So asked Cain of God. God does not give a definitive answer, at least not in that conversation. However, I think over time Cain was led to an answer and that is the city. Cain was condemned to wander but he ended up founding a city. Cities fascinate me because they push an already altruistic, social animal further than perhaps we would normally go. It is normal to care for the immediate family from an evolutionary and genetic point of view (Cain failed in this regard by murdering Abel). We want our genes to reproduce and carry on. We extend that care to less closely related family and kin. We even extend that care to friends and close community members who become sort of adopted family members. But how do we extend that care to strangers, to people we will never know?  The city, in order to be sustainable, forces us to do so on a daily basis.

One of the clearest examples of this is the development of urban water and sanitation systems. Frequently, historically, the wealthy had access to clean(er) water and sanitation methods. If nothing else the maid could carry out the chamber pot though she might have dumped it out the window on someone’s head. But the poor, the anonymous, unimportant, annoying, always growing demographic of the poor did not. However, over time it became clear that plagues and disease were costly to the city and that they often spread to the richer parts of town anyway. So the rich, as represented through politicians, had to make choices to spend money on systems that provided clean water to all and reasonable means of removing sewage from individual homes.

There are many other examples of urban systems, including transit systems, that show us that yes, in order to live well together, we need to be our brother’s keeper, in the sense of caring for one another. In a world where the majority of people now live in cities it seems that Cain got the answer to his question.

C.

Yesterday I came across 2 different but linked pieces of information. The first is that only about 25% of people, worldwide have bank accounts. So the 2008 bank crash that plunged the rest of the world (7 billion of us) into recession was caused by a teeny, tiny number of people who have substantial bank accts. Amazing. Here’s the URL for a fun National Geographic video that brings out this info and more on the most typical human being right now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B2xOvKFFz4

Then later I noted that CBS 60 minutes was set to air a segment on homeless children in the US. In the intro they note that child poverty in the US is at least 20% and due to rise to 25% (wow the same percentage as folks who have bank accounts). It is a heart wrenching film but I include it here too. These children live the results of that bank crash and recession in their daily hunger.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/06/60minutes/main20038927.shtml

I am sure many churches and good people are trying to help out in all of this. I also read another article recently that spoke of how the new orthodoxy amongst many Christians is to get rid of debt (not only personal but government) and that debt is a sin. And often in their quest for personal sinlessness the first thing that goes is charitable giving. And of course, at a larger, collective level, many of the efforts to reduce government debts (municipal, state, and federal in the US, municipal, provincial and federal in Canada) seek to cut first ‘entitlement’ programs, those programs often in place to mitigate the effects of poverty. So children go hungry in rich countries.

I think Michael Moore said it best when he told the people in Madison Wisconsin who are fighting for union rights – America is not broke – it is simply that the vast wealth, the cash, the big bucks, are in the hands and pockets of a few very, very wealthy people. The rest have hungry kids.

Just to put it all into perspective – Moore notes that 400 people in the USA have more wealth than half of all Americans combined, that is 155 million people.

Amazing.

c.

I’ve been fascinated by some of the behaviour of public figures around the world lately. There are about to be deposed dictators who somehow can’t figure out that their immoral physical and/or economic depredations upon their own populations have now swung back to them. I think they genuinely don’t get it. But there are also public figures – both government and religious, here in North America who also engage in immoral behaviour (financial and often sexual) who are also surprised to be caught and censored. What’s with all this?

Recently I read of a study that showed that the choice to engage in cheating means that we go back and rethink our moral/ethical codes in order to justify the cheating. In other words, our behaviours shape our beliefs. If we start cheating or behaving dishonestly, violently, greedily, then we are prone to find ways in our minds to validate, justify and excuse such behaviour. Our choices shape our thinking.

I also read awhile back that the rich often understand themselves to be invisible to the rest of us. Somehow their greedy behaviour presumably passes unnoticed, at least in their minds. Hence the surprise and upset amongst bankers on Wall Street and in the City of London when their misdeeds were revealed. They were rich so they were invisible!

