• Discovering the truth about some others and oneself – an “epiphany”
• Feeding the hungry
FOR MEDITATION
• “Our daily missions are . . . “
RESOURCE
For our mission in the debate over evolution – with a note about resurrection
Our role – especially those of us closely connected with schools – in the wider world’s debate about teaching evolution can be enriched by the work of John F. Haught, Thomas Healy Distinguished Professor of Theology at Georgetown University, Washington, DC. The debate sorely needs more input from theologians. Haught has been writing about evolution and theology for a long time. Google his name for a list of his writings. Here are some excerpts from his Boyle Lecture of 2004, at St. Mary -le-Bow, London (www.stmarylebow.co.uk/?Boyle_Lectures:2004). You may even be surprised to find correlations with the celebration of the Resurrection at Easter.
“. . . What then does providence mean if life comes about and diversifies on Earth in the manner proposed by Darwin and his neo-Darwinian descendants . . . This task may not be easy, for Christians believe that divine providence is, actively, personally and passionately involved in life, whereas Darwinism understands life in terms of purely natural causes. If the cosmos itself is able to bring about life and its diversity in a purely blind and natural manner, how might theology provide any deeper illumination? Furthermore, since Christians believe that God cares for the weak and the poor, why is the process of natural selection permitted to eliminate so ruthlessly all incompetent, maladaptive forms of life? And if Christians believe that God is eager to create goodness and to redeem all suffering, why is the creative process drawn out for so long a time inconclusively?
“I believe theology may effectively display the theological harmoniousness of divine providence with Darwinian evolution if it takes as its starting point only two standout features of the image of God that emerge from our revelatory sources. The first of these is the theme of the ‘descent of God.’ The second, a motif that permeates the biblical literature, is that of the God who opens up the future by making promises and dependably keeping them. I believe that on these two closely allied pillars of faith theology may construct a plausible theology of evolution . . .
1. The Descent of God
“An evolutionary theology, I would suggest, must picture God's descent as entering into the deepest layers of the evolutionary process, embracing and suffering along with the entire cosmic story, not just with the recent human chapters . . . Providence, therefore, must be thought of not only as divine care for humans and our history, but as God's care for the totality of life and the cosmic process that sponsors life . . . By virtue of life's unbroken historical unity we may be so bold as to assume also that the eons of evolutionary suffering in the universe are also God's own suffering. And this would mean that the whole of nature in some way participates in the promise of the resurrection as well.
“. . .as a condition of there being any world distinct from God at all, the omnipotent and omnipresent Creator must be humble and self-effacing enough to allow for both the existence of something other than God, and a relationship to that other . . . It is out of the divine humility, therefore, that the otherness of the world is ‘longed’ into being by God. Creation is God's ‘letting be’ of the world, a release that makes possible a dialogical relationship (and hence a more intimate communion) of God with the finite, created ‘other.’ . . . And once life emerges spontaneously within the history of this other, it need not forfeit the seeds of autonomy allowed to take root in it by the other-regarding providence of its maker. It is ultimately for this reason that the Darwinian recipe consists of its three ingredients: contingency, law and time. Contingency, for instance, may be troubling to those fixated on the need for design in nature, but it is absolutely essential for creation's autonomy and aliveness.
“. . . At the same time, the remorseless and impersonal invariance of the laws of nature, including natural selection (the second ingredient of the Darwinian recipe), may be essential if the world is to have any degree of autonomy or self-reliance vis-a-vis its Creator. The alternative, once again, is unimaginable: a construct in which every event would be directly caused by divine action – in other words, not really a world at all, but a puppet . . . Finally, if nature is allowed to be distinct from the God who calls it into being, it must be granted sufficient temporal amplitude for life-evolving experiments with the wide variety of possibilities made available to it by the infinite resourcefulness of its Creator . . . A mature theology of providence may come to realize that God ‘descends’ from all eternity so as to permit the self-actualizing of the universe. Thus evolution, including all the aspects of it that send us scurrying for signs of design, is consistent with any world whose emergent freedom eventually allows for the intimate relationship with the self-humbling God that Christian faith perceives to be transparent in the divine incarnation.
2. Providence as Promise
“. . . So any truly penetrating account of time's creativity in evolution must ask what gives the natural world the character of temporal becoming in the first place. . . . Why then is the universe temporal at all? The various sciences try to answer this question at their own levels of inquiry, but a biblically guided theological search for the deepest conditions of time, and hence of evolution, could argue that it is the coming of the future that pushes the present into the past and permits a linear sequence of events to occur. In other words, it is not the blind movement of the past toward the future that endows the universe with its temporal character, but the constant arrival of a new future.
“Theologically speaking, however, the ‘coming of the future’ is ultimately the coming of God, whose self-revelation occurs inseparably from promises that open up the world to an unprecedented horizon of newness. Indeed, it may not be inappropriate to say that in its ultimate depths the fathomless future is one of the things we mean when we use the word ‘God’ in a Christian setting.
