I just found out about a local organization called Orphan’s Hope that works with orphans in the Ukraine and parts of Asia (including Myanmar/Burma, site of the recent cyclone).

Also, in case you’re not familiar with it, there is another great local organization called Africa Unveiled that works with homeless children and community-building in Kenya.

In the next two or three weeks we should be winding up our look at Revelation…and in my opinion, this is some of the most interesting and eye-opening and hopeful stuff in the whole book. 

The last time we met we were in chapter 7…and this week we’re going to focus on chapter 17.  That’s a big gap, and I would highly recommend reading those ten chapters in between (or at least skimming them to see what stands out to you).  Specifically, pay attention to the different plagues that John writes about.  There is something really important about them, and we’re going to look at what that is and why these things are happening.

Just a reminder about tomorrow’s gathering: we’ll meet at the church, and then from there go to the Beaver Valley school to get our hands a little dirty doing some restoration work.  It won’t be anything too intense, just some light digging and dumping and hanging out together in the evening, maybe for an hour or so (bring a shovel and warm coat in case it’s as windy tomorrow as it is today).  Then after that, we might take a short field trip up toward Lake Wenatchee together.  We should still be done by around 9 pm.

Oh, flashlights would probably be a good idea as well.

Today is Earth Day, which was started nearly 40 years ago to create a common banner for people who were trying to bring about change in the way people were treating and utilizing the earth and its resources, as well as to purposefully appreciate the environments in which we find ourselves and with which we interact. It was a national grassroots campaign where people (mostly youth and college students) took to the streets to voice their concern and protest against oil spills (a major one in Santa Barbara had just occured), factory pollution, raw sewage being dumped into water ways and oceans, toxic dumps, pesticides, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife. From the first few years of the Earth Day celebrations came things like the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act (and the similar Clean Drinking Water Act), and the Endangered Species Act.

“The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden…to work it and take care of it.” - Genesis 2.15

How we treat the creation is a reflection of how we view the Creator. We live in a finite system of soil and ice and atmosphere and water and bacteria and vegetation. It all interacts together, and we are inextricably involved with it. As humans, our very first calling from God was to creatively and carefully tend it. But given the Crisis and our rebellion, we have an inward tendency to not do that, and instead extract whatever we can for our own use and comfort. In and of itself, this isn’t a bad thing…but living in a finite system, we have to understand that there are limits. Is it possible that our current rates of pollution, consumption, and waste are the same as eating that first fruit from the tree we were told not to eat from? Are we crossing healthy limits?

“If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.” - St. Francis of Assisi

So, I pose a challenge for you on this Earth Day: think about the place in which you find yourself, in which we all find ourselves.  Buy a fieldguide of regional animals and spend time identifying local flora and fauna.  Find a map of our area and get familiar with the streams and rivers that flow through the valley.  Learn about different ecosystems and environments and how they can be so different from one another and yet be so incredibly dependent upon one another.  Do some digging to find out where the stuff you own comes from and how it’s made.  Find out where what you eat comes from and how it’s made.  And how all that impacts others, locally and globally.  

This Creation is good. In fact, it is very good. As God is the ultimate Creator and Sustainer and Cultivator of all things, being a reflection of Him we are commissioned to be as well — to create and sustain and cultivate…but not in damaging ways, not in destructive or selfish ways. But in ways that serve and benefit everyone. Ways in which, as Jesus said, we love others as much as ourselves.

“…ecosystems and species can be saved only by understanding the unique value of each species in turn, and by persurading the people who have dominion over them to seve as their stewards.” - E. O. Wilson

We are brought up being told about what it means to be a citizen of this nation, or perhaps of this state or county or even town. But what does it mean to be a citizen of the watershed we find ourselves in? How much do we know about the environment in which we drive and hike and rest and farm? Above all else, we are citizens of a new Reign, a new Kingdom. As citizens of this new order in which God is restoring all things and bringing about acts of new creation, God is restoring us and our purpose as care-takers of his good creation, to cultivate and enhance and promote even more goodness. So how does this translate into our town? Our valley? Our watershed? Our consumption? Our relations with other countries and peoples (in other words: our neighbors)?

