Dominion?

Tidying up after some guests had departed from a holiday resort, the proprietors were heard to mutter to one other, “Some come for recreation. Others come to wreck creation.”

I think if God could be heard to mutter, he would surely lament over what those whom were said to be “made in his image” never cease to want to destroy what was created.

Now I’ve heard many arguments regarding the so-called Creation versus Evolution debates as if they were mutually exclusive. However, the “wow” factor emerges whether one reads the two stories from Genesis recently studied or from the magnificent documentaries one views on TV. God has been at work even as we wonder at the remarkable detail and process by which creatures have evolved over millennia right from the Big Bang.

The real debate is not so much over how the universe was made but what we do with it. Too often the instruction in Gen. 1:26 to “have dominion” over other creatures has been taken as an excuse to exploit all nature for what it is worth. Despite using possible oral traditions dating well back into Babylonian pre-history which, at least, shows the wisdom of describing creation in order, the Jewish priests, writing about 597BC, added some all-too-human arrogance.

There is more of a sense of stewardship in the second Genesis story where God takes the man and puts him in the Garden of Eden “to till it and keep it” (Gen 2:15). This story, based again on ancient folklore this time around the southern regions between Egypt and Arabia, began to be written down in the kingdom of Judah c900BC. We are given limits and we know what happens when the envelope is pushed too far.

By stressing the dominion rather than the stewardship, we human beings have irresponsibly brought our planet too far to the point of no return. Already there is doubt whether the new baby prince George will have any kingdom left to reign over.

           

            The more we study how our universe, including our planet, was made, the more fragile we see it to be when we keep on pushing that envelope. Every attempt to blow the whistle to stop and think what over-development does is met by scorn as if any use of the brake will take away people’s jobs. As if our destiny is to make our money out of cutting down and digging up the homes of fellow creatures.

            We keep thinking that employment is based on making money at the expense of man and nature rather than caring for humanity and creation. Have we lost the sense of vocation where we are called to be stewards of time, talent and treasure? We need no one to re-build the Titanic for we are fast working to pull the plug out of its bottom.

            Here in Australia, we are fast forgetting to care for those who seek refuge with us. We adulate the birth of a prince overseas who may have little impact on the way we live but treat as disposal human trash those who now dare to risk their lives to come here by boat. How can we be entrusted with nature when future citizens who can help rebuild our nation are denied what we take for granted?

            Where do we stop with this idea of “dominion” at the expense of the original “tilling and keeping”? Have another look at our creation stories and keep viewing those documentaries. It’s not what we believe about creation that we shall be held accountable but how we treat it that matters.

"See! Judge! Act!"

1          GHOSTS OVER MY SHOULDER

1.1       Business end of a teapot

I have a couple of ghosts looking over my shoulder this morning.

First is my late mother-in-law who used to tell me

she thought Martha received a very bad deal in this Gospel reading.

Considering my mother-in-law was much seen

on the business end of a tea-pot

and even brought her knitting to Presbytery

so that she could claim a productive evening she had a strong case.

1.2       The big sister

Second is that of my ubiquitous grandmother,

the firstborn of 12 children with 6 of her own,

whose idea of a good sleep-in was to get up before 7am winter or summer.

Grandma told me wistfully that her mother, an only child and a good Baptist,

would sit and read her Bible most of the day,

while Grandma, being the big sister

would attend to such things as forever tying and untying bootlaces

and helping to blow little noses.

Her name was Mary but her role was Martha.

Grandma was responsible for helping at least two of my great-uncles

start in the world

and when I was baptised in her home her mother was bedridden there.

I don’t think she ever stopped looking after people

and in her latter years had to be guided to comfortable chairs.

2          MARTHA AND MARY (Luke 10:38-42)

2.1       Following the Good Samaritan Parable

So, what’s this all about with Martha and Mary?

You’ve noticed by now this passage

follows the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

Last week it was all about hands-on ministry in the face of mere status.

Just when we’ve got the hang of it,

this story seems to take us into the opposite direction.

But Jesus has a habit of doing this.

When he’s around we’re never quite sure we’ve been right.

