The Whole Body of Christ

Over the past few years it has seemed to me that one of the most important roles that I play as executive presbytery of the Presbytery of Yukon is the role of theological worldview translator. The Bible makes it clear that there must be great diversity in the church if we are to be the whole body of Christ. Romans 12 and 1 Cor. 12, for instance, both speak of the great importance of acknowledging diversity in spiritual giftedness. Both indicate that only together are we the body of Christ, though each of us may be called upon to act as Christ’s sole agent in a given situation.

However, I was greatly helped in understanding the importance of diverse theological worldviews by James Hopewell in his book Congregations: Story and Structure. Hopewell was trying to figure out why we have such diversity in Christian denominations and congregations, and why, even in a given denomination, there is often very great diversity.

To begin his study, Hopewell began surveying Christians in Protestant churches about their theological beliefs. He soon discovered that this approach did not work. If he put enough theological jargon words (like grace, or transformation) into his survey questions, people would agree to anything—even conflicting statements! So, he looked for a layperson’s way to test people’s beliefs.

In the end, he turned to a sociological method of asking people to tell the story of important things that happened in their lives, whether those things worked for good in their lives or for bad. He discovered that people told their stories in four ways.

One way was to describe the story’s hero as an obedient, faithful servant. Faithful obedience was the most valued response, because without it, no matter what else people did, their sinful nature would eventually emerge. This group’s theology was grounded in the pervasiveness of human sinfulness and our utter dependence on God’s holiness and grace for anything of value to happen. Such people held up obedience as the most important spiritual trait, and worked hard to hold people to an orthodox faith and to obedient lives. They understand that God’s holiness is not something we can attain, but God’s holiness is the plumb line for measuring obedience.

A second group told their stories with great irony. They were also concerned about sinfulness, but were especially concerned in the way that people are set up by sin through human systems, and were moved by the Spirit’s call for the faithful to work for restoration of wounded people and to continually work for justice in society. This group was excited by the Spirit’s presence and power at work but, ironically, found it most at work in and through people serving God in the world. T

his group valued a practical faith that worked in the world for the transformation of individual people, and of society as a whole. Indeed, these are the ones motivated by Scripture that describes true religion as being about feeding the hungry, caring for the widow and orphan, and otherwise helping our world to mirror the goodness of the Kingdom of God.

A third group told their story as one of that leads to an epiphany (a revelation of God’s will), and to happy endings in the long run. Such people were caught up in the m

ystery of God’s Spirit at work in us and among us, knowing that all things work for good for those who are called. The great dilemma for humans is our limited understanding as mortals. If we are open to learning from one another, and working honestly and diligently to understand one another, and to learn from the clues God is constantly giving us to share with one another, we are capable of constantly growing and maturing in faith. Such people know that God speaks in unexpected moments and unexpected ways, like a burning bush or a star over a manger. And such people know that unexpected people like shepherds and magi can be the ones to bring God’s unexpected good news.

A fourth group told their story as a great adventure. They are very aware that the Devil is at work in the world today, but will not be forever. In the mean time, however, they know that we are engaged in a battle between good and evil, and that our real battle is with principalities and powers and agents of darkness. Humanity cannot prevail on our own, but must depend on God, who gives each of us gifts to use in the battle. Indeed, Christ has won the decisive battle and we, in the end, shall prevail.

From reading Hopewell’s description, it is clear that few of us fit neatly in only one camp. Indeed, all are biblical and are lifted up as important by the biblical witness. However, as humans we tend to be most fed by one, or at most two, of the worldviews.

In fact, Hopewell graphed the worldviews, as seen in the chart below. He pointed out that the ones who lifted up obedience in the face of the tragic power of sin, and the ones who see God’s power leading to individual and social transformation, are both moved by the corrosive power of sin to tear down individuals or societies. The left side of the graph is therefore for them, because they are very much motivated by the pervasiveness of sin in the world. It is not uncommon for a person or a congregation to hold to one or both of these worldviews as their most dominant view.

The right side of the graph, on the other hand, is for those who expect God to bring happy endings, either through openness to God’s mysteries or through giving spiritual gifts, which may be wielded at the right time. The right side of the graph is motivated by God’s power to make things work out, beginning right now. It is not uncommon for a person or church to hold these two worldviews together.

The top of the graph is for those who are most moved by God’s presence in all things and in all events. It is God at work in and through us, Who empowers us to work for just societies, even though sin is always wearing that justice away. Similarly, it is God, Who reveals truth for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. Once this deeper truth is revealed, the body is often moved in new ways, such as when James spoke the deeper incite that emerged from the debate about circumcision in Acts 15. It is not uncommon for both of these worldviews to be present in one person or congregation.

