God or No God Becomes God Because I Know Good News When I Hear It

October 10, 2019

 Notes from Gethsemani Abbey, Trappist, KY.

What goes on here at Gethsemani Abbey daily is really quite astounding.

Deep calls to deep for the sake of the world.

Could it be that God or No God is the very same thing? That our cry in praise or supplication to either is doing so to the very same person or place or thing?

It is deep calling to deep.

Who cries out? The Deep.

Who hears and listens? The Deep.

I’m not trying to be cute, whimsical or fancy with the truth. I’m trying to see if anybody is there to hear.

I do not know. That is the truth of it. Not until I hear it again and hear it again every day I must in order for it to stick with me. 

And I will not be led by or fooled by your surety. Simply because you know doesn't mean I know. I must be told. Tell me that story again. Not just any story. That story. It doesn't have to have sacred names but it must have no strings attached self-giving. And if you name Jesus in the story please don't stop by telling me to follow him in some way. Tell me he is following me in a very specific way. Then it might have chance with me. 

I do know I am longing for Home and that I want others to be there or here with me.

And I do know good news when I hear it.

And it could be, yes, likely is, not only maybe is, that I will get some of that today, well, if I am fortunate. And it will be all that I need.

I like to ask people, when I sit with them in settings where conversation is called upon to bring hospitality to the moment, to tell me a story. By that I mean, I and normally do explain what I mean, tell me something of what’s going on with them.

I could of course hear most anything and it could be complaint or it could be happiness, but more likely it starts out at least as “not much,” not much is going on. Not much to comment on much less expound upon. But with another question or two – something like “so on a Sunday afternoon, like today, what do you plan on doing?” – there begins to be an opening and a story begins. It is the story of their afternoon which is the story of their life.

I think, I wonder, in asking and in the hospitality of allowing another to tell their story, if I am not always searching for some good news. Not that complaint or happiness, but the liberation of soul that comes with unconditional love given out of nowhere. Deep calling out to deep.  Could I hear such good news today? If I am fortunate this gospel will be given to me today. It can be super simple and straight forward and not at all complicated and will most of the time have no sacred text or name involved.

I will get the gift – did you catch that I said unconditional love and I don’t mean necessarily given to me although that  is the most explosively liberating – and it will be all that I get. Nothing will be explained and nothing will be solved and there will be no deus ex machina.  It will be religion-less good news. It will be all that I get, again, if I am fortunate.

And it will be all that I need.

In the Flesh: On Mortality as Life

Could it be that the truth of life, that is to say life's depth and breadth and its center, comes not from a detachment from the material and finite but rather from an attachment to the very same? That, for example, Jesus' admonitions not to fear are not a call for us as subject to act against our death and loss but rather for us as object of the promise to receive that promise so that or so as to embrace our mortality as friend rather than enemy. It is to realize as Martin Hagglund in his new book This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom seems to me to argue, full life comes when, not in spite of but because we know we will not have life forever. When Paul in the New Testament Bible book of First Corinthians states that the last enemy to be destroyed is death, and this destruction by Jesus and his resurrection, he is saying that death becomes friend not by it's elimination but by it's embrace. Could it be that the profundity we see and recognize and are drawn to that is the incarnation, the divine in the flesh, the immortal in the mortal, is precisely that all of life is found only in life, not a life after death, and that the only hope we have for a real or authentic and full life comes not in having it never end but in realizing and embracing that it does?

Loneliness of a Different Type

"What we're losing is not just the diversity part of biodiversity bu the bio part: life in sheer quantity. While I was writing this article, scientists learned that the world's largest king penguin colony shrank by 88 percent in 35 years."

"Scientists have begun to speak of functional extinction (as opposed to the more familiar kind, numerical extinction). Functionally extinct animals and plants are still present bu no longer prevalent enough to affect how an ecosystem works."

"We've begun to talk about living in the Anthropocene, a world shaped by humans. But E.O. Wilson, the naturalist and prophet of environmental degradation, has suggested another name: the Eremocine, the age of loneliness."

"In insects int he forest that Lister studied haven't been contending with pesticides or habitat loss, the two problems to which the Krefeld paper pointed. Instead, Lister chalks up their decline to climate change, which has already increased temperatures in Luquillo by 2 degrees Celsius since Lister first sampled there."

"Thomas believes that this naturalist tradition is also why Europe is acting much faster than other places - for example, the United States - to address the decline of insects: Interest leads to tracking, which leads to awareness, which leads to concern, which leads to action."

All of the above paragraphs are from "The Insect Apocalypse is Here: What will the decline of bugs means for the rest of life on earth?," cover story of the December 2, 2018 New York Times Magazine.
What to do?
Drive less so fewer roads need to be built so more land can stay dirt and weeds and anything that grows.
Use pesticides that are biorational.
Promote construction growth that does fill-in rather than sprawl. Work for zoning laws that limit conversion to development while maintaining the rights of land-owners.
Anything else of which you can think.

Hey friends, I’m pretty excited to announce I just published

a new mini-book: Religion-less Christianity and Renewing the Church: On Being a Follower of Jesus in God, for God, without God.  The way forward in renewing a faith that has honesty, integrity, authenticity and relevance is not to take a church style and change it but rather take a way of thinking about God (theology) and re-make it. I use 20th century pastor, teacher, author and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer's thinking on a "religion-less Christianity" applied to today's church to offer the framework for renewing the 21st century church.

