also don't get to pretend that we can ignore the plight of other people. When we fail to help people who need help, we fail to help Jesus. And what we do to other people counts.

One thing I don't think Jesus was trying to do was give us a list of people who must be helped - with anyone who falls outside that list able to be ignored. He wasn't saying 'what you do for these people, you do for me'. Rather, he was saying, 'what you do for everyone, you do for me.' So it's not just our treatment of the hungry, the thirsty, the homeless, the naked, the sick and imprisoned that matters. Our treatment of the depressed, the grieving and the anxious matters. Our treatment of the unemployed, the disabled, the working poor and the socially isolated matters.

And our treatment of people who will be impacted by climate change and environmental degradation matters.

This doesn't just include people in countries like Tuvalu. It includes people in third world countries who are already struggling with the effects of climate change. It includes farmers in our own country who are finding things more difficult with changing climate conditions. It includes people who are being (or who will be) impacted by extreme weather conditions, which are predicted to increase as the climate changes. It includes future generations who have to live in the world we leave them. And ultimately it includes all of us - for we all will be impacted by climate change at some time.

We can't just ignore their plight. Matthew 25:31-46 doesn't give us that option. What we do (or fail to do) for these people, we fail (or fail to do) for Jesus. How we treat these people, whether we help them or not, matters in God's eyes.

Do we want to be the person to whom Jesus says, 'I was suffering from climate change and environmental degradation and you helped me,' or do we want to be the one to whom Jesus says, 'I was suffering from climate change and environmental degradation and not only didn't you help me, but you actually made my situation worse.'

Because that's what we're doing. Not only do we fail to help, we increase the problem. I can't read Matthew 25:31-46 and think that Jesus doesn't care.

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Are people who don't care about the environment selfish?

Are people who don't care about the environment selfish? Some would say they are, as they are putting their own needs above that of the earth. But I don't think we can make a blanket statement that all people who don't care about the environment are selfish - even though they may have some selfish reasons for not thinking about the health of this planet.

A lot of people who don't care about climate change, or have much interest in ecology more generally, are not selfish. They are generous, selfless people. They do things that I'm afraid I'm too selfish to do. Choosing a person's self-interest over environmental concerns does not make someone selfish, because there may be many other areas where they are far more selfless than other people.

There are so many different things in the world that people can and do care about. And I don't do everything I could do to address them all. I don't give food to the hungry. I don't visit people in jail. The only sick person I've visited in hospital in the last year was my own grandmother. I don't help kids learn to read at school. I don't open my house to people who might need a place to stay or a meal to eat. I could go on. Does this make me selfish? Maybe. But then I certainly have no right to call people who don't care about the environment selfish - because I know that, in many cases, they do a lot of selfless things that I'm not prepared to do.

And even if we just limit it to ecological concerns, I'm selfish. I drink diet coke that comes in plastic bottles. I have my computer on pretty much constantly. I don't have a compost bin and I often throw out food. I sometimes buy food with too much packaging. I even sometimes get plastic bags. Again, I could go on. So do I have the right to call someone selfish who likes plastic bags and drives a car, just because I try to avoid them and I don't have a car.

Unfortunately, if we start calling people selfish for the environmental choices they make, it's often very easy for them to turn around and say well you're selfish too because of the choices you make. Even being on Facebook is bad for the environment. So are we all selfish then? Yes, I think we probably are. I think everyone is selfish to some degree. And I think we all often put our own desires and convenience above environmental concerns - probably much more so than we recognise.

Another thing we need to think about is the culture we live in. We all live in a consumeristic culture - and selfishness is pretty much ingrained into that culture. We are living in a world where a high value is placed on convenience and individual desires. This is a world that's not sustainable, but it's hard to look past that world because we're so immersed in it. And even if we can see past the problems with our way of life, it's sometimes hard to choose a different way of living when we are surrounded by this consumeristic culture.

I know my kids have gotten annoyed with me because I don't like buying food with too much packaging. And one of their main complaints is everyone has school has this type of food. And so sometimes I do buy food with lots of packaging - because while I see problems with the way our society does things, my kids still live in this society and have to make their way in it.

And sometimes my concern with environmental issues makes me feel too different to my friends. I feel like forgetting all about the damage my lifestyle may be causing to this earth and just 'being like everybody else'. It's hard to be different - whatever that different is.

We might think that people in the past who owned slaves were selfish. And undoubtedly, yes, they were. But still they lived in a culture where slaves were acceptable. It would have been very hard for them to see past that. And it's the same today - if most of the people that surround you don't see environmental concerns as that important, it's pretty hard to see them as important yourself.

We all would love to think that if we went back to a different time, that we wouldn't do any of the things that we consider so terrible now. We wouldn't own slaves or mistreat people of a different colour or watch bear-baiting. And if we travelled back in time, we probably wouldn't. But if we grew up in that time, maybe we would. There's always the people that stand out from the crowd and say, this is wrong. But it must be an extremely hard thing to do.

