Jackson Community Church

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Reflections from Genesis 32… wrestling with God, being blessed in our woundedness, holding on until we receive what we need

By jacksonnhccPosted on Posted in Home, Weekly MeditationsTagged , , , , , , , ,

I see in it [Genesis 32] an invitation to wrestle with the unknown. — Victoria Emily Jones

Everything you want is on the other side of fear. — Unatrtibuted

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing. — Marcus Aurelius

Every day, I turned a “you can’t” into a “you can.” — Rulon Gardner about wrestling

The angel is free because of his knowledge, the beast because of his ignorance. Between the two remains the son of man to struggle. — Rumi

SONGS about WRESTLING with SELF, OTHERS, LOVE & GOD

by Marc Chagall

Wrestling — Louisa S. Bevington

Our oneness is the wrestlers’, fierce and close,
Thrusting and thrust;
One life in dual effort for one prize,—
We fight, and must;
For soul with soul does battle evermore
Till love be trust.
Our distance is love’s severance; sense divides,
Each is but each;
Never the very hidden spirit of thee
My life doth reach;
Twain! Since love athwart the gulf that needs
Kisses and speech.
Ah! wrestle closelier! we draw nearer so
Than any bliss
Can bring twain souls who would be whole and one,
Too near to kiss:
To be one thought, one voice before we die,—
Wrestle for this.
by Walter Habdank

Come, O thou Traveler unknown — Charles Wesley

Come, O thou Traveler unknown,
Whom still I hold but cannot see!
My company before is gone,
And I am left alone with Thee;
With Thee all night I mean to stay,
And wrestle till the break of day.

I need not tell Thee who I am,
My misery and sin declare;
Thyself hast called me by my name,
Look on Thy hands, and read it there;
But who, I ask Thee, who art Thou?
Tell me Thy name, and tell me now.

In vain Thou strugglest to get free,
I never will unloose my hold!
Art Thou the Man that died for me?
The secret of Thy love unfold;
Wrestling, I will not let Thee go,
Till I Thy name, Thy nature know.

Wilt Thou not yet to me reveal
Thy new, unutterable Name?
Tell me, I still beseech Thee, tell;
To know it now resolved I am;
Wrestling, I will not let Thee go,
Till I Thy Name, Thy nature know.

’Tis all in vain to hold Thy tongue
Or touch the hollow of my thigh;
Though every sinew be unstrung,
Out of my arms Thou shalt not fly;
Wrestling I will not let Thee go
Till I Thy name, Thy nature know.

What though my shrinking flesh complain,
And murmur to contend so long?
I rise superior to my pain,
When I am weak, then I am strong,
And when my all of strength shall fail,
I shall with the God-man prevail.

My strength is gone, my nature dies,
I sink beneath Thy weighty hand,
Faint to revive, and fall to rise;
I fall, and yet by faith I stand;
I stand and will not let Thee go
Till I Thy Name, Thy nature know.

Yield to me now, for I am weak,
But confident in self-despair;
Speak to my heart, in blessings speak,
Be conquered by my instant prayer;
Speak, or Thou never hence shalt move,
And tell me if Thy Name is Love.

’Tis Love! ’tis Love! Thou diedst for me!
I hear Thy whisper in my heart;
The morning breaks, the shadows flee,
Pure, universal love Thou art;
To me, to all, Thy bowels move;
Thy nature and Thy Name is Love.

My prayer hath power with God; the grace
Unspeakable I now receive;
Through faith I see Thee face to face,
I see Thee face to face, and live!
In vain I have not wept and strove;
Thy nature and Thy Name is Love.

I know Thee, Savior, who Thou art.
Jesus, the feeble sinner’s friend;
Nor wilt Thou with the night depart.
But stay and love me to the end,
Thy mercies never shall remove;
Thy nature and Thy Name is Love.

The Sun of righteousness on me
Hath rose with healing in His wings,
Withered my nature’s strength; from Thee
My soul its life and succor brings;
My help is all laid up above;
Thy nature and Thy Name is Love.

Contented now upon my thigh
I halt, till life’s short journey end;
All helplessness, all weakness, I
On Thee alone for strength depend;
Nor have I power from Thee to move:
Thy nature, and Thy name is Love.

Lame as I am, I take the prey,
Hell, earth, and sin, with ease o’ercome;
I leap for joy, pursue my way,
And as a bounding hart fly home,
Through all eternity to prove
Thy nature and Thy Name is Love.

SUGGESTIONS for REFLECTING — Rev Lil Smith

  • Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
  • Sit five to fifteen minutes in silence bringing your attention to the Breath.
  • Like Jacob, we wrestle with God.
  • Notice how your body desires to wrestle with God today.
  • What words come to you in the struggle?
  • Which joint is out of socket for you?
  • Allow your attention to go to this disjointed place.
  • What does this disjointed place need to say?
  • How do you wish to respond and connect to the conversation with this disjointed place?
  • Invite God’s healing into this place.
  • What blessing do you receive?
  • What is your message from God?
  • Give thanks to God for this time in prayer and for any new insights you have received.
Greek Orthodox icon of Jabo wrestling with angel

COMMENTARY on WRESTLING

A lot of my intensity in wrestling was due to my mental preparation before the matches. I got myself into a different world. — Dan Gable

Victory goes to the wrestler who makes the next-to-last mistake. — Jackie Mason

Grappling with fate is like meeting an expert wrestler: to escape, you have to accept the fall when you are thrown. The only thing that counts is whether you get back up. — Deng Ming-Dao

No exercise brings into play all the muscles of the body in a more thorough manner, and none is more interesting than wrestling. He will find no other exercise more valuable in the cultivation of faculties that will help him to succeed in agility, strength, determination, coolness, and quick exercise of judgment. — Hugh Leonard

But it’s the wrestler who can put the fatigue out of his mind and break through the ‘wall’, like a marathon runner after 18 or 20 miles, who will survive. The key to that survival is in hard workouts that develop mental confidence to the point where you won’t submit to fatigue and pain descending upon you. — Lou Banach

Take a technical wrestler, get them tired, and they aren’t as technical. No matter what kind of wrestler get them tired, and they aren’t as technical. No matter what kind of wrestler, everyone is afraid of getting tired. It’s those who learn to perform when they’re tired that find success. — Jay Robinson

