Tag Archives: creation

Creation: Moving from Awe to Lament to Resistance

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Being-at-one is not individualist self-realization but moves beyond that to change death-oriented reality. Being-at-one shares itself and realizes itself in the ways of resistance.             Dorothee Soelle

Lent is always a fruitful time for me, a time to reset my focus and reestablish practices that nourish my soul. Prayer is at the top of my priorities, not just during Lent but always. For me, it is the key to being able to face today’s painful realities without succumbing to anxiety, denial, avoidance, cultural accommodation, and despair.

This morning I awoke to another four inches of snow that had fallen on top of the previous layers. I spent time in prayer while looking out on the scene of birds and squirrels happily eating the seed and bread crumbs I had just scattered. My prayer turned from awe to lament to gratitude to intercession to “resting in the stillness and submerging myself in it” (Dom Helder Camara). But even as the beauty and presence of God in creation consoles me, I am aware of the groans of creation in our time.

The degradation of the natural world and the associated suffering of human beings, especially those who are most vulnerable, are painful topics. It might seem easier to avoid them. Facing the reality of our time is a mixed blessing, but denial takes away our ability to grow spiritually through this terrifying time.

The season of Lent an opportunity to accompany Jesus on his journey to the cross, to recall the story of his life and passion for the reign of God, to witness the religious and political authorities conspire against him, to “stay awake” with him as he prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, and to stand with him in his suffering. Facing the suffering of Jesus enables us to face our own suffering, the suffering of our human family, and the suffering of creation.

The late German feminist theologian Dorothee Solle pointed out that so much damage has been done to the earth that our ability to celebrate God through creation with our “original amazement” is hindered: “Mystical spirituality of creation will very likely move deeper and deeper into the dark night of being delivered into the hands of the principalities and powers that dominate us. For it is not only the poor man from Nazareth who is tortured together with his brothers and sisters on the cross, it is also our mother earth herself.”[1]

Solle, one of my favorite theologians, then speaks of letting go of bondage to today’s “consumer culture and plundering” and links “letting go” to “resistance.” She explains that for her, resistance means compassion and justice, living in God, and changing the world. She says, “The concept of resistance that meets us in many places of mystical tradition is broad and diverse. It begins with not being at home in this world of business and violence.”[2]

Scripture presents this as a struggle:

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power;  put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, for our struggle is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on the evil day and, having prevailed against everything, to stand firm. Stand, therefore, and belt your waist with truth and put on the breastplate of righteousness and lace up your sandals in preparation for the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication” (Eph 6: 10-18).

It may be easy to imagine “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” as demons or spirits just floating around in the air. But my concern is how these forces are embodied in actual institutions and systems that dominate the world, how they manifested in Jesus’s time, and how they manifest today. In contemporary language: the Powers that Be.

Engaging the institutional powers involves a struggle not simply against their harmful outward manifestations but also against our tendency to internalize their values and be swallowed up in their milieu. Our struggle against “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” is not simply external, for all of us participate to some degree in the powers that are manifest in the outer world, and our inner landscape is a microcosm that encompasses the whole.

We are called to exercise our freedom in Christ as we relate to the powers, calling them back to their rightful role as servants, rather than as dominators, of life. In this way, by living in creative resistance to anything that engenders futility and oppression, grounded in God’s love, and renewed and motivated by the Spirit’s call, we participate in God’s triumph over the powers and principalities in our time.

This post includes an excerpt from Sharon’s book, The Cross in the Midst of Creation: Following Jesus, Engaging the Powers, Transforming the World (Fortress Press, 2022).

This is the fourth post in a Lenten Series, “Creation, Cross, and The Powers.” The other posts in the series will be linked here as they are published.

  1. Creation, Cross, and The Powers. 
  2. Extraordinary TemptationsThe Spirituality of an Epoch
  3. The Spirituality of an Epoch
  4. Creation: Moving from Awe to Lament to Resistance
  5. Banking on Our Future as Demythologized Exorcism

For other blog posts by Sharon on the story of Jesus in the Wilderness, see Jesus,Temptation, and Worldly Power and Resisting Cultural Possession.

Follow Sharon’s blog post by signing up at the “Follow” link to the right. Share with the Social Media buttons below. See also a previous Lenten series: A Lenten Call to Resist. Check out Sharon’s books.  Contact Sharon to request a complimentary digital chapter of one of her books, to request a presentation, or to order discounted bulk copies of her books. 

[1] . Dorothee Soelle, The Silent Cry, page 92.

[2] . Soelle, 197.