All that to say indeed our choices shape our thinking and I suspect the physical structure of our brains. So we need to be wise and careful about how we behave. Does a strong moral code save us from this?  Well, I note that it is often the folks on the right in North America who sin the most spectacularly in terms of finances or sexual behaviour. So living under the Law is not the answer. I think that living in loving relationship with Jesus is more likely to lead us to right behaviours and therefore well-shaped brains.

Just saying. . .

c.

P.S: a wee kitty update – he is doing well. He had a cardio scan last week and even with that stress had normal blood pressure. His heart is far healthier than we thought with the murmur. Really no problems there. So there is work to do to get him into optimum shape but he is improving daily. His mom is happy about that.

Just because you say you are? Well, maybe not, or obviously not in the case of Barak Obama.

This week Bill Maher (a thoughtful comedian) in the US decided that Obama is not a Christian or a Muslim but a secular humanist. Okay. But that made me think how it is that we know someone (myself included) is a Christian. What is more confusing is that in the USA (still officially a Christian nation – though how do we  know that?) it appears that many Christian politicians can engage in affairs (Newt Gingrich amongst many, many others), fiddle with finances, break all sorts of laws (Tom Delay), lie, engage in deceit, whatever, and it is all okay. Their faith is not questioned. They may be poor sinning Christians (think of Tom Haggard here) but they are still considered Christians. Obama who has done none of these things, as far as we know, is questioned constantly on his faith.

So how do we prove we are a Christian? I always understood our faith to be something we  declared, a statement was enough. But what happens when masses of people (as in the case of Obama) declare themselves not to believe the statement?  Then what?  Is my faith only true if others accept my statement of it?

How do we determine if a person’s statement of faith is true? Do we base it on a person’s church attendance. In that case I fall far short at this point. Do we base it on daily Bible reading?  I stopped that about a decade ago. Do we base it on charitable activities?  Well, I haven’t had time do engage in those for a while with doctoral studies to do. All you have from me is my statement and the fact that I try to behave with kindness towards others. And from a blog reader’s point of view, my behaviour doesn’t count much since we are not in contact that way. So how do we know?  How do we prove our faith if others refuse to accept our word?

c.

My cat was diagnosed last week with a long laundry list of ailments including stage 2 renal failure. This is a common cause of death in senior male cats. He is heading toward his 15^th birthday which makes him about 90 in human terms. Beyond the unbelievable amount of money shelled out last week for blood tests and various medications I did a lot of thinking about how I should proceed and why with this situation.  I had to do the thinking because the vets constantly inquired if I wanted further consultations with internists, further diagnostics including in his case, due to a long-standing heart murmur, a cardio ultra scan and whatever else the specialists might recommend. I resist most of this though the cardio scan may become necessary as they have trouble treating the hyperthyroid without it. To honour the vets I may have to go there.

On Saturday, while yet again, the list of possible responses was given to me I informed the vet that I did not believe in such heroics to preserve an animal’s life, especially if it ended up feeling like torture to the animal. In fact, I told her, I don’t even believe in that for humans. She was a bit taken aback but it meant we moved on to another type of discussion.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the cat. But I did need to figure out why I was responding this way. So here’s a stab at a bit of theology. You all can jump in and disagree or tell me I’m nuts.