Wrestling is ballet with violence. — Jesse Ventura

Life is like a wrestling match: a lot of times, things are looking good, and then something happens, and you’re fighting from underneath. — Matt Hardy

by Chris Cook

COMMENTARY on WRESTLING with ANGEL/ GOD

Jacob called the place where he wrestled with God, Peniel — the face of God. He wrestled all night and survived.  God touched his hip and he was lame after this wrestling. He was also a changed man with a new name. God told him is name would no longer be Jacob which means deceiver or “man strives” but Israel or “God strives!” And whenever he limped, he remembered! — Grace Carol Bomer

Strange that there must be a shrinking of the sinew whenever we win the day. As if the Lord must teach us our littleness, our nothingness, in order to keep us within bounds. — Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Who would stick around to wrestle a dark angel all night long if there were any chance of escape? The only answer I can think of is this: someone in deep need of blessing; someone willing to limp forever for the blessing that follows the wound. — Barbara Brown Taylor

In the story of Jacob and the heavenly figure with whom he wrestles, we begin to see the elements of struggle and the unfolding, as well, of the gifts of the spirit that go with them. Jacob faces change, isolation, darkness, fear, powerlessness, vulnerability, exhaustion, and scarring. They are the price to be paid for becoming new. To struggle is to begin to see the world differently. It tests all the faith in the goodness of God that we have ever professed. It requires an audacity we did not know we had. It demands a commitment to the truth. It tests our purity of heart. It brings total metamorphosis of soul. If we are willing to persevere through the depths of struggle we can emerge with conversion, self-acceptance, endurance, faith, surrender, and a kind of personal growth that takes us beyond pain to understanding. What we see is the fullness of the self come to birth in the only way it really can: in labor and under trial. — Sr. Joan Chittister

Violence and intimacy.  The violence and intimacy of this wrestling match.  What did it sound like, how did it smell, the sweat of God and Jacob mingled in the dust?  Those who are willing to pursue God and his blessing with such force receive honor from me.  I don’t know what Jacob was thinking.  But I know I wish I had the guts to engage my God with such an intertwined closeness. — Jack Baumgartner

It seems as though I am in a struggle for at least a part of every day of my life; a wrestling match. I often feel like I’m wrestling with things like life, my health, poverty/justice issues, and most certainly, with God.
As a result, when I consider my life, I mainly think about the image in the book of Genesis of Jacob wrestling the angel. More than other stories in scripture, I resonate with this one the most…This is yet another one of those tensions in the Christian life.
Blessing and struggle.
Thanksgiving and complaining.
Comprehension and confusion.
Peace and frustration.
Joy and pain.
And because I recognize that God is in fact blessing me regularly, I also do my best to thank God even in the midst of complaining about the struggle. — Dion Oxford

This story is a profound mystery to me, but I love it because God made himself vulnerable for the sake of this man whom He loved.  — Jack Baumgartner

The Word calls us into a personal dialogue which, in many respects, is like Jacob’s wrestling with the angel (Genesis 32: 23-33). Only there, in that sort of personal involvement, do we come face-to-face with the mystery that is God. — Richard Rohr

… it happens at night when the world is dark and mysterious and the human mind is not controlled by the boundaries that usually constrain our imaginations. It is a far less peaceful encounter than the one at Bethel. It is basically a fight – some kind of spiritual wrestling match.
… It was a wounding fight and left Jacob with a limp; his inability to walk properly being a reminder of this encounter with the divine. But it was Jacob who was the better wrestler and it is the angelic visitor who asks to be released. But the tough old patriarch would not let the angel go just like that and asked for blessing.
It turns out that Jacob’s blessing was to have his name changed, a name change that recognized precisely his power and persistence as a fighter. Jacob responds to the experience as he did at Bethel by renaming the place. He called it ‘Peniel’. The final line perhaps reads as something of an anti-climax. Jacob says, ‘For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.’ To summarise such a nocturnal scrap as seeing someone ‘face to face’ is to understate the physicality, intimacy and vulnerability of the encounter…
But the ancient scriptures are not polite or inwardly spiritual so much as raw and rough and basic and exploratory. Reading them we should be prompted to think that some of our more difficult, sustained and damaging life-struggles were in fact struggles with angels and that our encounters with God are evident not in the way we run, skip, jump or dance, but in the way we limp towards the future, wounded and yet strangely blessed by our encounters with God. — Stephen Cherry

You do not hear much about God causing the chaos [in life], or even having a role in it. On the contrary, it is God’s job to make it stop. God is supposed to restore the status quo and help everyone feel comfortable again. Isn’t that how you know when God is present? When the danger has been avoided? When your heart stops pounding and you can breathe normal again? …It is an appealing idea, but unfortunately the Bible does not back it up. In that richly troubling book, much of God’s best work takes place in total chaos, with people scared half out of their wits: Elijah, trembling under his broom tree, pleading with God to take his life; Mary, listening to an angel’s ambitious plans for plunging her into scandal; Paul, lying flat on his belly on the Damascus road with all his lights put out. …No one in his or her right mind asks to be attacked, frightened, wounded. And yet that is how it comes, sometimes, the presence and blessing of God — Barbara Brown Taylor

