Ice Caps and Fossil Fuel

I came across this cartoon on the Christian Century website (http://christiancentury.org/dept_cmarks.lasso). When I first saw it I was disgusted. I don't really know why. My hunch, however, is that my visceral reaction was not rooted so much in the cartoon – more on that bellow – but on the plausibility of the proposition being presented. Of course that's the wonder of truly great satire – its possibility. I read it again – my reaction the same, this could happen! I can hear it now on the evening CBC, morning radio programs, print and electronic news services: Ottawa announces new plan to make good on ice cap erosion! The sub title – so much oil and no ice! Why is it that when it comes to the earth we are so ridiculously narcissistic to the point of being co-conspirators in our own demise as a species? I don't think we're going to kill the earth, far from it. The story of evolution, in its ever unfolding narrative – indeed God's co-creative narrative as a whole, is that life will adapt. The question is becoming: will humans be part of the next evolutionary and ecological adaptation? Have we come to a place where our collective cultural naiveté is so great that we really think global warming is a plot by keen environmentalists to further an economic agenda that is lining their pockets?

Just the other day I had a conversation with a person who completely and absolutely does not believe in global warming. Rather than come to terms with the way in which homo-sapiens are changing the ecological reality of all life on earth, these people insisted that this was all just another cycle. The earth has warmed before…it will cool again. Besides they pointed to a study they read (but didn't remember where) that claimed that when it came to meeting Canada's Kyoto targets that the trees that are counted don't actually help reduce carbon build up and green house gases. Even more shocking is an article I read in a Canadian automotive magazine that claims if you really wanted to do something great for the environment we'd all drive H3s (that's short hand for Hummer 3^rd version) because in an ashes to ashes study the H3 is more environmental that the Toyota green car the Prius. A Hummer – environmental – come on! Let's be honest we've completely take the Genesis directive to have dominion over the earth to its farcical extreme. The question we need to ponder as followers of Jesus is what our faith response needs to be. We need to ask ourselves the tough question as to whether or not the way we're living our lives reflects the glory of God or not? When the air is filled with smog and floating particles of pollution and we can't drink the water or go for a swim and flooding and wonky weather is normal…how easy will it be to see the face of God in creation?

Of Death and Golf

Some people will know that my Dad's second wife recently died after a long struggle with Parkinson disease. After having a service to celebrate her life here in Ontario, my Dad returned with her ashes to St. John's Newfoundland for the internment. Upon his return my family and I went to spend a day with him to make sure everything was o.k. Its interesting to me people's reactions to death and while my comments aren't specific to my Dad, some do apply. How some people grieve outwardly and others internally; how some people get angry with everyone and everything around them from doctors and nurses to family and friends and ultimately with God. Angry with God. Even as a pastor it is difficult for me to grasp blaming God for someone's death. Why would it be God's fault? It seems to me that our anger towards God says more about how we understand God (our Theology) than about the Divine. Our belief that God inflicts harm on some people and not on others bespeaks a God of judgement who dishes out divine wrath with seeming indifference according to a set of guidelines to which we have little clear access. Of course people will say we have the bible and I would agree that with them to a point. My hesitation, however, rests in my observations that when people are angry with God it isn't really because their loved one has been "taken from them." Their anger is really rooted in their own suffering. Its rooted in their lament that God is making them experience these emotions; that God has taken their Mother, Son, Daughter, Wife, Husband from them and all too often it ends up with the question: "did I do something wrong?" In other words did I do something that caused God to kill – I could say end the life or bring home, yet those are soft ways of expressing this concern – my loved one? Where does one find the God of love in these questions? Where does one find the God of resurrection? Where does on find the God who says I will be with you always? Where does one find the God of compassion and strength? For sure there is a place for anger and its appropriate for people to be angry – especially when things happen suddenly and accidentally – yet we need to take care that we provide room for God to remain at the center of our lives offering us comfort, care, compassion, strength, and openness to the expressions of care and love from others around us. So what does golf have to do with death?

