In Hebrew scriptures and repeated in New Testament teachings, G-d assumes all authority in the practice of vengeance. If, after thousands of years, we truly trusted this to G-d, how might we face this moment we have co-constructed? The wars, the biodiversity loss, the assault weapons, the changed climate.
For our entire existence, humans have lived with two realities: the religion of empire and the religion of creation. The religion of empire is a kingdom, ruled through the lens of Individualism and fueled by the fear of scarcity. The religion of creation is a kin-dom, ruled through the lens of relatedness and fueled by the generosity that is love.
A dominant message, at least in Western media, is that we deserve better and we will get there. For the profanely privileged or perpetually oppressed, modernity and capitalism peddle fixes for all, if we just vote right.
We who get to be alive right now are living in the sixth great age of extinctions. We passed planetary overshoot a while ago and the ecological and societal effects are irreversible. This is the doom some speak of.
When current events and self-perpetuating systems pin me in the extractive, enslaving, short-sighted story, there are 3 practices that help me to listen for divine guidance and to re-engage in the love story’s emerging plot.
Ahead of Pentecost, the month of May offers International Labor Day, Beltane, and Mother’s Day (United States). Each one is ripe with spirituality, and combined, they invite us to choose one another, to look out for one another’s wellbeing, and to move continually toward the kin-dom of God.
“Where are Americans finding meaning in their lives? How are they marking the passing of sacred time? Where are they building pockets of vibrant communities?
In the Northern hemisphere, we are in the season of Fall and harvest. It is also the time when a number of cultures and traditions encourage communion with our benevolent ancestors, saints, and spiritual teachers.
Recently, I was in consultation with a colleague who is First Nation Cree. Throughout the conversation, there was a steady stream of confidence, curiosity, and hope. Really smiling at one point, my colleague said, “I’m an eternal optimist who comes from a history of despair.”
There is so much humility, discipline, curiosity and vitality in what the Creator asks of us – anything but monotonous! In the Abrahamic origin story, there are some similarities as it centers Creation first and begins in a garden.