The Ministry of Reconciliation: "Ever New" Under the Sun

We are all at different places along our spiritual journeys. Some of us have a sense of victory and progress, others of us have a sense of disappointment, even defeat, despair, and failure. What gives us this sense of progress or failure? Upon what basis do we measure the spiritual life, this largely intangible sphere that most of us on this mailing list identify with our core values and beliefs? Likely the standard varies from person to person, from particular circumstance to particular circumstance. There are no two situations exactly alike, no two people exactly alike, no two moments exactly alike. In one sense, as the author of Ecclesiastes writes, there may be nothing new under the sun; in another sense, there is nothing that is not “ever new” under the sun. Allow me to explain.

Recently on the discussion forum, I used an analogy of embedding a camcorder—hopefully one that is waterproof—beneath a flowing river. If we lashed this imaging device down tightly to a large, immobile rock lying at the bottom of the stream bed and pointed it upward, what would be revealed as we watched the playback? It would appear, I am quite certain, like there was “nothing new under the sun”: there would be a monotony of white noise through the audio channels, perhaps a slightly undulating pattern of motion, but in general a certain sameness would pervade our footage. However, what appears to be a sameness is also “ever new”: different water molecules are continuously rushing in and replacing old ones, each molecule making its fleeting appearance on the stage, dancing across the camcorder lens, and then bowing out to allow its fellow actors their own grand appearances.

If we care to look around at our vast universe, we recognize that something holds it all together. That is to say that on the one hand, there is what we call matter. However, something organizes this inert matter into the various forms we see in the world, and some of those forms (such as we ourselves) are sentient, living. Biologically speaking, modern science tells us that our bodies and our brains are simply the stuff of matter. Like the water molecules of a river, we too are a collection of ever-changing cells making a short appearance on the stage before new cells rise up and take their place. This pattern is repeated over and over throughout the course of a lifetime, cells rising up, cells passing out, and other cells swarming in to take their place. Sooner or later this cycle or sequence of the ever-flowing stream of cells starts to develop “coding errors,” the entire process going a little askew until eventually everything comes to a screeching halt. We call this process aging, and there comes a point at which it ceases altogether, our physical bodies returning again to the dust from which they share a common range of compounds. Our bodies are one part of the physical universe: our bodies are made of the same basic forms of matter as the apparently inert elements like rocks and dirt. Yet there is a life force inside of us that animates these inert (and largely carbon-based) elements that comprise our bodies. There is some kind of force that not only animates our bodies, but also keeps the entire universe organized, keeps it from flying apart, something that appears to animate it from the inside out. We might call the force behind these organizing principles “infinite power,” as it animates the totality of the universe, it is virtually infinite, and it is responsible not only for inorganic forms like rocks and dirt but also organic forms of life as well, animating these organic forms from the same basic elements shared by purely inorganic forms.

So then, our bodies are made of the same inorganic elements that comprise the apparently lesser elements of the universe. Yet in spite of this inorganic base, there is a life force that keeps this inorganic base not only ordered, but alive. We are not that life force—it comes from outside of ourselves—and yet that life force keeps our bodies alive no less. It is precisely this mysterious force that keeps the carbon elements that make up our frames from disintegrated into dead, inert bodies—just a few short moments after the breath of life leaves the body, the body begins an amazingly rapid process of disintegration, which is another way of saying that not only does this force cease to animate the frame, but even the organizational structures of the frame itself break down, etropy, decay. The difference between a dead body and a living one amounts to this life force. Simply put, there is something that keeps otherwise “dead bodies” alive: something that not only contributes to sentience and awareness, but also keeps the otherwise inert body from very rapid decay and, for lack of a better term, disorganization. This life force is all part of the infinite power behind the universe, what those of us who call ourselves believers refer to as God.

There is a rather vast difference between the organizing principles at the level of inert matter to the level of the animal kingdom, to the organizing principle of our own frames, the consciousness with which we apprehend all of life—apprehend the very words on this page—and the love, empathy, compassion, and all else that makes us the great creatures that we are. The same “infinite power”—the same God—holds it all together, organizes it all, yet for all of that, it is arranged in increasing degrees of complexity from inorganic to forms of highly complex organic life. And in their own ways, both the creation story told in Genesis and the account proposed by modern evolution suggest that this complexification was a gradual process, involving the formation first of lesser matter and reaching higher and beyond to greater, more intricate arrangements of matter, culminating in humanity as the most complex of creatures yet autonomously to move about on the planet.