The Spirituality of an Epoch

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Whether one is oppressed or privileged, structures and spirits like white supremacy, patriarchy, domination are within us, embedded invisibly in our psyches. Name them and pray them out.    Bill Wylie- Kellermann, in Principalities in Particular

My previous post, Extraordinary Temptations, was about the temptations Jesus experienced in the wilderness. Who (or what) was this “devil” that tempted Jesus? And what relevance does this story have for us today? Consider today’s prevailing wisdom:

The “wisdom of this age” (1 Cor. 2:6) is based on the values of status and hierarchy, the idolatry of money, and belief in power backed by violence. These largely unconscious views are at odds with Jesus’s values; they express the opposite of his vision of the world as God created it to be. Fortunately, we do not need to fall prey to these delusions. The presuppositions that underlie this prevailing wisdom are false.

In biblical terms, such falsehoods originate with the father of lies (John 8:44) and are circulated by the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2). These terms are metaphors for the principalities and powers, similar to the “devil” who tempted Jesus. Such metaphorical language expresses aspects of peoples’ experiences about the mystery of evil.

The devil or Satan has been understood in many ways, including the following: (1) as part of God’s heavenly council, the prosecuting attorney who accused Job before God (Job 1:7– 12); (2) a personal spirit (perhaps embodied) that tempts people to take a path contrary to what their conscience or their faith tells them is good and right; (3) a malevolent adversary intent on harm “like a roaring lion . . . looking for someone to devour” (1 Pet 5:8); (4) the demonic ruler of this world (John 12:31; Luke 4:5– 6); and (5) the ruling authorities of this world, including the spiritual forces of evil that animate them: “For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12).

When tempting Jesus, the devil claimed that he was in control of “all the kingdoms of the world” (Luke 4:5– 6). Some have said that this was simply a lie he was telling Jesus, but other biblical passages back him up in this claim (John 12:31; 1 Cor 2:8). Walter Wink points to human responsibility by explaining this in terms of human choice and involvement with the demonic powers:

“When . . . Satan declares that he can give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, he is not lying; “for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.” God permits Satan such power but has not handed it over to him; we have delivered it, as a consequence of all the consciously or unconsciously evil choices we have individually and collectively made against the long- range good of the whole.”[1]

Wink also demythologized the term Satan by making the case that the term represents the dominant milieu of a culture at a particular time in history:

“Satan is the real interiority of a society that idolatrously pursues its own enhancement as the highest good. Satan is the spirituality of an epoch, the peculiar constellation of alienation, greed, inhumanity, oppression, and entropy that characterizes a specific period of history as a consequence of human decisions to tolerate and even further such a state of affairs.”[2]

This sinister, even demonic, spirituality is not vague or amorphous but is embodied by representative human beings and by concrete institutions and systems that dominate our world— that is, by the rulers of this age (1 Cor. 2-6) and those who have given themselves over to them.

As followers of Jesus, we are challenged to identify the “structures and spirits” of domination that are within us and to “name them and pray them out.” We are invited to join the growing number of people who share the values of inclusion, equity, and nonviolence and who are working to build a more compassionate, just, and peaceful world. Surely this is what it means in our time to follow the one who came so that we “may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

This post includes an excerpt from Sharon’s book, The Cross in the Midst of Creation: Following Jesus, Engaging the Powers, Transforming the World (Fortress Press, 2022).

This is the third post in a Lenten Series, “Creation, Cross, and The Powers.” The other posts in the series will be linked here as they are published.

  1. Creation, Cross, and The Powers. 
  2. Extraordinary Temptations
  3. The Spirituality of an Epoch
  4. Creation: Moving from Awe to Lament to Resistance
  5. Banking on Our Future as Demythologized Exorcism

For other blog posts by Sharon on the story of Jesus in the Wilderness, see Jesus, Temptation, and Worldly Power and Resisting Cultural Possession.

Follow Sharon’s blog post by signing up at the “Follow” link to the right. Share with the Social Media buttons below. See also a previous Lenten series: A Lenten Call to Resist. Check out Sharon’s books.  Contact Sharon to request a complimentary digital chapter of one of her books, to request a presentation, or to order discounted bulk copies of her books. 

[1] . Wink, Unmasking the Powers, 24.

[2] . Wink, Naming the Powers, 25.

Extraordinary Temptations

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Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 4: 1-13, Mark 1:9-15

The suggested Bible readings for the first Sunday in Lent are always about Jesus encountering the devil in the wilderness. This is the perfect theme for this second post of my Lenten series, “Creation, Cross, and The Powers.”

Jesus has just been baptized. He has received an extraordinary experience of the Holy Spirit and a profound blessing and calling by God. Now Jesus has retreated into the wilderness to fast and pray. Creation is the context in which the devil appears to Jesus, who is faced with temptations. These are not just what we might consider “ordinary” temptations, but vocational temptations that force Jesus (or anyone who follows him) to deeply consider what it means to be a beloved child of God.