Likewise, our sages ell us that Jacob’s wrestling match represented an inner struggle with his own identity. He wrestled with self-doubt and conflicting traits within himself. Was he ready and able to assume his role … We also wrestle with spiritual doubts and conflicts…
The Zohar teaches that the struggle with the angel would come to express Jacob’s … ongoing struggle between self and G‑d, between one’s ego and spirit. It symbolizes the victorious struggle to sublimate our will to that of our Creator’s will.
Contending with G‑d and man often initiates a personal search. Every great quest starts with a great question. What is G‑d, and what is G‑d not? It continues with refining and redefining one’s perception. Just as you’ve outgrown your childhood clothing, so, too, has your mind expanded its capacity for understanding. With greater maturity it becomes necessary to re-examine beliefs that have not been developed or clarified…
To reach or to exceed his personal and spiritual potentia … needs answers to fundamental questions. Why am I here and what is my purpose? How do I achieve it? What makes me different?…
Our sages teach us that G‑d communicates to us directly through our daily challenges. Life’s tests can help to refine our ability to actualize our inner potential. Adversity can be viewed as the vehicle through which we come to expand ourselves and, thereby, overcome our self-perceived limitations. The tough times can ultimately come to reveal our inner greatness. They serve to elevate us beyond what we thought we were capable of being. Conversely, we are equally tested through times of happiness and success. When things are going well, do we recognize the source of our abundance, or do we arrogantly attribute our good fortunes solely to our own efforts and skill?
Life’s tests are multidimensional; they elevate us and can heighten our vantage point to access the latent inner resources we all possess. The best criteria for evaluating an epiphany, however, are its long term effects. How much of the initial impact endures? Does it help you develop yourself to become more than you were?
Thus, “seeing G‑d face to face” is also a metaphor that illustrates how G‑d’s presence is revealed throughout life’s details… — Katia Bolotin

by Jack Baumgartner

COMMENTARY on STRUGGLE

Why struggle to open a door between us when the whole wall is an illusion? — Rumi

Life is one long struggle in the dark. — Lucretius

Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle. — Napoleon HillThe most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of those depths. — Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. — Frederick Douglass

Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals. — Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

Success is not measured by what you accomplish, but by the opposition you have encountered, and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds. — Orison Swett Marden

You don’t fight your anger, because your anger is you. Your anger is the wounded child in you. Why should you fight your anger? The method is entirely nonviolent: awareness, mindfulness, and tenderly holding your anger within you. — Thich Nhat Hanh

Where there is no struggle, there is no strength. — Oprah Winfrey

Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation. — Coretta Scott King

A lot of what is most beautiful about the world arises from struggle. —  Malcolm Gladwell

People are at their best when they are challenged. If we don’t challenge ourselves, nature has a way of giving us challenges anyway. There is great value in our struggles, and human nature has shown us that we only value the things we struggle to achieve. — Thomas Frey

by Sefira Lightstone

LEFT ME with a LIMP — Rachel Held Evans (full posting about the Bible: https://rachelheldevans.com/blog/i-love-the-bible)

It is said that after Jacob wrestled with God, he walked with a limp… So it has been with the Bible and me. I have wrestled with the Bible, and it has left me with a limp… Those of us who have wrestled know we can be wrong. … I have finally surrendered to God’s stories.
God’s long, strange, beautiful stories.
We asked questions.
God told stories.
We demanded answers.
God told stories.
We argued theology.
God told stories.
And when those stories weren’t enough, when the words themselves would not suffice, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, laughed among us, wept among us, ate among us, told more stories among us, suffered among us, died among us, and rose among us. The Word entered our story and invited us into His. The Word became flesh and said, “Watch me. Follow me.  See how I do it. This is what I desire.”
And the Word loved—
Loved the poor,
Loved the rich,
Loved the sick,
Loved the hungry,
Loved the zealots,
Loved the tax-collectors,
Loved the lepers,
Loved the soldiers,
Loved the foreigners,
Loved the insiders,
Loved the slaves,
Loved the women,
Loved the untouchables,
Loved the religious,
Loved the favored,
Loved the forgotten.
Loved even the enemy.
When words were not enough, the Word took on flesh and became the story.
I love the Bible, but I love it best when I love it for what it is, not what I want it to be…when I live in the tension and walk with the limp—
The limp that slows me down,
The limp that delights my critics,
The limp I wouldn’t change for the world,
The limp that led me to God.

C3: COCKTAILS & CHRISTIAN CONVERSATIONS – Fri, Sept 22 @ 5pm

By jacksonnhccPosted on Posted in Adult, Education & Faith Formation, HomeTagged , , , , ,

C3: COCKTAILS & CHRISTIAN CONVERSATIONS

GENESIS 32:22-32 — Jacob Wrestles at Peniel
The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.  He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had.
Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.  When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.
Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.”
But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.”
So he said to him, “What is your name?”
And he said, “Jacob.”
Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel  for you have striven with God and with humans and have prevailed.”
Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.”
But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?”  And there he blessed him.
So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, yet my life is preserved.”
The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

This week: TUE, Sept 12 – SUN, Sept 17

By jacksonnhccPosted on Posted in Calendar, Home

TUE, Sept 12

  • Community Event: NORDIC WALKING – INTERVALS with POLES – with Ellen Chandler
    8am • Valley Cross Road Parking Lot, Jackson

    • Tuesdays – Nordic Walking (Sept. 12, 19 (will need guest leader), 26, Oct. 3, 10, 17, 24, 31)
    • From Ellen “Plus, this is not high school, you are not required to do “the workout,” I am totally happy if you join for the start and do your own thing on the trail; it just helps if people have a workout buddy so no one is out on the trail alone.”
    • Needed equipment: ski poles are better than trekking poles, but don’t let pole-specificity get in the way of joining.  I wear my “second best running shoes,” not the best because it can be wet and muddy; but light hikers work, too. Plus the usual sun and tick repellents.
    • Ellen Chandler, Executive Director, JacksonXC, 603-383-9355, 603-867-8707 voice/text
  • FITNESS CLASS  with Laurie McAleer 
    9:30am • Jackson Community Church

    • Free to all participants.
    • Gentle, chair-based stretch and fitness for all levels of ability
  • Community Event: MELODIES & MUNCHKINS
    11am • Jackson Public Library

    • Storytime welcomes Riley Waygood and her Melodies & Munchkins program! Join us for 45 minutes of pure musical joy, movement, singing, and instrumental play with music educator Riley Waygood.  This program is designed for ages 0-3 and is free and open to the publi
  • CLERGY LUNCH
    12:30pm • Zoom

    • Local clergy convene for conversations, ecumenical event-planning, and peer support. Rev Gail attends.
  • Community Resource: LIBRARIES
  • Community Event: SUICIDE INTERVENTION SKILLS TRAINING
    All Day • Tamworth, NH

    • Hosted by Tri-Cap
    • Rev Gail attending
  • REFUGIA SMALL CHURCH RESILIENCE PROGRAM
    4-6pm • Zoom

    • JCC”:s volunteers attend the 5-church cohort in this ongoing year-long program offered by BTS Center
  • DEACONS
    7pm • Zoom

