Welcome To Classroom Earth
“The earth is what we all have in common.” —Wendell Berry
“Look profound into nature, and afterward, you will comprehend everything better.” —Albert Einstein
The Biblical narrative, and very likely all forms of religion and politics, unequivocally frames the activity of existence between the dueling categorical forces of good and evil, right and wrong, holy and unholy. And in universally tangible and observable ways, Nature’s immersive story teaches the same truth. Looking to Nature as the first of many teachers communicating and illustrating this profound framework of active and formative dual forces, clear evidence awaits to be observed or experienced through the daily expression of the following progressively linear mechanisms: step leads to step, action leads to reaction, choice leads to consequence. To observe and experience the machinations of Nature is to learn that an existence is not under the authoritative control of anyone’s capacity to imagine or pursue otherwise. In spite of efforts to construct an existence of autonomy, with or without our awareness, the daily flow of life on planet earth requires that all inhabitants surrender to the immutable indisputable undying machinations of Nature that deliver a duality of results: win or lose, live or die, achieve or fail, awaken or sleep, and on and on and on and on. The fundamental truth that Nature is not ours to command or to control is first reveal in the conception of life. No living thing, not you, not I, no one and no thing willed their existence into existence. Our individual existence is the profound product, the almost supernatural consequence, of Nature’s machinations and mechanisms operating within the existence of living things that preceded our own existence. Simply put, we did not bring ourselves into this world. And we cannot dictate with any means of authority the terms or manner in which we live in it or leave it.
But we do not realize this awesome and profound power of Nature over our lives at first breath. This awareness is something that we might be blessed to realized only after existing through a sequence of several sunrises and sunsets. It is only as we go about the daily act of existing that we may come to learn that the sum of our life is comprised of the string of innumerable daily choices that we have made; whether we made them with an awareness of their influence or not. Between awakening and sleeping, we should hope to come to learn that our existence is directly shaped through the intentional and unintentional choices of our making; choices that are inextricably linked to an array of consequences arranged according to Nature’s framework and flow. When learning that we possess both the ability to choose and the ability to perceive the impact of a choice, we eventually come to learn that there are choices that lead to good and that there are choices that lead to bad, that there is a chance to choose success and that there is a chance to choose failure. With this knowledge in mind, we learn that there is light…or rather revealed knowledge…and there there is dark…or rather hidden knowledge…and as we learn to better wield this knowledge, we discern that our existence is more than simply one of “Being”…we learn that our existence is one of “Becoming”. Becoming what? Well, that depends. If we learn that we can Become rather than merely Be, we shift from an existence of passive decision-making to an existence of active decision-making. We then begin developing a Conscience…an internal way of examining our world… and with this newly formed consciousness, our existence is managed through Conscience, becoming an existence characterized by the abstract concept of Belief; for Thought often forms Belief and Belief often forms Doctrine and common Doctrine forms Community and Community forms Culture and Culture begins the work of building systems and organizations that ensure the survival of this newly created way of living in order to ensure the survival of the Culture which will work to ensure the survival of the Community which will work to ensure the survival of the Doctrines which were built from our Beliefs which were built from our Thoughts which were built within our Self after learning a little of our way through this existence on Earth.
By uncanny design, humans possess a large capacity for perpetually dynamic learning. And though it is universally apparent that we also possess fundamental levels of instinct upon entering the world (Instinct = inherited knowledge and behaviors); instinct merely compels us to learn. Animated by the instinct to survive, our daily existence is framed by cycling through the instincts to eat, to seek shelter, to seek security. As such and with need for little deliberative guidance, humans “learn their way” through the world’s mechanized curriculum of reward (life) and punishment (death).
Because we possess this capacity to learn and to be transformed by it, it can be confidently stated that we are responsible to learn and that we are, therefore, accountable for what we learn, what we do not learn and how we use what we learn. In fact, through reward or punishment, we are even compelled to learn HOW to learn. A large part of our existence, therefore, is spent and directly influenced by our active and passive learning. Even the act of sleep is anchored and tied to Nature’s imposing curriculum. Our brains take advantage of our temporarily muted senses by using sleep as an opportunity to process and categorize our day’s experiences and gained knowledge. And like the influence of food, water, and shelter on the physical body, for better or worse, so knowledge changes the brain and the mind; creating habits and perceptions, developing skills and competencies, making us aware of strengths and weaknesses, all of which are influenced and formed through the processes of passive and active learning. Ultimately, these habits and perceptions, skills and competencies, strengths and weaknesses give our “Being” is shaped and moved by “Becoming”.
This is all universally true for our species. And therefore, this is true for me. And this is why, when I surrendered my awareness to the machinations of Nature, I was awakened to Belief…Belief in the God of Christian Scripture. In a moment’s light, my nature was revealed to me through Nature and the hearing of the Gospel and I turned from what Nature was making of me towards what God was calling me to Become. In the book of Romans, God the Teacher states that no human can or will stand before Him with justification for a lack of knowledge regarding His existence in and above all of existence. Why? Because He initially reveals Himself to us all through Nature. His invisible attributes can be seen, heard, felt, tasted, and smelled. And being created in His image, we possess an acuity that empowers us to discern the transformative powers Nature’s design and, therefore, we come to learn of the need to seek, to knock, and to ask as we hope to learn to understand.
A reading of Acts 17 reveals the timelessness of this universal matter of learning our way through life. Paul, addressing a flourishing community, uses their established culture as an illustration of the common ground between them; that human beings become believers as live a life in pursuit of learning and development. Building his case around their community’s manifestations of political and religious doctrines, he reveals the truth of the knowledge that they evidently seek, the truth of a God who transformed his own existence. He further expands upon and clarifies the knowledge that they already possess. That there is an unseen power involved in all aspects of the seen. This unseen power is God, yes. But He is the God of all gods and He desires to be known. Therefore, Has made Hisself known in the person of Jesus Christ; an all powerful self-evident, self-sustaining Creator and Redeemer of all things who seeks to be known in order that we may be transformed into the beings that He desires. Like Paul, as a disciple of Christ, I have also come to learn that I am to become a particular type of human. I become this type by daily living a specific way within this existence. I live this way so that I might truly live. Therefore, I surrender my being to the teachings of Christ, becoming a disciple of Christ. Looking upon the process of learning as a sacred calling, a necessary and daily duty, I have come to believe that my mind, surrendered and open to learning, becomes the divine space in which I encounter and engage with God. And in this encounter with God, my learning is directed by and from Him so that I might discern and know the proper ordering of good and evil, right and wrong, holy and unholy. And by this approach, I minimize the proximity between my thoughts and God’s will. Drawing near to Him, I am transformed by the power of His Word. And this what I have come to know as the meaning of Liturgy.
Though I have not been formally trained by theological scholars in the art and science of liturgical doxology, having been developed as a “worship pastor” over a span of 30 years and through various transformations of the church’s ideas and ideals surrounding worship, I have developed an understanding of the existence and meaning of and the need for liturgy. My current working view of liturgy, developed by acts of doing ministry and reading about ministry, is that liturgy is a collaborative work of the people for the people that is manifested through a procedural ordering of elements comprising a public/corporate gathering of the church that is motivated by and built upon the Biblical premises that worship is the fruit of a transformative relationship with and in God that compels us to respond devotedly and dutifully as the body of Christ, uniformly participating in the narrative of the Gospel through praying the Gospel, singing the Gospel, and learning the Gospel.
Wanderings & Meanderings 