Today the world celebrates Earth Day, and that’s a good thing. But as followers of this new Way, the Way of Jesus, every day is Earth Day. Every day is an opportunity to follow and partner with our Creator and the ways in which his intended future for all creation is being pulled more deeply into our present. Five centuries ago a man by the name of Martin Luther was asked what he would do today if he knew the world would end tomorrow. His answer?

Plant a tree.

This Thursday Night we’ll be picking back up in talking about Revelation. 

If you want to get familiar with what we’ll be talking about, go ahead and read chapter 7 (mostly the second half starting at v. 9).  And read it on the heels of chapter 6 again.

Today we hear the phrase “washed in the blood of the lamb” in songs and hymns and it probably sounds pretty normal.  Thursday we’re going to look at what it would have meant to someone 1,900 years ago.

We’re having another movie night this Thursday night (April 17)…but we’re going to change things up a bit. 

From here on out, we’ll be starting early on designated movie nights, so show up around 6-6:15 and we’ll have some pizza and snacks, and then at 6:30 pm we can start the movie.  This will give us a chance to have a discussion afterward if we want.

This time around we’ll be watching “Medicine Man,” partially in part because next week is Earth Day and it has some of those themes, but it also touches deeply on the themes of justice and injustice we’ve been talking about lately…but not in a heavy way (lots of lighthearted parts and action and great cinematography throughout).

It’s Friday already? 

Here’s a song by The New Amsterdams.  It’s one of those that you tend to forget about, but then when you hear it you think, “Man.  SUCH a good song.” 

It sounds especially good while driving on winding roads.

So we’ve been talking a lot lately about justice and restoration and what God is doing both in us and in the world.  One thing you’ve heard both Phil and I talk about are these breaks in relationship that have been caused by our rebellion.  In talking about how we are images of God, I’ve talked about how those images have now been cracked…and how God is working to repair and restore those cracks.  Phil talks about how God is working to repair and restore those relationships (with God, with each other, with creation around us) so that there is wholeness and fullness.  The Bible calls this shalom, and it’s what God’s intended dream and purpose is for creation.

The other night I started putting together an image that sort of symbolized this restoration project and the different parts of it:

I posted this because I thought it might help some of you think about these things, and more specifically, the unique way you can be apart of it.  We all have certain skills and abilities and personalities that maybe draw us more toward one thing than another.  So, thinking about all of this, what aspects do you find more interesting than others?  Which relationship do you feel compelled to partner with God to begin healing?  And once you realize that perhaps you’re drawn more to one than the others, you can begin thinking about specific things you can begin doing within that area of relationship and cracked-ness (and if you have trouble, I’m always up for talking about it and offering ideas). 

Obviously it’s not completely cut and dry and black and white: we don’t focus on one to the exclusion of the others–they all interact and intermingle with each other (how we view and treat our relationships with others may depend on our relationship with God; how we treat and interact with each other as nations and countries may influence how some are forced to interact with and utilize the creation and resources around them).  But we have to start somewhere, and hopefully this will help with that first step in thinking about what’s going on out there and how we, empowered by the Spirit that is constantly refreshing and renewing us into this new humanity of a new creation and kingdom, can help make it be even more.

This week we’re going to jump back into the book of Revelation.  Last time we looked at the fact that John introduced us to this completely new and revolutionary image: a powerless little lamb that has been slain…yet it’s still standing.  And the ironic thing about this is that this tiny little powerless lamb that has been slaughtered is the only thing in heaven and on earth that is ’strong’ enough to open the seals of the scroll that has been presented.  So we talked about where power comes from, and that the way of Empire is always “power over”…but the Way of Jesus is through something we called “power under,” a subversive and non-violent sort of strength.  And we talked about how we have to hold onto this image that John has set before us, of this slain lamb.  If we’re going to survive the rest of the journey through this book and what John is trying to say to these seven churches in Asia Minor, we can’t lost sight of this image and what it means.

So this week we’ll be looking at chapter 6 and the actual breaking of the seals.  Take some time this week to read through this chapter, specifically verses 1-8 that talk about four horsemen.  This is what we’re going to be focusing on this week. 

And in light of recent themes and conversations, this one seems only appropriate: