Ron Cole : off the map...navigating life.

Sunday is Earth Day...let this be the beginning of 365

 

Poster from the creative mind of James Kingsley...if your lookin' for highly creative images visit James site, " Young lions of Pop Design." And check out James' Youtube video below.

Walk, Bus, Carpool or bike this Sunday.Join the party!

So this Sunday is earth day, lets decrease the ecological foot print of our communities, start a trend...walk to church with a group of friends, take the bus and make some friends, ride a bike, roller blade, skate board, car pool....

Lets remember...

God blessed them:
      "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!   Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth."

It's time to be responsible faith communities...and as God's children, lets take care of what the Father has given us. Thanks James for getting the ball rolling.

Celtic Monasticism...environmental faith

Jason Clark has a thought provoking post on Celtic Monasticism and the spiritual and theological connection, how they lived and cared for the environment around them. We as a people of faith have distanced ourselves from God the Creator and His words to us in the opening of Genesis;

26-28 God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them
      reflecting our nature
   So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
      the birds in the air, the cattle,
   And, yes, Earth itself,
      and every animal that moves on the face of Earth."
   God created human beings;
      he created them godlike,
   Reflecting God's nature.
      He created them male and female.
   God blessed them:
      "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
   Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,

The further we have navigated this long corridor of History, as people of faith those words are somewhere off in the distance, no longer audible...our responsiblity...is an environment in ruins.

Our legacy, a faith where redeeming souls is it's priority....and where a faith in redeeming God's creation just doesn't seem worthy. I have written on Celtic monasticism often, a faith life that concerned itself with earth just as much as heaven. Jason looks a Celtic Monasticism and asks questions...much needed questions that we as faith communities need to answer...

God is Green was recently aired on Channel 4. Presenter Mark Dowd put forward the premise that maybe the answer to our problems with the environment lay in the hands of the 4.5 billion followers of the main world faiths, that is Christianity, Islam and Sikhism.

I felt rather inspired by the Bishop of London and it inspired me to think quite deeply about God and the environment.

In this post I'd like to ask you your views on whether you think there a convergence of both the physical and spiritual ecological Christianity, particualry embodied in the growing popularity of the celtic christian tradition?

There has been a resurgence of all things Celtic since the early 1980's, none more so than that of Celtic Christianity.

This, I believe is an awakening call to the Christian in the street, to an environmental ethic and through this a recognition of the problems that our own planet faces.

The Celtic Church had a deep connection to the world around it. As farmers and labourers they would've understood the seasons, how to work the land which they tended and cared for. They could see the goodness of the creator in his creation; some early writings show a deep and vibrant love of the environment, an understanding of God at work in their surroundings and in their everyday life.

So taking those principles from Celtic Christianity how can we apply then to the twenty first century?

Read the rest of Jason's post ... Here.

The tool of stupidity, talks about the tools of Satan...or vise versa

Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell, who has worked for decades to involve conservative Christians in politics, said Sunday the debate over global warming is a tool of Satan being used to distract churches from their primary focus of preaching the gospel.

"If I decide here as the pastor and our deacons decide that we're going to get caught up in the global warming thing, we're not going to be able to reach the masses of souls for Christ, because our attention will be elsewhere, " Falwell said in Sunday's sermon at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va. "That's pretty wise for Satan to concoct."

If you can take more...you can find it here

      Yah, what would Jesus do... I think the picture says it all.

no where to hide...the words of a prophet

Despite protests to the contrary, modern Christianity has become willy-nilly religion of the state and economic status quo. Because it has been so exclusively dedicated to incanting anemic souls into heaven, it has been made the tool of much earthly villainy. It has, for most part, stood silently by while a predatory economy has ravaged the world, destroyed its natural beauty and health, divided and plundered its human communities and households. It has flown the flags and chanted the slogans of the empire. It has assumed with the economists that the " economic forces " automatically work for the good and assumed with the industrialists and the militarists that technology determines history. It has assumed with almost everybody that " progress " is good...It has admired Caesar and comforted him in his depredations and faults. But in its de facto alliance with Caesar, Christianity connives directly in the murder of Creation.

Wendell Berry, " Christianity and the Survival of Creation."

an emerging/missional theology...that captures the imagination of Christ

My friend James Kingsley is a panelist at one of the group discussions at the Forum for Ethical Purchasing this weekend up at the University of Victoria. The goal of the group discussion will evolve out of the following goal...

