News from Sophia Christi

“Then God spoke to Moses, ‘Go down at once to your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, for they have corrupted themselves. They have made for themselves a molten calf and are worshiping it and crying out ‘This is your god, O Israel!’” God is angry and wants to consume this ungrateful people in an almighty rage!

But Moses pleads with God for their sake, reminding God of the promise made to Abraham, Sarah, and all those others back in the day. “Remember?” Moses asks God. “Remember? You swore to them you would make their descendants as numerous as the stars! You said ‘all this land I will give your descendants as their heritage forever.”

And God remembered.  Mercy flowed. And God forgave the people.

We are those descendants of Abraham and Sarah, God’s people. And at 7 billion strong we are certainly growing toward being as numerous as the stars! But the land we were promised—this land, this earth—is not only OUR heritage. It is the heritage of our descendants as well, and their descendants, and theirs and theirs, on and on forever. It is our Home, the only home we know. It is where our children are born. It is where our loved ones die and are buried. We live and learn here, side by side, as sisters and brothers wrestling with limits, harboring gifts and dreams planted within each of us by a loving God for the good of everyone. But we have forgotten who we are and where we are. We got lost somewhere on the trail of ambition and achievement, spoiling our environment in the process. (more…)

I read something in the New York Times a week ago that said American’s anxiety has ratcheted up 150% since 2004 and has more than doubled in just the last 8 years. These results were based on a study of internet searches over the last decade. I thought about this troubling fact when I began working with today’s readings. Here is Jesus saying: “I have come to light a fire on the earth.” If you think I’ve come to bring peace, you’re wrong; I’ve come to sow division. And division we have—division in the world, in the nation, in the church… As highly social beings, dependent on each other for our well-being and survival, division of such magnitude makes us very anxious.

Division isn’t new, of course. In Jeremiah’s time the political situation was at least as contentious and bitter as it is in our own day, just not as global! Judean leaders were divided into factions, with differing views and differing political alliances and waged war to secure their interests just as ours do. In the end Judah fell, Jerusalem and its Temple were destroyed and the movers and shakers of society—the soldiers, craftsmen, religious leaders and nobility—were all deported to Babylon. Only the poorest and weakest remained in the land.

Jeremiah’s account of how he received his commission as a prophet includes these words: “The Lord said to me ‘Before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you….This day I set you over nations and over kingdoms, to root up and to tear down, to destroy and to demolish, to build and to plant.” These are words of confirmation for Jeremiah as well as words of division; they are also words of hope. Fire on the earth is destructive, but it is also purifying and regenerative. Some trees like the giant Sequoia and jack pine, for instance, depend on fire to release their seeds so they can germinate. Without fire there would be no next generation. Fire stimulates and revitalizes closed systems, infusing them with new life. (more…)