2.2       Trapped in anxiety (Lk 10:40f)

But this particular passage is not to condemn Martha.

The key is that Martha felt trapped by the many things she was trying to do.

She was not going to sit down any time soon.

Anxiety had taken her over just like I’ve experienced

and probably most of you at some time.

We’ll never be able to complete everything,

and we need that time and space where we can sit down and listen to Jesus.

2.3       The other side of Martha (Jn 11:20-27)

For those who want to see this other side of Martha,

try John 11 where she has this deep conversation

with Jesus on death and resurrection.

It’s OK to be busy, but Jesus does want to get a word in edgeways.

There is much to command our attention.

When the Young Christian Workers organisation was formed

in Belgium about a century ago,

it took on the model of “See, Judge, Act”.

This involves observation, contemplation, and action.

Mary, Martha, and Jesus are all needed here.

3          AMOS WITH THE BASKET OF SUMMER FRUIT (Amos 8:1-12)

3.1       Contemplating the figs (Am 8:1)

This is where the minor prophet Amos comes in.

He saw that the nation of Israel in the 8 centuries before Jesus was in trouble.

They were living the good life and the good life wasn’t going to last.

He observed what was happening from his working life down in Tekoa, Judah

as a herder and a dresser of sycamore trees.

Rather than rush into action, he contemplated a basket of summer fruit, probably figs or olives.

We know what happens to fruit in late summer when it’s not eaten.

The richness and the tastiness always wears off,

and “off” is the operative word.

3.2       A curds and whey society (Am 8:4-6)

That was it.

He knew that Israel to his north was going the same way as the summer fruit.

Amos left Tekoa in Judah

and hiked all the way north into the kingdom of Israel.

He had a message to deliver whether the people wanted it or not.

God was being put aside in favour of the “Greed is good” mentality.

The wealth was drifting upward like cream in milk left out in the sun

leaving the poor at the bottom.

When that happens the whole lot goes sour.

Curds and whey like Little Miss Muffet drinks.

3.3       The end for Israel (Am 8:2b,7-12)

The fact that we have what Amos said before us

proves for us that people didn’t listen

except for the few that made sure this was all written down

so it could be read after it had all come about.

And come about it did.

Shortly after the Assyrian Empire from what is now northern Iraq

expanded west into the area sweeping all before it.

4          NOT HERE TODAY, SURELY?

4.1       “It’s the economy, stupid”

We would have to be living under a rock not to see that such events like this have happened over many other times and in many other places.

Not today, surely? Not where we are, surely?

Yet, our whole way of life is based on the belief that the Market is God.

Our cultures are being relentless eroded

in favour of endless and repetitive marketing propaganda

in our respective faces on TV, online, and everywhere.

We cannot get the information to search for truth and wisdom

because our news programs are full of gossip and propaganda censoring out what we really need to know.

It is easier to find funds to build another casino

than it is to lift up those who need a decent break.

Everything is decided on the premise that “it’s the economy, stupid”

as if anybody can predict accurately what the economy is going to do

and in the meantime our environment is abused on the way.

4.2       The fruit of the spirit (Gal 5:22f)

Keith Rowe writing in our “With Love to the World” puts it so much better.

“In our day we might say that the destructive actions of brewery barons, media magnates, tobacco tycoons, dodgy developers and finance fiddlers

are abhorrent to God for they contribute

to the destruction of human community and damage individual lives.

But their days are numbered.

The future belongs to those who walk in the pathways of God’s love,

who trust in the steadfast love of God.”

There is a time to be Mary, to be Martha, to be Amos,

and most of all to be like Jesus for the fruit of the Spirit will never perish.

“DELIVERING THE VULNERABLE”

1          A JUST SOCIETY?

1.1       Your Faith, Your Voice, Your Vote

One would have to be living under a log

not to know that recent weeks have been one of political turmoil

and that we have a Federal election still to come down the track.

Already our Uniting Church Assembly has released a booklet

for “A Just Society” subtitled,

“Your Faith, Your Voice, Your Vote”.

I presume copies would be available here.