    • Deacons meet to discuss worship plans and community care concerns
    • Join Zoom Meeting – password and link required
  • Community Event: MUSIC AROUND TOWN
    • Wildcat Tavern: Hoot Night with Jonathan Sarty • 6-8:30pm

WED, Sept 13

  • Community Resource: LIBRARIES
  • LADIES LUNCHEON
    Noon-3pm • Private Home

    • RSVPs were requested, attend if you respnded by this past weekend
    • Wear family/ethnic attire & bring favorite recipe)
      Potluck luncheon: Bring a dish to share
    • Theme: Family/Ethnic & Fave Recipe!
    • Co-Hosts: Ginger Perkins & Gail Doktor
    • Dress: Favorite Local Attire/Ethnic Dress
    • Please bring your favorite recipe/family recipe/ethnic recipe as well as copies of your recipe to share. We shall consolidate and make recipe books to take home!
    • Dress up in your favorite attire or dress in a family ethnic dress style! Let’s celebrate our JCC family!
    • Expect games, of course, and if the weather cooperates, outdoor games like corn hole.
    • Bring a favorite recipe written out on a card or paper: we will collect them and create a recipe cookbook
  • COUNCIL
    7pm • Zoom

    • Church staff and lay leaders meet re governance decisions
    • Join Zoom Meeting – password and link required
  • MUSIC & ENTERTAINMENT AROUND TOWN
    • Wildcat Tavern: Live Trivia • 7:306-9pm

THURS, Sept 14

  • Community Resource: LIBRARIES
  • Community Service: WAY STATION SHIFT
    All Day • Way Station, 15 Grove St, No Conway

    • Volunteers open day resource center for showers, mail pickup, grocery distribution, more.
  • Community Event: MAJESTIC CAFE THURSDAY: Al Shafner & Ray Ryan
    5:30pm Doors Open / 6 pm to 8:30 pm Performance • Majestic Theater Cafe, Conway

  • Community Events: MUSIC & ENTERTAINMENT AROUND TOWN
    • Shannon Door: Jeremy Dean • 6-9pm

FRI, Sept 15

  • Community Event: NORDIC WALKING with Ellen Chandler
    8am • Valley Cross Road Parking Lo, Jackson

    • Fridays – Intervals with poles (more like hill bounding) (Sept. 8, 15, 22, 29, Oct. 6, 13, 20, 27) – there might be more repetition in this group, e.g. 3 times up a longer hill, recovery on the walk back down.
    • From Ellen “Plus, this is not high school, you are not required to do “the workout,” I am totally happy if you join for the start and do your own thing on the trail; it just helps if people have a workout buddy so no one is out on the trail alone.”
    • Needed equipment: ski poles are better than trekking poles, but don’t let pole-specificity get in the way of joining.  I wear my “second best running shoes,” not the best because it can be wet and muddy; but light hikers work, too. Plus the usual sun and tick repellents.
    • Ellen Chandler, Executive Director, JacksonXC, 603-383-9355, 603-867-8707 voice/text
  • FITNESS CLASS  with Laurie McAleer
    9:30am • Jackson Community Church

    • Free to all participants.
    • Gentle, chair-based stretch and fitness for all levels of ability
  • Community Resource: LIBRARIES
    • 2pm-5pm • Jackson Library
      Contact the library for additional help: 603.383.9731 or by email: staff@jacksonlibrary.org
  • C3: COCKTAILS & CHRISTIAN CONVERSATION (resumes in mid-Sept)
  • HOMEMADE HONDURAN MEAL: Dine and Donate
    5pm • JCC Parish Hall

    • Join us for authentic Honduran cuisine and the chance to meet our friends from Honduras, who are living on the Nativity Lutheran campus in North Conway. Seating at both venues is limited, since this is a sit-down meal, so RSVPs will be helpful!
    • Use this link to RSVP or to make a contribution (you don’t have to attend to donate): https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScXsmc5JwgMn9nrDG09boJmK4EMtG0Pp-b-WqhZOLFw2TmmcQ/viewform
    • Some background: Back in January a delightful family from Honduras came into our lives: mom and dad and 3 young children. We have been blessed by their presence in our community. We are working to raise funds to cover the expense of the attorney for the asylum process. Come join us for a meal homemade by Lilian anf friends.
    • We want to build community for this family. And to give you a chance to get to know our special neighbors. Learn ways you can help. Yes, we’d welcome your support if you want to make a conrribution. We’re also friend-raising!
  • Community Event: FRIDAY NIGHT JAZZ: Laurie and Ken Turley with Michael Murphy
    7pm • Majestic Café

    • Info & tickets: https://www.conwaymajestic.com/
    • $10/pp
    • Every Friday night, enjoy jazz, blues, and more in the intimate setting of the Majestic Café. More details above at “learn more”.
  • Community Events: MUSIC AROUND TOWN
    • Wildcat Tavern: Al Shafner • 7-9pm • $5 cover
    • Shannon Door: Sheehan & Holden • 6-9pm
    • Red Parka: Diana’s Bath Salts • 8-11pm
    • Shovel Handle Pub: Ryan St Onge • 5:30-8:30pm
    • Ledge Brewing (Intervale): Travis Landry • 6-8pm

SAT, Sept 16

  • Community Event: JEN’S FRIENDS CLIMB AGAINST CANCER with JCC
    8am Regstrationm / 9:30am Walk Begins • Base of Mt Cranmore

    • From team captain Claire: “Our JCC Team has ballooned to 33 as of Sun, Sept 10! We’ve raised over $3000 with more checks coming in!Since there has been so much construction at Cranmore Mt. I have been challenged to pick a Meet-up location. We know they will have a tent for the Auction Items, so let’s try to meet there at about 8:45 AM. Check out the items while there! The official start of the walk is 9:30, but some start earlier. The Markers or signs are posted along the route so let us know if you purchased or renewed one. Look for- John Chernick, Richard Himmelwright, Jessica Rose Doktor, Nancy Mede. Looks to be a nice day. Don’t forget-sunscreen, insect repellent (though have not had issue there in past years), hat,water, good shoes, maybe hiking poles.”
  • Community Event: FLOCKS of the FALL: WARBLER WALK
    8-10am • Dahl Wildlife Sanctuary

