Have you
heard the joke about the man who is in a flood and he is on the roof of his
house and he prays for God to save him?
First a log goes by, then a boat, then a helicopter. Each time he says no he is waiting for God to
save him. When he finally drowns he
angrily confronts God and God says to him:
“What did you want? I sent you a
log, a boat and a helicopter and you turned them all down!
I feel in
this pandemic situation that God is saying; “Well I have been trying to warn
you.”
In 2011 I
sent a draught so severe to the Southwest that the Churches prayed for rain as
the cattle died.
I sent you
innumerable hurricane’s: Sandy, Katrina, Harvey, and Dorian...over 410 billion
in damage. I sent Mathew to destroy Haiti and Maria to destroy Puerto Rico…and
all you did was turn your gaze away.
I sent you record
flooding last year devastating your breadbasket
Last year I
sent 6,782 separate fires to California alone burning over 2 Trillion dollars
worth of homes.
And when
that did not get your attention, I burned a whole continent of Australia, over 100
billions worth.
But still
you said: “Too bad for those
people”.
So now I
have sent you Corona – a problem so global that no one can ignore it, so deadly
that no one can minimize it. I have brought
you to a halt, I have joined you at the hip….and now do I have your attention?
I, Lynn,
need to be clear, I do not believe in an Old Testament God who is vengeful and
all powerful and goes around smiting people.
I believe in a Mother Earth, a Universe that is intelligent and an
eco-system of which humans are but one player in an intricately and yes
divinely woven interdependent and quite perfect system. But due to a reductionist error in both how
our brains process and in how the great theologies of the world have worked, we
have seen ourselves as separate from and above or in charge of nature, and it
has lead to catastrophically bad choices.
For that
reason I want to learn the lessons Corona is trying to teach us.
The first
one, just incredible gratitude for all that I am so privileged to have: my
health, still a job, food to eat, and a roof over my head that I own that will
be mine even after other hard times go by.
I want to
learn to slow down and be still and hear what the earth is telling us, that it
is sick, very, very sick and needing our help.
Global emissions are already down 5%
I want to
notice the way it tells us all our fates are linked as one.
I want to
notice God’s cry to care for the least of these among us in this time of
suffering.
I want to
take up the demand for a jubilee year – for the forgiveness of all debt, to let
us start from square zero to rebuild, not for some amongst us to start from
square negative 10.
I want out
of the destruction before us to rise up like the phoenix to build a new
society, one based upon justice and humanity out of the rubble of the disaster
we have wrought with policies that have made it worse.
