Nuclear Destruction and the Kingdom of God: learning the language of love

It is hard to not be effected by what has been happening in Japan over these last several days. Coupled with other recent events such as the cyclone and subsequent flooding in Queensland, Australia, and the ongoing political tension in Libya and the Middle East, it brings me down to earth about the hard reality of this world. In particular it makes me wonder about the future, the Kingdom of God, and what God has planned for the earth.

Searching for ideas about what to make of all this, I stumbled across a blog post by Daniel James Levy on the American Evangelical Environmental Network website.

Growing up he had a “view of the world which in turn will one day end in some kind of cataclysmic explosion, which of course included some kind of nuclear missiles, huge machine guns, and the death of trillions of people and animals. After this, God will one day blow up the entire cosmos, just as He spoke it into existence.”

Yet as a youth Levy explains that struggled to reconcile this picture of the future with the call for Christians to spread the Good News and make the world a better place.

Levy writes,

“I remember vividly leaving my youth group one Wednesday night when I was 15 years old, the youth pastor talked about trying to lead people to Christ, to make the world a better place, and so on, but it never made sense in my head. “Why if this world is getting dramatically worst day by day (as his theology taught) would I labor to bring a difference here and now, if it will ultimately do nothing”, I said to myself. So when Jesus said He feeds the birds of the air, I could never make sense to why He does. The only reason it could be, was of course, for me.”

Levy explains the journey he has been on to reconcile this tension.

Drawing on what Stassen and Gunshee in Kingdom Ethics call a covenantal perspective – where covenants such as God’s covenant with creation after the Flood, and the laws of the Israelites which included duties involving non-human creation – Levy explains that we are invited to participate with God in the care of creation.

He writes, we “…are supposed to be a reflection of His nature in the world, which includes His care for the creation.”

While I was hoping that Levy would fill out more what this means and involves (I suppose we have to read Kingdom Ethics for more) he finishes with a beautiful illustration from New Testament scholar N.T. Wright.

Wright describes that for a person moving into a foreign land it is best that they know the language of the locals before they arrive, rather than learning when they get there. That way, when they arrive, they feel at home and a sense of place. He then compares this to us in the here and now and the future Kingdom of God in its fullness.

I don’t know exactly what this means for Queensland and Japan, but it does give me a sense of purpose, something to set my mind to, in an orientation of hope and expectation. In the face of floods and cyclones, I can still all be learning a language of love.

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A Recipe for Love: Christ, Creation and Care for the Poor

Do you donate money to charity? To an aid organisation?

Do you sponsor a kid or get moved to give during times of natural disasters?

Guess what,

climate change will undo sixty years of development if we don’t act now.”

So says Tim Costello from World Vision Australia.

Do you want to know why? Check out this article by World Vision’s Jarrod McKenna.

Jarrod reflects on what Martin Luther King Jr would say today about Christians and climate change.

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Gen Y inspired by U

In the Guardian online, Brian Draper has published an inspiring and challenging article: “Church’s vision can guide the young.”

Gen Y has very little contact with, or understanding of, the Church or Christian faith. So says the Church of England – in a report published last week – along with other thinkers on the issue.

He writes that the youth of today have neither the hang-ups about the church that some Gen Xers have carried, or the wisdom and insight about life that our faith tradition is so rich.

Yet there is hope, says Draper. Despite facebook, twitter, and the other aspects of the internet that so attracts their attention and defines this new generation, many Gen Y’s are “…keen to make a meaningful, positive difference through who they are and what they do.”

And it is a good thing too, argues Draper, because these young people are decision makers for the future. He continues:

they are the first generation which has no choice but to reject the short-termism, greed and ecological indifference which has taken us to the verge of planetary catastrophe.”

The message of Draper’s article is this: the church plays an important and vital role to play in helping these young people. The Church holds a vision of the world, of the Kingdom of God, that can equip and inspire this young generation to live in hope. And they are not going to understand or take up this vision unless they see it enacted by those who hold it most dear: us.

Draper asks:

Where else could they find such a vision?”

(Would we want them to go elswhere anyway?)

And what a gift to give others: a way of life that leads to life: today, tomorrow and the hereafter.

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Sin, Grace and Climate Change

What is sin? Is it doing something naughty? Or, is it greater than that – is it anything that separates us from God?

If sin is an act of hurt, an attitude of selfishness, or a community of thoughtlessness, then sin is great indeed.

If that then, is the enormity of sin, how much greater must be the grace of God, to cover it all…

And all the wickedness in the world that man might work or think is no more to the mercy of God than a live coal in the sea”

– William Langland

Kim Cornford, in a recent talk, considers the nature of sin, the amazing grace of God, the gift of salvation, and what we can do in response to God. It is a thought-provoking story about her own journey in understanding climate change, as well as an insightful discussion on these Christian themes.

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Discussing A Moral Climate

The Mission Studies Network (Victoria) is organising a discussion on Michael Northcott’s book, A Moral Climate: The Ethics of Global Warming

Tuesday 26th October

12.30 until 2

@ the rear of Miss Libertine’s pub, 34 Franklin Street, Melbourne.

More details: Convener is Dr Ross Langmead rlangmead@whitley.unimelb.edu.au. No need to RSVP.

