Growing up in the 80’s with the accepted mindset of “it’s all gonna burn” set the stage for my early passivity towards reconciling any of the brokenness in the created world. The hope was that if things got bad enough, Jesus would come back and we’d all be whisked away from this very broken, very damaged world. And while the conflicting idea of God creating a good and perfect world only to have it burn didn’t sit right with me, I didn’t dig in and question these assumptions until much later in life. Finding Antioch Church in Bend, Oregon brought about a major overhaul of some of these childhood beliefs. From rethinking heaven and hell, to seeing God’s fingerprints all over the created world, I began to shift my posture towards reconciliation and hope. In fact, this was the first time that I had heard of the idea of God being on a mission to reconcile all things. My faith up to this point was very individualistic. Hearing the ideas of reconciliation with God, self, others, the world, and creation shifted my faith outwards. Instead of a hopeless attitude of just waiting for things to get bad enough for Jesus to return and rescue me – an individual, I began to see myself as having an active role in joining God and other believers in the work of reconciliation. “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” took on a whole new meaning. These thoughts came to mind during our first session when we heard about the idea of sacred space. Each patch of the earth holds the stories of all creation since the beginning of time. Are we listening? Are we willing to expand our understanding of reconciliation beyond our personal story? I am struck often by the disconnect in the US with how stories of place are told. There seems to be a line between the indigenous peoples and the lives they lived, and the European settlers who followed. I often hear people disparage the “history” of the west coast with the older settlements on the east coast. “We have no history here”, is a frequent complaint. Reconciliation in this area would be the recognition of the complete story of a place: from creation to the present, from the earliest inhabitants to the people who call a place home today. Practicing creation care can be a pathway towards acknowledging the complete history of a place, towards recognizing that “Surely God is in this place, and I was not aware of it” Gen 28:16.
4 comments
Hello Amy, I really enjoyed reading this!
I love how you used ‘Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ in relation to reconciliation. I have spoken those words in prayer so many times and never gave a thought to how it truely is the definition of reconciliation. If we can align our human will with the Divine will of the One who hung the stars in the sky, then we will become co-creators with God and peace will be restored on earth as it is in heaven. So simple, it’s difficult 😊
Thanks for sharing, Amy! I can relate to an experience of awakening to God’s presence and goodness in creation and our call to steward it well. It’s just been in the past several years that I’ve begun to make changes in my life in order to intentionally care for creation and reduce my impact. Now, I wonder why for so many years those of us who claim to follow the Creator have done so much harm to creation. I appreciate in your reflection the movement from despair to hope and from escape to participation.
Amy! Thank you for offering a glimpse of your theological origins in this reflection…as well as a glance at your theological renovation over time. My origins are similar to yours and I remember thinking that, if it’s all going to burn, then peacemaking and reconciliation is actually antithetical to the work of God. While I’ve been rescued into a more spacious, gracious, restorative story, I find that much of my work is among those with origins like ours. Beyond compelling content, what are some of the experiences that have liberated you further into a faith with reconciliation at its core?
Thanks for that question, Jer! I would have to say that moving towards a reconciliation mindset has been a slow and steady process. It is difficult to pinpoint certain moments. That said, I was greatly impacted by listening to a couple of Indigenous Christian Leaders (Richard Twiss and Mark Charles) as well as by reading Mark Charles & Soong-Chan Rah’s book, Unsettling Truths. Rethinking my assumptions about the faith of Indigenous peoples in North America, both at the time of colonialism and the present day has led to great lament of systemic sin but also to great anticipation of a reconciled church that is truly inclusive of all believers across cultures and time. I continue to reconcile the faith of my childhood and young adulthood with the stories I hear of peoples from different times and cultures. And day by day, my imagination of what a reconciled church could look like morphs and grows and deepens!