On what am I basing my response? I think the question comes down to a belief that death is survivable or not. I really liked Martin’s videos on eschatology and the environment as he stated that Jesus’ work on the cross was for all nations and creation (I hope I got that right Martin). I don’t know what that means for the final disposition of a wee kitty but it makes me think that as Jesus made death survivable for me, he might have done the same for all of creation.  If death is not survivable then no price is too high to pay for medical intervention in terms of money, time, energy, and discomfort to the patient. After all, death itself becomes too high a price to pay. But if death is survivable as Jesus paid the price for it, then I can consider other options. Specifically, I prayed in December before my return from Italy and God told me that Aaron did not have long to live. Okay. He is going, exact date yet unknown (1 month, 3 months, 1 year? God is always so imprecise with these terms). Since the exact date is unknown I still have to make treatment decisions as my prayer and intent is that Aaron will have a high quality of life until it is time to go. And because Aaron belongs to God those decisions have to be made prayerfully. It is not a matter of what I want done with Aaron but what his owner, God, wants done. But I don’t have to worry about heroic measures as death does not cost anything any longer. Oh death where is thy sting?  It is removed.

Yes, I know there will be an emotional cost to me, I’m not saying that disappears. When we love someone (even an animal) there are chemical reactions in our brains. Losing that someone is like having to break an addiction, we are strongly attached and the break is painful. But that does not change the reality of death and life after death if the gospel is true.

I realize for some of you who have walked through this kind of struggle with a human loved one this might be the antithesis of what you think. You might be committed to any kind of medical intervention possible if it promises to prolong life as, especially if there are children involved, the cost of death is beyond all else. So I recognize that my thinking may be off or offensive to some. I’m just trying to figure out if Jesus’ actions mean something and if so what do they mean in light of this kind of situation.  In the meanwhile I am learning to split pills, hide medications in food (no, he will not eat them) and give shots of B12.

C.

I am struggling with the return. To go get groceries Saturday morning I hiked, with a bundle buggy, a kilometre from my house, in the snow, to a large shopping centre where my choice of food is essentially whatever the large supergrocery has in stock. There are few alternatives where I live in Canada. The store is large, known for not sourcing locally, and ignoring local farmers.  It offers industrialized and processed food in vast quantities.  Many such foodstuffs are marketed as ‘artisanal’ or as particularly good for one’s health. On alternative days, when I have the time I take a bus 15 minutes to the next old main street and shop at a discount grocery. That one is at least smaller, more humane in scale and works for poor students like myself. It is slated to be demolished to make way for a condo development. Grocery stores that serve poor people are always expendable.

The economics here is all anonymous, huge in scale, and lacks any connection to the human.  It made me think of the way we design our cities. In Italy my experience was of an economics grounded in the space and life of the community. It enabled relationships. Here spatially, the main economic structures, the huge ‘power’ malls, industry, and production are located on the edges of residential space or outside of them altogether. It feels like the system sits both outside and on top of the life of the community acting oppressively. Such economics may employ people but it tends to suck the life out communities and then scurry away down the interstate to the next place.  Why are we stuck with this?

Last week I met the director of the program in which I am teaching this term at a local college. She needed a cup of coffee at one point and as we headed to the faculty lunchroom she commented, in light of my time in Italy, that we lack a proper coffee culture in North America. True. We go for quantity rather than quality of product every time. Even the North American coffee culture, the Starbucks and here in Canada, Second Cup, offer huge vats of coffee and milk to their customers and the espresso is produced with little art or care despite all the hype otherwise.  In fact, even with the use of Italian made machines, the espresso here is so bad I’ve returned to drinking tea.

Why can’t we change this?  Are we stuck with such an oppressive economic system, a system that determines how we design cities and transport services, a system that ultimately kills all other options through sheer size and scale?  Are we helpless before this Frankenstein monster we have created? After all, we created this system.  We run it. It feels like it runs us. It’s the ultimate imperialistic economic system and enslaves all but a few of us as both producers/employees and consumers.

I’m going to drink my coffee, made in my own moka brought back from Italy, grab the bundle buggy and head out for my free fitness hike to the oppressive, huge scale, inhumane supermarket.  I need food or whatever it is they think they are selling.

C.

P.S.: yes, I know that the system is global and is present in Italy as well as Canada. The difference is that many European and Italian cities retain the older historical centres which were spatially designed for human scale movement and habitation. This spatial pattern provides for an alternative to the large scale global system, that of the small scale, human relational system. Canada really has very little or none of that type of spatial pattern in its cities.

So I did the impossible thing. I left Italy. It really did seem impossible and I could not believe I was doing it. The departure was not easy. I had many invitations to meet with people in the last few days. I loved a dinner of homemade pizza and champagne. And Italian hot chocolate is amazing but it meant a loss of time to finish up things and pack. The final day I got up early and packed my bags only to find, that despite all of my careful planning, I was overweight. What to do?  I began tossing things out. Clothes went into a bag for charity. My books were left on the table with 80 euros and request for my friends to mail them. I checked the cost of buying extra weight on Easy Jet but figured it was too expensive. So I had to trust that my friends would take care of it all. And then, after buying a final bun at the bakery for lunch I hustled with 30 kg of luggage to the train station.

The flight from Milan ran an hour late which gave me some time to both be bored and reflect on the day.  I realized that I had made a decision about shipping the books and notepads based on the assumption of poverty. Why not just pay for the extra weight?  There was room in the suitcase. There are a number of reasons why that might not have worked out anyway but it struck me that I was basing my decision on the wrong set of criteria. God is in control. He can provide even in emergencies so why be so fussed about what amounts to a mere 40 extra euros. Really. I felt challenged by that and was immediately challenged further upon my return.

When I finally arrived in Toronto I found my apartment in pretty good shape but furniture had to be moved and the fridge cleaned. A number of items needed to head to the washing machine, which was broken and no one had dealt with it. So I borrowed a phone and immediately called repair (that would be next Thursday when they will get here). I explained to my tenant, who lent me the phone that I am trying to learn not to be cheap in the wrong ways, to make decisions based on wrong thinking due to the experience of being poor. There are moments when spending money up front is actually cheaper. I think she was just concerned that I was so annoyed about the machine.

But all of that has me thinking about stewardship. It is difficult to figure out what it means sometimes. If we are heading into a time where we really, really have to know God as provider and protector then I think I need a better understanding of stewardship. God may provide and I appreciate that but what then is my responsibility?  Do I save every nickel and dime that comes my way, hoarding against bad times?  When do I spend?  How do I manage the physical facility I live in?  What must be done?  What isn’t so important?  And what happens when the people I live with have very different views on the matter?

I am realizing that the issue of stewardship which extends to the whole of creation is actually a rather difficult topic. We’ve obviously not understood it well or why is the planet a large toxic trash heap right now?  Our stewardship has been pretty poor as we have ravaged the planet and polluted land, air and water all the while maintaining high levels of poverty for way too many people. That history would imply that we need to learn something new here.  And how does stewardship fit with the abundance of the Kingdom. I’m glad God gives abundantly and a love to experience that, but what then is my responsibility with what has been given to me.

Lots of questions as I return and look to the future.

C.

I am rushed and busy and have too much to do before I leave. Always. Sempre.

People wish me well,  they give me gifts, addresses and emails are exchanged. It is difficult to leave Italy.

Meanwhile I must look ahead. All the applications for professor positions in Canada  are due in the next month. No time to write great cover letters. God will have to open the way.

Good news, the weather forecasts appear to agree that it will be good to fly in Europe and out of Europe on the 29th and 30th. Phew. I did not want to get fog bound in Milan. So I have hopes that the trip will be smooth and easy.

For now, I whirl around packing up my household, finishing tasks, saying good-byes to one and all. And I suspect, once on the plane, I will indeed cry myself back to Canada.

c.

As I continue to take my leave of Piacenza I am reminded of a few things. These come in no particularly order.

Piacenza was always the preferred crossing point of the Po River from northern Italy to the middle and south. That is part of the reason the Romans located the city here.  It meant the city was on the front line, the frontier, of various jurisdictions for many years. Romans advanced north and pushed out local tribes. Romans retreated during the decline of the empire and tribes from Eastern Europe pushed in. The French, Spanish, and Austrian empires fought back and forth over the city. Factions rode through and factions rode out. It has a long and contentious history. It was also the site of the first bridge across the Po River. Interestingly the bridge came down in a flood the spring before I arrived in 2009. The new bridge, the replacement is due to be completed any minute and was inaugurated on Saturday.

Piacenza was also the site where the Pope, if not declared, then intimated the call for the first crusade at a council of 30,000 who met here. Since the city could not have even had 30,000 people in it at that point I guess once the hostels were full, the rest of them had to camp out.

Piacenza did have lots of hostels during the Middle Ages and over 50 churches. Being that primary crossing point for the Po meant that it was a major city on the Via Francigena, the pilgrim route to Rome and Jerusalem from northern Europe.

I was reminded today by a display in the local library that Piacenza is considered the primogenita of Italy (and was awarded a medal with that declaration), that is, the first born of the nation-state we know as Italy. There have long been various attempts to unify the peninsula but finally in the mid-1800’s the Savoy dynasty out of Turin and the piedmont made a strong effort. This would eventually mean battle action as other powers such as the Austrians had long held power in parts of Italy. In April 1848 Piacenza unanimously voted to join with the piedmont to become the genesis of the Italian state. The newspaper at the time declared ‘Piacenza e libera’, Piacenza is free (the daily newspaper today is called ‘Libertad’).  Italy finally became a state (much to the disgust of the Pope of the day) in 1861 and celebrates its 150^th year in 2011. Can’t wait to see what God has in store for it. . . more shaking maybe.

And shaking leads me to another topic. On Tuesday I travelled to Mantua, a city about 100 km east of Piacenza along the Po. It was a cold and foggy day but I’m glad I went. However, the trip back was difficult. The electricity had gone out in Cremona just at (and only at) the track lines. Really. So while the station and city had lights and power, no trains could go through. It made for an epic 5 hour journey (what should have been under 2 hours) and involved changing trains in the dark in wee deserted stations, depending upon strangers to translate the confused explanations and plans of conductors, often at variance with one another, and conversations with fellow stranded travelers. At one point a fellow apologised to me for Italy, this is how Italy works he said, it is more like Africa than Europe. That is a saying I’ve heard before meant to explain and apologise for the lack of efficient functioning of almost any system here.

But it reminded me that indeed Italy is part of Africa and as well as  Europe. In terms of tectonic plates part of Italy is an appendage that sticks out of the Africa plate and part is of the Eurasian plate. It is also the place where 3 plates come together and grind together – the African plate, the European/Asian plate and the Anatolian plate (the Middle East). The movement of the plates means that  in Italy the mountains are being made low, that is the Apennines are subsiding. That is what causes the earthquakes here.

I’ll let others interpret the meaning of all these things – I’ve got packing and praying to do. Yes, much prayer as the weather has brought travel chaos to Europe. I will take a train to Milan on Dec 29th (no problems please) and then fly from Milan to Gatwick. On the 30th I will fly Gatwick to Toronto. Okay, going through the UK seemed a good idea in the fall. So much prayer. . .

C.

Ci vediamo is the informal, friendly way of saying good-bye. It means ‘we see each other’. I have begun to say ‘ci vediamo’ to Piacenza. It has been difficult to consider leaving. I have really enjoyed the life here despite health issues, language issues and all the other struggles that go with landing in a new territory.

On Saturday I went to sit in the ancient basilica dedicated to the 4^th century patron saint of Piacenza, San Antonino. I went to hear a polyphonic choir sing Christmas songs. They were in Italian so unless it was a tune I knew I was lost. But the language was made for song and it did not matter much to me. They sang Silent Night almost triumphantly and it was wonderful. They followed with O come all ye Faithful and I wanted to cry. We were sent out to a rousing 14^th century carol.

As I sat there in the cold, cold but wonderfully acoustic basilica I thought about what it means to be attached to a place. Surely it includes attachment to the people in that place, to the social networks and relationships present, and to the long history of people living in the land. I reflected on how the contemporary evangelical church lacks any real understanding of place and of relationships. I think the North American church for the most part reflects North American society with the great gaping hole of lost place and lost relationships. The church may try but until the culture is changed it is difficult to really overcome the abyss of alienation that rules modern consumer culture. When everyone drives to church from wherever they live because they like that one – well, what kind of community do you really have?

One truth about relationships came home to me today. I was cruising several cities on Wikipedia to see where I will go tomorrow for one last outing. I checked the populations and then the densities of these Italian cities. Then on a whim I checked the density of Mississauga where I will return at the end of December. There is no comparison. These cities are many, many times denser than Mississauga. That means that people are simply in closer physical proximity to one another. And we know that the way the brain works that touch is critical to creating emotional bonds. Distance is difficult to bridge in terms of real intimate relationships. So put everyone in cars, give them separate houses on medium to large yards to live in and you lose the vital connection to one another and to place. And that ultimately creates disdain for both.

Earlier today I was at the archive and wanted to start into a collection that is new to me. That is always a difficult moment. I have to negotiate the index for the archive, then possibly a new index that is different and supersedes the older one. Then that has to be translated into the means by which the archival workers have shelved things and know the collection. Today I went forward to make my ‘domanda’ for the new collection. It turned out I had used the old index numbers (provided earlier by one of the workers). That had to be translated through 2 re-organizations of the collection to get to the right numbers that would gain me the archival documents. As they worked to sort me out I started laughing. And they joined in. It is all so convoluted and terribly Italian and we all know it makes everything more difficult than it has to be but that is the way things are here. So we all had a laugh together.

As I wandered home tonight from a bit of shopping I decided I had to treat myself to one of the deserts made by my beloved local baker (the guy from France). I went into the shop and told him what I wanted. He had just removed hot baguettes from the wood oven. He laid one on the counter and indicated it was for me. I reached my arm around the display case and gave it a wee feel – so lovely and warm. I said ‘yes’ I would take the baguette too. Then he rang up the charge for the pastries and handed the warm baguette to me, free. He often gives me these kinds of treats and I try to reciprocate by shopping there and by telling friends to shop there.

Do you see what I am leaving?  It is so hard.

C.

It is difficult not to be fascinated as the Republicans in the USA attempt to relive the mythical glory days of President Ronald Reagan with a new approach to what was known as ‘trickle down economics’. This consists of large tax cuts to the rich that increased the national debt. The tax cuts worked as the rich got really, really rich. Between 1980 and 1990 they saw their incomes rise of about 80%. But little of that trickled down. The average income in the US stayed the same in that period, the poor actually became poorer, and the national debt rose beyond imaging under Republican presidents. Everything just continued to get much worse during the first decade of the 2000′s. Now the top 1% is very, very, very rich and the bottom 90% are just getting poorer. It was a lot of the GWB tax cuts to the very rich (a really big bonus for those billionaires) that added so much to the national debt.

What does this have to do with the church?  I think back to teaching I have heard in my day from the evangelical church in the USA and Canada. Much of it gave biblical credence to the policies that made the rich richer and the poor poorer. And I am reminded of the admonition in James that we are not to have regard for the rich (James 2:1-7) and that a greedy man is an idolater.

As I reflect on the American and Canadian evangelical churches over the past 30 years there has been a frequent emphasis on wealth creation (the health and wealth theology), validation for greed acted out through capitalism, and a support for the neo-conservative politics that maintain such positions. The end result is a corrupted and ineffective church now left with escalating talk of violence and threats if their policies are not adopted in the USA.

Just the other day Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, ordained pastor, FOX news personality, and presidential hopeful opined that Assange (the founder of Wikileaks) should be executed as a traitor. My heart leapt in shock when I read that a church pastor was advocating such an action. Good Christian presidential hopeful Sarah Palin tweeted a similar sentiment about Assange.

