Creation – James Robert Kitson

Humanity 101

What does (did, since he was killed) George Floyd of Minneapolis have to do with an Ontario long term care resident left with pressure sores, and/or in an environment of feces and cockroaches, crying out for hours?

What do both of the above have to do with, for that matter, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG)?

They are viewed and treated as less than human. It is widely recognized that seeing someone or a group of someones as less than human is the first step toward abuse. It could also be a spouse, a child, a homeless person.

“Human” perhaps applies to political party donors, well-connected cronies, or simply people who are “like me” (whatever that might mean).

It ought to be especially disturbing that those who view some as less than human consider themselves people of faith. Apparently only certain people are made in the image of God.

Littered Path

You no doubt have been disgusted, rightly, by the news shots of gloves and face masks discarded in the parking lots and on the walkways leading from grocery stores. The thoughtless grotesqueness of this is in stark contrast to the heroic selflessness of so many others.

I have heard it said that we are always in danger of crossing a line that makes us less human, or even less than human. This may be one of those lines.

The Biblical creation accounts give expression to a humanity created for community–with God, one another, and all created, abundant life. Any littering is of course harmful, potentially unhealthy, as well as ugly to the senses. Those committing this particularly egregious form apparently do not care, in addition, that they are stepping away from their own made-for-community nature.

The path to inhumanity is paved with litter

Prescription: Wonder

It’s a wonder. Astronomers have discovered a black hole that has no business being as big as it is, being the type formed by the collapse of a star. There are much larger, supermassive black holes, but they are formed differently.

Scientusts are excited. It even sounds like they delight in the challenge of reassessing models of how things work.

Meanwhile, there are those of us who are supposed to be specialists in awe and wonder as people of faith. What people encounter too often in the faith community, however, is anxiety, and, tragically, turfism and control issues. Church is rightly concerned about management issues and organizational trends of demise. B&B, Blame and Battles, often ensue. Familiar approaches seem only to accelerate the negative trend.

There is hope however, and lots of it. Where is the wonder, shared awe and wonder, at what it is all about? It is ever present.

Start with the wonder of God and Creation, including you and me. Other things (and yes they warrant careful attention) will find their rightful and appropriate place.

Some would find it deliciously ironic that people of God might well re-learn wonder from the realm if science.

1 Corinthians 2:9

Ready for Alien Visitors?

Apparently when Edward Snowden was snooping into top secret government computer files he decided to check out some things we wonder about and argue about over morning coffee or evening other-stuff. Like, Is the U.S. government hiding evidence of alien life visiting earth? The answer, you may be disappointed to know, is no. The moon landing, by the way, did happen. Meanwhile, Google is touting the successful test run of a quantum computer that can solve in a couple of minutes what a conventional computer would take, they say, years to get through.

These bits of other-than’Trump news maybe appeal to us because they hint at the possibility of something other than our own problems and ways of dealing–or not–with them, especially if it’s as if the people you have to live and work with have materialized from some parallel reality. Or maybe people who show up in the context of whatever you are trying to accomplish in this world seem like some new species if hominid. You want a break.

So it’s somewhat understandable if we can entertain thoughts of other-worldly or wonder-computer ways of making everyday life different. But everyday life is exactly where we–in this current dimension and in our present hominid form–can make a difference. We could start, as prodded by the sign n the photo, with how we dispose of batteries

And, if and when the aliens do come, maybe they’ll be impressed with what we’ve undone with the place.

Genesis 1:31

The Harvest Factor

Yes, there are backyard and community vegetable gardens. There are still family farms. But fewer of us all the time are connected to the land and the seasons, apart from, say, hiking and skiing, or what sport we take a short break from watching to have meaningful communication with Grubhub.

It is Harvest Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. That evokes the sensory feast of food, family and friends, along with, we would more than just wish, practical acknowledgement of those who are lacking those things.

If we consider even more deeply what harvest thankfulness has always been about, it is at least as much about process as result. There is bounty in the experience of community. It’s about people having pitched in when a farmer took ill or was injured, conversations around the farm kitchen table. Think about other things we might well be thankful for. There is abundance of life in the experience and love that has led to the things we enjoy.

I appreciate the mindfulness that lives in (not for) the moment. But each moment is a seed. What are we cultivating?

Genesis 1:12

Closer to the Source

It is a holiday weekend. Many of us are flocking to places where we experience the meeting of the elements. We seem drawn to places where air, water and land come together. Such places tend to be refreshing, invigorating, and we get the sense of sharing something together. Many of our best memories are of times together in such places.

Maybe there is something else. May we recall something primal, elements of wind (or spirit in Biblical language), land, water, and place made for us and all living creatures. There, we are closer to the source. For the Christian this may lead to a further connection, with heaven and earth coming together in Christ, the Word of creation (John 1). Maybe it’s a less obvious but powerful way in which we are drawn to him, and why he has the ability, as well as the will, to bring together the various elements of our life and make whole people of us.

Photo: Lake Ontario at Ajax, Ontario

Reverse (Dis)Order

I was reading something the other day about past (incorrect) and present (considered correct) methods of determining the age of Earth, and, for that matter, our solar system. The common theme that struck me in this is decay. My mind starts to get fuzzy (more than usual) when trying to follow a lot of this stuff, but what I get is that the currently accepted method of “radiometric dating” has in common a phenomenon in common with previous “failed” methods: decay. Basically, the age of ancient rocks can be determined by measuring their rate of decay.

Some of us might think, great, I’m just like ancient rocks: ageing and decaying. Life is winding down. It might also resonate with a certain view of the world: that socially, politically and economically, it is devolving into increasing disorder. And maybe even that the morale of your life is not much different: a mess and getting messier. Nothing every works out, lurching from one crisis to another. And the various crises of life are like compressed entropy, the process of decay and increasing disorder compressed into my lousy day.

Maybe that has something to do with why the disciples where scared out of their minds by the storm, even with Jesus with them in the boat (Mark 4:35-41). He didn’t seem even to care! That just adds insult to injury. And maybe that’s the real crisis with us in our storms, in our sense of things winding down and disintegrating: “God, don’t you even care? Are you, like, sleeping or something?”

God is creator, but he is not identified with nature or its processes. We may be united with one whose ways are increasing while the world, yes, may be decreasing. He is in the boat with us. He stills our storms, and gives us hope.