When people reflect back on their lives and the many phases that their life has taken, I have never heard anyone ever say: “You know, if I could do it over again, I would like to relive the years between fifth teen and twenty-two.”
Never!
When you listen thoughtfully to the lives and stories of the elderly, you might notice that there is a gap between 1977 and 1983. They never share anything from those years. Could it mean that those were some very difficult years and the pain (the memory) is still very fresh and the wounds hurtful?
As our lives take on different tones (depending on what we are living through), so too the shape of our Christiaan religion takes on a new tone. Consider that dramatic shift that occurred once Christians recognized that any form of slavery was very wrong. The professes to abolish slavery in the British Empire arose out of the Churches. But many people within the church at that time were involved in the slave trade. Christiaan churches are still struggling with the many negative effects of the practice of slavery (slavery to the Americas was practiced over a period of three hundred years).
Today, we are confronted with the survival of the earth (humans, animals and all plant life). Humanity is heating up the atmosphere by burning too much fossil fuel. We know the consequences of our own actions. The best way to measure how the earth is heating up is to follow the melting of the artic ice. Take a tape measure and see how far the ice has receded from its security of tens of thousands of years in frozen security. Now, the ice is melting!
Humanity is confronted with its own survival. We cannot ask any one country to ‘do something about it.’ Earth survival involves everyone: This is cooperation for every human being (sex, religion or ethnic identity are irrelevant here). Everyone must cooperate and adapt their life -style. Can you imagine what will happen if every human being pulls in the same direction to save the planet?
Our Christian beliefs offer us much help in this regard. It affirms that all creation is good and not ever meant to be abused. We have yet to discover that the first book of revelation on the part of God is created reality. We have neglected that part of God for about a thousand years. It is time we are reclaimed by the demands of God’s creative action.
Humanity has a responsibility to hand on to future generations a world of clean water, vibrant forests and soils that can grow food for all the people who will come after us. In Saskatchewan that means that we must go out to every field, pick up a handful of soil and say, “and we want you to grow food for all our future grandchildren, even up to a thousand years from now.”
Reclaim the power of your Christiaan religion to empower you to work to not only preserve our common home (i.e. the earth) but to help it to thrive and b ear abundant fruits for those who must follow us.
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