The bottom of the graph is for those who are most moved by God’s holiness and transcendence. God is not creature, and God’s ways are not our ways. It is God Who gives us the revelation to guide our lives in obedience and truth, and it is God Who gives spiritual gifts that empower the ministry to move forward where human strength and ability fails. It is not uncommon for both of these worldviews to be present in one person or congregation.

However, it is very difficult for a church to hold more than two in common. More than two leads to open conflict. The ones looking for people to take on injustice are often impatient with the ones asking that we identify and employ our spiritual gifts. And those who are very aware of the power and vitality of spiritual giftedness have little patience with people, who are continually trying to come up with better human systems.

Similarly, those who are calling on people to listen for God’s revelation about the new thing God is doing are very impatient with those, who are insisting on obedience to orthodox teachings. And those who understand the importance and maturity of obedient life are impatient with those, who are so ready to embrace change that they seem ready to take off at the drop of a hat for the Promised Land, fully expecting a new heaven and a new earth.

Yet, all four worldviews are biblical. Indeed, the whole body of Christ is comprised of all four. Yet, it takes translation to get the four worldviews to recognize the importance and the validity of the other.

My job has often been the job of translator. It is often my job to remind the ones listening together for God’s new revelation to remember to connect what they are doing to the Scriptural revelations, and to be guided by that revelation in their listening for God’s Voice. Similarly, it is often my job to help the faithfully obedient saints to recognize that Scripture calls us to be ready to follow God in a moment and this, too, is faithfulness to Scripture.

It is also often my job to translate for those caught up in the practical work of improving society and taking on the financial and practical problems. I must remind them of the reality that we cannot do it without God and absolutely must recognize the importance of the gifts brought by those who know we are dealing with powers and principalities. Similarly, I often must remind those who are most aware of the Devil’s wily ways that not every disagreement is a diabolical plot, nor should we miss the special giftedness of the Spirit working in those who hunger for justice and work for practical solutions.

For me, the sadness in these times is that we are so slow to embrace the gifts of our brothers and sisters. It is true that each has a blind spot hidden in the gift of their spiritual worldview. It is also true that any given church will not have all four worldviews equally dominant. But somehow the whole church does need all four worldviews, and should celebrate them. Rarely do I see them all celebrated. Rather, in these times where Republicans and Democrats turn on their candidates for not being “principled enough,” and in a time where denominations split and split again over important (to be sure), but still fine points of theology, I fear that we are throwing the baby out with the bath water.

The job of providing an understanding of the place of the different worldviews in the whole church is an important one. It would be a tragedy of the American Christians learned too well the American lessons of using strong speech and decisive moves as the only way of leadership, and have forgotten the way of the cross. Jesus Christ did not back down from God’s way, of course. Yet, neither did he harm, or even leave, those who seemed not to have ears to hear or eyes to see. Indeed, he stayed a part of the people to the end. And in the end, it was his enduring, sacrificial, determined, and truly gifted love that made all the difference.

It is my hope that many others will join those of us at work to lift up the value the diversity of God’s church. Christ's call for unity in the church, and the biblical call to mutual forbearance and discernment calls us to continue listening to one another, so that our congregations will know the value of their own distinctive theological worldview, but will also recognize their need for the others as well.

01 03 11 Between Diversity and Like-Mindedness

There has been a lot of talk about whether or not the Presbyterian Church (USA) should reorganize its institutional structure according to theology. The issue can, perhaps, be described by asking two questions:

1. Which should be more valued in the church: diversity or like-mindedness?
   
2. How are these two values to be understood through the eyes of Christian faith?
   
   

Of course, in the wake of the civil rights movement, anti-war sentiment, and other issues of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, diversity became the more valued, and holding to “like-minded” thinking was seen as regressive. Since then technology has made sharing diverse thoughts so pervasive that it many people even resist being called “liberal” or “conservative.” Instead, such people, many of them of the younger generations, find that they have begun to fashion something of their own blend of thoughts, a blend that defies easy categorization.

In the church many believe this is the very reason for defining how groups of Christians are like-minded. There is great concern among some that the current age in tempts people to lose an integrated belief structure. That is, there is the worry that people believe a little of this and a little of that without understanding either how these various strands of understanding conflict, or even how these beliefs are changing the shape our churches and human societies.