    • Experience the fall migration up close with lifelong birder Will Broussard at NH Audubon’s Dahl Wildlife Sanctuary in Conway. We’ll learn tricks for identifying some of the common and not-so-common warblers, vireos, thrushes and others headed south for winter, and discuss ways to make your own yard more bird friendly. All aspects of autumn bird identification will be touched upon including plumage, behavior, and call notes in addition to key landscape features birds rely on as they migrate. Bring you binoculars or borrow ours
    • Space is limited and registration is required. Click here to register.
  • Community Event: TIN MOUNTAIN WEEKEND WALK
    10am• Tin Mountain Consevration Center, Albany

    • Join us for a slow-paced walk that takes a closer look at the world around us and explores the Tin Mountain Conservation trails in Albany, NH. Outdoor highlights include an 1800s quarry, beaver pond and resident flora & fauna, while inside the Nature Learning Center you will find animal mounts and a gem & mineral collection. These leisurely investigations of the trails, and tour of the Learning Center are perfect for all ages; you are never too young or too old to have a new adventure.
    • Program Fee: $15/person or $25/household
    • Members are free, so consider becoming a member!
    • Register online here. Walk ins welcome.
  • Community EventL ROBERT FROST – This Verse Business with Gordon Clapp
    7:30pm • Majestic Theater

    • North Conway native and Emmy-winner Gordon Clapp (NYPD Blue) stars as flinty and witty Robert Frost in A.M. Dolan’s Robert Frost: This Verse Business. Drawn from hundreds of hours of the poet’s recorded public “talks,” as well as interviews and correspondence, it’s an exhilarating glimpse of the public and private faces of the man, and an entertaining testament to the intrinsic value of the arts.
    • For nearly fifty years, Robert Frost “barded” around the country giving entertaining “talks” to sell-out crowds.  He would “say” his poems and share his beliefs and humorous “wild surmises” on art, religion, science, and politics. The poet’s great wit and verse are heard afresh in Clapp’s critically acclaimed performance.
    • Tickets: https://www.conwaymajestic.com/
  • Community Event: OPEN HOURS @ Jackson Historical Society
    1-3pm • Jackson Historical Society

    • Also open by appointment.
    • More info: https://www.jacksonhistory.org/
    • White Mountain Art Sale
      • The Jackson Historical Society is holding its 21st annual White Mountain Art Sale. There are currently over 50 items from private collectors, primarily 19thcentury paintings. To see the online catalog, go to https://www.jacksonhistory.org/catalog.html. Items are available to purchase as they arrive, so check the catalog frequently to see new additions.
      • The art sale is the Historical Society’s primary fundraiser. There is no cost to consign a painting. The consignor sets the price and the Society adds a small commission. If the item does not sell, the consignor takes it back. To consign a 19th century painting, contact info@jacksonhistory.org.
      • There are seven paintings by Samuel Lancaster Gerry, three of which were in the recent exhibition at the New Hampshire Historical Society “A Faithful Student of Nature, the Life and Art of Samuel Lancaster Gerry.” Many other 19th century artists are included: Benjamin Champney, Frank Shapleigh, George McConnell, and many others. There are also several paintings by Jackson’s nationally renowned artist Erik Koeppel, who paints in a revivalist style of the 19th century artists.
      • The Society is open Saturdays and Sundays 1:00 – 3:00.  If you are interested in a painting, the Society can open by appointment. Contact info@jacksonhistory.org.
  • Community Resource: LIBRARIES
  • MUSIC AROUND TOWN
    • Shannon Door: Mike & Becca • 7-10pm
    • Wildcat Tavern: Jonathan Sarty • 6:30-9pm – $5 cover
    • Red Parka: Now Is Now • 8-11pm
    • Ledge Brewing (Intervale): Dregs of Joy

SUN, Sept 3

  • INTERFAITH SERVICE
    8am • Old red library in Jackson / zoom

    • Join us for poetry, prayer, and conversation.
    • Join Zoom Meeting – password and link required
  • WORSHIP @ JCC
    10:30am   • Jackson Community Church & Zoom

    • Join Zoom Meeting – password and link required
    • Music by Sharon Novak
    • Message by Rev Gail Doktor
  • HOSPITALITY
    11:30am • JCC Parish Hall

    • Hospitality after Church
  • Community Event: ROBERT FROST – This Verse Business with Gordon Clapp
    3pm • Majestic Theater

    • North Conway native and Emmy-winner Gordon Clapp (NYPD Blue) stars as flinty and witty Robert Frost in A.M. Dolan’s Robert Frost: This Verse Business. Drawn from hundreds of hours of the poet’s recorded public “talks,” as well as interviews and correspondence, it’s an exhilarating glimpse of the public and private faces of the man, and an entertaining testament to the intrinsic value of the arts.
    • For nearly fifty years, Robert Frost “barded” around the country giving entertaining “talks” to sell-out crowds.  He would “say” his poems and share his beliefs and humorous “wild surmises” on art, religion, science, and politics. The poet’s great wit and verse are heard afresh in Clapp’s critically acclaimed performance.
    • Tickets: https://www.conwaymajestic.com/
  • Community Event: TIN MOUNTAIN WEEKEND WALK
    2-3:30pm • Tin Mountain Consevration Center, Albany

    • Join us for a slow-paced walk that takes a closer look at the world around us and explores the Tin Mountain Conservation trails in Albany, NH. Outdoor highlights include an 1800s quarry, beaver pond and resident flora & fauna, while inside the Nature Learning Center you will find animal mounts and a gem & mineral collection. These leisurely investigations of the trails, and tour of the Learning Center are perfect for all ages; you are never too young or too old to have a new adventure.
    • Program Fee: $15/person or $25/household
    • Members are free, so consider becoming a member!
    • Register online here. Walk ins welcome.
  • Community Event: OPEN HOURS @ Jackson Historical Society
    1-3pm • Jackson Historical Society

