Church and the world: the Promise and the thing

Kristen Campbell, the intrepid editor of the religion section of the Press Register called me yesterday to talk about an article she was working on. The article has to do with the economic realities these days: high prices, tight credit, joblessness, the spector of "stagflation" come back from the past.....economic realities and how the Church in its mission and ministry is responding to these challenges. She asked if we as a church see an increased need in the people we serve. Of course, if we are paying attention, and I believe we are, we do see a spike in the need of our poor and working poor neighbors. Our Foodshare project can't keep up with the number of people who arrive as early as three in the morning to receive groceries. Eviction notices abound. The expense of transportation alone is crippling. Among the economically weak there is a smoldering despair, and despair breeds indignity and indignity, shame.



Toward the end of the interview she said, "I want to ask you perhaps a goofy question.....What does the church have to do with socio-economic concerns? Not a goofy question but a vital one, I said. What is our role as people of faith amid the social, economic and political warp and woof of our world? As people of faith, the short answer is that we have everything to do with it. It is the central call of the gospels, decidedly political, social and economic; and our chief call as well. It is the people of faith imaginatively empowered in community who will challenge the injustices of the status quo. It is the people of faith who will take concrete action to address the indignities of our culture and of our world. It is the people of faith who will speak up for the weak among us. At the heart of God's kingdom that we bear to the world is the demand for justice and dignity for all....justice and dignity, synonyms for salvation...... and Salvation is not a heavenly abstraction, but tangible ways of living as the human family: adequate and accessible healthcare; food and shelter enough; a living wage; a nonviolent world (just war theory has run its course); forgiveness and second chances; and yes conversation with presumed enemies (love your enemies Jesus commands us) It is the people of faith who will proclaim and live out the reality that truly all of us, rich, poor, black, white, gay and straight; every race, nation, language, and people, every religious consciousness....are of one blood, so until all of our world are saved....justified and dignified....then there is no justice and there is no dignity for any of us.



We matter. We matter for the world's sake. Between God's promise and the thing itself, the world lies waiting...and the time is short.

Who is God to you?

I really didn’t want to read it, but I couldn’t help myself. I’m speaking of the big feature article in the Press Register Saturday on the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. I was hopeful that the reporter at some point in the article would offer an intelligent critique; at least an acknowledgement that not all Christians believe this way, but alas there were no such qualifications. There was a photograph that showed the spacious museum with a long line of people waiting to enter.

On the museum’s website is the banner saying “Prepare to Believe.” Their crusade, of course, is to convince people that the cosmos literally came about as narrated in Genesis (actually there are two creation stories in Genesis written by different authors); and that the theory of evolution is erroneous. According to the founder/director, as shown in the pictorial exhibits in the museum, every species of animal life is descended from the animals that were gathered into the ark; that the earth is only 5300 years old; carbon dating is a hoax….you get the picture. Literalism deflates the rich meanings of scripture, which are forever being interpreted and reinterpreted. Literalism belies the very deep truth we seek. It is an easy and irresponsible way out. I have never understood why some think the theory of evolution is in opposition to the Genesis accounts of creation in the first place. The two are entirely compatible. They just come from different sides of the brain….one, mythic art; the other, science.

I remember a Bill Moyers interview of Jonas Salk some fifteen years ago, a few years before he died. Amid a fascinating conversation on a range of ideas, Moyers asked Dr. Salk, the developer of the polio vaccine and arguably one of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century, “Who is God to you?” Salk mused for a moment and said, “Well, there are many, many metaphors that we could employ in order to speak of God, but there is one that perhaps suits me best, and that is evolution. “Evolution?” Moyers replied a little surprised. “Yes,” Salk continued. “God is the inexorable life force of our world that continues to reinvent itself from generation to generation, adapting to the vicissitudes of life on this planet in ways that stun the imagination; that God is still creating the world with an extravagant palette; that God becomes Godself through the infinite diversity of God’s own imagination.”

Moyers replied, “You sound like you are a person of faith.” “Oh if you only knew….”