Archives For Wrestling with Doubts

Unbelief and Belief in God and Words

Nathan Aaberg —  February 29, 2024 — Leave a comment

So I’m back.

Last year, as I’ll describe in a future blog, I worked two demanding jobs for two non-profits in the food and farming field. This squeezed the rest of my life. Even though I continued to think about all things Creation every day, I took a break from the blog to leave room for my family and my health.

And to be very candid, even as I took a sabbatical of sorts, I questioned whether I should continue to make this blog a life pursuit. Was what I was writing, I asked myself, significant to anyone else?

Adding further sharpness to that question was turning 60 and experiencing the limits of my constitution in my working life. I ran into my limits while appreciating more acutely that my life itself had limits. That created habitat attractive to other questions and doubts.

What do I want to give my energies to going forward? Is diving into the ideas that this blog has been my exploring the right thing to invest in? Or should I devote more energies to acting in the world out of my faith for Creation?  

Even deeper questions, questions I thought I had long ago resolved, surfaced.

Do I believe?

Am I willing to rest my life choices and convictions on commitment to God and Jesus? And if I am, how does it make sense to do so?

How, I sometimes wonder (and you may find this heretical), could God choose to give us the Bible as we have it as a major revelation of himself when it can be read so many ways and when there are threads within it that can be woven in many varieties of cloth? Why do so many of those varieties of cloth result in Christians who believe God created this world and then treat it, collectively and individually, with so much indifference?

The following tweet by a thoughtful rancher and land steward out West encapsulated it all perfectly. You can tell from her words that she has met many people of the Christian faith who are completely indifferent:

I am horrified. I know that you are horrified. But if you went to the average church and expressed your horror and asked for prayers for Creation, they would literally not know what to do with you. 

 

But Here I Am Paying Attention

When I find myself asking all of these questions, I am a little envious of people whose faith in God and Jesus seems so secure, deeply rooted, and unshakable.

I believe. Yet I need God’s help with my unbelief.

After 60 years on this earth, I am more convinced than ever that there is more to life than the random interaction of atoms. I also find myself compelled (and I can find no other word for it) in heart and mind by the Bible and the God I find there and by that same God I find reflected in Creation. I find myself captivated, thanks in part to The Bible Project, by how the whole Bible fits together and by how Jesus fits within that whole. 

I have also come to understand this after ten years of writing — any attempt at weaving the threads of the Bible together into a satisfying and whole cloth depends on you and I really paying attention. This applies to Creation and much else that relates to how we live faith-lives.

All too often we don’t actually see what is in front of us, around us, and even inside of us. We get carried along. Sometimes we are carried along by our busy-ness and our eagerness to get on to the next thing. Sometimes we get carried along by what we expect to see or experience. The culture in which we swim and breathe can blind us. The theologies we have been taught can cause us to miss things or interpret things in a way that isn’t fair or respectful to what is right in front of us.

I believe, too, that is very possible for us to have hearts that have gone numb. We can no longer know at a deep level what really gives us life and energy. The capabilities we have that come from being made in God’s image can be covered up by the habits we fall into. Confusing the Christian faith-life with pledging alliance to the correct theology can be one of the most effective blinders to actually paying attention.

Often we need to look anew and question anew. We need to pay attention to all that is in the Bible, in Creation, and in our hearts. 

 

A Signpost in the Psalms

I recently read through all of the Psalms. It was not the first time, but in the process I saw new things I had not remembered before. Here is just one of many verses that struck me:

Psalm 145:16 

You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing.

The desire of every living thing – from fish and birds to moss and plants and even lichens – is something the Bible is mindful of. Any theology that ignores the desire of every living thing is inherently incomplete. A Christian faith-life that ignores the desires of the living things around us is unwhole.

And I would be so bold as to say that its incompleteness is not just equivalent to a puzzle missing a minor piece on the edge. It is like an engine missing its valves or its gas tank. The absence actually causes the whole not to work.

As Wendell Berry wrote, “We are are holy creatures living among other holy creatures in a world that is holy.”

Are you aware and thoughtful of the desires of every living thing? How do we balance those desires with our own lives, much less our civilization? It almost seems too much to bear. At the very least, it should force us to question how we and our community and our economy and our laws relate to Creation.

Maybe that is the role of people like me, people who live in both belief and doubt. Maybe we are here to pay attention, to balance off people so set in the narrower tracks of their faith and lives that they no longer pay attention to the world and the many subtleties and cross currents of both the Bible and Creation.

And perhaps we are in the better place to respond (as I did) to Ariel and say, “Yes, you are right. This is a precious world. And yes, I am horrified and feel despair about what people have done to God’s world. And, no actually, I can’t really explain why other people who believe this is God’s world don’t care. But the fact that they don’t care doesn’t mean God doesn’t care.”

 

Do I Believe in Words?

I sat down to write this with a general but fairly good idea of the parameters of what I intended to write. But as I let myself write, ideas and thoughts emerged that did not fit into my initial mental outline. This is when writing becomes even harder. You want the process to be smooth and predictable. Instead, you find yourself wrestling and slogging. 

And why engage in that struggle? Why does one combination of words formed from a 26-letter code seem more right than another combination of words? Why do they matter? Don’t real tangible things – like trees, houses, computers, etc. – matter more?

Maybe that is one more reason why I question this blog writing and even my desire to write a book. Maybe what I really question are words themselves.

Do I believe in words? Do I believe that words matter?

Because of how much I care about God’s earth, I’ve tended to see the production of words as somehow a lesser form of action than actually changing how God’s earth is treated. After all, if matter matters, shouldn’t I be devoting time and energy in the world of matter? Planting trees. Restoring wetlands. Farming in ways that produce nutritious food while renewing the life of the soil, of landscapes, of water?

Ironically, I like words. I love to read, especially books with a skillful and lyrical approach to words and ideas. I find a certain kind of felicity from using words in writing and speaking and especially asking questions. I felt I could not not write this blog, which seems like something you could call a calling for words.

So why would I devalue what gives me pleasure and that allows me to create with God’s help?

Perhaps it is partly because my calling, the fact that I cannot look away from God’s earth and see it treated so indifferently, is all about tangible life around us. 

So I’ve meditated further on words. And I’ve begun have a better appreciation for their deeper value and importance beyond the obvious value of communication.

