Matt Gunter, reflecting on the image of a Soviet sub’s nuclear powerplant gone critical, reflects on the parallels between the contamination caused by the leaking radiation and the way our sinful natures contaminate our relationships with the people who surround us in our lives. “We are contaminated. What’s even harder for us to admit is that many of our actions and thoughts contribute to the contamination.”
The Society of St. John the Evangelist has a web site with readings, videos and resources that takes the reader along the “The Road to
In Sudan, a land that has been at war for most of the past five decades, forgiveness is an immediate issue. This is a place where religious, tribal, ethnic, language and gender differences have resulted in the deaths of millions of people. This is a place where land has been taken, families have been split, livelihoods have been destroyed.
A new study finds “that while attendance at religious services decreased dramatically for most students between their freshman and junior years, the students’ overall level of spirituality, as defined by the researchers, increases. On hot-button social issues, such as abortion and gay marriage, the study finds that students become increasingly liberal.”
Maybe participants are being spurred not only by generosity but also by a quest to find out what meaning people enjoy while living with hardships that North Americans can barely imagine. Many people return from their pilgrimages to Central American villages with questions such as: How come that people who live with such physical discomforts seem far happier and contented, more trusting and hospitable than we are, who are so cocooned and protected?
“There’s really something spiritual about skiing,” said Egelhoff, a retired Episcopal priest. “It’s hard to identify and hard to explain, but it’s a feeling of being with nature and, in a sense, being with God.”
First, there is the cell phone. I can be reached anytime, anywhere, by anyone and it all seems urgent. When I am not on the phone, I am at the computer (like I am now) getting all the news and weather and commentary about all sorts of vital things. When I am in the car, I like to listen to public radio or books on tape so I can keep up with the whole Hillary vs. Obama thing and The New York Times’ picks of good books to read or listen to.
In the midst of the messiness of raising three children under 5, God is there. In the balancing of the checkbook, God is there. In the waiting room of the hospital, God is there. In the boring meeting, God is there. In the frustrating traffic jam, God is there. Lent might be a time when we can be attentive to the place where we are, and attentive to God.
If one part of God’s glorious creation – such as the ecosystem of this tropical coral reef – is so complex and fragile, doesn’t it follow that other parts of creation – the family, the congregation, the diocese, the Church, the Communion – each would be just as complex. Think of how nuanced and complicated the life of any congregation or diocese is. Yet, if we’re on the outside, how easy it is to feel we have captured the nut of a place in the palm of our hands.
How strangely ironic that many in the Church should be blinded to the truth that these two gentlemen showed the world. For, in essence, both Galileo and Darwin were using science to claim that humankind is not at the center of everything. Our earth is not at the center of God’s creation, and our species is not at the center of God’s creation. Isn’t this what Lent is supposed to teach us?