    • Also open by appointment.
    • More info: https://www.jacksonhistory.org/
    • White Mountain Art Sale
      • The Jackson Historical Society is holding its 21st annual White Mountain Art Sale. There are currently over 50 items from private collectors, primarily 19thcentury paintings. To see the online catalog, go to https://www.jacksonhistory.org/catalog.html. Items are available to purchase as they arrive, so check the catalog frequently to see new additions.
      • The art sale is the Historical Society’s primary fundraiser. There is no cost to consign a painting. The consignor sets the price and the Society adds a small commission. If the item does not sell, the consignor takes it back. To consign a 19th century painting, contact info@jacksonhistory.org.
      • There are seven paintings by Samuel Lancaster Gerry, three of which were in the recent exhibition at the New Hampshire Historical Society “A Faithful Student of Nature, the Life and Art of Samuel Lancaster Gerry.” Many other 19th century artists are included: Benjamin Champney, Frank Shapleigh, George McConnell, and many others. There are also several paintings by Jackson’s nationally renowned artist Erik Koeppel, who paints in a revivalist style of the 19th century artists.
      • The Society is open Saturdays and Sundays 1:00 – 3:00.  If you are interested in a painting, the Society can open by appointment. Contact info@jacksonhistory.org.
  • MUSIC AROUND TOWN
    • Shannon Door: Sheehan & Holden • 6-9pm
    • Red Parka: Blue Sunday with Liz Lannon Band • 5-8m
    • Shovel Handle Pub: DellaValla Bluegrass Trio • 5:30-8:30pm

Science, origin stories and creation myths: Biblical text, other cultural stories, and scientific thoughts on the beginning of the cosmos, time, and humanity

By jacksonnhccPosted on Posted in Home, Weekly MeditationsTagged , , , , , , , ,
D’ou venons-nous? Que sommes-nous? Ou allons-nous? Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? — Paul Gauguin (title of 1897 painting above)

The root of this possibility of doing good –
that we all have – is in creation. — Pope Francis

There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.— Charles Darwin
Consciousness expresses itself through creation. This world we live in is the dance of the creator. Dancers come and go in the twinkling of an eye but the dance lives on. On many an occasion when I am dancing, I have felt touched by something sacred. In those moments, I felt my spirit soar and become one with everything that exists.
            I become the stars and the moon. I become the lover and the beloved. I become the victor and the vanquished. I become the master and the slave. I become the singer and the song. I become the knower and the known. I keep on dancing then it is the eternal dance or creation. The creator and creation merge into one wholeness of joy. I keep on dancing…and dancing…and dancing. Until there is only…the dance. ― Michael Jackson

How did everything begin? This is the first question faced by any creation myth and … answering it remains tricky. … Each beginning seems to presuppose an earlier beginning. … Instead of meeting a single starting point, we encounter an infinity of them, each of which poses the same problem. … There are no entirely satisfactory solutions to this dilemma. What we have to find is not a solution but some way of dealing with the mystery …. And we have to do so using words. The words we reach for, from God to gravity, are inadequate to the task. So we have to use language poetically or symbolically; and such language, whether used by a scientist, a poet, or a shaman, can easily be misunderstood.— David Christian

SONGS about CREATION & NEW BEGINNINGS:

Mythology of Creation:

ORIGIN STORIES & CREATION MYTHS

Creation myths, or origin stories, tell us what a culture believes about how humans came to be. They can also tell us much about what that culture values. These are often religious or spiritual explanations for human life. — Kate Harris, Smithsonian Institute’s Learning Lab

A creation myth or cosmogonic myth is a type of cosmogony, a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it. While in popular usage the term myth often refers to false or fanciful stories, members of cultures often ascribe varying degrees of truth to their creation myths. In the society in which it is told, a creation myth is usually regarded as conveying profound truths – metaphorically, symbolically, historically, or literally They are commonly, although not always, considered cosmogonical myths – that is, they describe the ordering of the cosmos from a state of chaos or amorphousness.
Creation myths often share several features. They often are considered sacred accounts and can be found in nearly all known religious traditions. They are all stories with a plot and characters who are either deities, human-like figures, or animals, who often speak and transform easily. … Creation myths address questions deeply meaningful to the society that shares them, revealing their central worldview and the framework for the self-identity of the culture and individual in a universal context. — Wikipedia.com

Creators aren’t gods. They make places, which is quite hard. It’s men that make gods. This explains a lot.— Terry Pratchett

Myths are funny. Unlike histories, they are symbolic narratives; they deal with spiritual rather than fact-based truths. They serve as foundations for beliefs, illustrating how things came to be and who was involved, but they’re often sketchy about when or why. — Lisa Hannett, The Atlantic

Myth narrates a sacred history; it relates an event that took place in primordial Time, the fabled time of the “beginnings.” In other words, myth tells how, through the deeds of Supernatural Beings, a reality came into existence, be it the whole of reality, the Cosmos, or only a fragment of reality – an island, a species of plant, a particular kind of human behavior, an institution. — Mircea Eliade

The earth-diver is a common character in various traditional creation myths. In these stories a supreme being usually sends an animal (most often, a type of bird, but also crustaceans, insects, and fishes in some narratives) into the primal waters to find bits of sand or mud with which to build habitable land. — WIkipedia.com

When he, whoever of the gods it was, had thus arranged in order and resolved that chaotic mass, and reduced it, thus resolved, to cosmic parts, he first moulded the Earth into the form of a mighty ball so that it might be of like form on every side … And, that no region might be without its own forms of animate life, the stars and divine forms occupied the floor of heaven, the sea fell to the shining fishes for their home, Earth received the beasts, and the mobile air the birds … Then Man was born:… though all other animals are prone, and fix their gaze upon the earth, he gave to Man an uplifted face and bade him stand erect and turn his eyes to heaven. ― Ovid, Metamorphoses

In emergence myths, humanity emerges from another world into the one they currently inhabit. The previous world is often considered the womb of the earth mother, and the process of emergence is likened to the act of giving birth. The role of midwife is usually played by a female deity, like the spider woman of several mythologies of Indigenous peoples in the Americas. Male characters rarely figure into these stories, and scholars often consider them in counterpoint to male-oriented creation myths, like those of the ex nihilo variety. — WIkipedia.com

