Made Part of Creation

I was thinking about our responsibility as human beings being part of creation. I had a conversation recently where a person expressed his opinion about climate change. He was sure that our actions as human beings (and especially the oil industry) had been grossly over estimated. He expressed that we human beings just didn't have the capacity to make changes to the environment and, so we should not be blamed for climate change. This exchange left me wondering about this line of reasoning, especially since the person claimed to have some theological insight. And so, I have been thinking about a response to climate change "deniers" but specifically those who claim to be part of the Church.

First, from both First Nations and Christian heritage I affirm that we are part of creation. This is a theological statement. The great mystery has created all things and has made human beings the most dependent of all the creatures. This is supposed to produce humility and understanding that we are dependent upon creation. Thus, we cannot claim superiority over creation or a right to do whatever we want since our very existence is premised upon our having been created.

Second, creator has made us most dependent but also responsible for this relationship through creation. There is no life apart from created life, and in some way our being created in the image of God means that we are responsible both to creation and to creator. Indigenous story also reminds me that I must strive to take responsibility to live in harmony with all things. Being in harmony with creator is expressed in my relationship with creation. This responsibility should produce humility. For when the animals give themselves to us, so that we can survive, how can we claim superiority? Rather, it should produce humility, respect and responsibility within us.

The Genesis creation account states that we have been given responsibility (dominion) to draw forth from the earth what is best. We cannot deny this responsibility by a feigned humility that says our actions do not actually impact creation. We cannot say that we can continue to cut, burn, and flood without some sort of thought about longer repercussions. This does not mean that we will not have to cut down trees, burn oil, or flood valleys to produce power at times, but we must always carefully weigh and monitor the impact of these measures to draw what is best from, and for all creation. As Bruce Cockburn puts it, "this is the burden of the angel-beast."

The idea that our actions are too small to effect creation are excuses to deny responsibility to creation and creator. The claim by some climate change deniers that they are two weak or small to actually produce change in the world is another way we deny our humanity and the responsibility that this reality brings.

We should at least give thinks for our lives and the life that the created world gives so we can live. We should think how our actions will impact those who will come after us, at least 7 generations. We could try and think through in a holistic way how what we are doing is drawing forth what is best in creation.

"In the fall we pray for good hunting and in the spring, we give thanks for good hunting."

The Gift of Being is lonely

The gift of being is lonely

The urge to care and be cared for is dangerous

The connection draws us together and pushes us apart

We have come together to be,

To rise above the loneliness for a time.

To be there not for only me,

To be for the community -

The gift of being is lonely, but we have friends.

Prayers of the people

The rage of a summer hot and dry, lingers on

Smoke from a thousand hungry fires fills air and heaven

Hear us, O Lord, we need your rain to quench us

The rage of a winter - too warm lingers on

Water from a thousand clouds drowning island and homes

Hear us, O Lord, we need your sun to dry us

The rage of grievance a thousand years old linger on

Dead from a thousand "justified" killings desolate field and plain

Hear us, O Lord, we need your peace to crush us

The rage of a heart set free, lingers on

Tears from a thousand caresses from heaven to earth

Hear us, O Lord, we need your mercy

National Aboriginal Day

The backdrop of Eternity

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

7:56 AM

It is National Aboriginal Day. The people who make up Canada are going to celebrate the contribution of Indigenous people. CBC news app had a feature “I am Indigenous” that I scrolled through this morning. They had the pictures of mostly young people, who will be the face of our hope, but few of our elders, the keepers of our collective memory.

 Funny, our lives are bit like time as described by ancient theologian Augustine. Time exists as hope (future) and memory (the past) and the fleeting present - and behind all the backdrop of eternity. Eternity, something that seems to be in the minds or understanding of everyone that I have met. I wonder if this is the hope of the whole world - to see our existence continue in some fashion.

I remember reading the story of a solitary Cree hunter, thinking he was about to die, hung his rifle up, because it was a good rifle[1], but also, I wonder, if he was  thinking that someone else might continue to use it or take it for a time.

Or the idea of children and descendants, that the line of our people will not end with just me. This perhaps drives the idea in the Hebrew Scriptures of the prayer and desire for children. The prayer that our people will continue somehow.

The idea of children - the hope of the future - the face of elders - the memory of our people - the backdrop of eternity and the fleeting present. Our lives in time - an enigma on this National Aboriginal Day.

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[1] Richard J. Preston, Cree Narrative : Expressing the Personal Meanings of Events, 2nd ed., Carleton Library Series (Montreal ; Ithaca: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002), 177.

John 3 and Big Bear

The gospel reading for the day was John 3:16-21, “for God so loved the “land” he gave his only son…

It is a great passage that reminds me that Creator cares about all his creation, and that through Jesus Christ he wants to heal the land, and all who are in it. I think we all want that to, but there are so many different opinions about how that should workout. Healing is what we need, but so many of our good intentions are not always a safeguard from the pain in our soul.

I am going to Thunder Bay to speak this weekend. People want to talk about walking together with Indigenous people. As I thought about it, I remember the speech of Big Bear. A great Chief who was wrongfully convicted for crimes he tried to prevent. Yet, when given the chance, he gave a speech. I searched the Internet and found a version and put it below.

Big Bear’s Courtroom Speech – translated from Cree

I ruled my country for long. Now I am in chains and will be sent to prison. Now I am as dead to my people. Many of them are hiding in the woods.... Can this court not send them a pardon?

My own children may be starving and afraid to come out of hiding. I plead to you Chiefs of the white man’s laws for pity and help for the people of my band.