We are therefore living in two movements. The first is the movement of increasing personal connections with diverse people and attitudes from across the world through social media, etc. Some in Christian circles recognize that this is the trend of the immediate future, which they believe means we need to help disciples to develop eyes that see how God is at work in a time of such fluid change to reshape human society for the future. Such eyes look for the Spirit’s movement to lift up the poor, the downtrodden and the outcast, and to connect peoples with different insights and giftedness. The point is to discern God’s new possibilities for today and tomorrow.

The second movement among Christian people looks for ways to assure that all this networking is not causing us to lose our moorings to Jesus Christ. Sometimes people talk about this concern in terms of the need to remain attached to proper authority for our faith, and the authority I have heard Christians name most often has been the authority of scripture. This group makes the point that the scriptures and the Holy Spirit are not at odds with each other.

Over the next weeks I want to reflect more on these movements, and especially on how they are affecting the Presbytery of Yukon. We have long been aware that Christianity must embrace diversity. The presbytery enjoys large participation from the St. Lawrence Island Yupik and the Iñupiaq Native Americans, from Koreans, and from the mostly-anglo cultures. We have long understood that variance of worship styles and cultural shapings of churches are essential to authentic faith life. Any development in the understanding and practice of ministry must continue to recognize that diversity really is a must for the Christian church.

Yet, a religious body needs to be able to describe the faith that the body holds in common, because that commonality is what will hold it together. Similarly, a religious body needs to be able to theologize together, which means the ability to prayerfully seek God’s guidance about changes that are underway in the world and how the church should engage those changes. Such theologizing needs to be characterized by mature Christian leadership. It is elder work, and must be characterized by prayerful openness to God and honest Christian love.

I look forward to sharing my thoughts through this blog. I am also hopeful that readers will take advantage of the blog venue, and will add their own thoughts and responses. By reflecting together, and by remaining in an attitude of prayer, this could be a very helpful next few weeks.

12 22 11 Christmas Blog

I am actually writing this on the very day of the winter solstice—the shortest day of the year. Writers often depict winter as a symbol for life when it is bleak, cold and hopeless. And why not? Local food crops simply cannot grow in an Alaskan winter. At our house, down in one of the deep valleys created by the Chugach Mountains, the sun does not even make it above the mountain peaks for another month. It is cold, it is dark and, apparently, desolate.

Yet, winter really should be the season for hope, not hopelessness. People who live with the land have always known this. Winter is the season for making plans for the spring. Farmers are gathering seed. Builders are designing the homes they will build in the not-so-distant future. Hunters and gatherers are restoring their tools and getting ready. This is a season of waiting, but waiting in a way that prepares for a wonderful tomorrow.

It is easy to lose track of hope. We live in a moment of history where people seem to have three choices. They can see the magnitude of the problems facing

our existence and fall into a wintry despair. They can see the magnitude of the problems and either deny that they are real, maybe as claiming it all as a part of God’s plan and therefore deny that we need to take action, or they can join together in faithfully living into the change God is bringing, the future that is coming.

This, of course, is the heart of a Christian understanding of faithfulness. We build it into

our common life as a community of faith. Beginning four Sundays before Christmas, as the darkness and cold of winter descends, we celebrate the season of Advent. In this season, we recognize that the problems of the world are real, and we must face them with a mature (or at least maturing) faith.

The problems of the world are real. In fact, there are any number that deserve attention: overpopulation, economic bubbles, carbon emissions, addiction and strife—among others. If that is not enough to get our attention, what is? We are living in a time of either wintry despair, blind denial, or something else.

Christians are called to live out of that something else—something called hope. Christians have always insisted that hope is real. In the birth of Jesus Christ, a real human being, God got involved in history. Knowing that this is who God is—the One who is with us and is engaged with us in the face of it all—empowers a whole different life than that of denial or despair.

Because of Jesus, we know that real and effective hope is always available to us. Hope calls to us from the future to take hope and be active in the present. In fact, the Christian witness is that we nearly always go through all three of these realities.

• We go astray, but insist for a while that we are OK: denial.
• Our eyes are then opened, and we realize that we are not only off-track, but probably incapable of solving it.
• We hear God’s call from the future, and realize that something bigger than ourselves is at work, and that we can be a part of it.
  
  

Winter is that season of recognizing that God is with us now, and then of hearing the possibilities of the future. It is a time of rethinking what we thought the plan was. It is a time of allowing God to capture us, and to reshape our imagination. It is a time of becoming ready to join-in on the new thin

g that will be born.

