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a healthy church...transformingLIFE |
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April 2006 |
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New Age SpiritualityO give thanks to the Lord, This refrain echoes through the Psalm. It is what the Psalmist wants us to know as he reflects on the mighty act of God's creation of all that is, and his mighty acts in history - bringing his people into being as a nation, and giving them a heritage. The Bible is the story of God's mighty acts - his movement from the creation of the world, through the history of nations, to the final culmination and redemption of the cosmos. It's a big story - from beginning to end. The story of God's 'steadfast love' - that is his goodness - expressed through the twists and turns of history. Indeed, in the age of massive yet helpless bureaucracy (sprawling cities, unpotable water, global media, institutionalised fear, ecological rumblings, changing weather patterns), the message of God's steadfast love - not only for me and my loved ones, but also for the whole world - becomes an article of faith and not sight. Like Israel weeping by the rivers of Babylon a bleak vision can prevent us from sensing God in his creation. We read of God's steadfast love in the scriptures and have faith. Praise God we can read and believe. But maybe there is more - maybe there is a feeling for God we can lose, without ever really knowing it is ours. What is interesting to me is that it is hard to find a major or minor biblical character who did not have a deeply intimate relationship with God that had its ground in their experience of the natural world. From Moses in the wilderness, to St Paul travelling from city to city by foot or sea, all seem to have a deep underlying connection with the natural world. Even Ezekiel, a thousand miles from the broken temple and no direction home, hears God's voice out of some kind of whirlwind. The Jesus camp were 'people of the land' - day labourers who had been pushed from more secure lives by the economic hardships related to Herod's building program; fishermen who had left their nets; an ostracised woman who made the trek for clean nourishing water at midday; shepherds, peasant girls and journeying astrologers. The Jesus mob were the sort of people who would show up for a gathering and not bring enough to eat, or who were prepared to go out two by two with no food or money. (Luke Ch. 9-10) The reason I labour this point, is because in our increasingly urbanised, and media-constructed world, we forget that there is a deep experience of God's grace and goodness that we can feel when we are exposed to and embraced by the natural world. It has been a fundamental experience of all people until our more recent generations. What we have lost (and risk continuing to lose) is a 'background' knowing of God. An unspeakable certainty that broadens and supports faith. All we have left is the story in a world where ecology is limited to saving the wilds. An apocalyptic without wisdom. God's goodness is there to be felt, his steadfast love is in the living water we drink, the fresh air we breath, and the warming bread that we break together. It is also there in the numinous moments we feel as we cross the land and are met in the storm. The embrace from the earth and the stars that we can feel together in community as we share our hearts. This is what we can learn from the 'people of the land' - be they nature freaks, nudists, hippies, forest protesters, rainbow people, tramps or homeless people. The age-old mysticism of God's presence in nature. As St Francis put it: the ministry of brother sun and sister moon.
Rob and Jude Graves, along with their sons Sam and Bill, have been working in Nimbin, amongst Rainbow people, and with mentally ill, homeless and addicted people for almost ten years. Their work is faith-based and depends on the generosity of God's people to continue. Email or phone 02 6689 1242. |
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