I know that when I was younger, I used to light up a cigarette in a food court without even thinking about it. Now, even if I'm in a place where I can smoke, I will move away if people are eating. Am I less selfish than I used to be? Maybe. But then I'm not sure whether I was actually being selfish in my days of smoking in the food court. It just wasn't something I thought about. Everyone smoked in areas where people were eating, including my friends. And even if someone had pointed out that it wasn't very pleasant for other people, I probably would have just thought, but everyone else is doing it, so what's the problem?

I think of the analogy about the goldfish in the bowl who doesn't see the water they're swimming in. Now try as we might, it's pretty hard to get that fish to actually see the water. And if the water was dirty, we spend a lot of time telling the fish that the water is dirty, without them taking the message on board. They're swimming in the water. They can't see a problem with it. What we need to do is change the water - and it's only then they may be able to look back and think, gee, my water was dirty back then. (That is if a goldfish could actually reflect on their surroundings!)

But if their actions are actually causing the water to be dirty, what do we do then? And what if the goldfish was actually making the water dirty for other fishes who weren't doing anything wrong? What do you do if every step to clean the water was matched by a step by the goldfish to make the water even more dirty? But the goldfish still can't see that there's anything wrong with the water. I don't have an answer for that. But I'm not sure we can actually say the goldfish is being selfish, if we take selfishness to mean a conscious decision to put our own interests above of other people. And I know that the problem isn't going to be solved by simply telling the goldfish to think differently.

Global table fellowship

The word 'table' is mentioned 22 times in the Gospels. There is the overturning of the tables at the Temple, the times that Jesus was reclining at a table or came to eat at someone's table and the woman who said the dogs eat the crumbs from their master's table. It's probably hard for us to really see the word 'table' in the same way that the original audience did. We don't have the same ideas about hospitality and eating together. And half the time we eat our meals in front of the TV rather than around a table. We simply cannot understand table fellowship in the same way first century Jews did.

This is not a post about eating around a table, though. It is about justice and sharing and distribution. When Jesus talked about how we were to fellowship with other people and how we were to share our food, he was not just concerned about eating. For the way we shared food and fellowshipped together said something about our heart. Therefore it should not be limited to the dining room table and forgotten the minute we do the washing up. His words about meals and fellowship are to guide the way we live our lives.

But we also need a broader definition of table. When Jesus says neighbour, he does not just mean the people who live on either side of us. And when Jesus says table he doesn't just mean the people we may be likely to share a meal with. God's love is global. It is not limited to one country, one race or even one species. Therefore how we think about table fellowship must be global too.

One of the most memorable passages about the 'table' comes in Luke 14:7-14:

When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honour at the table, he told them this parable: “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honour, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honoured in the presence of all the other guests. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbours; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

This is one of my favourite passages in the bible. It says so much about humility and generosity. If everyone lived by this passage, I think the world would be a much better place.

But it has some very important things to say to us if we consider the table as the world. Do people in first world countries give themselves the place of honour? That's undoubtedly a yes. If we consider the world's resources as a meal, who gets invited? The poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind? Or the rich neighbours living in first world countries? And what about other non-human species? They very rarely get invited to the meal at all. Instead of inviting the people that Jesus tells us to invite, we first world countries sit inside while the rest of the world is lucky to get our crumbs.

The rest of the world is a bit like Lazarus, wanting to eat what fell from the rich man's table:

“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. (Luke 16:19-21)

Most will know the story ends with Lazarus in Heaven and the rich man in Hell, begging Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool his tongue, because he is in agony.

How many are by our gates, begging for what falls from our table? Whenever I think of the inequality between first world and third world countries, Lazarus comes to mind. The rich man probably didn't even know that Lazarus was by his gate. He was too far beneath the rich man's notice. Not knowing the inequality in the way the world's resources are distributed is no excuse.

We can also imagine Lazarus as future generations, sitting by our gates, begging us to leave some of the world's resources for them, instead of using it all up ourselves before they are even born.

And of course, one of the most memorable events to ever happen at a table was when Jesus held the Last Supper. In Jesus and the Earth (2003), James Jones discusses this event in relation to the inequality in the world's consumption:

He gave us an activity by which to remember him and invoke his presence. It was and is an act of consumption - eating and drinking, bread and wine. Imagine around that table of 13 people if only four were allowed to partake and nine were excluded. Such an act of greedy consumption on the part of the four simply would not have been tolerated by the son of man who in Matthew 25 chides those who ignore the needs and rights of others to consume.

Jesus broke all the rules when it came to table fellowship. He ate with sinners, tax-collectors and prostitutes. But if we take his words about table fellowship and think we're following them because we've invited a few poor people to a meal, we're missing the point. Table fellowship is about so much more than just a meal. It is about how we share and distribute what we have. It's about what's in our heart.

The world is a table. Some get invited to the meal. Some get excluded. Some have all the fancy food. Some get nothing but crumbs. For Jesus' last meal, he didn't even exclude the one who would betray him. Exclusion from a meal just wasn't part of who he was. As Christ-followers, we should do all we can to include everyone at our table too. We must also ensure that everyone gets a place at the global table of the world's resources. 

New Facebook Page for God and Gum Nuts

I have started a new Facebook page for God and Gum Nuts. This will be a place to not only share what's happening on the blog, but lots of links, articles, quotes and other material related to Creation Care, particularly from an Australian perspective. Like us on Facebook

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