Yet, if this winter-hope is to be real hope, it requires that we become ready to move and take action when the time is right. God does make changes, but the biblical account describes the changes as taking place when God gets involved in history with real people and real events.

If Advent is about waiting with expectation for the birth of the Savior—and it is—then faithful living now, two millennia after that birth, is about joining-in

on what God has been doing since and will be doing into the future. Faithful living that has real hope means that we, the people who are alive now, will listen for God’s call from the future and join together in living for that future.

Yes, we are in winter right now. Good or bad, this is where we are. I hope that we will

choose to understand winter as a time of hope. I hope we will look at the problems listed above choose to live for a future that has seen these problems addressed. The problems are big, but God is bigger. There is a lot of inertia behind the status quo, but God can bring us all together to put our combined weight behind the call for change.

The question is where to start. We will all have to work together to bring change. On the other hand, starting is a very personal thing. As for me, I am starting with winter. This is a season for examining my own heart, recognizing that I am as much a part of the problem as the rest of my generation. This is a season for asking God to change my heart. All future action will have to come from there.

[Pictures: Flying over Nuiqsut Alaska, Dec. 6, 2011 at noon.

Presbyterian Chapel, Nuiqsut, Alaska

11 23 11 Discipleship

How do church leaders guide their congregations into the changes that will open ministry in new ways? How do we raise up a new generation of disciples for future ministry that God has not yet shown us? What are some practical things we can do today that will lead to a better ministry tomorrow?

The latest training for the Acts 16:5 Initiative was held last weekend (Nov 18-19) at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Anchorage. The content and style of the presentation were very compelling and have opened discussions that we pray will bear fruit. We offer many thanks to the Rev. Stan Ott of the Vital Church Institute for traveling to Alaska and making this event possible.

Although not all the presbytery’s congregations have signed-on to The Acts 16:5 Initiative, enough are involved to bring the Missional Church perspective to the whole presbytery. We are now at a point of thinking about how to begin sharing the learning in appropriate ways beyond those congregations that originally signed-on.

This possibility is important because our whole society is in a time of such monumental change, that the church absolutely must move into an adaptive, responsive mode if it is to share the salvation and love of Jesus Christ effectively to an anxious world. If we are not adaptive and responsive, then the Good News will not be presented in ways that can be heard, and the people will suffer now and into the future.

With this in mind, this latest Acts 16:5 Training focused on a couple of key themes. Among these were the following:

1. Leading into change, and
2. Raising up disciples and a disciple faith community to bear God’s Good News into the world.
   
   

Part of this training included some practical guides for drawing people into intentional learning and growth as individuals and as a faith-community. Disciples need to be well grounded in three ways:

1. Doxological – a relationship with God that includes praise and worship,
2. Koinonial – a relationship with God through God’s people that stokes our spiritual fires, and
3. Missional – a relationship with God that sends us out to make a difference in the world that God loves.
   
   

One experimental new approach to this class was connecting Dave Moody from Fairbanks via the internet. Dave said it went fairly well, though there are some things we can do to improve the experience for distance learners. Also, some of the churches that would normally have participated in the training were unable to come to the Nov 18-19 training, and so plans are under way to hold a second training sometime soon. Because this training is paid for both by congregations and by the presbytery, those congregations that have not participated in the past are still welcome to be a part of this event. Pastors or elders wanting more information should contact the presbytery office.

November is Make a Missional Move Month for PbYukon

At least this seems to be the case as I look at the activity this month across the presbytery. Two moves in particular need to be mentioned.

On Oct 22 the Rev. Tosu Sinkaman arrived in Anchorage from our partner, the Tayal Presbytery in Taiwan. His arrival was an answer to prayer. Originally scheduled to arrive in mid-August, Rev. Tosu was turned back at the border when he landed in Seattle! After a gueling 13-hour flight, he had to re-board the airplane immediately and go home. Although the customs service never admitted a mistake, Rev. Tosu arrived in October with the same credentials and the same stated mission as before. VERY FRUSTRATING.

What made the difference was some guidance from the PC(USA) office in Louisville, helping us explain our side of the story, and preparing the Seattle customs service in advance. Many thanks to Julia Thorne from the Immigrant Ministries office in Louisville!

Rev. Tosu has been a missionary in Japan and a previous presbytery moderator. We are honored to have a pastor of such stature among us. He will be traveling throughout our presbytery until Dec. 19, visiting many of our village churches and telling the story of God's work among the indigenous peoples of Taiwan. Hearing of the struggles and the acts of God among other Native peoples may prove particularly helpful for us as we are thinking about vision and mission in the villages of our presbytery.