I would love to have a conversation with you regarding what I think has some serious legs for us today: Bonhoeffer’s “religion-less Christianity,” such as it is as his thinking and writing specifically on that topic was cut short by his execution at the hands of Nazi Germany just before the liberation in the Spring of 1945.

Anyway where can we talk? If you are in the Orlando area I am happy to have coffee. I’ll buy! Let me know.

Or let’s talk here. If you care to read it (available at Amazon.com in E-book (Kindle) or hard copy) I'd love to have a conversation here with you. Post a note.

Best to all,

Johan

It's hard to know how much my lawn contributes to "red tide" algae blooms. I need to find out. Nutrient runoff is a problem and I am part of the problem.
My question: what can I do today to improve the conditions that reduce nutrient run-off/discharge?
I reached out to Congresswoman Val Demings Orlando Office to request a visit with Staff to discuss federal policy and legislation. I know most of what needs to be done needs to be done through the State of Florida and legislation and policy there, but still the Feds matter. It all matters. We all matter. We need a coordinated effort.
I'm just not comfortable anymore with reading about this and not trying to do something about it. I remember a couple of years back our Florida Legislature approving some $300 million to clean up the Indian River algae bloom mess. We like to think this is helpful. Well, yes, there is clean up needed. But how about changing regulations on septic tanks, how about spending that $300 to give homeowners cash to upgrade their septic tanks to ones that are decent, or spending for sewers that treat instead of septic tanks altogether? In other words, the science is there to tell us what the problem is but we won't do the political and economical sensible thing of prevention.
So, onward we go.
How is it going with your connection to the good earth today?

Hard to Hope

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There is a lot being written about climate change and environment even though it may be difficult to find in all the deluge of information that comes our way each day. Like anything else, you have to pay attention. And then, when you do find it, many times it’s hard to read because it’s hard to take because it can be depressing.  John Schwartz reviews William Vollmann’s new 2 volume work (No Immediate Danger, Vol. 1 of Carbon Ideologies and No Good Alternative, Vol. 2 of Carbon Ideologies) in Sunday, August 12^th’s New York Time Book Review. Here’s how Schwartz finishes:

“Reading these two books did have an effect on me; I became even more conscious of the resources I waste in my own life. I found myself wondering why I burn fossil fuels by driving two miles to a lovely park where I take my morning run, instead of trotting around my own neighborhood. It’s not that I stopped doing it, but I do feel worse about myself. Maybe that’s what the work was for”

There are two reasons people change: the pain is too great where they are or the promise is so wonderful where they want to be. So, maybe reading Carbon Ideologies brought Schwartz or is bringing Schwartz enough pain to bring about change in his life in carbon usage. Maybe.

I find that taking action, however small, helps me find hope. Here’s something for us: Sept. 8, 11am, Rise Up Orlando, at Lake Eola Park, to mark the Sept. 12-14 Global Climate Action Summit being held in San Francisco. Also this: check out your local Planning and Zoning Commission’s work. What is your local Comprehensive Plan and what, for example, is the plan for transportation that can and will reduce the carbon footprint? There is a lot to do my friends. When you find it hard to hope, get out there and do something.

Getting Back at It

I go through periods of ecological depression, that is to say, feeling numbed into inaction by the huge task of advocacy and action on behalf of climate change work. I'm thinking that in these days any environmental work, be it habitat preservation, species extermination, point and non-point discharge and run-off or whatever, is all about the climate change work.
I've been out of the loop, in that ecological depression, for some time, but I'm climbing back out. One significant boost has been, as hard as it is to read it and face the music, the NYTime Magazine of August 5, 2018 fully dedicated to climate work under this title: "Thirty years ago, we could have saved the planet." Oh my.
There is much to do, but knowing history (30 years ago et. al.) can help us not repeat doing what we did that did not help.
One thing that history can do is help engage conversation with those who do not see human activity as contributing to the climate's evolution.
Listen to this from the "30 Years Ago" feature piece (the year is 1982, the "Gore" is Al Gore, the setting is a Congressional Hearing on the "greenhouse effect."):
"There emerged, despite the general comity, a partisan divide. Unlike the Democrats, the Republicans demanded action. 'Today I have a sense of deja vu,' said Robert Walker, a Republican from Pennsylvania. In each of the last five years, he said, 'we have been told and told and told that there is a problem with the increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. We all accept that fact, and we realize that the potential consequences are certainly major in their impact on mankind" (sic). Yet they had failed to propose a single law. 'Now is the time,' he said. 'The research is clear. It is up to us now to summon the political will.'
Gore disagreed: a higher degree of certainty was required, he believed, in order to persuade a majority of Congress to restrict the use of fossil fuels. The reforms required were of such magnitude and sweep that they 'would challenge the political will of our civilization."
Here's what I see:
-the research has been "clear" since the early 1980's (actually, before that!)
-Republicans used to be the on the side of environmental law that opened access to markets and increased productivity and a vital economy. What happened?
-Democrats used to be savvy in bi-partisan consensus building. What happened?
-political will is the name of the game then, and now.
Just learned of a big September 8, 2018 action called "Rise for Climate, Jobs and Justice." I'm stepping into it. How about you?