Note that in Genesis God uses words to interact with matter, to call upon it to move from a state to another, to develop boundaries and to bring forth new complexity. I would suggest this is both command and invitation that gives matter direction but also creative freedom. 

And isn’t it interesting that humanity’s first work – the naming of the animals – is creativity with words? 

Words can be used for evil and wrong. That cannot be missed in the Bible. By words, you will know the intentions and state of the heart of the people around you.

Note, too, that in the Bible words have power even when used by people. There are blessings and curses. The power of the Spirit at Pentecost is revealed by an explosion of ability to use words and languages. 

One of most astonishing elements of the Gospel of John is how it labels Jesus as Word. And somehow through Jesus the Word all things are said to have been created. And in this Word-figure all things on heaven and earth will be unified and brought together in some kind of cosmic shalom. Not only will that mean an absence of conflict between people and between people and God. It also promises to be the whole connection of the whole universe. God, people, and Creation will not just have an absence of conflict but will be in joyous union and flourishing.

From all that, I’ve come to believe that words connect and they shape reality in the world itself. They have power. They are tied into the deeper structure of the universe. In a flight of fancy I even see the parallel between how the Bible depicts the creation of humanity – the merging of breath/spirit and matter — and what words themselves are – the merging of spirit/thought and the vibrating molecules all around us. 

 

At Home With Words and Deeds

I admit that I am out of my depth here. Probing the metaphysical meaning of words is a good indication that one is not in Kansas or normal company anymore. I even feel a certain self-consciousness about being so candid about my doubts and my tendency towards this mysticism. 

But at the edge of certainty and feeling alone in my convictions, I feel a surprising settledness. It is as if I have climbed to the top of a ladder with nothing to hold onto with my hands. Yet, I stand. My legs feel solid and well-braced. Even as my head says I should feel fear, I find my body balanceing. My arms no longer seek security but they do not know what to do with themselves. And yet I stand.

The purchase of balance I have comes from things that are not enough in themselves to give 100 percent stability and security.

The mysticism I find true and that resonates with what I encounter in Creation is, I realize, Biblical.

I cannot imagine not writing, not engaging with words in other ways. I need also to act beyond words, but words are also my way of acting.

I have believed what I have written. I have found belief, perhaps my own unique belief, through what I have written.

I have received emails from readers thanking me for particular blog posts. That is something.

I am coming to accept that I am who I am and that God’s abundant love is all around me and everyone  and everything. And that following what is my way, however modest it may be, is what I should give myself to. I cannot be concerned about what my particular impact is. 

Being faithful and faith-full is what I need to be about. And part of my faithfulness is to be candid about my doubts even as I proceed.

There are many more ideas and topics I want to explore around whole faith faith-lives. I also want to share more of the stories of Jesus followers (and others) who are striving to live out a whole faith. I need to wrestle with what it means to be faithful in a whole faith way in the midst of increasing climate chaos. Somehow I will find the time to do that.

Look for more blog posts to come. Look for more words.

 

P.S. While I was not writing this blog, a number of people found my blog and signed up to receive updates via email. Thanks very much for that. I also received a few direct emails expressing thanks for particular posts. I’m very grateful and pray that your convictions around cherishing Creation will grow stronger. I pray, too, that you will find others of faith who share those convictions. And not every post is so long. 🙂

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Longing for the Belonging of Church

Nathan Aaberg —  January 31, 2023 — 2 Comments

I was driving home late last year on a familiar road when I saw a sign for a new church that I had not seen before.

There was no traditional church building in sight. But there was a barn with fresh red metal siding and a metal roof. That, I realized, was the church’s sanctuary. Intriguing.

Perhaps this was it. Perhaps the alternative approach to church architecture signalled an assembly of believers where Creation mattered, where people really believed God loves the whole world.  Could this be a community of faith where Creation’s presence in the Bible was reflected in theology, culture, and way of living? Maybe this would be a place where I could belong.

After pulling away from church a number of years ago, I’ve longed for belonging around faith and Jesus. Seeing that new church in a non-traditional building brought that old familiar pang back to the surface of my heart.

When I got home, I promptly visited the church’s website. It was bright and well-designed. Its photos and text highlighted the church’s racial diversity. The faces, set against a background of wooden barn walls, were friendly, enthusiastic. Promising, I thought.

I found the “What We Believe” section of the website. Hope crashed into reality.

 

Not a word about Creation. Not a single word.

I have to admit this – in that moment, for a moment, I questioned myself.

Maybe I am wrong, I thought. Maybe there’s a good reason why so many churches don’t speak about Creation or care about it. And maybe staying away from church is a rebellion against God’s will. Doesn’t the New Testament speak clearly about the obligation and rewards of being with other followers of Jesus?

That old familiar pang pressed against my heart. Here I was again, feeling guilt for not going to church while longing for belonging in a faith community.

 

Am I Unforgiving?

Some new friends, who I met at a field walk last September at their farm, suggested a different way for me to consider my situation.

They are faithful believers who steward their land carefully and attend a church in Indiana. There they often find themselves alone in expressing a Creation care consciousness. They are not always understood.

During the field walk, we had bonded over our common convictions. I had shared my challenges in finding a church. They wrote this in a recent email:

For us, it’s forgiveness every single time we walk into our church. It can be a struggle for fellow Christians to understand our views, but we think it’s important to lend grace and forgiveness so we can continue to educate them on this matter. People are starting to listen, starting to realize the connection we have to all of His Creation. We pray that you can find forgiveness in your heart so you can go out to disciple this to His people.

These words brought me up short.

Was that the problem? Am I not being forgiving? Was that why I couldn’t fit in and make a home at a church?

Perhaps I needed to commit myself to forgiving fellow believers as they would need to forgive me for my own blind spots. If I repented of the judgments I was making, would I then be able to find a church where I could belong?

 

A Buck Outside the Window

More recently, I was having a conversation with a coworker at the nonprofit I work for in a room with a wide window. Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement in one of our organization’s farm fields roughly 80 yards away. I couldn’t help myself. In mid-conversation, I turned to look closer. Through a row of trees between us and the field, I saw a deer. It was a young buck. The head it held high had a small set of antlers.

Then it strode through the row of trees and onto the lawn south of our office. This was midday. It was now in full view and less than 30 yards away in the middle of a subdivision* in a Midwest town.

By now, I was no longer pretending to be engaged the conversation. We both watched as the buck strode across the lawn. Its eyes were watchful. Its posture powerful.

He passed out of sight. The lawn seemed a wilder place even with him gone. My mind and heart were still absorbing the experience even as my coworker renewed the conversation as if nothing unusual had happened and without a word about the buck.

 

Ears to Hear

Jesus sometimes used the phrase, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Matthew 13:9, Mark 4:9, Luke 8:8, etc.)

In recent weeks I’ve encountered stories and insights that convince me that…… well, let me share them first and then share my conclusion.

The first came from an article in Christianity Today about Bono’s newly published memoir. In it, Bono shares his recollection of a conversation he had with Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham. Billy Graham, one of the most famous Christian evangelists of recent history, had invited Bono to visit him. Franklin had picked him up at the airport. From the conversation that Bono recollects, it’s clear that Franklin was dubious about whether the rockstar Bono was an authentic Christian.

“You … you really love the Lord?” (Franklin)
“Yep.” (Bono)
“Okay, you do. Are you saved?”
“Yep, and saving.”
He doesn’t laugh. No laugh.
“Have you given your life? Do you know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior?”
“Oh, I know Jesus Christ, and I try not to use him just as my personal Savior. But, you know, yes.”
“Why aren’t your songs, um, Christian songs?”
“They are!”
“Oh, well, some of them are.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, why don’t they … Why don’t we know they’re Christian songs?”
I said, “They’re all coming from a place, Franklin. Look around you. Look at the creation, look at the trees, look at the sky, look at these kinds of verdant hills. They don’t have a sign up that says, ‘Praise the Lord’ or ‘I belong to Jesus.’ They just give glory to Jesus.”

 

Killer Whale Theology

Cover of Beyond Words by Carl Safina

 

In Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel, ocean advocate Carl Safina opens the reader’s mind and heart to the complex world of killer whales.

Three things astonished me. The first is the very creatures themselves. There is, for example, not just one generic kind of killer whale. There are actually estimated to be eight types of killer whales. Some eat only fish, primarily salmon. Others prefer mammals. One type, much smaller than the type that eats seals off of ice flows, hunts penguins. Yet another type hunts sharks. Regardless of type, these are highly social animals with matriarchal leadership. Oddly, pods of the same type of killer whales will not socialize with other pods of the same type. They have their own cultures. Yet, killer whales in the wild have never been seen being aggressive to each other.

Their vocal communication capacity is amazing.

“Killer whales in a  group can be spread out over 150 square miles – and all be in vocal contact,” write Safina.

Having huge nerve cells for hearing and generating sounds from skulls that are sophisticated technologies, killer whales (like other dolphin species and whales) inhabit a world we can only dream of. They live, in fact, by sound.

The second remarkable thing is how little humans have known about killer whales for most of human history. It was only in 1960, just over 60 years ago, that a researcher discovered that dolphins relied on sound for so much and that eyesight was a secondary source of information. And it’s been even more recently that people have differentiated the different types of killer whales and discovered that each killer whale has its own individual personality and remarkable social intelligence.

And the third most remarkable thing?

After detailing how powerfully effective killer whales can be as hunters, with some even hunting down 30,000-pound sperm whales, Safina writes this:

“Even stranger, then, that killer whales have overturned no kayak, emptied no rowboat, and slurped no human. It is perhaps the greatest behavioral mystery on our mysterious planet.”

 

Seeing Blue

In Joni B. Cole’s excellent and warmly witty book on writing – Good Naked – she has a chapter entitled “Seeing Blue.”  In it she argues why each writer’s writing matters and is worth pouring energy into, even when it seems to have no immediate reward.

 

Here’s a paragraph in that chapter. It follows her statement that the Egyptians were likely the first civilization to create a word for the color blue and that research indicates few people until modern times really noticed it as a color (don’t worry – you’ll see the point in just a bit):

The claim that a culture with no word for a color it cannot see is supported by a contemporary study with the Himba tribe in Namibia, whose language has several words for nuanced shades of green, but nothing to describe blue. When shown a screen with eleven green squares and one distinctly blue square, the Namibians could not pick out the blue one. Yet, among the green squares that appear identical to a Westerner’s eyes, they could immediately identify the different shade. The ability to see or not see a shade speaks to its important to a culture. Now just imagine if every culture had the ability to see every kind of color!

Her point – every writer has the potential to help readers see something they could not see before.

What I also see in her words is this – our culture can blind us to truth that is right in front of us.

 

A Misfit Who Can’t Unsee Blue

The blue so many churches and so many church cultures cannot see is the life, beauty, mystery, and vulnerability of God’s Creation all around us. The blue that Franklin Graham and many other Christians cannot see is that Creation matters deeply to God and that care of Creation is part of the very core of what we were created for.

I can’t unsee that blue.

Nor can I force Christians who are happy with their churches to see that blue if they don’t want to see it. Nor do I believe that many churches, who are struggling with declines in attendance, will be open to changing their culture and theology around Creation.

So what is worse? Going to church and not belonging because I see a color in the Bible and Creation others won’t see? Or not going to church and missing the fellowship and singing of songs with other believers? Of longing for belonging to a group of people committed to God and Jesus in a whole way?

Right now, despite those old familiar pangs that emerge from hidden places in my heart when I see a church, I’ve come to accept that I am what Jon Terry called me in our conversation earlier this year.

A misfit.

That’s who I am.

Or, if one puts a more positive spin on it, you could label me an “edge walker,” a term Valerie Loorz calls herself in Church of the Wild.

Is there any reason to think such a path could be faithful to God?

When Jesus responded to the Pharisees who complained that he was healing people on the Sabbath (Luke 14:5), he asked them if they would not act on the Sabbath, despite the prohibition on work, if they heard a child or an ox stuck in a well.

When you imagine the scenario that Jesus presented to the Pharisees, you cannot help but hear the cries. Whether a child or ox fell in a well, there would have been heart-rending sounds – the pleading screams of the child, the plaintive bellows of the ox.

My ears can’t unhear the cries of Creation today. Nor can I unhear the lamentations of people whose lives are or will be in misery because of what is being done to Creation.