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Christian groups call on politicians to act on climate change

An unlikely coalition of numerous Australian groups and organisations, including World Vision and the Uniting Church, is today calling for our political representatives to take action on climate change.

In this unique time in Australian politics, this statement, written to the Independent MPs and all political parties, is a striking example of what is on the hearts and minds citizens, and of religious, political, social and economic groups in Australia.

In a statement on the move today, Greenpeace CEO Linda Selvey points out:

Climate change is not just an environmental issue. It is an economic, social, ethical, and public health issue.”

The statement calls for a price on carbon as a “critical tool” to reduce carbon pollution.

Eleine Poulos, the Uniting Church’s National Director explained the need for todays call:

The environment is not merely a resource for us to plunder. It is a sacred gift from God and if we don’t treat it as such, we risk the planet and our very own future.”

This statement has been endorsed by a huge variety of groups, including the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Oxfam Australia, the Climate Institute, GetUp and Greenpeace Australia Pacific.

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Can we trust the science?

Can we trust what some scientists are saying?

Is climate change real?

How can the climate be warming when places like Melbourne have had amazing cold snaps this winter? Forget four seasons in one day – it’s one season, and its cold.

Adam Morton from The Age reports on a new study that says global warming is undeniable.

The 2009 State of the Climate Report, published by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, found the last decade was the hottest around the world since modern temperature records began.

In addition to rising temperatures (the report found that each year between 2000 and 2009 were hotter than the average global temperature for the 1990s, and, in the same way, each year between 1990 and 1999 were hotter than the 1980), the report pointed to places which experienced unusually hot and cold periods and extreme weather. Taking a closer look at home, Morton considers events in Australia last year, like the heat waves in the south-east of Australia in January and February which took many lives, and large-scale flooding in Queensland later in the year.

The report answers my question about Melbourne. The authors of the report believe that there will still be cold spells but they won’t be as intense or frequent as what they have been in the past.

How can we believe what they’re saying though?

There were more than 300 scientists who analised data for the report.

The information came from 7000 weather stations in 48 countries.

In addition, for the first time, data from several climate indicators were put together. These include data from: glacier, snow and sea ice cover, temperature over land and sea and temperatures from the lower atmosphere.

Co-author of the report Derek Arndt explains: “It’s testing all the parts, and they’re all in agreement that the same thing’s going on.”

Does this answer our questions?

Can we trust these scientists and the data that they’ve used?

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Jordan River: Jordan Trickle.

Have you been baptised?

My baptism was a gentle sprinkling over my forehead when I was a wee baby.

Jesus got a thorough dunking by John in the Jordan (Matthew 3:13-7, Mark 1:9-11).

As I think of these sacred moments, the song by Alison Krauss rings through my mind…

“O sinners, let’s go down, let’s go down, come on down, O sinners let’s go down, down in the river to pray.”

In our ancient Judeo-Christian history, water is a powerful theme.

Purity and cleansing. Baptism.

Some churches choose to use water instead of wine for Holy Communion/Eucharist.

Jesus and miracles involving water.

Jesus the living water (John 7:37-9).

Up until recently (as in last few hundred years). Most people didn’t have water at the turn of a handle in their bathroom or kitchen, or house for that matter. Water was a necessity of life and often difficult to acquire. Water, for quenching thirst, cooking, cleaning, keeping the animals, growing food..the list goes on.

What does water mean for us today? Sure, we still need water for drinking and so on. That hasn’t changed. But, it is readily available. Crystal clear, pouring in abundance out of our taps. No worries mate!

And yet, in this Guardian article “The River Jordan’s Shame“, Martin Palmer laments the degradation of these historically significant  – sacred to many – rivers. Rivers that have flowed through our Bible stories, flowed through the lands of our spiritual ancestors.

In the case of the Jordan River. It is a Jordan trickle. He writes, “I should have expected it. I had spent the previous two days meeting with Jordanian environmentalists and they had been telling me about their country’s massive water problems.”

Palmer optimistically discusses a growing movement to help bring environmental restoration to pilgrimage cities and rivers, driven by religious leaders and denominations.

He celebrates this move, saying, “[t]he combined power of religious and secular authorities can mean a clean-up programme inspired not just by economics but by a vision of nature as a gift of God for which we have a responsibility to care.”

Thanks to this dedicated and persistent bunch of people, let’s hope that one day soon there will be more water in the Jordan, and that a Sikh having a purifying wash in the Kali Bein, India, doesn’t catch salmonella.

Palmer points to other rivers and places, like the United States, where this movement is also occurring  but (I presume) without the need for the waterway to be a drawer of pilgrims. This is inspiring news. Yet, I wonder about our rivers.

The great Murray doesn’t feature in the Bible, explicitly. Does that mean we shouldn’t care for it?  What is driving a group of Catholics to care for the Hudson River in New York state?

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Seeds Bible Study: Rain and Rainbows

Check out this Bible study by ChristopBrooks based on the story of Noah’s Arc.

See here: “Without the rain there would be no rainbow.”

To Christop’s list of engaging questions, I would add one question inspired by Michael Northcott and others (such as Robert Murray):

What does it mean for us, that the covenant that God establishes after the flood is between not only God and humans, but also includes every living thing on the planet?

God explains his creature-loving covenant at least three times in the passage.

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