 |
Massachusetts Conference Edition
|
||||||||||||
Minister & President’s Columnby The Rev. Dr. Jim Antal October/November 2008 Where does hope take you?
Ahead, one path appears (at first at least) as if it will be a continuation of the path you have been on. Change is hardly evident. If you learn of change at all, it is in hushed tones, quiet whispers on page 23 of the newspaper, and such changes are almost always in a distant, unfamiliar place (such as the Canadian Arctic, where ice shelves more than three times the area of Manhattan recently broke off). The price of gas goes way up ... people (and perhaps you, yourself) drive less ... and the price of gas goes down – some. Thank God! If you squint – like you really want to see where this path is going – you can see that the path makes a turn. Beyond that turn you can see nothing. Just before the turn is a sign. It reads, “Danger! Cliff! End of path...” But the sign is rickety; it’s just leaning there, like someone brought it from someplace else. It’s hard to tell how long it might take before you’d reach that turn; hard to know how much time you’d have to maintain continuity with life as you’ve experienced it. Perhaps a few years. Perhaps a little longer. But what you’re certain of is that you don’t control the pace. Down the way is a church. You can hear the pastor’s sonorous voice through the open window. He’s reading from the letter to the Hebrews, chapter 13, verse 8: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” The other path is disconcerting, to say the least. Within a few steps, you’ll have to get on all fours and climb down a treacherous ravine. You don’t have the right equipment – in fact, much of the equipment you’ll need hasn’t been invented yet. And you can’t go down this path alone. You can only go down this way if everyone helps one another and totally commits to a common challenge. As you steel yourself and peer over the edge of that descent, you see that if you make it down in one piece, you’ll face an even more daunting challenge – to summit what appears to be an impossibly difficult climb. A scientist hands you binoculars. The binoculars also allow you to see quite far down this path – much farther than the bend in the other path. They also allow you see down this path in greater detail. Three things jump out at you. First of all, the path is parched. Potable water becomes more and more scarce. Second, none of the forms of energy that are now plentiful can be taken on this path. New forms must be developed. Finally, there’s no way you can bring with you all the things – the stuff –you’ve accumulated throughout your life. And one more thing. There’s a church you can see in the distance. And on the sign out front there’s part of a single verse of scripture from the book of Revelation, chapter 21, verse 5, “See, I am making all things new.” Jim’s Antal’s “Green” Book PicksNew Books on the Ethics and Theology ofClimate ChangeAny preacher with interest in climate change and the environment could benefit from reading any of the following:
| |||||||||||||
Return
to main page
This is what it feels like to be at the fork in the road. What you’re feeling. Whoever you are. Right now. Having lived for thousands of generations, human beings have never before felt what you are feeling – what it’s like to be at the fork in the road.