The country belonged to me. I may not live to see it again . . . Because Big Bear has always been a friend to the white man, you should now send a pardon to my people and give them help.

People want to help us Indigenous people, but they don’t understand that they want to help us be who they think we should be. No one can make someone into another person, we can only be who we were made to be. Many of our people are hiding … because of the trauma and mistreatment. They want to hear a pardon and be told it is okay to live free and be who they were made to be…

Even now the land reaches out to try and care for our people, but they have been driven away for so long, how do you come back…

I read the gospel of the day, Creator gave his son… we have to love in a way that people can feel that … that is the way that Creator has loved us…

Who are you in this story?

Who are you in this story

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

8:29 AM

Matt 20.17-28

17 While Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and said to them on the way, 18‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; 19then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified; and on the third day he will be raised.’

20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favour of him. 21And he said to her, ‘What do you want?’ She said to him, ‘Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.’ 22But Jesus answered, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?’* They said to him, ‘We are able.’ 23He said to them, ‘You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.’

24 When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers. 25But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. 26It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, 27and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; 28just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’

The cost of leadership means that one must make themselves the servant of all. Richard Preston noticed that Cree leaders often led by being the most gracious and giving individual in the situation. They did not rely on violence or manipulation but sought the good of everyone involved. In this passage Jesus contrasts the Gentile rulers of the day, who got their way by being tyrants. They rely on competition, deceit and violence to dominate and control. Jesus said that in the Church this should not characterize us. Yet like John and James, we want positions of power.  I read this story today in my office and I ask myself, "who am I in this story?"

"Creator, give me more love, that I might treat people the way you treat me, with love and grace."

A Robin in the snow

I saw a robin, the first one this year that I have seen. It was hiding under a spruce tree from the rain. Looking in the bit of grass looking for a morsel, some crumb. And wondering, "where did this snow come from?" No song came from his mouth - maybe muted by the change that brought all this snow. And as the dog and I approached, he would hop from grassy spot under a spruce tree to the next spot under the adjacent tree, until he was hid behind a grassy hummock in a sea of slushy fading snow. I hoped he found a meal in that place. The rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and watereth the earth, …that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater. (Isaiah 55:10) -

The gospel of the day, Mark 7:24-30 - even the dogs eat the crumbs off the ground under the table"

I was thinking about how these words, spoken by a woman to Jesus, moves him to act, and I was thinking about how we are supposed to be the crown of creation…, whatever that means, but I feel something seeing that robin in the snow - I wonder how my life has put him there, or am I just like him, there in the snow, trying to find something on this cool rainy morning - -I hope he finds crumbs.

Even what they have will be taken away

"Even what they have will be taken"

Thursday, January 26, 2017

9:22 AM

There are currently two different stories playing out in North America. One is a story of a nation that seeks to reconcile with its oldest relatives, the First Nations and the land itself. The nation-to-nation relationship of First Nations to the newcomers is a quest to move toward a feeling of greater intimacy in our communities and solidarity that is both local and global. It is a journey of attempted reconciliation founded upon the land.

The other is a story of a nation that believes it can hang on to greatness by trying to go back to some use of force that will generate prosperity - or something perceived as secure and comfortable. They rage and thrash against some perceived enemy and wall themselves in - and play the pipe while the end comes. 

Pitrim A. Sorokin wrote, "When any socio-cultural system enters the stage of its disintegration the following four symptoms of the disintegration appear and grow in it: first, the inner self-contradiction of a irreconcilable dualism in such a culture; second, its formlessness - a chaotic syncretism of undigested elements taken from different cultures; third, a quantitative colossalism - mere growing at the cost of qualitative refinement; and fourth, a progressive exhaustion of its creativeness in the field of great and perennial values. (pg 14 of "Tragic Dualism, Chaotic Syncretism, Quantitative Colossalism, and Diminishing Creativeness of the Contemporary Sensate Culture" in American Catholic Sociological Review" Vol 2, No. 1 (March, 1941). Pp. 3-22)

The gospel for the day: Mark 4:21-25

²¹ He said to them, ‘Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand? ²²For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. ²³Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’ ²⁴And he said to them, ‘Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you. ²⁵For to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.’

The phrase from Mark that captures me is, "from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away." Nations that have begun to disintegrate and who cannot muster any creativity as far as the great perennial values shows that it has nothing.

Sorokin writing in 1941 points out that a nation that is dualistic and displays "irreconcilable contradictions”, that all the while "proclaims "democracy of the people, for the people, and by the people"; in practice tends to be more and more an oligarchy or a plutocracy or a dictatorship of this or that faction…" pp 2. "It (this nation's culture) exalts him (man) as the hero and the greatest value, not by virtue of his creation by God in God's own image, but in his own right, by virtue of man's own marvelous achievements. It substitutes a religion of humanity for the religion of superhuman deities."

A nation seeking to live out the great perennial values of right relatedness built upon reconciliation which includes telling the truth, empathetic listening, and coming up with a shared plan, is like a light set on a stand. This is the City on a Hill which is a light of the world…"to those who have, more will be given." The nation that does not turn inward in reflection and repentance, seeking to be healed and heal the brokenness around; that roars and shakes its fist at the heavens and proclaims its own greatness while berating its citizens of their lawless nature and their need to be policed, has begun to disintegrate. Shouting for more violence, more prisons, bigger walls, bigger guns, and more control exhibits a loss of what has made it a great nation and is merely hastening its own demise. By its own judgment it has nothing of a creative nature to indicate the way forward in a complex world - if it continues, "even what they have will be taken away."

In the midst of all this there are two stories playing out. I was just thinking about these things.