God's Call in the World

“If I had known I would live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.” As this well worn quip illustrates, our time line determines what care we take of everything from ourselves to our cars and homes to our world. Is time for the earth long or short? Will there be a not-to-distant, apocalyptic birthing of a new creation, or a long-term continuation of the existing creation with all the consequences of our treatment of it? Is our religiosity about remaining faithful in the expectation of impending catastrophic judgment by God of all creation or about remaining faithful in the expectation of seeing our children and grandchildren take on our faithfulness?

The Clock of the Long Now: Time and Responsibility by Steward Brand (Basic Books; 1999; $14.00) is philosophic not religious in tone. The author’s intent is to encourage us to start thinking not just in terms of this year or our lifetimes or this century but to think in terms of 10,000 years. To do this, Brand explores the metaphoric meaning of a project to build a monumental clock (the Millennial clock) that would keep perfect time for the next 10,000 years and would be for our generation a testament to the future like the pyramids were to ancient Egyptians. This is a mind expanding book, certain to engage you in new ways of thinking about time and its relevance to everything from human relationships to the world. You may not start dating your checks with an extra digit (e.g. 02006) as the author does by the end of the book, but you will certainly think differently about the date when you write it.

Religion at its core is about stability. In its basest forms, it is about rituals designed to maintain the operation of the world for the benefit of all (or at least the practitioners). Later forms took on the task of legitimizing empires and rulers as being reflections of divine order and stability on earth. Our own Bible reflects some of this change in the stories about implementation of and resistance to the institution of kings in the Hebrew Testament. Like a thread running through a tapestry, however, ideas of struggle to overcome forces of chaos in the past, present and future weave through the stories of order and stability. Taking the long view and recognizing that we are not the first peoples or religions in the world, nor the first to contemplate evil, chaos and change, the book Cosmos, Chaos and the World to Come: The Ancient Roots of Apocalyptic Faith by Norman Cohn (Yale; 1993; $17.95) reminds us of other ancient stories that took on apocalyptic meaning for their hearers. Cohn retells the stories from across the Ancient Near East, from Egypt to Vedic India, and across the ages, from Mesopotamia to Early Christianity, skillfully unpacking their themes. If you haven’t heard these stories before, this is a good introduction, and if you have, you will get to appreciate them in a new light, seeing their reflections in the apocalyptic aspects of Christianity.

Christianity has always had an apocalyptic aspect to it. One need look no further than passages in some of the apostle Paul’s letters. But at the same time, such thinking has been discouraged by none other than Jesus with his admonitions about not knowing the time. This bifurcation is layered on top of the Hebrew Testament with its deep emphasis on God’s creation and God’s support of it.

Readings From the Perspective of Earth edited by Norman C. Habel (Pilgrim Press; $28.00) is the first volume of a series called “The Earth Bible” in which a variety of Biblical scholars look at words, texts, translations and interpretation of Christian scripture and their impact on our faith. Of primary concern is the way heaven and earth are rent asunder, and God is made distant from human existence in ways not present in the text itself. Being a collection of essays, some can seem rather atomistic as the one about a Hebrew word that is always translated as ‘messenger’ when applying to a person sent by another human but as ‘angel’ when the messenger is from God while others deal with more familiar texts like Psalm 8 or the Jesus prayer. It is fascinating reading and a good introduction to the series; other volumes of which tend to be focused on particular Biblical books or themes.

And to sooth your now overheated brow with a more meditative, though no less insightful, book, there is The Splendor of Creation: A Biblical Ecology by Ellen Bernstein (Pilgrim Press; 2005; $16.00). Bernstein is the founder of Shamrei Adamah the first national Jewish environmental organization. She paints figures and experiences from her own life on the background of the story of the days of creation from Genesis. She reflects on the religious aspects of an ecological lifestyle and shares in her struggles to be faithful to this lifestyle. Her reflections will help you open not just your senses but your whole body to the infusion of God’s delight in this creation.  

David Davies is co-owner of Soul Desires bookstore in Omaha NE with his wife, the Rev. Susan Davies.

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