Too Much Too Many – Sharing Hope
October 10, 2010
Rev. Susan E. Gilbert Zencka
Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church
Texts: Colossians 1:15-20, Psalm 19
Today is our last Sunday in this year’s Season of Creation – it is Cosmos Sunday, and as I’ve reflected on the Cosmos over the past couple of weeks, anticipating today, I keep coming back to the idea of bigness. When I think of Cosmos I am struck by the bigness of the universe, and the complexity of the science around cosmology. Including astronomy and physics, cosmology reaches well beyond human history to understand the cosmos – its beginning and its trajectory. It’s a field of science that seems particularly opaque to the dilettante: its complexity, and its range both create a sense of there being almost too much to consider. And that’s not only true in regard to the cosmos – inquiry into almost any subject yields the same unmanageable quantity and diversity of information. At a time when there is more information, and more access to information, than at any other time in history, there also seems to be less wisdom, less understanding, and certainly less certainty, than any of us can remember.
We’re not only overwhelmed with quantities of information – we’re overwhelmed with quantities of stuff, quantities of obligations, quantities of channels to surf, quantities of items of mail, quantities of activities, and if facebook is to be believed, quantities of friends – even if we only converse on the internet. And so even making choices that used to be simple becomes an exercise in frustration and stress. Think for a moment about going to the grocery store with a simple shopping list: eggs, bread, peanut butter, coca-cola, wheat thins. Buying these items used to be fairly easy. But now the array of choices is mind-boggling. Starting with eggs, do you want medium, large, extra large or jumbo? Regular or free-range? Natural feed, omega 3 enhanced, or vegetarian fed eggs? Locally produced or a national brand? On to bread: not only do you have to choose between white and wheat, but between wheat and 100% whole wheat and multigrain and whole grain grown sustainably. Peanut butter choices have gone well beyond smooth and crunchy – do you want natural, regular, low-sugar, no salt, roasted or raw and if you look beyond peanuts, do you want cashew butter, or almond butter? Coca-cola – just grab a six pack right? Well no – cherry, vanilla, diet, no caffeine or with lime are some of the choices. And the crackers I used to love, Wheat Thins, now come in regular, whole grain, low fat, low salt, big, ranch, sundried tomato, and artisan cheese: Wisconsin Cheddar or Vermont Colby.
And the universe not only seems like a more complicated place, but a more frightening place. As the Presbyterian Women began our Bible Study for this year, we realized that we’re often being told to worry in our world these days – and most of the women remembered feeling safe as children. Some of the things we’ve been advised to be afraid of in recent years include: Al Quada, the flu, the food supply, radon in our homes, global climate change, Toyota brakes, strangers, cancer, AIDS, Lyme Disease, foreclosures, job loss, plastic bottles, pollution, intruders in schools – the scope of the danger is astonishing…you can be afraid in the airport, at school, at home, in the car, in the grocery store, in the woods, and when eating, drinking water or breathing the air.
It’s kind of overwhelming. And it can be hard to be hopeful – the problems are all so big, and it is easy to feel powerless in the face of so many concerns, so much information, when we are each just one small person.
But maybe we’re not. Going back to cosmology, the science of the cosmos – cosmology is a subfield of physics that has to do with theories about the origin, evolution, and present structure of the universe. And although it is, indeed, a field that is complex, it is a field in which new knowledge has transformed the field itself, and created new possibilities for hope.
In the modern era, the world was understood according to Newtonian physics. There were certain laws, fixed relationships, and the world was essentially static, and orderly. In that world, time and space were distinct concepts, and there were laws that rendered the universe predictable. Even after Darwin helped us to understand that there were significant processes in bringing the world to its present state, the universe was still largely viewed as unchanging. But after Einstein’s theory of relativity in 1915, time and space became linked, and after Hubble’s discovery in 1929 that the universe was expanding, cosmology became a different science. In the post-modern world, instead of describing what had always been, it found itself describing what had suddenly begun, and continuously changed.
Physicist and theologian Ian Barbour, retired professor from Carleton College, wrote in his book Religion in an Age of Science about the distinctive features of twentieth-century cosmology. Among these are:
What do these mean for us? If the world has a history, it also has a future. And if the world is an interdependent community, then what we do influences that future.
And there is good news, too – if the world is an interdependent community, then we are never alone – we are connected to one another and to the larger world. Oddly enough, after recent centuries of believing themselves to be operating in different spheres, now suddenly theologians and scientists find themselves dealing with some of the same issues, which is not to say that they are using the same methodologies. But they are asking some of the same questions: where did the world come from? What is the relationship of humans to the rest of the world? How, then, shall we live?