Pretending I couldn’t hear those cries or shutting my ears to those cries would be, in my mind, a betrayal of God.

I see the blue.

I hear, and I listen.

And what I hear (and oh how I wish I could hear the sounds of killer whale clans as they race through the ocean) resonates with the thread of Creation’s worth through the whole Bible.

So I need to act as best I can.

I pray that people out there who are like me will find each other and act out of the convictions we have from our faith.

Perhaps we will together form new wineskins?

And perhaps many years from now there will be people who drink the vintage of the wine from those wineskins and smile and nod and make more of their own and please God in the process.

 

 

*To be fair, the subdivision is not just any subdivision. It is the Prairie Crossing conservation community, where a significant amount of habitat has been set aside and managed for natural habitat. This makes the buck’s appearance just slightly less surprising. But still a remarkable moment in the middle of an afternoon.

 

 

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10 Ways a Commitment to God’s Earth Deepens Your Faith-Life

Nathan Aaberg —  May 30, 2022 — 2 Comments

On Sunday, April 24th, I gave another sermon to the good people of North Suburban Mennonite Church. They asked me to do so with an Earth Sunday theme but otherwise gave me no direction. I had complete freedom.

So I considered ideas and thoughts I had had in the past but had not presented about or written about.

I ultimately chose to call their attention to a number of ways in which a Christian faith-life that includes a deep commitment to shepherding Creation contributes to a whole, loving, God-honoring faith-life. This is something I’ve been intrigued by for some time. In this blog post, I’m going to share ten.

Isn’t it enough, you might ask, to just be 100% committed to the truth that Creation matters to God? In other words, do we really need to justify a commitment to God’s earth as one of the fundamental ways people of the Christian Way should live?

No.

And yet yes.

The reality is that the culture of Christianity in America and in the world is very diverse. And it’s safe to say that most Christian culture still either recoils at the idea that Creation matters or gives it some half-hearted adherence in theology but not in everyday habits and choices.

In the spirit of 1 Peter 3:15, I believe it’s useful to be able to offer a defense, with gentleness and respect, to the non-believer and to the believer, for why we follow Jesus and why our following includes loving Creation. I also believe that a whole faith necessarily holds together better and with more resilience than a partial faith. We should, as I have written, have an ecology of theology.

So let’s dive into the list. A whole faith that includes God’s Earth as a fundamental element of it will bear the following good fruit:

#1 Transformed Hearts

We know from Proverbs 27:19 and from many words of Jesus that our lives reflect the state of our hearts. In fact, the state of our heart is a major point of concern for much of the Bible. Being in God’s earth and understanding it and working to restore it all help to shape our hearts in salutary ways.

This can be the peace we feel and experience when we are on the water of a stream or lake or hiking through beautiful mountain forests. This can also be humility and wonder at the blessings of God’s goodness and creativity.

It can also be what the Old Testament labels “fear,” as in Deutoronomy 10:12 or Proverbs 9:10. From these verses, it is clear that this fear is something we need to have. Fear, of course, doesn’t feel like a 21st century notion of how we relate to God. But this is another example of interpretation that hides the original nuance. The Hebrew word we translate as fear is “yirah,” and it actually doesn’t have a simple equivalent in English. It actually conveys fear, awe, and reverence. All at once. Simultaneously.

Where is the best place to experience awe, reverence, and fear simultaneously? Can there be any doubt? It’s being in Creation, whether it’s observing a jumping spider in a backyard garden or encountering a grizzly in Denali National Park. And that awe, reverence, and fear is what our hearts often desperately need to be opened to the deeper realities of this world and to be open to a fuller conception of God in our hearts and minds.

 

#2 Pervasive Awareness of the Reality of Sin

When life is going well for us in our modern, technological world, it’s actually easy for the reality of sin to seem rather quaint and naggingly troublesome, like a small chronic pain in your knee that won’t quite go away.

The whole equation changes if we believe God holds us accountable for how we individually and as societies treat God’s Creation (and, I would add, the most vulnerable people of our world). If you believe that and pay attention to what we actually do to God’s Creation, then the wounds of sin become powerfully evident.

Consider that fifty percent of the coral reefs have died since the 1950s. And that matters because they are said to provide habitat for 25% of marine life. Factory farms house hundreds of thousands of animals in horrible conditions. Many of the wild animals mentioned in the Bible, like lion and bear and antelope, no longer live in that area because of hunting and human expansion. The existence of some animals on this planet has simpley winked out forever. The list goes on.

The tragedy and loss are clear when we consider that our number one human job is to serve and keep God’s earth. An art museum night guard who took part in the vandalization of some paintings in the museum and allowed others to be stolen and then burned would not be a guard for long  Sin, both individual and collective, is real. Its prevalence in the light of the destruction of Creation is unmistakable and heartbreaking.

This hearbreak illuminates human sin in flashing neon lights. It makes clear to us that we need God’s help and deliverance.

 

#3 Sharpened Wisdom

Immersing yourself in the systems and interdependencies of God’s Creation will grow the nuances of your thinking and perceptions. You will better be able to understand whole systems work. You will become more observant. You will grow the abiltiy to weigh principles and values in particular specific circumstances and choose the best practical course going forward.

That is wisdom. The Bible celebrates wisdom. Being wise in understanding and applying the whole Bible to one’s life uses exacty the same mental and heart muscles that figuring out how to sustainable use and restore God’s earth does. Being an active steward of God’s earth compels us to grow in wisdom. In the process, you can build your ability to be wise in other aspects of your faith-life.

 

# 4 Good Saltiness

We are called to be the salt of the earth. We are called to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Enabling Creation to thrive is a way of loving your neighbors near and far. And the neighbors who most benefit from a thriving Creation are often the poor and disadvantaged.

Struggling to prevent wells from being poisoned by agriultural inputs is a way of being the salt of the earth. Designing cities and rural areas in ways that don’t require every family to own many cars is a way to love the poor and build more community. Preventing overfishing so that future generations of coastal communities will be able to live off of the sea as their ancestors did is a way to love one’s neighbor while also cherishing the amazing life God declared to be good.

