Transforming Creation
From Wellington Cathedral of St Paul
13 June 2010, am
Bishop Richard Randerson
- Isaiah 65:17-25
- Revelation 21:1-2, 22-26, 22:1-2
- Luke 7:36-8:3
These words stand out for me in today’s reading from Isaiah 65. 17-25: ‘they shall no longer bear children for calamity’. When you think of all the places in the world where children are born for calamity - war, poverty, disease, homelessness – how poignant Isaiah’s words are. And we don’t have to think of other countries either. New Zealand has a very poor record in terms of safety from violence for our children.
But the prophet’s words are couched in a message of hope. Isaiah foresees a ‘new heaven and a new earth’ – a world where people shall build houses and live in them, plant vineyards and eat the fruit, they shall live long lives, and women will no longer bear children for calamity.
God’s Creation will be transformed and this is the theme of this third sermon in the Matthew Fox trilogy - the Via Transformativa, which outlines how, in terms of creation-centred spirituality, we are called to transform broken relationships in the world and build the harmony that God intends.
Fox sees the basic sin or evil in Creation as separation – human beings separated from God, from each other and from the Earth. “Injustice is the basic rupture in Creation,” says Fox. When we displace God from the centre of our lives, all our relationships break down. We exploit the Earth, and we exploit each other – personally and collectively.
We can see this in the gross evils perpetrated by separation and exploitation :
• hierarchical systems where the few exercise power over the many, even in the Church
• global economic forces which allow the few to grow rich at the expense of the many
• attitudes that regard women, or people of other races or social class, as inferior
• ecological evils such as acid rain, excessive fertiliser, polluted waterways, dumping of chemicals, the hole in the ozone layer or global warming.
Frederick Turner wrote of those who followed Columbus and Cortez to the New World that they found the land “incredible” because of its “rich riot of colour and sound, of game and luxuriant vegetation”. Here there was scope for a new heaven and a new earth, but instead the explorers made an inventory of these new assets and their material value.
Fox says that if our spirituality is focused on personal righteousness but ignores the evil and injustice in God's Creation, it is spurious. Thomas Merton writes: “A spirituality that preaches resignation under official brutalities, servile acquiescence in frustration and sterility, and total submission to organised injustice is one which has lost interest in holiness.”
The Via Transformativa is about how we turn this state of affairs around, and rebuild right relationships so that all may enjoy well-being and peace, and Creation itself is preserved to provide life for all the generations to come. What better way to love our children and our grand-children than to ensure the Earth and its fullness will be there for them?
Matthew Fox suggests three elements in this: first, if we cling to earthly securities we may never find our ultimate security in God. When we cling to such idols as power, affluence, career and possessions we deprive ourselves of the deeper fulfilments in life. But we also deprive others of basic necessities such as food, health and shelter. The 13th century Dominican mystic, Meister Eckhart, wrote: “There where clinging to things ends, is where God begins”. In God we find our spiritual home. He adds: “God is always at home: it is we who have gone for a walk”.
Second, Fox speaks of the need for compassion which means to “feel with” others – understanding, sharing, and identifying with their feelings and experiences. Compassion arises when we focus on our links with others and with the Earth. Where the links are strong, we celebrate, for this is God’s will. But where the links have been ruptured by exploitation and disregard, there we are stirred to work for justice, healing and peace.
The spirituality that underlies this compassion is more often found among the oppressed than the oppressors. The oppressed know what it is like to suffer pain, and can reach out to fellow-sufferers. This is dramatically illustrated by the story of a Brazilian bishop who told of a large urban congregation with many poor people in it. City bus fares were to increase and the priest was concerned some might not be able to afford to come to church any more. So he arranged for a special collection to assist such folk and was amazed to see two of the poorest members contributing money. When he asked them about this they replied: “Well, Father, we’re very poor ourselves and know what it’s like, and we’d hate to think anyone couldn’t come to church because of the new bus fares”. Meister Eckhart underlines the need to share when he writes: “There is no such thing as my bread, for bread and all things necessary for sustenance in this life are ours, and given to others through us, and to us through others”.
Thirdly, the Via Transformativa is aided by the imagination of the artist or dreamer, the prophets young and old who dream dreams and see visions, and threaten the powers that be. The American theologian, Walter Brueggemann, writes: “Every totalitarian regime is frightened of the artist. It is the vocation of the prophet to keep alive the ministry of the imagination, to keep on conjuring and proposing alternative futures to the single one the king wants to urge as the only thinkable one”.
As evil is overcome, and right relationships restored, the new heaven and the new earth foretold by Isaiah become a reality. Isaiah’s vision is reaffirmed in Revelation 21, 22 which depicts the new heaven and the new earth as being located here in this world, not somewhere else. The end of the world is not a fiery termination, but a goal to which we work, an end where God’s purposes of a harmonious God-centred Creation are finally achieved.
The Via Transformativa is about how we work with God to make the new heaven and the new earth a reality where the environment is sustained, poverty and disease are eliminated, and peace breaks out on all fronts. Each of us plays a part. If we cling to our own comforts and possessions, others go hungry. But when by the grace and blessing of God we see that bread is for all, and we share it with all, then there is enough for all. Stomachs are filled, thirst is quenched, lives are changed, new hopes blossom. God’s original blessing becomes a reality in the life of all.