Ve and Vili and Odin looked at each other and spoke of what was needful to do, there in the void of Ginnungagap. They spoke of the universe, and of life, and of the future.
Odin and Ve and Vili killed the giant Ymir. It had to be done. There was no other way to make the worlds. This was the beginning of all things, the death that made all life possible. — Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology

There are two types of world parent myths, both describing a separation or splitting of a primeval entity, the world parent or parents. One form describes the primeval state as an eternal union of two parents, and the creation takes place when the two are pulled apart. The two parents are commonly identified as Sky (usually male) and Earth (usually female), who were so tightly bound to each other in the primeval state that no offspring could emerge. These myths often depict creation as the result of a sexual union and serve as genealogical record of the deities born from it.
In the second form of world parent myths, creation itself springs from dismembered parts of the body of the primeval being. Often, in these stories, the limbs, hair, blood, bones, or organs of the primeval being are somehow severed or sacrificed to transform into sky, earth, animal or plant life, and other worldly features. — WIkipedia.com

The Way gave birth to unity; unity gave birth to duality; duality gave birth to trinity; trinity gave birth to the myriad creatures. — Daodejing

Who really knows,
and who can swear,
How creation came,
when or where!
Even gods came after
creation’s day,
Who really knows and
who can truly say,
When and how
did creation start?
Did He do it?
Or did He not?
Only He, up there,
knows, maybe;
Or perhaps,
not even He.
― Rig Veda
On Divine and Human CREATION

Every act of creation is first an act of destruction. —  attributed to Pablo Picasso and/or  e.e. cummings

Love is the only reality and it is not a mere sentiment. It is the ultimate truth that lies at the heart of creation. — Rabindranath Tagore

You aren’t your work, your accomplishments, your possessions, your home, your family… your anything. You’re a creation of your Source, dressed in a physical human body intended to experience and enjoy life on Earth. — Wayne Dyer

The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists. — Charles Dickens

The key to nature’s therapy is feeling like a tiny part of it, not a master over it. There’s amazing pride in seeing a bee land on a flower you planted – but that’s not your act of creation, it’s your act of joining in. — Victoria Coren Mitchell

Every moment there is creation, every moment destruction. There is no absolute creation, no absolute destruction. Both are movement, and that is eternal. —  Ramana Maharshi

Every human is an artist. And this is the main art that we have: the creation of our story. — Miguel Ruiz

Love is anterior to life, posterior to death, initial of creation, and the exponent of breath. — Emily Dickinson

The creation continues incessantly through the media of man. — Antonio Gaudi

The artist, like the God of the creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails. — James Joyce

If God gave the soul his whole creation she would not be filled thereby but only with himself. —  Meister Eckhart

In each individual the spirit is made flesh, in each one the whole of creation suffers, in each one a Savior is crucified. — Hermann Hesse

All the principles of heaven and earth are living inside you. Life itself is truth, and this will never change. Everything in heaven and earth breathes. Breath is the thread that ties creation together. — Morihei Ueshiba

The eyes of the cheerful and of the melancholy man are fixed upon the same creation; but very different are the aspects which it bears to them. — Albert Pike

An original is a creation motivated by desire. Any reproduction of an originals motivated be necessity. It is marvelous that we are the only species that creates gratuitous forms. To create is divine, to reproduce is human. — Man Ray

Man is a creation of desire, not a creation of need. — Gaston Bachelard

Every thread of creation is held in position by still other strands of things living. — Don McLean

I know that you are part of me and I am part of you because we are all aspects of the same infinite consciousness that we call God and Creation. — David Icke

The art of creation is older than the art of killing. — Ed Koch

Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains. You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow. They smelled of moss in your hand. Polished and muscular and torsional. On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. … In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery. ― Cormac McCarthy, The Road

On EVOLUTION, BIG BANG, STRING THEORY & SCIENCE as Tools of Understanding

When we read about Creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so. God is not a demiurge [demigod] or a magician, but the Creator who gives being to all entities. Evolution in nature is not opposed to the notion of Creation, because evolution presupposes the creation of beings that evolve. — Pope Francis

Was the big bang really the beginning of time? Or did the universe exist before then?… developments in theoretical physics, especially the rise of string theory, have changed their perspective. The pre-bang universe has become the latest frontier of cosmology… In one form or another, the issue of the ultimate beginning has engaged philosophers and theologians in nearly every culture.
… We can trace our lineage back through the generations, back through our animal ancestors, to early forms of life and protolife, to the elements synthesized in the primordial universe, to the amorphous energy deposited in space before that. Does our family tree extend forever backward? Or do its roots terminate? Is the cosmos as impermanent as we are? … The ancient Greeks debated the origin of time fiercely. Aristotle, taking the no-beginning side, invoked the principle that out of nothing, nothing comes. If the universe could never have gone from nothingness to somethingness, it must always have existed. For this and other reasons, time must stretch eternally into the past and future. Christian theologians tended to take the opposite point of view. Augustine contended that God exists outside of space and time, able to bring these constructs into existence as surely as he could forge other aspects of our world. When asked, What was God doing before he created the world? Augustine answered, Time itself being part of God’s creation, there was simply no before!
… So, when did time begin? Science does not have a conclusive answer yet, but at least two potentially testable theories plausibly hold that the universe–and therefore time–existed well before the big bang. If either scenario is right, the cosmos has always been in existence and, even if it recollapses one day, will never end. — Gabriele Veneziano, Scientific American (full article: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-myth-of-the-beginning-of-time-2006-02/)

In essence, String Theory describes space and time, matter and energy, gravity and light, indeed all of God’s creation… as music. — Roy H. Williams

The capacity to be puzzled is the premise of all creation, be it in art or in science. — Erich Fromm

Creation is a process that is still happening and we’re in on it! We are a part of this endless creativity of God. — Fr. Richard Rohr

Believing as I do in evolution, I merely believe that it is the method by which God created, and is still creating, life on earth. — Rachel Carson

The environment selects those few mutations that enhance survival, resulting in a series of slow transformations of one lifeform into another, the origin of a new species. — Carl Sagan

I believe God did intend, in giving us intelligence, to give us the opportunity to investigate and appreciate the wonders of His creation. He is not threatened by our scientific adventures. — Francis Collins