 

#5 Awareness of the Tempter

When Satan tempted Jesus and offered him the principalities of the world, Jesus resisted. Using and exploiting the resources of this world for unbridled power is the same temptation we, our communities, and our nations face. There are many ways to rationalize taking from God’s earth beyond what earth and the life of God’s earth can bear. But rationalization for our selfish, God-ignoring motives is the way of the Tempter. And one can, as Satan showed in the story, use Bible verses to rationalize things that are against God’s will.

Being alert to the rationalizations all around us in our Christian culture for going along with the harm to Creation will awaken your heart and mind to the efforts of the Tempter in many areas of life.

 

#6 Restraint and Simplicity

We live in a world full of conveniences and a myriad of recreation options, all there to meet every wish and need and hunger. Creating habits to protect God’s earth through our daily life choices requires us to limit ourselves, both individually and collectively.

There’s a strong thread of limits and restraints in the Bible that American Christians often want to ignore or categorize as no longer applicable because of the work of Jesus. The Sabbath, one of the core commandments, calls upon us, as Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, to be part of a ‘palace in time,’ to rest not only ourselves but also give rest to the land and livestock.

The practice of tithing causes us to live with less and have faith that God will provide.

Jesus fasted. Fasting is about restraint.

Restraints and limits are actually, in other words, blessed things.

The only way we individually and socially will protect and restore Creation effectively is if we restrain ourselves and adopt simpler lives. As a society, that will mean leaving some areas forever wild and even pulling back our human presence in other places. That will mean reducing reliance on fossil fuels. Acting and caring for creation help build our capacity to live simply and with restraint and with generous interdependence. That capacity will bear fruit in other parts of our lives.

 

#7 Resonant Lives and Faith

In the book Simply Christian, N.T. Wright calls the reader’s attention to the fact that around the world people, regardless of whether they are Christian or not, share common dreams of justice and goodness and peace, of what should be. These dream, these yearnings, N.T. Wright says, come from God and from what used to be.

When followers of Jesus ignore Creation and contribute to its destruction and justify its diminishment, we not only harm life that matters we also play a horribly out of tune note that ruins the whole song and the whole chord of what the Christian Way is.

Why would a young person or any person who knows in their heart that prairies and forests and oceans and the teeming life of the soil are all amazing and good, accept the other convictions of the Christian Way if the people following that way foul the world and don’t care that they do so?

On the contrary, when we defend and protect and restore God’s earth, we point to a unifying and compelling whole Way that is beautiful and challenging at the same time. This is a faith and a life that calls out to the heart without any false notes.

 

#8 Strengthened Agape

Attention and devotion to living in ways that provide for Creation grows selflessness in one’s heart. Animals and plants and fish and the vast universe of the soil rhizosphere cannot vote. They generally speaking can’t speak. To be sensitive to their welfare and to act on that sensitivity is to be selfless and loving at a very high level. It is to think and have empathy beyond oneself and even beyond one’s human neighors. This is taking the story of the Good Samaritan to a whole different level.

God calls us to selflessness throughout the Bible. Jesus, of course, is an obvious example. But I am also reminded of the 42nd chapter of Job: Job’s fortunes are not reversed and restored when he repents and acknowledges to God that God’s wisdom and ways are beyond his comprehension. Instead, God calls upon Job to pray for his three friends who had advanced wrong arguments against him and who God required to show repentance. And that is what happens, despite all that Job had already experienced and despite the further grief his friends had caused. Job prays for them. And then his fortunes are restored.

Caring for habitats or rivers or just a small woodlot or our pet all grow that same selflessness that God desires.

 

#9 Missional Impulse

Being convinced that we must keep and protect God’s Creation necessarily drives us to be missional and to have an outward focus. Protecting and restoring God’s earth requires us to go out! If we only change how we live as an individual or family or even a church, we will not have done all we need to. You and I, especially in a democracy, are part of collective systems – employers, local municipalities, state government, even a mighty nation. How they act is partly our responsibility.

By going out and speaking up and bringing about change in ways that stretch our comfort zones, we find that our missional and prophetic muscles also grow. Christ-like also means bold. Strong. Tenacious. Radically candid.

In Alan Hirsch’s provocative book The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church, he writes, “We are a message tribe.” By this he means we are meant to be a sent and missional people. We can’t expect to have people seek us out. We must reach out to them. Organizing and advocating for God and God’s earth takes us out of our homes and our church buildings and into the world. This is where we are supposed to be. This is where we are supposed to share God’s Way.

 

#10 Faith

Anytime we live out the values of the whole faith Way, we will be aware of the necessity of faith.

When we do something that makes us stand out and perhaps endure ridicule, then our faith will grow.

When we work to restore a forest or protect a river, we will not know whether our efforts will ultimately lead to success. But when we do it anyway because it is the right thing to do, then we are acting on faith and building faith at the same time.

 

I pray you will continue to pray and act for the life of God’s earth.

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Mulch Volcanoes & Living in a World of Wounds

Nathan Aaberg —  March 31, 2022 — 3 Comments
Trees in a row with mulch applied in mulch volcano way

Row of mulch volcanoes (photo: George Weigel)

My wife Mayumi recently learned about “mulch volcanoes” from the Master Gardener class she is taking through the University of Illinois Extension.

People create mulch volcanoes when they pile up mulch high against the trunk of a tree. This makes it appear that the tree trunk is erupting out of a sloping, volcano-like mound of mulch.

Mulch volcanoes look innocuous, but they’re actually harmful to trees for multiple reasons.

Just one reason is that the constant contact of wet organic material starts to break down the surface of the tree’s trunk. This eventually leads to damage to the phloem and xylem layers beneath the bark. These vascular tissues carry nutrients from the leaves to the roots and from the roots to the rest of the tree respectively. Rotting these tissues away is like applying a tourniquet too tightly to a human limb – it cuts off vital circulation. The tree will slowly die.

Ever since she learned about mulch volcanoes, my wife has been dismayed to see them seemingly everywhere.

They were, of course, there all of the time. But now she knows what to look for and knows the damage the practice does. And my wife, being who she is, wants to save every tree she sees in this condition. Her heart hurts to see these vulnerable plants suffering harm in slow motion.

This is a prime example of the truth of Aldo Leopold’s words: “The penalty of an ecological education is to live alone in a world of wounds.”