Astrophysicist Robert Jastrow described the developments within cosmology in this way:
“At this moment it seems as though science will never be able to raise the curtain on the mystery of creation. For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.” [David Toolan, At Home in the Cosmos, 2001, page 139]
And so, at such a time as this, our own faith is not so much a matter of our private devotion, but is part of the body of knowledge that is sorting out our relationship to the world and to each other. And given that one of the essential characteristics of the world is unity – everything is connected – one of our fundamental ethical challenges is to live into that unity. It’s not so much a wish anymore as it is a fact – we ARE connected to one another, we ARE all part of the whole. And so religion is not separate from economics, religion is not separate from environmental science, religion is not separates from war, religion is not separate from life. And one of the things religion might guide us toward is living into a deeper sense of community, a deeper interdependence, a deeper fidelity with how the world really is.
And we need to find ways to make that practical, because our faith is nothing if it is not lived. Frame’s Green Team is initiating a project today to do two important things:
This new project, called Frame Shares, is a way to help us help one another. As Dan Dieterich wrote in the October Post, “Through such a program, we Frame members would avoid purchasing items (canning equipment, chain saw, rototiller, post hole digger, etc.) that other Frame members would gladly lend us. By participating in such a program, not only will you save money, but you will reduce the stress on the environment caused when you purchase items that you then seldom use. You will also have opportunities to share your time and expertise with others (think babysitting, dog/cat watching, tutoring, driving, and the like) in ways that will benefit the environment, improve people’s lives, and build a sense of community among all of us.”
Notice that Dan said “…build a sense of community.” The community already exists. We already are related to one another. If God has called us into community with one another, doesn’t it make sense to acknowledge the reality of that interdependence, and live in deep relationship?
One of the fundamental principles of the Season of Creation is that by observing the world, we can learn about God. The psalm we read today could be the theme text for the Season of Creation. Its opening verses tell us that “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” These verses assert that the world itself tells us about God. If the world tells us that deep interrelationship is integral to life, then as we fail to develop such relationships, we can expect that we will not thrive as we might in substantive relationship with one another and with the earth.
And this won’t be so much discovering a new way of life as rediscovering a way of life that worked pretty well. At the Presbyterian Women Bible Study on Thursday morning, several Frame members spoke about how life used to involve more sharing burdens together, more reaching out to one another. One woman remembered that a challenging but fun time growing up on the farm was harvest time, when neighbors would come help with the harvest, and then gather for dinner together, too. One woman said: “Whatever you had, you shared with your neighbors.” And another said, “If there was someone in church who needed something, you helped them.” Now of course, the Frame Shares Program is not the only way to build deep relationships, but in this world that feels so frightening and frustrating, deep relationships may be the only way to build peace and a safe future.
Remember, we’ve learned that the world had a beginning, it has a past, and so we know that it has a future, too. And we know that our choices impact that future, because we know the earth is a community. So we have a basis for hope, and a basis to share hope – as we share life together.
A few years ago there was a documentary made about oil, called Crude Impact. In it, Dr. William Rees, from the University of British Columbia, says “…environmentalists have sold sustainability wrong – sold it as sacrifice. Nothing sells if people think they will be worse off.” We can build deep relationships and our lives will be richer. And what we do matters. Kavita Ramdas, President of the Global Fund for Women, said in Crude Impact: “It sounds often like the scale of the problems is so huge, but the level at which you can intervene is really one village, one community, one home, one family, at a time. It makes a difference.”
The movie concludes with this statement from Thom Hartmann, “What one person can do, and must do, if we’re going to have a healthy planet… is personally wake up and be an instrument of awakening to others….tag, you’re it.”
We are it. We are the future, we are people who can make a difference, and who, no matter what, will change the world. Will we change the world into a place where climate change is more likely, where our children will inherit our problems without the model of any solutions, where people grow less connected to each other, and less able to find common cause together? Or will we change the world into a place where our community lives the interdependence, mutual vulnerability that God wove into creation? Change is inevitable; will we be part of changing the world for the better or for the worse? What we choose matters. And we can choose to share hope.
Tag, you’re it.
Amen.
Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church
Texts: Colossians 1:15-20, Psalm 19
Today is our last Sunday in this year’s Season of Creation – it is Cosmos Sunday, and as I’ve reflected on the Cosmos over the past couple of weeks, anticipating today, I keep coming back to the idea of bigness. When I think of Cosmos I am struck by the bigness of the universe, and the complexity of the science around cosmology. Including astronomy and physics, cosmology reaches well beyond human history to understand the cosmos – its beginning and its trajectory. It’s a field of science that seems particularly opaque to the dilettante: its complexity, and its range both create a sense of there being almost too much to consider. And that’s not only true in regard to the cosmos – inquiry into almost any subject yields the same unmanageable quantity and diversity of information. At a time when there is more information, and more access to information, than at any other time in history, there also seems to be less wisdom, less understanding, and certainly less certainty, than any of us can remember.
We’re not only overwhelmed with quantities of information – we’re overwhelmed with quantities of stuff, quantities of obligations, quantities of channels to surf, quantities of items of mail, quantities of activities, and if facebook is to be believed, quantities of friends – even if we only converse on the internet. And so even making choices that used to be simple becomes an exercise in frustration and stress. Think for a moment about going to the grocery store with a simple shopping list: eggs, bread, peanut butter, coca-cola, wheat thins. Buying these items used to be fairly easy. But now the array of choices is mind-boggling. Starting with eggs, do you want medium, large, extra large or jumbo? Regular or free-range? Natural feed, omega 3 enhanced, or vegetarian fed eggs? Locally produced or a national brand? On to bread: not only do you have to choose between white and wheat, but between wheat and 100% whole wheat and multigrain and whole grain grown sustainably. Peanut butter choices have gone well beyond smooth and crunchy – do you want natural, regular, low-sugar, no salt, roasted or raw and if you look beyond peanuts, do you want cashew butter, or almond butter? Coca-cola – just grab a six pack right? Well no – cherry, vanilla, diet, no caffeine or with lime are some of the choices. And the crackers I used to love, Wheat Thins, now come in regular, whole grain, low fat, low salt, big, ranch, sundried tomato, and artisan cheese: Wisconsin Cheddar or Vermont Colby.
And the universe not only seems like a more complicated place, but a more frightening place. As the Presbyterian Women began our Bible Study for this year, we realized that we’re often being told to worry in our world these days – and most of the women remembered feeling safe as children. Some of the things we’ve been advised to be afraid of in recent years include: Al Quada, the flu, the food supply, radon in our homes, global climate change, Toyota brakes, strangers, cancer, AIDS, Lyme Disease, foreclosures, job loss, plastic bottles, pollution, intruders in schools – the scope of the danger is astonishing…you can be afraid in the airport, at school, at home, in the car, in the grocery store, in the woods, and when eating, drinking water or breathing the air.
It’s kind of overwhelming. And it can be hard to be hopeful – the problems are all so big, and it is easy to feel powerless in the face of so many concerns, so much information, when we are each just one small person.
But maybe we’re not. Going back to cosmology, the science of the cosmos – cosmology is a subfield of physics that has to do with theories about the origin, evolution, and present structure of the universe. And although it is, indeed, a field that is complex, it is a field in which new knowledge has transformed the field itself, and created new possibilities for hope.
In the modern era, the world was understood according to Newtonian physics. There were certain laws, fixed relationships, and the world was essentially static, and orderly. In that world, time and space were distinct concepts, and there were laws that rendered the universe predictable. Even after Darwin helped us to understand that there were significant processes in bringing the world to its present state, the universe was still largely viewed as unchanging. But after Einstein’s theory of relativity in 1915, time and space became linked, and after Hubble’s discovery in 1929 that the universe was expanding, cosmology became a different science. In the post-modern world, instead of describing what had always been, it found itself describing what had suddenly begun, and continuously changed.
Physicist and theologian Ian Barbour, retired professor from Carleton College, wrote in his book Religion in an Age of Science about the distinctive features of twentieth-century cosmology. Among these are:
- In place of stability and order, nature is now understood to be characterized by dynamism and change. Instead of eternal, fixed laws, nature is described by historicity. The world changed over time.
- “Nature is understood to be relational, ecological, and interdependent.” We no longer can understand objects in nature by themselves – objects are not separate from other objects or the universe as a whole.
- “Nature is a community – a historical community of interdependent beings.”
What do these mean for us? If the world has a history, it also has a future. And if the world is an interdependent community, then what we do influences that future.
