Matter matters- or restoring connectedness 2

There has been a long Christian tendency to read the Bible through Greek glasses, to see salvation as salvation out of the created world, rather than for the created world. Yet salvation is about restoration of all broken relationships, including the relationship with the place and with other creatures- then that fullest understading of gospel will make the difference."   

I've been researching a bit into environmental movement (one of those arenas where many church-abandoned prophets and apostles find themselves).  I'm not really interested in Christian environmental movement, but rather trying to find answers to these questions:
How much deeper (than what I now realise) can the  wounds of dualism be in my Christian heritage? And how can I find my way back to where temporary earth and everyday life still matters?

I've read stories of people finding their Native roots, and being restored to their cultural identity as a part of indigenous community. And those stories come to me when I think how we believers have been cut off of our connection to nature (among so many other things we've been disconnected from by our dualistic heritage) because we have emphasized spiritual things over things of matter.

For many believers the environmental movement represents something humanistic that is to be avoided, especially Greenpeace because it even has "that rainbow in their logo" (I always thought that a rainbow symbolizes God's covenent with the people, stupid me!).  It's incredible how vividly Old Testament describes God speaking through nature.So in this recent boom of learning to hear God's voice, should we also learn to listen to God's voice in nature, how he speaks through plants and animals - and if he doesn't speak, to ask what's the reason.

"Jesus and the prophets spent much time in the wilderness because they understood the earth holds an quality in which the presence of God can easily be experienced. What have we learned from Jesus when most Christian meetings are inside an artificial environment with four walls and plastic plants in the corner. To aboriginal peoples, the the entire creation is a sanctuary for worship."

Modern Christianity has been involved in building a mechanistic world view, and  placed God in a church building, but I think there is little hope in postmodern Jesus following movement, that it will let its storytellers and artist reconnect us to earth, time and place, by telling stories that remind us of our stewardship over it. Going back to Bible again, I think it's outstanding that the whole story happens in places, among peoples, mountains and lakes that are mentioned by name and many of which still exist.   

Comments

[andiwolf]

sounds healthy and promising. like a land far-off...

[Mathias]

Very good post, Niina! =)
I love this theme. Although I think that as much as the heritage of dualism has cut us off from the nature and the creation as the place God put us to live, and therefor a place that God wants us to connect with and prosper in, the main break-off has been sin and our choice not to follow God. That's the starting point for all estrangement and alienation and misery.

I''ve worked with Greenpeace for three years or so, and the people are good, honest and caring. My good friend and the godmother of my son, Birthe, is really deeply committed to the environmental movement and the group that call themselves Maan ystävät (Friends of the Earth), and I admire her will and her decision to care for the creation. Which she doesn't even believe is a creation, as she's not a christian believer. But she recornizes the importance of caring for our nature. And I pray that she by looking at the nature, the creation, will get a growing feeling in her spirit that there also is a Creator.

[laura]

niina oot niin huippu ja fiksu. ja aina innostat!

[andiwolf]

rereading your post reminds me of my Sinai desert trip and the overwhelming silence, majesty and awe it breathes. it isn't really suprising to see sensitive people turn to wicca these days (or other nature-oriented spiritual paths). i am thankful for your quest into these roots and look forward to learning from your findings :)

[Hajo+Rebecca]

Cool thoughts. Two citations come to my mind. One sentence was quite important and often stated on the European Rainbow Gathering last summer and stands for the concern to protect and feel conected to nature: I and the land are one. The other quotation is a clear argument that God chose his creation to reveal his character: Ever since the world was created it has been possible to see the qualities of God that are not seen. I'm talking about his eternal power and about the fact that he is God. Those things can be seen in what he has made. Romans 1,20