Once you understand the fascinating elements (plants, animals, microbes, etc.) of God’s earth and how those elements relate to each other ecologically, then the purposeful and unintended damage we do to Creation becomes painful to contemplate.

I know you know the truth of that statement.

I’m sure you’ve become aware of the wounds done to God’s earth nearby and around the world. Like a subdivision replacing a woods. Like a dam under construction that will drown villages and forests.

You may also have noticed that you are largely alone in seeing that harm and experiencing that ache in your heart. This is often the case in general American culture. It’s also usually the case in church culture.

When was the last time you were at a call for prayer and someone lifted up a concern related to Creation?

That combnation of being aware of the degradation of God’s Creation and of feeling alone in that awareness is something I often feel. And because the pain can be overwhelming, I sometimes begin to allow a callus to grow around my heart. Sometimes, too, I try not to see what I see or distract myself with (and I hate to admit this) YouTube videos.

But those attempts to avoid the wounds or keep them from my heart only work temporarily. I become aware of what I am doing. Or something comes onto the scene that just doesn’t allow me to escape.

The war in the Ukraine is the most recent example. The war is a disaster of epic proportions for the Ukranian people. It is also a tragedy for the many Russians who oppose it or who are simply powerless to stop it.

That’s just one level of pain.

If you remember your whole faith and do a simple Google search, then you can easily enter another level of anguish.  You will find that the Ukraine war, like any other war, is a disaster for the animals, plants, soil, and air that are all part of God’s miraculous world.

Here are revealing articles about the tragedy of the war for Ukranians, their pets, and the life of their country. The first. The second. And this is one about a young woman – Anastasia Yalanskaya – who was murdered by Russain troops while trying to deliver desperately needed food to a dog shelter.

God!

I desperately want to look away from all of this brokenness. I desperately want God to make it all all right. Right now.

As if that it isn’t hard enough, I then find myself aware that it feels wrong in America to be sad and heartbroken. That’s not what our culture wants or accepts.

And somehow it can also feel wrong as a Christian to be sad and heartbroken. I feel like a widower who frustrates his well-meaning friends calling for him to buck up and move on. Sure he lost his spouse, but she “was taken by the Lord” and is “in a better place.” There are countless ways Christian culture tries to deaden our hearts towards Creation and what we do to it.

This all leads me to two questions. The first – why could God allow such suffering for people and all of Creation? God has heard all of Creation groaning for millennia like God heard the Israelites groaning in Egypt. How can a father, the Father, not intervene? The second – how do I live in the presence of so much suffering? How can I persist in acting for God’s love of his people and His earth when the cycle of destruction keeps coming again and again? How can I persist when climate chaos threatens so much? How do I persist when the nature of today is a diminished form of what it used to be?

I know there are many complex theological ways of dealing with the first question. But here’s what I have found works for me. It is not an answer. It is more of a resonance.

The Bible makes clear that this suffering was not God’s intent. In John 3:16 and in the very sending of Jesus, we know that God loves this world. God loves this world dearly.

The Bible also makes clear that the brokenness of this world will not always persist. In some mysterious way, through Jesus the grip of evil and of the rule of destructive principalities over the world will be fully broken. There will be a new heaven and earth that is, I believe, somehow like the body of the resurrected Jesus.

And I believe that this new earth will have all of the goodness and diversity that this current earth has ever had and much, much more.

What helps me in a resonant sort of way is to know that God through Jesus experienced the suffering of the world from our sins. And isn’t it interesting that suffering and anguish are common elements of the Old and New Testaments? The majority of Psalms, for example, are laments of one kind or another. The prophets are full of sadness and anger. Jesus, who knew of God’s future for the world, wept.

I am helped, too, by the knowledge that the early Christians were able to be so revolutionary in their living and in their presence within the empire that had killed Jesus. They stood apart. They treated women differently. They welcomed people of all social strata. They offered hope, and they carried a message that changed people. The DNA of the movement must have been incredibly powerful. That also resonates and inspires.

As for how I live, I will follow the God I know through Jesus.

Jesus calls us to follow him. His path informs our path.

We must expect difficulties and be willing to sacrifice. The fact that such a way would lead Jesus to death tells me a great deal, makes it seem more authentic. In this world of wars, factory farms, and toxic agricultural chemicals being found in ambient air even on mountain tops in Europe, we must expect to face seemingly impossible odds. We must also expect to feel anguish at what cannot be stopped, like when Jesus shared his anguish at the coming destruction of Jerusalem in Matthew 23:37-39.

I find, too, a strange sort of comfort in the fact that the name – Israel – given to the people God chose to be a key part of his rescue mission for the world literally means “wrestles with God.”Moses wrestled with God at times.  So did Job and the prophets.

Faith does not mean absence of struggle. I will wrestle with God even as I follow Jesus. I will argue with God that enough is enough. I will pray for God to intervene for the sake of the whole world – people and Creation.

Mayumi and I will do what we can where we live and work to live out a whole faith with God’s help. We will seek to love God with all of our heart and soul and strength. We will seek to be good and loving to our neighors and to do what humans are meant to do – protect, keep and prosper God’s earth. Mayumi, for example, will use her Master Gardener education to help people care for their gardens and yards. I’ll keep giving all I have to my job. There I seek to expand regenerative agriculture and connect sustainable farmers with the farmland they need to farm. I will do my best to contribute my voice for this kind of whole faith. And, I have written an email to our Lake County Department of Transportation about the mulch volcanoes we saw recently in the median on a county road.

We will balance all of that with rejuvenating our hearts and spirits on a regular basis. We strive to use Sundays as Sabbaths. We enjoy good-for-God’s-world food and the company of our sons via Zoom calls. We read together. I’ll take breaks from time to time for enjoyment and relaxation, striving to have the faith to know that it is not all up to me. God is at work in the world.

Even as the war in Ukraine has brought despair, it has also brought inspiration. I read of a Ukranian couple who, as they fled the Russian invasion, remained devoted to their German shepherd. They carried their aging pet to safety as you can see in the photo below.

They could not save all of the pets and wild animals from the horrors of a war. But they could be devoted to the dear animal in their care.

