The difference, Joe Oliver ( Canada's Natural Resource Minister ) says, is that Canada needs the foreign capital.
"They’re helping us build infrastructure to help us diversify our market. Other groups are trying to impede … the economic progress; they’re trying to block development; they’re trying to block projects which will create hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in government revenue and trillions of dollars in economic development. That’s the fundamental difference." ( Read more from CBC News...Here )
Suddenly a neuron sparks, and ignites deep within the grey matter of my brain, and suddenly an image floods across the screen of my mind, it's Jesus talking to his followers a conversation about profit margins...the danger of risk management, Suddenly the audio kicks in, " What kind of deal is it to get everything you want, even the whole world...anything you can sell, but to loose the soul of humanity? What could you ever trade for the soul of humanity ? ( my paraphrase Matthew 16:24-26 )
Canada's Natural Resource Minster feels there is a lot to sell off...and a lot of money to be made. But at what cost...a what risk?
As humanity we need a " Big Bang " moment, to be dragged back to the moment before there was even a thought, before there was light, before there was even a heart beat...before there was even this earthy stage on which humanity would live out the drama of life.
The bible calls it God, but I am consumed by the mystery and the power of such an entity that I know even naming it does not give it the reverence, and the absolute awe that it;he;she deserves. But there was a time when this infinite cosmic being...through eternal and divine imagination ( God ), through voice ( Word ) speaking creation into being, and through power ( Spirit ) made it happen. Existence, reality, creation...this stage in which we daily act our lives on...evolved into being, and still unfolds.
It's as if today, christians have lost the profound beauty of the cosmic interconnected relationship in which we were formed. A creator digging has hands into the earth scooping dirt, shaping molding and breathing life into us...making us living beings. I wonder how many times we read Genesis, and skip the first part because we want to get to " US." After all isn't that what creation is all about, us, the pinnacle of creation. Do we see the " Creator " as a novice scientist, initially just tinkering with creative ideas and working his way towards the perfection of " Us ." I mean after all...he did rest after us.
I am amused that christians can't see the evolutionary process in Genesis. This embryonic soup of nothingness; light; water; earth; plants; seasons; ocean born life; land born life and lastly human beings. It is this evolutionary relationship of creation, a divine unfolding mystery. One wonders if Darwin didn't get glimpses of this divine mysterious unfolding of life reading between the lines.
I love that incredibly intimate scene in Genesis 2:18-20...can you imagine God and man, a hot summer day maybe reclining leaning up against a tree, the wind of the spirit gently blowing rustling the leaves on the tree. God pointing at the animals of the field, the birds of the air...chuckling under his breath. He pats man on the back and says, " what in the heck are we going to call that strange looking thing?"
There is something amazingly profound in naming something. I know as an artist when I'm done painting something, I will spend hours maybe days before I give it a name. In the creation of the art, a relationship has unfolded...I have been lost in the countless hours of creating. Part of me has been poured into...it has mysteriously become part of me...it tells something about me. Seeing your child being born...and naming him of her, or him. It is a deeply deeply relational experience.
As humanity do we really fathom the profoundly intimate relationship we have with all creation...that we need each other. Not some, but all of creation.
And at the end, when the creator had finished this incredible stage...a landscape filled with deserts, mountains, seas, oceans, lakes, rivers, plains, islands...filled with cast of characters beyond imagination he says to man, " Be responsible for the fish in the sea, and the birds in the air, and everything that moves on the face of the earth. God looked over everything he had made, it was good, so very good.
How as so called christians have we become so disconnected, so separated from our relationship with " ALL " creation? We read in Colossians...
So spacious is he, so roomy is he, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe...people and things, animals and atoms...get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his redemptive life poured out on the cross ( paraphrase Colossians 18:20 )
Sadly the church, and most christians have made the cross about personal salvation...the idea that Jesus only cares about people. I believe on the cross something so profound, so absolutely mind blowing, earth shattering, life changing...with the redemptive power and imagination that brought creation into being was there. It was an atomic explosion of cosmic proportion, the reality of the new creation...and as us to be co=creators.
Jesus is intimately connected with all creation, him saying to his followers, " Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds. Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving."
It's amazing the divine wisdom that is enfused in creation...it truly does glorify the creator. It's this wisdom that we sell, this profound relationship that we can't ignore...when we rape mother earth. When we have taken everything we can, sold anything and everything of value...what is left? When as humanity do we say, " we have no soul."
And we hear Canada's Canada's Natural Resource Minister, Joe Oliver, " They’re helping us build infrastructure to help us diversify our market. Other groups are trying to impede … the economic progress; they’re trying to block development; they’re trying to block projects which will create hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in government revenue and trillions of dollars in economic development. That’s the fundamental difference."
Progress and profit...at what cost.
This is not unique only to Canada, this is happening all over the world. Where we are destroying our realitionship with creation. And for the most part the church sits silent, looking the other direction ignoring the injustice that is happening to creation. Did we forget we have a responsibility, or are we consumed with that idea of retirement real estate...purchased and reserved accomodation in heaven? Will there be any prophetic voice coming from the church challenging the status quo... or will it be another series on how much God loves " us " and our kind, perhaps another series on Spiritual warfare...it's better to fight the devil you don't know, than the evil you do know.
" What kind of deal is it to get everything you want, even the whole world...anything you can sell, but lose to loose the soul of humanity? What could you ever trade for the soul of humanity ? ( my paraphrase Matthew 16:24-26 )
Before the church completely looses it's soul...read Genesis, the Psalms, the gospels. Think of creation, this web of profound relationship with all creation...every speck. Think of the animals names, land, sea and air, our names every race, nation and tribe...this cosmic family. Think of the landscape we live our lives on...that supports and sustains all of us. And lastly think of the profound redemptive imagination of Jesus...and our role in this unfolding new creation. Redemption is about " ALL " creation.
And most of all think, " On Earth...as in Heaven." Do we really grasp the reality of those words.