Meanwhile, as the ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ policy is debated in Congress one of the few blocks to giving gay service members full civil rights is the strongly evangelical army chaplain corps. Evangelicals engaged in strategic takeover of the military chaplaincy years ago. The result is that now the chaplains are unsure they would or could minister to an openly gay service member so therefore gay service members should continue to be denied civil rights even as they die for their country. If DADT is repealed then some chaplains threaten to resign.

I had a conversation in fall 2002 with a committed evangelical friend. She was upset at increasing gay rights in Canada. I told her the issue was a red herring especially when we often allow the greedy to fund our church ministries. I asked if there were wealthy men funding her church. Of course there were. I asked if it was possible if they were actually greedy idolaters. Of course not. She has not spoken to me since then.

This is what happens when an organization that claims to represent God and to stand at the cross with Jesus is corrupted by the validation of greed and the honouring of wealth. Over time all consideration of right behaviour is subordinated to the other agenda, one that from the start is against God. It leaves us with a church that is blind to righteousness and deaf to the cries of those in need, a church that can only reject the Kingdom of God for the kingdom of man.

After 30 years of a corrupt church that privileged wealth, isn’t interesting that the major issue in US politics now is corruption due to excessive corporate and private funds spent on elections and lobbying. Umm, wonder where that came from?

C.

The system is broken. Praise God. Funny how many of us still live as if we want the system to be repaired. We just want it to be a bit nicer than before.

I’ve been thinking about the art of listening. When you don’t know what to do it is a good thing to spend some time listening (dreams are a part of this). I think we are in a moment not unlike the post-crucifixion and pre-pouring out of the Holy Spirit time in the upper room. We know that the cross and Jesus’ crucifixion has broken the system. It has opened the important, necessary gaps that we will use to see the Kingdom come. But we haven’t seen the Kingdom come. We thought it came in the form of the church and hey, that was an interesting ride for 2000 years. But if we are honest, as we gaze at the landscape around us we have to admit that the church has not done a whole lot to bring in the Kingdom of God. So we await something new, something that tells us that the cross was effective and succeeded.

I’ve been thinking about failure. . . the failure of the human species to deal with the issues at hand. What was God thinking when he put us in charge of the earth, of his creation? We literally control the life of the planet and everything on it right now and yet instead of creating a garden we would rather turn it into a toxic trash heap and destroy ourselves and everything else in the process. God must have been having a bad day when he made that decision.

What is God’s answer to this catastrophic failure of the human species, of the church, of so, so much?   The answer, of course, is the cross. But I think many of us also see that as a failure. We live as if we are in those dark days post-crucifixion, waiting to see if there is any victory in all of this.  Is it real?  Is it good?  So we pray and we listen and we wait. Strategically, I hope.

I am praying for a mighty pouring out of the Holy Spirit, not so we can dance around drunk with joy (though that is fine) but so we can see the gaps, have a revelation of the places where the system is open to be changed, irrevocably broken. It is easy to be distracted by events and believe we see it. I think of sexual scandals from the Roman Catholic Church, to US senators, to a certain Prime Minister of the country where I reside for a wee bit longer. A friend said today that people here are worried that all the sexual scandals have been a distracting cover for possibly large improprieties with money and lots of financial bad news. I realized it is easy to look at what we see and think those things, like the sexual scandals, are the brokenness in the system. But we must go behind those things and find not only what powers them but more importantly find the open spaces where the cross has already gone ahead of us and calls us to prayer and sometimes other actions.

Sometimes when I think of where we are at, of all the environmental issues, of authoritarian nihilism that would destroy us all (often under the cover of the appearance of Christian faith) I want to raise my fists to heaven and cry out to God to do something. But he has already done what was needful and effective whether we see it or believe it or not. Our job at the moment is to listen; trusting that through a fresh revelation in the Spirit we will see the tipping points, the strategic moments that will send this old, evil system on its way and bring in the Kingdom of God in such a way we could not have imagined it.

C.