What is ultimately life-giving, and how will I share that with others? What does it mean to put my whole trust in God without recklessly taking God for granted? Is my loyalty to God strong enough to withstand the allurements offered by “all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor” (Matthew 4:8)? According to Luke, the devil put this last temptation to Jesus very aggressively. After showing him “all the kingdoms of the world in a moment in time,” he said, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority: for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please” (Luke 4:6).

After Jesus met these challenges with scripture, he began his public ministry. His initial struggle with the devil in the wilderness informed his future choices and set the stage for his crucifixion. The way he lived out his calling, fully committed to the reign of God, is what got him into trouble with the governing authorities of his day.

As followers of Jesus, these very questions, these temptations, also confront us. Creation is a good context for soul searching for us, too. It is harder now for us to find wilderness or to take off for forty days at a stretch. But perhaps we can carve out some time to at least step outside, to take a walk, to visit a park, to look up through a window at the moon and stars, or even to  enter imaginatively into creation in prayer. This enables us to get grounded in who we are as created beings. For yes, we are beloved children of God, but we are also part of God’s (beloved) interconnected community of life.  According to Mark, Jesus was not just alone in the wilderness, but “with the wild beasts.”

Those of us who live privileged lives in this technological society, many of us alienated from creation, are beset by “ordinary” temptations daily. Choices seem endless, but with the vast array of “tempting” choices, a sense of freedom can be elusive. Instead, many of us feel trapped. The larger vocations questions also confront us: Who are we as children of God (and children of the earth)? Where do we put our loyalty and trust, in the benefits offered to us by cultural accommodation to the institutional powers that dominate the world today (the kingdoms of the world and their splendor), or in God?  These questions are worth reflecting on during this season of Lent.

This is the second post in a Lenten Series, “Creation, Cross, and The Powers.” The other posts in the series will be linked here as they are published.

1. Creation, Cross, and The Powers. 

2. Extraordinary Temptations

3. The Spirituality of an Epoch  

4.  Creation: Moving from Awe to Lament to Resistance

5. Banking on Our Future as Demythologized Exorcism

For other blog posts by Sharon on the story of Jesus in the Wilderness, see Jesus, Temptation, and Worldly Power and Resisting Cultural Possession.

Follow Sharon’s blog post by signing up at the “Follow” link to the right. Share with the Social Media buttons below. Read other blog posts related to climate change here. Check out Sharon’s books.  Contact Sharon to request a complimentary digital chapter of one of her books, to request a presentation, or to order discounted bulk copies of her books. 

 

Creation, Cross, and The Powers

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“Remember O Mortal that you are dust, and to dust you will return.” I started today with a sparsely attended early morning Ash Wednesday service. On this first day of Lent, I heard these words that resound through the ages as ashes were used to make the sign of the cross on my forehead. The ritual was  followed by Holy Communion.

Mortality and repentance are the themes of Ash Wednesday. They bring us face to face with 1) our mortality as created beings, interrelated and interdependent with all other parts of creation and 2) our complicity in evil through cultural accommodation, resignation to ways of being that are dehumanizing, and participation in institutions and systems that perpetuate the suffering of humanity and the undoing of God’s creation.

These themes are a fitting start to the season of Lent, a season of the church year set apart for repentance and preparation for Holy Week and Easter.

This year my Lenten blog series is “Creation, Cross, and The Powers.” The focus is on the importance of linking creation theology and a theology of the cross with a demythologized understanding of the biblical “powers and principalities.” Seeing how these themes are linked will help us gain a comprehensive perspective on the multiple threats facing creation (including humanity), and to discern how we can faithfully respond. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, no worries. These short, bite-sized posts will help clarify why linking these themes is important or will, at least, whet your appetite for coming to an understanding of your own.

This blog series draws from a previous 2017 blog series: A Lenten Call to Resist; from my most recent book, The Cross in the Midst of Creation: Following Jesus, Engaging the Powers, Transforming the World (2022, Fortress Press); and from work I am doing in preparation for co-leading a retreat with Bill Wylie-Kellerman in April at Kirkridge Retreat Center in Pennsylvania on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the publication of William Stringfellow’s groundbreaking book on the principalities and powers, An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in a Strange Land. It makes sense that the 3-day retreat will take place over the weekend that includes Earth Day, and will be called The Powers in the Midst of Creation.

Lent is a time to “pick up your cross and follow” Jesus, to reflect on his life and teachings, to enter into his passion for the reign of God, and to accompany him through the wilderness, into his conflict with the governing authorities, to his death on the cross for subverting Empire, and ultimately to the resurrection. Through facing the realities of our time, practicing what it means to follow Jesus, and relying on the mercy and power of God, the Lenten journey can become a means of personal transformation that can contribute to the transformation of the world.

This is the initial post in a Lenten series on Creation, Cross, and The Powers. The others will be listed here as they are published.

