Signs of the Times....

This semester I am teaching a class called Signs of the Times, reflecting on a variety of key moments in the history of Christianity when God's people had to reflect long and hard to discern appropriately God's presence, will, and their own positions and actions within a complicated, changing world. I begin the class with a session on how we might read the signs of the times, and then start our historical overview with that profound shift that came with the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, the beginning of the formation of the communities known today as Judaism and Christianity. The class ends with a 'sign of the times' that holy fools and others are confronted with more urgently every day: Unprecedented, catastrophic and irreversible climate change.

Here are some more recents reports from scientists from a UN outfit (IPCC) and elsewhere, and the lately happily ubiquitous wonderful Bill McKibben, among many things a Methodist sunday school teacher, who fronts Step It Up, an invitation to help stop or lessen the intensity of climate change. I also recommend his delightful "The Comforting Whirlwind: God, Job, and the Scale of Creation" (esp. for church audiences) reminding us of our place in creation and inviting us to wonder and recognition of interconnection at every turn.

Another way of entering into changing our relations to creation is to support the preservation of the rainforests that are the lung of the earth and the habitat for so many. Pachamama is an organization supporting indigenous leaders in their fight to preserve their forests in Ecuador.

Should you find yourself desiring a way of entering into prayer as you participate in these efforts, I recommend a recently discovered freely available podcast (no need to own an ipod, you can just listen to it online, on a juicer, a free podcast software or on any mp3 player): Pray-as-you-go. It features a daily podcast of between 5 and 7 minutes that begins with often awesomely beautiful music, a reading from scripture, some questions that invite reflection on the reading, more music, and a final prayer.

In time for the season of Lent to begin, here is an Episcopal site on greening Lent. At CDSP, we are currently contemplating how foolish it would be to replace some of our water-sucking lawns with food producing small yards.