“. . . Providence here takes the form not so much of design and fine-tuning as the perpetual dawning of a new future for the world. That the story of the Big Bang universe will itself eventually come to a physical end – freeze or fry – should not be disturbing to those who trust in God's promise of redemption. An infinitely compassionate and resourceful Future can be the ultimate redemptive repository of the entire series of cosmic occurrences no less than of those episodes that make up our individual lives . . . The theme of ‘nature as promise’ harmonizes nicely with the eschatological orientation of biblical religion.”
STORIES
Discovering the truth about some others and oneself – an “epiphany”
Brian was serving as US Agency for International Development worker in Panama at the time the Canal was being turned over to the Panamanians. His job was to work with Panama’s supervisor of its national parks to see that US funds for the parks were being used properly. Whenever he visited the parks, he found only five of the thirty-five workers on the payroll to be actually on the job supervising the parks. At the end of a year, he had to report this lack of budgeted workers. He began to suspect some kind of corruption. He went to the supervisor and asked where are the missing thirty. “Do you really want to know?” came the answer. He said yes and was taken to his supervisor. The same exchange. “Do you really want to know?” “Yes;” and taken finally to a level so senior Brian had only heard about the man. The same, “Do you really want to know?” “Yes,” produced this answer.
All thirty-five were at a training conference. On the way home, the bus went off the road and thirty were killed. There was no insurance coverage because Panama had not yet developed public service to that level. Retirement and death benefits had not even been thought of. So, what could be done now for the families of the thirty? The solution was to continue to send the regular pay to the families. Every two weeks, a child from each family came to the office and went home with an envelope. Inside, was the paycheck of the child’s dead father. Brian had noticed the regular appearance of these children every two weeks but had thought nothing of it.
Now, Brian had to report what he had learned. He laid out the story to his supervisors in Washington. They likewise saw the humanitarian issues involved and went along with it even though it was wrong. Next, the Washington people worked out a way for the funds to continue but with the proper designation. The Panamanians, on their side, began to develop the appropriate benefits for their park supervisors.
Brian describes the whole experience as an “epiphany” for him. [“Epiphanies” – from the Greek for “appearances” – are times we sense the risen Lord’s presence – here, to correct and to heal.] He had spent a year suspecting the worst kind of corruption. Now, he was confronted with how wrong he had been and how responsible and caring the Panamanians had been in finding some way to provide for the families.
Contact: Brian Houseal, 25 Sam Spear Road, Westport, NY 12993; 518-962-2677; bhouseal@adirondackcouncil.org
Feeding the hungry: Start-up and follow-through
Trinity Church, Plattsburgh, NY feeds 25-40 individuals and families every Wednesday. Saturdays are added in the winter time to be sure a hot meal is available.
Helping on a past Wednesday were Bill Brown, Kris Bohley, Betty Schwab,
Mike and Eric Lynch – the guests are not pictured to protect their privacy.
In its thirteenth year, the Community Meal came about as the church spent a year looking for an outreach ministry. A woman came forward to conduct the research. The members decided their talents and interests were in feeding. Next came research with helping agencies as to when to offer a meal. The Salvation Army offers a hot lunch daily. Evening was the answer. Since it started, many groups – youth to college to service organizations have taken evenings. St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church helped for five years and then started their own weekly evening meal on Tuesdays. John Sorenson, the rector who had asked for the search for an outreach ministry, comments, "It's a laboratory for church people to sense what it is like to help poor people. It removes the ‘otherness' of the poor, especially when volunteers take the time to sit down and eat with the clients. They are not ‘those' people but ‘our' people. And, the diners, who cannot normally afford to eat out, find it a good place to be together with others. These are some of the ways God uses it. And, I find God's help in the leadership development that motivated that first person who came forward to conduct the research and all the leaders and workers who have followed her."
Mike Lynch, a worker since it began, sees God is at work in such “coincidences” the gift of a freezer, two refrigerators, and some shelving from a small hot dog franchise which was closing down. It was 1998 and the church had been trying to find a way to pay for plans to modernize its kitchen for the community feeding program. “That gift was a sign we should go ahead,” said Mike. “Getting to know and to work with other people in something that needs to be done is the real payback to me.” Mike sees God at work in the people who come. They are down on their luck or just subsisting – and find the meal just a place to be with other people.
Frank Pabst, the current director and the retired captain of a tour boat on Lake Champlain, recruits the workers and now finds more and more community groups coming forward to take an evening supplying both the food and the workers. Souper Sunday and similar fund-raising support the Meal – with Trinity back up as needed. Frank comments on God’s presence in this mission: “In the midst of a stalemate on some issue, suddenly the answer is there for me. God holds the helm of the ship I’m in. God gives me direction and gives me answers. I like 1 Cor. 10:13: ‘No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.’”
Contact: Frank Pabst, 69 Miller Street, Plattsburgh, NY 12901; 518-561-5771; pabstf@northnet.org
FOR MEDITATION
“Our daily missions are what we do with our spirituality.”
[Adapted from a saying of Mary E. Johnson, Parish Nurse, Trinity Church, Milford, MA.]