  1. Creation, Cross, and The Powers.
  2. Extraordinary TemptationsThe Spirituality of an Epoch
  3. The Spirituality of an Epoch
  4. Creation: Moving from Awe to Lament to Resistance
  5. Banking on Our Future as Demythologized Exorcism

See previous Ash Wednesday posts here. Follow Sharon’s blog by signing up at the “Follow” link to the right. Share with the Social Media buttons below. Contact Sharon to request a presentation or to order discounted bulk copies of her books.  Discussion guides and video introductions of her books are also available.

 

Climate Change and Faithful Banking

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By Sharon Delgado

This year the World Council of Churches put forth the initiative, “Climate-Responsible Finance: A Moral Imperative towards Children,” which links the deadly impacts of climate change on the world’s children with the strategy of engagement with banks that are invested in fossil fuels. At the launch of this initiative in May 2022, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “It is now time for financial service providers to accelerate the shift to renewables. They have the power – and the responsibility. The scientific and moral imperative is clear: there must be no new investment in fossil fuel expansion, including production, infrastructure, and exploration.” 

Clearly, the climate impacts of our investments are linked to ethical decisions about our money. Here in the United States, an organization called Third Act, which is geared toward elders, is taking this connection to heart. Formed by seasoned climate organizer (and United Methodist) Bill McKibben, Third Act promotes both democracy and effective climate action.  Right now the organization is promoting their Banking on Our Future Campaign, which focuses on the four top  banks that fund fossil fuel projects: Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, and Citibank. This “money pipeline” from banks enables fossil fuel companies to build new extraction, transportation, processing, sales, and export infrastructure that lock us into increasing fossil fuel use and accelerating global heating for decades–decades that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says we don’t have. Without the money pipeline, fossil fuel producers would have to stop funding new infrastructure, stop engaging in climate change denial, and make good on their promises to transition to renewable forms of energy.

In addition to my role as coordinator of the California-Nevada Annual Conference Climate Justice Ministries Task Force,  I am the United Methodist liaison on the board of Third Act Faith,  a working group of Third Act. One of my jobs is to interpret the good work of Third Act to the United Methodist Church and its members, to explain how participating in their Banking on Our Future Campaign is an act of faith, to share practical ways that United Methodists can be involved at every level of church life, and to encourage participation. A tall order! But when I break it down, I realize that all I have to do is interpret, explain, share, and encourage action. Perhaps some of you who read this will carry this work further, and God, “who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Eph. 3), will take it from there.

Interpreting the work of Third Act to the United Methodist Church, especially to retired clergy and laity, has been made easy by Bill McKibben and others who have explained it clearly. To understand Banking on Our Future’s rationale read Your Money Is Your Carbon and Want to Address Climate Change?  Change Your Bank. Why focus on elders?  People over sixty own seventy percent of the wealth in this country. There are 70 million of us, most of us vote, many of us have grandchildren or other children whom we love, and we hope to leave them a  planet  with abundant life that we have enjoyed. (See the PBS News Hour’s special with McKibben’s “brief but spectacular take” on Third Act and fighting for the climate and our democracy).

Likewise, explaining to United Methodists how participating in Third Act’s Banking on Our Future Campaign is an act of faith involves highlighting points that the World Council of Churches and others have made about the morality of our money in this time of climate emergency, and framing such points in Wesleyan terms:  social holiness, the value of God’s creation, the world as our parish, and so on. Remember, John Wesley was a social reformer who saw the connections between personal finance and injustice. A staunch abolitionist, he wrote, “Better no trade than trade procured by villainy…Better is honest poverty than all the tears, and sweat, and blood, of our fellow creatures.” (Thoughts Upon Slavery, 45-46).  Bringing it back to the climate emergency in our time, others have expressed a similar sentiment in simple terms: “It’s wrong to profit by wrecking the planet.”

In practical terms, this campaign offers suggestions, action opportunities, and resources at varied levels of commitment, including writing letters to the big banks, pledging to divest if your bank continues funding fossil fuels, engaging with bank managers, or participating in public demonstrations. By participating, we join with many other groups offering resources and taking similar actions, including Stop the Money Pipeline and Customers for Climate Justice. On March 21, 2023, there will be a big day of action, with people publicly divesting: 32123! Big Banks are Driving the Climate Crisis So We’re Pushing Back.

Finally, I encourage you to rise to the challenge that the climate emergency presents to us in our time, as United Methodists and as people of faith and conscience. Taking steps toward “faithful banking” is one way to take action. Join the Third Act email list. Join a Working Group– the Faith working group and/or a local working group.  Find out how  you can  Take Action Today.

For questions, contact me at climatejustice@cnumc.org.

Follow Sharon’s blog post by signing up at the “Follow” link to the right. Share with the Social Media buttons below. Read other blog posts related to climate change here. Check out Sharon’s books.  Contact Sharon to request a presentation or to order discounted bulk copies of her books.  Discussion guides and video introductions of her books are also available.