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EarthWords - connecting Scripture
and Creation
"Creation flavored" thoughts on the lectionary texts
Date: November 6, 2011
(note corresponding EarthWords from 3 years ago archived on the website)
And one more follow-up on the whole idea from last week of "driving peoples from their lands" - "The Christian nations
of Europe acquired jurisdiction over newly discovered lands by virtue of grants from the Popes, who claimed the power to grant
to Christian monarchs the right to acquire territory in the possession of heathens and infidels. Although the nations
of Europe...ceased to recognize the Popes as the source of their titles to newly acquired lands, the new concept of title
by discovery was based upon the same idea that lands occupied by heathens and infidels were open to acquisition by the Christian
nations. As stated in Johnson v. M'Intosh: 'The potentates of the old world found no difficulty in convincing
themselves that they had made ample compensation to the inhabitants of the new (world) by bestowing on them civilization and
Christianity in exchange for unlimited independence.'" from a brief filed by the United States before the U.S. Supreme
Court in Tee-Hit-Ton Indians v. U.S. (1955) (The Court ruled in favor of the US!)
Kind of a heavy EarthWords this week. There's a joke at the bottom if you read
all the way through -
Text: Psalm 78.1-7
Thoughts
"Sayings from of old...that our fathers have told us...we will tell to the children/coming generations." We (developed
countries) have learned how to live in a world of cheap oil - transportation, chemicals, energy. Our grandparents knew
how to live in a world without many of those things. As oil gets more expensive and more scarce and even unavailable,
do we still have enough knowledge of things like gardening and gathering and animal husbandry to live moderately comfortably?
(Wouldn't it be a really interesting experiment to simply turn off the electricity at the main panel for a day or two?!)
Are we able to teach our children enough so they will be comfortable? Of course, our children will live in a completely
different world. ( Eaarth by Bill McKibben http://www.billmckibben.com/eaarth/eaarthbook.html and NYTimes review http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/books/review/Greenberg-t.html; Hot:Living Through the Next 50 Years on Earth by Mark Hertsgaard http://markhertsgaard.com/hot-living-through-the-next-fifty-years-on-earth/) How much of the ancient wisdom will still "work"? How much will we (and they) need to learn "on the run"?
"the children yet unborn" - the 3 billion "extra/additional" set to be born in the next 40 years at we move from 7 billion
to a projected 10.5 billion
Text: Joshua 24.1-3a,14-25
Thoughts
(Political rant): Joshua calls the elders, the heads, the judges, the officials. Frankly in this day, I don't have
much optimism in the leaders, the politicians, the CEOs and their ability to make decisions or work things out. I have
more hope in "populous" or grass-roots movements such as Transition, Occupy, Coffee Party, etc., although even they seem to
have fairly limited power or ability to make changes on a national/global scale, and sometimes even to keep from turning into
the things they are protesting!. I'm looking more and more to city, congregational, even neighborhood movements.
I think the future is more local than anything else.
OK - moving on - I have always loved the line "Choose this day..." I guess in my current mindset, the real issue
is "Do you think life (in particular with regard to energy, climate, financial disruption) is pretty much going to go on as
it has over the last 100 years, or do you think significant (even cataclysmic, even catastrophic) changes lie ahead?
As you have probably guessed by now, I'm expecting the latter. So then the corollary is "Are we just going to carry
on and wait for it to happen (Some folks call this "Extend and Pretend" - Google it)" or "Are we going to do as much as we
can even now to prepare, even given the fact that the future is really one big unknown?" The clearest expression of
these ideas that I have seen lately is in the video segments on The Automatic Earth of Oct 17 http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/2011/10/october-17-2011-diamonds-in-rough.html and Oct 27 http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/2011/10/october-27-2011-how-i-prepared-my.html Personally, in the past 2 years we (West family) have accumulated a one or two month's supply of food that we
rotate through once a year, put in a wood stove that would heat part of our house and cook part of our food, installed solar
panels on the roof, started turning the backyard into a food producing garden/mini-orchard, and gotten to the place where
we can walk 2 or 3 miles a day without too much discomfort. (Oh yeah - and the Solar Oven. I'm afraid it's put
away for the darker season!) Granted, that would not cover all of our bases, but it seems like a start to us.
Text: Matthew 25.1-13
Thoughts
The wise maidens took extra batteries!
The foolish say "give us some of your oil" (are they foolish to ask that?); the wise reply "Perhaps there will not
be enough!" Our fear is that there will not be enough - food, heat, energy, medicine - and how are "the folks who have"
and "the folks who have not" going to deal with each other. (I guess one other way we - West family - are trying to
prepare is to just try to think about that question now and then. Sometimes from the perspective of someone who "has"
and sometimes from the perspective of someone who "has not". Corollary - what do we have, have not?) Obviously
the best (only) answer is to get as many folks start thinking, learning, acknowledging, preparing now. (Getting them
into the "wise" camp!) So how about you - what do you think is going to happen with regard to peak oil, climate change,
financial disruption? What do you think life is going to be like in 5 or 10 years? Are there things you could
do or have done now to prepare? Or are these not really the things to be concerned about? Back to the Psalmist
- you owe it to your children/grandchildren to think about this. Back to Joshua - Choose this day what you believe and
what you need to do. And again to Jesus - Some were wise, some were foolish. Is it wise to prepare? Is it
foolish to worry? Where are you?
And one last thought - your reward for reading this far - I still remember someone telling of an old German Biblical
scholar addressing a group of candidates for priesthood on this passage and ending up - "now vhere vould you rather be - inside
in the light vith the vise virgins [KJV!] or outside in the darkness vith the foolish ones?"
Prayer
God of all times and places,
our world has drifted well into the season of shifting,
light to dark, or dark to light, depending,
and we take a moment to relish the harvest or anticipate the planting, depending,
and to appreciate the stability of Creation over these past years.
Help us see as clearly as we can where Creation is going in the years of seasons ahead,
and once we have chosen what we believe,
move us to action
for ourselves, our children, and all humankind.
One Thing to Do This Week
Choose.
EarthWords is produced by Charlie West
Ink
permission given to copy, share, use, delete, forward, distribute, disagree
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