Seeking to populate this otherwise sterile universe with living creatures, God chose the elegant mechanism of evolution to create microbes, plants, and animals of all sorts. — Francis Collins

Evolution is amazingly versatile in adapting the materials at hand to other uses. — George Gaylord Simpson

Mutation is random; natural selection is the very opposite of random. —Richard Dawkins

From the paramecium to the human race, all life forms are meticulously organized, sophisticated aggregates of evolving microbial life. Far from leaving microorganisms behind on an evolutionary ‘ladder,’ we are both surrounded by them and composed of them. — Lynn Margulis

Today, I believe that humanity is at a critical crossroad. The radical advances that took place in neuroscience and particularly in genetics towards the end of the twentieth century have led to a new era in human history. Our knowledge of the human brain and body at the cellular and genetic level, with the consequent technological possibilities offered for genetic manipulation, has reached such a stage that the ethical challenges of these scientific advances are enormous. It is all too evident that our moral thinking simply has not been able to keep pace with such rapid progress in our acquisition of knowledge and power. Yet the ramifications of these new findings and their applications are so far-reaching that they relate to the very conception of human nature and the preservation of the human species. So it is no longer adequate to adopt the view that our responsibility as a society is to simply further scientific knowledge and enhance technological power and that the choice of what to do with this knowledge and power should be left in the hands of the individual. We must find a way of bringing fundamental humanitarian and ethical considerations to bear upon the direction of scientific development, especially in the life sciences. By invoking fundamental ethical principles, I am not advocating a fusion of religious ethics and scientific inquiry. Rather, I am speaking of what I call “secular ethics” that embrace the key ethical principles, such as compassion, tolerance, a sense of caring, consideration of others, and the responsible use of knowledge and power – principles that transcend the barriers between religious believers and non-believers, and followers of this religion or that religion. — His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

 

CHRISTIAN COMMENTARY on BIBLICAL CREATION STORY

As God has not made anything useless in this world, as all beings fulfill obligations or a role in the sublime drama of Creation, I cannot exempt from this duty, and small though it be, I too have a mission to fill, as for example: alleviating the sufferings of my fellowmen. — Jose Rizal

Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation. — Edmund Burke

I confess that I am a Christo-centric universalist. What that means to me is that, whatever God was accomplishing, especially on the cross, that Christological event, was for the restoration and redemption and reconciliation of all things and all people and all Creation – everyone. Whatever God was getting done there, that is for everyone. How God manages to play that out through other religions, other symbol systems, I will never understand. I have to allow for the idea that God is actually nimble enough and powerful enough and creative enough to do that. — Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber

They define virtue thus—that it is a living according to Nature, and think that we are made by God for that end; they believe that a man then follows the dictates of Nature when he pursues or avoids things according to the direction of reason. — Thomas More

What is Man? Man is a noisome bacillus whom Our Heavenly Father created because he was disappointed in the monkey. — Mark Twain

For Christians, who believe they are created in the image of God, it is the Godhead, diversity in unity and the three-in-oneness of God, which we and all creation reflect. — Desmond Tutu

That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.― Martin Luther King Jr., from “Loving Your Enemies”

The intention that man should be happy is not in the plan of Creation. ― Sigmund Freud

… God who created the universe out of ‘nothing,’ that can put flesh on dry bones ‘nothing,’ that can put life in a dusty womb ‘nothing.’ I mean, let’s face it, ‘nothing’ is God’s favorite material to work with. — Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber

While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God’s creation. — Maya Angelou

I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of; for to have been thought about, born in God’s thought, and then made by God, is the dearest, grandest and most precious thing in all thinking. ― George MacDonald

Christianity is, I believe, about expanded life, heightened consciousness and achieving a new humanity. It is not about closed minds, supernatural interventions, a fallen creation, guilt, original sin or divine rescue. — John Shelby Spong

Creation exists first of all for its own good sake; second to show forth God’s goodness, diversity, and beneficence; and then for humans’ appropriate use. Our small, scarcity-based worldview is the real aberration here, and I believe it has largely contributed to the rise of atheism and the “practical atheism” that is the actual operative religion of most Western countries today. The God we’ve been presenting people with is just too small and too stingy for a big-hearted person to trust or to love back. — Fr. Richard Rohr

A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it is to be God. ― Sidney Sheldon

We could not become like God, so God became like us. God showed us how to heal instead of kill, how to mend instead of destroy, how to love instead of hate, how to live instead of long for more. When we nailed God to a tree, God forgave. And when we buried God in the ground, Got got up. ― Rachel Held Evans

God wants us to know that life is a series of beginnings, not endings. Just as graduations are not terminations, but commencements. Creation is an ongoing process, and when we create a perfect world where love and compassion are shared by all, suffering will cease. — Bernie Siegel

It is the spirituality of creation—our affinity, our care, for the rest of creation—that really stretches us to the wholeness of ourselves and to the wholeness of God, as well.
Only when we see ourselves, humans, as part of creation, rather than as the crown of creation, will we ever be able to come anywhere close to really grasping the greatness of God and God’s gifts to us. Only then will we begin to see the glowing face of God everywhere. Only then will we begin to understand that we are all meant to come to fullness of life together—plants, animals, planet, and humans in one great reciprocal circle of a common creation. Until we do, all of us will go on living life with spiritual blinders.
What we do not do to save the whole of creation will shrink our own spiritual vision and separate us, starved and emaciated in soul, from the wholeness of life. We will look at forests and, like the loggers destroying the rain forests on this earth, fail to see the living gift of them. We will take for granted the devotion of our pets and fail to recognize that real human relationships are about more than sex or social comfort or authority. We will watch our children grow up in cement jungles, denied the right to plant tomatoes or the wonder of picking flowers. We will find innocent enemies and set out to destroy them rather than protect them as sisters and brothers and make them our friends.
What we do to the rest of creation we do to ourselves. What we destroy in the rest of creation makes it even easier to destroy in our own.
But God sees the despoliation of all that is “good” and comes closer to those who are its saviors. And therein lies the secret of both the quality of our “dedication” and the depth of our relationship with God. Why? Because it’s profitable to steward the world well? No. Because it is holy to care for the world as God cares for the world. Because co-creation is the task of being human.— Joan Chittister, from The Monastic Way

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