And there is good news, too – if the world is an interdependent community, then we are never alone – we are connected to one another and to the larger world. Oddly enough, after recent centuries of believing themselves to be operating in different spheres, now suddenly theologians and scientists find themselves dealing with some of the same issues, which is not to say that they are using the same methodologies. But they are asking some of the same questions: where did the world come from? What is the relationship of humans to the rest of the world? How, then, shall we live?
Astrophysicist Robert Jastrow described the developments within cosmology in this way:
“At this moment it seems as though science will never be able to raise the curtain on the mystery of creation. For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.” [David Toolan, At Home in the Cosmos, 2001, page 139]
And so, at such a time as this, our own faith is not so much a matter of our private devotion, but is part of the body of knowledge that is sorting out our relationship to the world and to each other. And given that one of the essential characteristics of the world is unity – everything is connected – one of our fundamental ethical challenges is to live into that unity. It’s not so much a wish anymore as it is a fact – we ARE connected to one another, we ARE all part of the whole. And so religion is not separate from economics, religion is not separate from environmental science, religion is not separates from war, religion is not separate from life. And one of the things religion might guide us toward is living into a deeper sense of community, a deeper interdependence, a deeper fidelity with how the world really is.
And we need to find ways to make that practical, because our faith is nothing if it is not lived. Frame’s Green Team is initiating a project today to do two important things:
- Provide some relief from the accumulation of stuff, and
- Live into the reality of interdependence.
This new project, called Frame Shares, is a way to help us help one another. As Dan Dieterich wrote in the October Post, “Through such a program, we Frame members would avoid purchasing items (canning equipment, chain saw, rototiller, post hole digger, etc.) that other Frame members would gladly lend us. By participating in such a program, not only will you save money, but you will reduce the stress on the environment caused when you purchase items that you then seldom use. You will also have opportunities to share your time and expertise with others (think babysitting, dog/cat watching, tutoring, driving, and the like) in ways that will benefit the environment, improve people’s lives, and build a sense of community among all of us.”
Notice that Dan said “…build a sense of community.” The community already exists. We already are related to one another. If God has called us into community with one another, doesn’t it make sense to acknowledge the reality of that interdependence, and live in deep relationship?
One of the fundamental principles of the Season of Creation is that by observing the world, we can learn about God. The psalm we read today could be the theme text for the Season of Creation. Its opening verses tell us that “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” These verses assert that the world itself tells us about God. If the world tells us that deep interrelationship is integral to life, then as we fail to develop such relationships, we can expect that we will not thrive as we might in substantive relationship with one another and with the earth.
And this won’t be so much discovering a new way of life as rediscovering a way of life that worked pretty well. At the Presbyterian Women Bible Study on Thursday morning, several Frame members spoke about how life used to involve more sharing burdens together, more reaching out to one another. One woman remembered that a challenging but fun time growing up on the farm was harvest time, when neighbors would come help with the harvest, and then gather for dinner together, too. One woman said: “Whatever you had, you shared with your neighbors.” And another said, “If there was someone in church who needed something, you helped them.” Now of course, the Frame Shares Program is not the only way to build deep relationships, but in this world that feels so frightening and frustrating, deep relationships may be the only way to build peace and a safe future.
Remember, we’ve learned that the world had a beginning, it has a past, and so we know that it has a future, too. And we know that our choices impact that future, because we know the earth is a community. So we have a basis for hope, and a basis to share hope – as we share life together.
A few years ago there was a documentary made about oil, called Crude Impact. In it, Dr. William Rees, from the University of British Columbia, says “…environmentalists have sold sustainability wrong – sold it as sacrifice. Nothing sells if people think they will be worse off.” We can build deep relationships and our lives will be richer. And what we do matters. Kavita Ramdas, President of the Global Fund for Women, said in Crude Impact: “It sounds often like the scale of the problems is so huge, but the level at which you can intervene is really one village, one community, one home, one family, at a time. It makes a difference.”
The movie concludes with this statement from Thom Hartmann, “What one person can do, and must do, if we’re going to have a healthy planet… is personally wake up and be an instrument of awakening to others….tag, you’re it.”
We are it. We are the future, we are people who can make a difference, and who, no matter what, will change the world. Will we change the world into a place where climate change is more likely, where our children will inherit our problems without the model of any solutions, where people grow less connected to each other, and less able to find common cause together? Or will we change the world into a place where our community lives the interdependence, mutual vulnerability that God wove into creation? Change is inevitable; will we be part of changing the world for the better or for the worse? What we choose matters. And we can choose to share hope.
Tag, you’re it.
Amen.