 

 

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Whole Faith Thoughts in a Wholly Unholy Time

Nathan Aaberg —  November 3, 2020 — 2 Comments

I’m currently working on two blog posts. One is the transcription of a great conversation I had with a Wisconsin farm family about how their faith has led them to a form of livestock raising that rejuvenates the land, produces healthy food, and is good for the animals. The other examines Revelation 5:13 and what that means for our understanding of the whole arc of the Bible and of time itself. I’m also planning to partner on some future posts with Ryan O’Connor to share reviews of documentaries and other environment-focused resources that individuals and churches would find helpful.

I can’t, however, ignore these turbulent times and the election. So I am going to dive in with some observations in the form of a letter to a fictitious cousin. I present him as someone becoming curious about Jesus and the God of the whole Bible but confused and even unsettled by our current times.

Dear Wyatt;

I want to say how much I have enjoyed our renewed relationship. We’ll need to get together sometime some place in the middle with our wives and children. I know we’d have a great time. It’s a heartwarming to not only connect with family but then to find one shares many similar outlooks on the world.

I’ve welcomed the fact that we’ve begun discussing the Bible, Jesus, and how everything all fits together. Our common ancestors had some very deep religious roots, didn’t they? But those have not carried into the modern generation very well. Many of our extended family no longer believe in the God their ancestors did. Why that is the case would make for another good conversation.

But I write because in our last converation you expressed confusion and even cynicism about the veracity of what is in the Bible because of the state of our country and the upcoming election. Specifically, you did not understand how so many people calling themselves Christians can be strong supporters of President Trump and the Republican Party.

I didn’t have good answers, but I felt I should. This letter is my attempt to do that.

When I need to wrestle with hard questions, I turn to writing. Good writing can only come from clear thinking. So forcing myself to write coherrently on an issue forces my mind to think about the issue squarely. When I find a line of insight that hangs together well, I take it, even if it takes me in a surprising and unorthodox direction.

I’ll be honest. I am having a difficult time making sense of our country and the role many Christians are playing in its direction. I feel anger, frustration, fear, and sometimes pure hopelessness. But every morning I pray, and I try to hold on to faith. In Jesus I know that God also understands our suffering even as God also calls for us to live with the love and courage of Jesus.

So I offer my own opinions to the questions that seem to be at the heart of what you are struggling with. These are my opinions based on what I read in the Bible and what I believe I have learned about God and Jesus over the years.

What would a truly Christian approach to politics look like?

Every Single Thing: All of life would be lived out in ways that reflect God’s wishes and God’s ways. And that includes politics.

Even Words: Words are the fundamental foundation of politics. Our use of words is an ethical and spiritual act. The words of Christians must be full of truth and show love of neighbor, even in the world of politics. Politicians, of course, lie and misrepresent so often that we are calloused to it. But God is not. And it’s time for us to stop being calloused about it, too. Christian politicians, and the politicians Christians support, would be at a level of truth and integrity above all others.

Cautious About Power: Politics is largely about how power is used in and outside of a country. Governments have power to make rules, to enforce rules, and to exercise in our international relations. True Christian politics would be cautious about the use of power and would be concerned for the vulnerable and the poor. You cannot escape the concern in the Bible for the vulnerable and those who do not have power. Both oppressive governments and overly dominant business interests run counter to the grain of the Bible. This never means that power is to be avoided. Government can play a wise role in directing society’s common interests. Private entrepreneurial creativity can bring great benefits. But a Christian politics would continually push for the right balance.

God’s Kingdom and Values Above All: The loyalty of the Christian should always be first to God and God’s Kingdom. When the values of God’s Kingdom clash with our country’s interests or our party’s fortunes, God’s Kingdom must come first.

Rules and Laws: Christians and the people they allow to lead them should have the highest character. They should follow laws and rules zealously and be as fair as possible. Corruption and exploiting the system for personal or party gain are, again, grievous sins against God. Christians can’t accept these kinds of actions.

Humility and Openness to Rebuke: Christian politics are inherently humble. True Christians reocgnize that they are fallen and that they need God’s grace just as their neighors have fallen and also need God’s grace. True Christians are open to correction and rebuke and are ready to change their own ways.

How can we make sense of strong Christian support for Donald Trump and the modern day Republican Party?

I agree with everything you have said about the current president. He breaks all of the Christian norms of life and the principles of Christian politics I’ve just listed. That church-going Christians can vote for Trump reflects an approach to Christianity and life untethered from the Bible, Jesus, and the Spirit of God.

A vote for Trump, it appears to me, is part of a reaction among conservative Christians against a growing secular and atheistic culture. That culture appears openly hostile and dismissive of people of faith. This is a real thing. But that is no excuse for voting for Trump and the Republican Party he is making in his image.

How to explain it?

Start with the marriage between the Church and national power. When Chrisitanity first appeared, it was seen as a radical, strange, subversive movement that was antithetical to Roman values and Roman power. When Emperor Constantine made Christianity the Roman Empire’s religion, Roman interests and Christian interests were brought together in ways that resulted in a less pure practice of the Christian faith. When Christianity became married to nation states, the interests of the nation state and its dominant culture then tempted churches to compromise the values of Jesus. Vice President Pence epitomizes the moral compromises conservative Christianity is willing to make for national power to serve its interests.

It is not just American national power that conservative Christianity has become very comfortable with. Conservative Christianity tends to favor the corporate and individual’s freedom to use power almost without limit. It worships freedom without any hint that freedom must be balanced with responsibility and ethical concern for others and other life that God loves. It is also comfortable with the political system today that is lubricated largely by funding from business interests. Republican Christians look the other way when power is cunningly used to suppress voting and gerrymander voting districts.

You must still ask why does this cruel and unbiblical approach to power find a home in the hearts of some Christians? When you feel you are in a spiritual war, then I think it is easier to go along with harsh measures and to look away from the worst things your allies do. The dominant narrative of the End Times, which is not the only interpretation of Revelation possible, gives conservative Christians license to feel that we are in a take-no-prisoners struggle against evil. The ethics of Jesus no longer apply.

Finally, we need to be honest about race. President Trump has made the Republican Party the comfortable home for white power and white racism. Christian Republicans go along with this. Could this reflect the comfort that many churches had with cruel slavery for centuries?

But what about abortion?

Wyatt, I can read your thoughts. I know you and your wife have deep emotions and convictions around abortion, especially because of your experience with having difficultty conceiving. You and wife also know the intricacies of the life and development of a child in the womb.