Faith communities have been involved for decades in promoting ethical purchasing through starting up organizations, holding markets and providing resources to ethical purchasing and fair trade organizations e.g. The Mennonite Central Committee started Ten Thousand Villages as a way to market the goods produced by its development projects around the world. Some of the questions this panel will be exploring are: Why are most faith groups interested in the way that consumer decisions are made? What do ethical purchasing and fair trade have to do with religious beliefs? If some faith groups promote ethical purchasing and responsible consumerism, while others suggest that wealth and consumerism are proof of God’s love, how does this contradiction impact the development of ethical standards for purchasing?

During the week James tossed out these questions on his site for some feedback...

2.What are the challenges to incorporating these issues within a/the church's practices and values?

3. What are the theological roots to ethical purchasing practice from the perspective of your faith (evangelical Christianity)

Great questions, questions 2 and 3 have intrigued my thinking for years especially in terms of theology. Since the beginning of " christianity's birth redmption and salvation have been pretty myoptic in terms of vision...saving the individual soul. One of the biggest challenges for the emerging/ missional church will be to develope a theology that is cosmic where redemption is about " ALL " of creation, and how that will play out interms of the church's missiology...so that is the challenge of question 2.

As far as question 3 goes, we need to re-read the creation story of Genesis...waking up to the reality that we're not outside of it, innocent by-standers...we're actaully in the midst of it.

26-28 God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them
      reflecting our nature
   So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
      the birds in the air, the cattle,
   And, yes, Earth itself,
      and every animal that moves on the face of Earth."
   God created human beings;
      he created them godlike,
   Reflecting God's nature.
      He created them male and female.
   God blessed them:
      "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
   Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
      for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth."

29-30 Then God said, "I've given you
      every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth
   And every kind of fruit-bearing tree,
      given them to you for food.
   To all animals and all birds,
      everything that moves and breathes,
   I give whatever grows out of the ground for food."
      And there it was.

31 God looked over everything he had made;
      it was so good, so very good!
   It was evening, it was morning—

The above from Eugene Peterson's Message in Genesis chapter one. Another piece of scripture that I have often sited for a more cosmic approach to redemption is Colossians 1:15-18

15-18We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.

18-20He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, 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 blood that poured down from the cross .

Emphasis mine of course, but in the context of above, people of faith can not ignore any part of creation. Lay hold of this thought...if Christ spoke all creation into existence, is in and holds it all together...on that cross it wasn't just your redemption and salvation that hung in balance...it was " all " of creation. So...the resurrection, the new creation...has to be about redeeming " all " of creation. This is the Missio Dei for people of faith.

I'm not a theologian...more of a dreamer, that prays that the same Spirit that filled Jesus would fill me with the imagination of Christ. The thought that Jesus spoke " absolutely everything " into existence, seen and unseen...and that when the Father saw it, he said it was good...very good. And, that even at this moment...He is in, and of all things...and holds it all together.

If I make " the theology of redemption " about " All " of creation, instead of just you and me...and people...am I diluting, watering down what the cross is about. And if the " new creation " in to which Jesus calls as as partners, to co-create to build the new creation " the Kingdom "...is about everything. Everything...from people, to the environment, to social justice, global equality, poverty, politics, wealth, ...what does that mean for the Missio Dei of the church, for your faith community and for you as an individual. Could it be our view of redemption is so incredibly shallow...compared to the imagination of Christ. The challenge for the missional/emerging church will be to write and live a theology...that captures the imagination of the Kingdom Jesus wants to live.

global warming, if all else fails...re-boot

Kester Brewin...has an interesting post on global warming... Global Re-Boot / Deep Ecology

The Norwegian government today released the final plans today for the 'doomsday vault' that will eventually hold seeds from all known varieties of crops in safe storage in case of 'nuclear war, asteroid strike or environmental catastrophe'. They're building it on a remote island near the North Pole. In the event of a burn up or freeze, it's going to be the recovery disk for a global re-boot.

Read the complete post here

"A church that is concerned about its own sustainability must have strategies other than the growth paradigm, which openly assess its impact and accountability in local and global terms. Sustainability thinking points us to the future; our action or inaction now has consequences for communities and congregations yet to come. Resilient communities are developed with a belief that our future patterns of life can be different if a distinct approach to change is initiated based on a renewed theological understanding of justice, stewardship, and inclusion." ~ Andrew Davey, Urban Christianity and Global Order: Theological Resources for an Urban Future