The second major movement is the next Acts 16:5 training, taking place this weekend, Nov. 18-19 at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Anchorage. Once again, Stann Ott will be with us to lead the training. Those churches that chose to participate in the Acts 16:5 initiative are sending members of their leadership teams to Trinity to participate in the workshops. The participants are also discussing the possibility of meeting regularly by internet to share ideas and encouragement.

Because the presbytery is helping to fund the training, we will receive DVDs and extra training books to share with any other interested congregations in our presbytery. If the pastor or session from any church in the presbytery is interested in receiving any of these resources, or of learning more about the regular “internet Stan Ott

meetings,” they can contact the presbytery office.

11 10 11 Bearing Witness to The Wholeness of Ministry

Each meeting of a presbytery has its own character. Some are celebratory and glad. Others are weighty and deliberative. Lately, our meetings have been rather more weighty than usual, mostly due to the rather dramatic changes underway in church and culture. It was therefore a great joy at our last meeting of the Presbytery of Yukon to spend an evening with the Rev. Cobbe Palm, one of our PC(USA) Mission Co-workers from The Philippines.

There were several things that made Rev. Palm’s presentation memorable. His winsome and joyous presence was just what was needed in an otherwise heavy meeting. The wonderful Power Point slides added color and visual images to his talk. But what struck me most was the fabulous history of consistent, ongoing ministry of the Presbyterian Church in the Philippines.

The thing from his talk that really stood out for me was the very
Rev. Cobbe Palm

wholistic nature of Presbyterian mission at its best. Rev. Palm pointed out that from the beginning the Presbyterians’ mission strategy was to care for the whole person in its ministry: mind, body and soul. In the 1800’s the Presbyterians built the mind, body and soul institutions of schools, hospitals and churches. Since then times have changed. Now, the church has added to that list by engaging in a very troublesome issue worldwide, and especially in the Philippines, the issue of sex trafficking.

Traffickers are lying to parents and young people, promising them good work in a far-away place that will help support their families. The truth is that these young people are spirited away to the sex trade. The Presbyterians and others have entered into this situation to provide intervention, healing and training to help get people out of these situations. Further, the Presbyterians have been very involved in advocating for societal changes so this can’t go on. The churches, themselves, are lifting up disciples of Jesus Christ as people who build ministries that continue to care for people—mind, body and soul.

This, of course, is a hallmark of the Reformed branch of Christianity. We have always believed that saving the soul is important, but have understood that God cares for the whole person, and that Christians and Christian ministry must also care for the whole person. It was a pleasure to be reminded of that and to witness some of the good work that God continues to do through the Presbyterian Church. It was a great gift to have the Rev. Cobbe Palm among us to share the story.

On Protestants, Right Relationships and Earthcare

This is the text of a talk I was gave on January 30, 2011 as part of the Anchorage Interfaith Council’s Earthcare Forum. There were seven religious groups with speakers on the panel. Each chose passages from their sacred texts and had 8 minutes to for comments based on those texts, followed by an hour of questions from the audience.

The panel included speakers from a Muslim group, two different sects of Buddhism, a Jewish Rabbi, a Roman Catholic professor of religion, an independent Christian Pentecostal, and a Presbyterian (me).

Basically, we all agreed that the world’s situation is dire and that the religious communities have much to say on the subject. Our beginning points certainly differed, as one might expect from such varied traditions. One person even quoted a 1960s vintage book that criticized Western Culture's version of Protestant teaching for contributing to the lack of Earthcare through the ages. This blog begins with my initial comments which, coincidentally, call on Protestants to repent for not taking their own stance seriously enough, and end with one point from the Q & A period that I thought was particularly important.]

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I am Curt Karns, executive presbyter for the Presbytery of Yukon. I am also a member of an organization called Yukon Presbyterians for Earthcare, so I was especially glad to be invited to participate in an interfaith conference with that very title: Earthcare! I was also very happy to see that some of the other speakers are basing their talks on those passages of the Bible which make it clear that Earthcare is an imperative for those of us from the Judeo-Christian tradition. This sets me free as one of the Christian Protestant voices here today to speak specifically from the Protestant point of view.

In my opinion, one of the Scripture that sums up much of the Protestant stance on faith is found in Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 2, verses 8-10:

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— ⁹not the result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

This passage is about faith-life in general, but also has the potential to greatly add to any faith-based conversation on Earthcare, whether that be an interfaith conversation or an intra-Christian conversation. This passage asks us to wrestle with the question of what gives ultimate meaning to human existence. Ultimate meaning is one part of what salvation is about. This passage then goes further and challenges us regarding how we are to understand what we are to do—our works—in the world.