It is this issue that causes many Christians to vote Republican. The concern of many Republican Christians for unborn babies is sincere, real, and full of true Christian compassion.

But there is something very wrong in how myopic Republicans apply their pro-life principles. I’ve already written about this. Use laws to limit abortions? Of course. The more the better. Use laws to limit polluition and chemicals that cause cancers and harm God’s life? No. That will harm our economy and limit our freedoms. Use laws and government bodies to protect vulnerable consumers? No. Too much government interference. Use laws to protect coverage for existing conditions and offer a public health care option? No. That might nudge us into the orbit of something that smells a little like socialism.

In short, the pro-life position of Republicans is, it seems to me, in direct contradiction to the Repubican Party’s larger fealty to a completely unfettered free market economy and culture that supports commercial interests over people and God’s earth. The cynic in me sees the Republican Party’s pro-life platform as a deal that doesn’t harm business interests but gives the party’s Darwinian approach to the economy a sheen of religious goodness.

Why do I not feel enthusiasm for Democrats?

A second term of president by Donald Trump would be a disaster for many true Christain values and for the ability of the faith to appeal to people like you for decades to come.

But the Democratic Party is also a hard place in which to find a home.

Here are just a few reasons why I say that.

Joe Biden, from all indications, is a fundamentally decent person. Our government under Joe Biden would work again and not be corrupt. His administration would adopt many specific policy measures that are more compassionate.

However, one of his deficiiencies, which is a Democratic deficiency, is an inability to speak of positive values that hold together the Democratic Party and would hold together America. The Democratic Party is too often a loose coalition of interest and identity groups. The Party doesn’t seem to have binding principles that would resonate with most Americans of good will.

What will hold our country together as one? What standards does everyone need to live by? I have not heard anything like that from Democrats. And the fact that the pro-lifers are largely unwelcome in Democratic circles indicates that Democrats are not fully committed to holding people accountable to protecting vulnerable life

It has also been stunning that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have not been able to speak against China what is doing internally  and externally. This is a ruthless empire within its own borders (see Hong Kong and with the Uighurs for examples) and beyond. Freedom and fairness mean nothing to its leaders. When Democratics go soft on China out of fear of loss of trade, one cannot help but think the Democratic Party’s concerns about justice are very selective.

And, of course, there is a tendency in some progessive circles to dismiss and ridicule people of faith, especially the Christian faith. Is some of it a reaction to the trends we’ve seen in conservative Christianity? Probably. But there is something more there as well. The ideas that there might be a God who holds people accountable for certain standards of life and there might be mysterious power in the universe that does not fit with orthodox science are profoundly threatening to the most progressive Democrats. And the most progressive Democrats tend to be comfortable with shutting down ideas and thoughts that don’t fit their own orthodoxies.

As a whole faith Christian, I’m sad to say I cannot truly be at home in either party. And our two party system freezes out true potlical diversity that could actually give us a party of integrity and coherent values.

If Christians can differ so much about American politics, what does it say about the Christian Faith?

My wife recently received an email from another church member strongly encouraging church members on the email chain to vote Republican. In a follow-up exchange with my wife, the church member called President Trump “a God-fearing man.”

If President Trump is considered a “God-fearing man” then the Scriptures and two thousand years of the Christian faith and thousands more of Jewish traditions are meaningless.

In short, we’ve crossed a line. The term “Christian” no longer means anything.

There is no commonly accepted definition for what the Christian faith-life really looks like.

There are some who will point to confessions and doctrines as giving us those distinctions. But doctrinal correctness matched with consistent patterns of behavior  and philosophy that are the opposite of virtue in the Bible is meaningless. In fact, it is worse than meaningless. It mars the goodness and truth of God and God’s wishes for the world.

A transformed life in communion with God is the point of giving one’s life to God, not an optional amenity.

Is there any reason to continue to look for a church or some other faith gathering?

The Bible is full of people living in communities of God-following people. So it is ideal to be with other people of faith. If you can find a church where God is worshipped and you feel comfortable and challenged, that is a beauiful thing. There are millions of sincere, loving Christians around the world, and many are in churches.

But I’ve concluded that you and I should not feel guilty if we find that our reading of the whole Bible makes us feel comfortable neither with conservative churches nor more liberal ones.

Remember, conventional church is not the only option. Prophets and prophetic communities can be needed when mainline religion is no longer a good fit. The early Christian gatherings were largely in people’s homes. Remember, the first monastic orders were in reaction to the excesses of the Roman Empire. It is also said that every 500 years or so the Judaic-Christian tradition goes through dramatic change and revision. I feel we are due for that.

There are stirrings of people longing for a diferent experience of faith and life in the service of Jesus and in communion with God. We may well be on the path to a new way of following Jesus with others in a whole faith way. They may offer a better way to reach people turned off by conventional Christianity or who have never really encountered a loving relationship around God.

I meet and communicate with many people like this. They are out there.

How does God’s earth fit into all this?

We’ve already had some good conversations about this as both of our families share love of hiking and growing healthy food. So I wanted to end this letter on this topic. The earth is not a disposable trifle. How any body of faith thinks and acts together towards Creation is a pretty good indicator of how whole its approach to faith is. It’s a bad sign when the fruits of a body faith are the ongoing destruction of God’s earth and an unwillingness to even try to deal with growing climate chaos. You are not alone in not understanding how you could follow a faith whose members support what President Trump has done to weaken protections for the health of God’s earth.

What I most want to say to you, Wyatt, is this – don’t give up on engaging with the Jesus and God of the Bible and being open to God’s Spirit in your family’s life. If you cannot find a church where you find a deep reverence for God, a willingness to be accountable to each other, and common commitment to learning together and transforming one’s character together, then be willing to be a spiritual nomad for awhile until new expressions emerge.

This is a world that is holy and full of meaning and that God needs us to engage in. Whatever the new forms of Jesus-centered communities and ministries will be, they will need good and creative and humble people like you and your family.

But be sure to find even one other family, one person, who can take that path with you. We would love to do that with you.

Fondly,

Nathan

P.S. To read a more hopeful and very insightful piece about divisions within Christianity during this election, check out this article in Christianity Today.

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