In the book, "Neither Wolf nor Dog", the author from Bemidji is called to help an Lakota elder get his words down. After taking the elder's notes and trying to put it together in book form, they decided that this wasn't how the book wasn't going to go. So they just started hanging out and traveling together and once in a while, the elder, of whom we never know his name, would start off on stories, philosophy, and his view of the world. Asked why he was doing this now, replied, "Just as the grass covers scars on the earth, it is time for us to forgive the White man and build a better relationship." In the book, "Black Elk Speaks" he talks about the 7th generation which will rise up and set the world, not just Native Americans, on a good path. In the 1990's, there were many who claimed that that generation being born would heal the world. I remember around 2012 there was much talk about the Mayan calendar was coming to an end which was to signify the ending of the world. Though those who were knowledgeable and followed the calendar, culture, and religion weren't as terrified, for they know that their calendar and circular, not linear, and they would just be starting something new.
In our study book "Rooted and Rising: Voices of Courage in a Time of Crisis", the authors each shared some experience and hope in our time. One Native essayist called out Western Christianity on how we came into this land and went out of our way to not learn anything from those who lived here. We viewed our job to civilize the nations living here and saving their souls. He didn't have much hope for the world or Western Civilization. If we, settlers, explorers, countries, and armies, would have approached them as equals, as fellow children of God, things would have, could have been much different that in the world we are living in now.
Just as many of the prophecies in the Bible, and elsewhere, contain lots of violence, judgments, and naming of the sins of the people, the nations, and the world, most end on a good note of "and they lived happily ever after." After many plagues, celestial happening, armies, wars, pestilence, betrayal, sea monsters, and everything horrific, it is coming to the end. There are now signs of love, faith, hope, and peace. There are new beginnings and laughter and joy! It is quite the trip down looney lane to listen to some people who believe that this is a forecast. We will have these troubles, then more troubles, then Jesus will reign for a thousand years of peace, and then there will be the final battle where Satan and all his minions will be forever vanquished. How does the rapture fit in? It depends on which church you go to. But, as we were saying last week, this prophecy was not looking into the hundreds or thousands of years in the future, but it was addressing what was going on with the early Christian church at the end of the first century under the authority and persecution of the Roman rules. But were are, jumping to the back of book, the Bible to see how things end. There is no more suffering, dying, or tears of sorrow. All things are made new. So the scars of mining of wars, of deforestation, of leveling mountains for coal, flooding fertile valleys for dams, killing of animal species are now in the past. Just something to ponder, "Would they bring back dinosaurs?" We, who are raised from the dead and come down from heaven, will now live in our utopian version of God's kindom. We got to go through some stuff first, but we will get there.
Here is where the rubber meets the road: how, if this is even vaguely true, are we going to get there? There is one school of theology in our religion that says that God created the world in six days and God will snap his fingers like a genie with his angels fighting on to defeat all that is bad and the old heaven and earth pass away and the new one descends. That's right, we don't spend eternity up in heaven, but God comes down here among us finally and fully. Since this world is giving under our dominion, we should use it up, not care for it, enrich ourselves because a new one is on the way. I, Pastor Enno, not Barb, noticed something for the first time this week as I was studying and preparing and putting the first creation story into our Words to Enter Worship. I noticed that we are given dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle and wild animals, but we are not given dominion of the world itself. We do not have the absolute right to do what we want with the planet. The world is the LORD's and the fullness thereof is repeated quite a lot in our Bible. Not ours, it ain't ours!
Another school of theology in our religion affirms that God has a hand in creation and, just as we proclaim that "God is Still Speaking!" we can also affirm that God is still creating, we may a few billion years left, as a human species, on this planet. Sometime, somehow, and someway we will be doing it better in letting go of our fear, our hate, our divisiveness, our egos, and our psychosis of trying to separate humankind from the rest of the species that live and the world itself. The world being healed and made new is not by some genie in the sky, but in the Trinity working through and with the churches and the people, through other religions, countries, and animals, and through the grass and trees themselves. What the earth needs most from us is to stop our pollution, whether it be CO2, plastic, or toxic chemicals dumped in our waterways. The world and the life of the planet would bounce back a lot quicker than most people would think.
So, how do we get to this new heaven and new earth? We listen to the earth, as the elder tells the writer in "Neither Wolf nor Dog", as the Psalmist says in Psalm 19:
The heavens are telling the glory of God,
and the firmament[a] proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours forth speech,
and night to night declares knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words;
their voice is not heard;
4 yet their voice[b] goes out through all the earth
and their words to the end of the world.
We listen, and then we love, our neighbors, all life, and the planet itself. We listen, and we love, and then we speak for those who can't speak, we speak of the new creation that is coming into the world, we speak of a better future and the absolute goodness of God and all of God's creation. We listen, we love, we speak, and we act. We do what we can in our homes, our church, and our community, inspiring others to join in toward this new creation. To quote Belinda Carlisle, an 80's pop singer,
"Oh baby, do you know what's that worth?
Ooo, heaven is a place on earth.
They say in heaven, love comes first,
We'll make heaven a place on earth,
Ooo, heaven is a place on earth."
Amen
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