1.2       God lays it on the line (Ps 82:1f)

However, it is not my place to repeat this here

but to affirm that what we believe, what we say, and how we act

is always under God’s supervision.

This hits us when we read our lectionary Psalm 82.

God strides into the divine council and lays it on the line.

“How long will you judge unjustly

and show partiality to the wicked?” (v2)

2          GOD’S PSALM OF INJUSTICE (Ps 82)

2.1       Unfairness of the Filthy Rich

We do well to keep complaining about the unfairness

in what happens around us.

It is always uphill to maintain services for those who need it most

yet a rich man can walk in, demand a casino, and get it.

It seems that if jobs are to be had,

the filthy rich must become filthier and richer still.

2.2       Giving Justice to the vulnerable (Ps 82:3)

In life’s stark realities, it’s so easy to lose sight that God remains on the side of those who get the short end of the deal.

Psalm 82 continues,

“Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;

maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.” (v3)

In all the deals done these are the ones who pay through the nose.

If you have a disability (like my daughter),

if your father leaves home (like mine did),

if you cannot cope with all the demands of today’s life,

if you cannot make the basic ends meet,

God is still on your side calling out for a fair go for you.

2.3       Delivering the vulnerable (Ps 82:4)

God calls out,

“Rescue the weak and the needy;

deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” (v4)

Not only are the rest of us called to provide justice

but to take those active steps to help deliver the vulnerable

from whoever seeks to make money out of their vulnerability.

3          NOT A PROPHET AMOS (Amos 7:7-17)

3.1       On the level?

A simple herdsman who dresses sycamore trees on the side

shows the way.

Amos sees God travelling around with a surveyor’s plumb-line

measuring Israel to test its uprightness.

My local hardware store does not store plumb-lines

so I bought this spirit-level instead.

It does the job well.

It can test whether walls are straight and upright.

It can tell us whether tables are on the level.

3.2       What does God show us?

God goes around today to test to see

whether the world we occupy is on the level and whether it is upright.

What does he show us?

What does he want us to do about it?

4          PARABLE OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN (Lk 10:25-37)

4.1       The Great Commandment (Lk 10:27)

The Parable of the Good Samaritan is known to us like the back of our hand.

It stems from the Great Commandment to

“love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength, and our neighbour as ourselves.” (v27)

We can rattle this off word perfect like we did in Sunday School,

both the Commandment and the Parable.

I remember being part of acting the story out in Junior Class.

That’s not the point.

4.2       Not being seen dead with?

Jesus makes it harder.

He creates a scene where muggers have done their sordid work,

leaving the poor victim to bleed to death.

Two respectable citizens you’d want to know see him and leave him there.

Think of a type of person you wouldn’t be seen dead with.

This person comes by and becomes the very one

who delivers the still vulnerable from his fate.

O, the humiliation of being abandoned by the ones you look up to

and rescued by the very one you’d despise!

When you’re half-dead,

you are saved by the one you wouldn’t be seen dead with.

The irony of it all.

5          TAKING HIS SPIRIT-LEVEL HOME

5.1       Whistle-blowers not respectable?

Yet, this is how it has to turn out.

In the Book of Amos, you would have expected Amaziah, the priest of Bethel to be the one to turn to,

not this scruffy herder of cows to see the situation for what it is.

Yet, too often particularly in recent times

the Church has been depicted as the predator of the vulnerable

and we have a Royal Commission because of it.

And too often we, the Church have not risked the way of Jesus

to side with those getting life’s raw deal

because we know only too well what happens to whistle-blowers.

While tending the traveller’s wounds, the Samaritan left himself vulnerable

to any muggers still lurking in the shadows.

He delayed his own journey and put himself out of pocket to deliver

the traveller to where he could be healed and restored to life.

5.2       God strides into our comfort zone

Ahh, yes, this is where we have to go

and there will be many unexpected ways for us to go about it.

The decisions we make come to us

according to where we are what we see and what we hear.

God strides into our comfort zone with his spirit level

so that we can echo the psalmist’s conclusion,

“Arise, O God, judge the earth,

for to you belong all the nations.”(v6)

Let us take his spirit level home with us to provide His justice

and deliver the vulnerable.