It just so happens that my Dad has been a semi avid golfer – some would say that's not possible: all golfers are fanatics; he would claim he's a recreational golfer – for about 15 years. Through all that time I've never, not even once, walked up to a tee with him. As a matter of fact I've declared, on numerous occasions, that I would never play golf let alone become a golfer. Well on Monday that all changed. When we arrived to visit Dad he asked if we'd like to go and play a few holes of golf. How could I say no to a grieving widower? So off we went. We played four holes, the five of us. Having more laughs than anything else. My one claim to fame resulted in driving a ball about 200 years down the fairway only to have it take a sudden left arc and go out into the trees where…well…where it bounced off a tree and back onto the fairway! Beginners luck! my Dad exclaimed after which he gave me a set of explanations as to how to avoid that from happening in the future. Golf, after all, appears to have its uses. I'm still not convinced that I could be a golfer, yet I'm now willing to say I'm more open to the possibility than I ever was before. And maybe that's the lesson around death that while its o.k. to be angry with God we also need to be open to the movement of God's Spirit in our lives that is doing something in and through us and others. We need to be open to that possibility as well.

And who knows maybe in a year or two or more I'll have caught the golfing bug and maybe by acknowledging that God still loves them in the midst of their anger and grief people will come to a deeper faith, maybe, just maybe.

Trust

One of the hardest things I think we're called to do as Jesus followers is to trust that God will be there for us. That in the midst of all that life throws our way, that somewhere, often so close that we can't even see it, God is present with us. Perhaps a reason for this lack of trust is that in our society we're told that the only person who is willing to look out-for or after us is…well…us. No one else really cares. No one else stays up late at night wondering how our bills will be paid. No one else cares if our relationships survive. No one really wants to know how we are doing – I mean beyond the courteous "hi, how are you" to which we really don't expect any kind of real reply. At the end of the day the message we get from popular culture is that every person is an island, that we're in it alone, and that the only person we can really depend on is ourselves. That works of course if you're trying to sell the latest self-help or the latest techno-gadget or the latest glitzy new car with all the bling. Yet those of us who are Jesus followers know that nothing could be further from the truth. We are not alone. God is here with us and when we take the time to look we can see the image of Jesus looking at us.

This summer when I was out walking with my life-partner one evening we had a chance encounter with a couple who were visiting our city. They'd gotten lost downtown and simply wanted to find a place to eat dinner before crossing the border to the U.S. and returning home. We gave them directions as best we could – its actually very difficult to describe an easy and straight path out of the downtown – and sent them on their way. We met up with the same couple again along our walk – they still hadn't found a place to eat. As my partner tried to describe how to get to more restaurants, even offering to draw them a map, a great idea popped into my head – why not just jump in the car and take them there? So I offered, "if its o.k. with you, why don't we just jump in and give you directions?" The couple were shocked! "Are you serious?!?" they asked. "Of course, that is, if you don't mind." We jumped in, gave them directions and arrived at a local eatery. Along the way they learned that both my life-partner and I are pastors and we learned that her brother and his father were pastors. What are the odds? When we were parting she said to me "God put you in our path and all we had to do was trust you." Imagine, all they had to do was trust us! As if it was all that simple.

Trust is a big deal in our society as we watch over our shoulders and wonder who is trying to take advantage of us when we answer the phone. Yet, trust is one of the components to a life in Christ. Trust enables us to lay the stuff that's bothering us aside. Trust calls us into a deeper relationship with God through Jesus. Trust enables us to put our hand in God's hand and look to the future with hope and awe.

Here we Go!

So this is my first blog. It seems to me to be appropriate to state that for me this is a place to ruminate about the vocation of ministry in the United Church of Canada. My idea is to blog about issues related to preaching, ministry, worship, the church, religion, faith, discipleship, and…life. So stay tuned and join the journey as we live out our call to be people of The Way…followers of our Christ.