It is precisely our works that are at issue in the struggles for Earthcare. So much of what we human beings have collectively done in the world have not turned out to be good for our planet, or even for the long-range well-being of human beings. And part of the problem for Protestants has been that we have not taken the guidance that our own favorite Scripture passages, like this one from Ephesians, would give us.

According to this passage from Ephesians, we can stop fretting about whether we can achieve a good relationship with God—that part is given. We have no need to prove to the universe, or even to ourselves, that we are “good enough.” Instead we have been given an ongoing covenantal relationship with God.

For us, covenants signal relationships in which the parties involved agree to be in relationship with each other, and understand their own identities differently because of that relationship. Indeed, all covenantal relationships—marriage, parenthood, etc—call one to live differently in the world than if one were not a part of that relationship. According to Ephesians, once we know that we are persons-in-relationship with God, the way we live should reflect this new reality. We must now know ourselves as people whose way of life is the doing of good works.

Unfortunately too many people in America, including many Protestants, I’m sorry to say, live as if they had this Scripture backwards. They live as if they were still trying to earn proper praise for their existence, and do that through a strange definition of worthiness actions. Americans try to gain wealth to prove that we are successful; we seek prestige to prove our place in the human pecking order; we seek power to show the world our importance. And we seek subdue land and sea to prove that we are the masters and not the servants.

These are hardly the good works that the Scripture calls for. In the Christian tradition there are two parts to our ministry. Our ministry is to celebrate the gifts God has given each one to bring. And our ministry is to be a ministry of reconciliation.

Reconciliation is about being reconciled to God, but also to others. We are to work for reconciliation between one another in the faith community, between one another in our cultures and societies, and between ourselves and all creation. Our good works are about establishing right relationships such that everyone thrives. And because of who we are—members of this whole creation that God so loves—we absolutely must work for right reconciliation between human beings and the planet Earth.

These Scriptures, then, call people of faith to reframe our thinking of what a successful human being is from the secular cultural model to a biblical, faith-based model. Unfortunately, Scripture has often been interpreted through the lens of Western culture rather than the other way around. Genesis 1 through Genesis 2:4 tells about the seven days of creation. To hear Western culture interpret that passage, we are created in the image of God and God created everything in six days—which proves God’s lordship. Humans, too, need to be working to prove their worth. But a more consistent reading would note that the pinnacle of God’s creation was not the sixth day, in which humans (and animals, though we usually don’t mention the animals) were created. A more consistent reading shows that the seventh day, when God rested from work and just stopped to celebrate being in relationship with this whole of creation, was the pinnacle of creation and the proper model for us to emulate as the image of God.

Being made in God’s image, then, should be to celebrate the wonder of all creation, to enjoy being a part of creation and to love and tend it just as God does. This, of course, also includes celebrating families and friends and the fullness of human potential, as well.

Somehow we have turned this teaching on its head. Instead of knowing that we are already worthy of relationship with God, and turning our lives to standing for the restoration of damaged relationships, we seem bound to work hard to for our own prestige and make excuses for standing by and watching as the world suffers the consequences.

Reconciliation with creation means first recognizing how badly we have been in caring for our relationship with the ecosystem and repenting. Reconciliation means exploring how much damage has been done and knowing that we are responsible. Reconciliation means then reshaping our own lives in such a way as to participate in different ways of life that might lead to a better future for all.

My thesis, then is that we need to call people back to delve deeply into their faith traditions. There is old wisdom there, inspired by God. By letting culture define our faith and our very selves, rather than allowing the our faith-values to guide us as God’s ambassadors to our culture, we have been complicit in producing the consequences the world now faces. By going back to our roots in the face of this crisis, we can be essential in the needed movement for change.

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[An opportunity for another comment came up during the Q & A that seem particularly significant. Someone asked how we all understood our relationship to the environment as it relates to Earthcare. My response was that there is a changing view among some of us, which can be summarized by a minority view on how to understand Genesis 2:1. When translated literally, that verse uses the same terminology as the geneologies that show up later in Genesis--"These are the GENERATIONS of the creation of heaven and earth when they were made." Some of us are taking this as a true genealogy to say that we are related to the whole of creation, and the different members (species) have varied responsibilities to one another. Earthcare is something humans must take seriously as a part of the family of creation. It is about living in right relationships.]