What holds all these different levels of the universe together in unity? We have said God—or “infinite power” if you prefer to see it in the abstract. But how? How, not so much scientifically, but conceptually? That, I believe, is where the idea of the camcorder at the river bottom comes into focus. There is a life force that is rushing into and filling up the universe moment by moment. The “act of creation” is not a one-time event that was approximated by the creation stories of the Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Native Americans, or the Hebrews in the book of Genesis. The act of creation is something that happens every second of every moment every day, day in day out, just as surely as a river that never runs dry is continually being “refueled” and “re-upped” with a new and constant supply of water. At the level of the universe, then, creation involves not only the initial act at which new forms come into being, but the very substance or ongoing existence of those forms once initiated. The perpetuation of these forms is a constant process of re-constitution or re-animation, of their being made “ever new,” just as a river is made “ever new,” moment by moment every moment, water molecule by water molecule.

What could be more transient than a river? What is a river even? When we use this term “river,“ what do we mean? To what does this word refer? A river might be defined as being essentially a collection of water molecules that continually resupply the same channel through a specific geographic locale (thus making the Mississippi River the Mississippi and the Tigris River the Tigris). This channel is of a certain approximate width across, which distinguishes it from the smaller concept of “stream” on the one hand or the concept of “lake” on the other. But conceptually speaking—which is again the area of inquiry that interests us most here—a river is a perpetual-motion machine. That is precisely why the ancient Greek sophist Heraclitus could express the consistent principle not of nature’s permanence and fixity but rather nature’s transience and temporality. This rule of nature is captured in his well-known maxim that one can never step into the same river twice. The idea, of course, is that the “same river” is not really the same river at all, at least not on the microcosmic level of water molecules. To repeat myself, a river is a perpetual-motion machine.

What we do not often consider is that all of nature is this way. Our own bodies are never the same, new cells continually growing up to replace old cells that die and are carried out of the body or that flake off the surface of our skin, a process that completely replenishes itself every seven years and is certain to terminate in around a hundred-and-twenty or less (though babies are born all the time, thus carrying out a process in another that cannot alone be perpetuated by the one). The entire universe, C.S. Lewis said, is going precisely because God is keeping it going; the universe is not static and fixed, but rather “infinite power” holds it together, ceaselessly re-creating it so that there is something “ever new” under the sun.

What works on the level of physical reality also works on the level of spiritual reality. The life of the spirit must continually flow into us and animate us to higher and ever higher realities. We must be the stream bed that consciously invites God to flow over and through us, to heal us, to heal other people through us, to supply us with the power that we need to effectively live out the spiritual life here on earth. There is no shortage of power. The power that not only manifest by degrees the complexity we see all around us and inside of us, the power that continually sustains the universe, organizing it, holding it all together, “keeping it going”: that power is infinite, and we can be channels of that infinite power. If the flow of a river is too much of a metaphoric stretch, then what about the flow of electrons through copper wire, what of the metaphor of electricity that travels through conductive materials wherever it finds a completed circuit?

Let’s talk about this idea of a “completed circuit” for a moment. Like water molecules rushing past the lens of our camcorder, electrons continually replenish other electrons, their collective force (as with a mighty, rushing river) a very powerful agent. The completed circuit, like the river, is dynamic, not static, it depends on all its parts in order to sustain itself. Break the circuit, and the current dissipates; cut off the supply of water, and the river becomes but a deep groove carved into the earth. It is precisely the ceaseless motion, the interaction of many parts, that keeps the whole in operation. This interaction is a type of reciprocity: what helps one part helps the whole, and what helps the whole also helps each part. There is a harmony to the whole affair.

We mentioned in the previous issue that what we call “evil” amounts to privation or lack: it is the absence of goodness, the absence of life, the absence of hope, peace, joy, faith. At the very least, it is a lower level of reality, like that of brute beasts compared to the potential of humanity to be a force for divine good.

There are plenty of areas in our universe where the circuit is broken and the water molecules no longer fill the channel, much less rush down it with abandon. There is much in our world that is broken.

We talked at the beginning of this newsletter about measuring our spiritual success or failure in life. We mentioned that no two circumstances were ever exactly alike, no two people were ever exactly alike: we have even seen, throughout the course of this newsletter, that no one person is ever exactly the same. Yet is there some principle by which we can assess the relative progress or failure of our spiritual lives and the collective spiritual consciousness of the human race? I believe that there is. I believe at the heart of authentic spirituality, no matter where it is found or what it is called, exists a creative, life-affirming approach to the world I like to call “the ministry of reconciliation.”

The ministry of reconciliation measures spiritual progress in terms of harmony, looking at a holistic picture of the world. And it can be cast in four interrelated propositions that speak to both inward and outer and both the parts and the whole. First, the ministry of reconciliation involves the reconciliation and healing between ourselves and God. It involves restoring that breech that cuts us off from our spiritual selves, leaving us groveling in the lower level of our purely physical natures, pursuing primarily our own limited aims and failing to connect to the source of all life and power. God is the source of all life and all healing. We often cut off that channel between God and ourselves. Sometimes we do so because we have been hurt by spiritual leaders, teachers, family members or other people who claimed to share fellowship with God and it has left a bad taste in our mouth. Other times it may simply be due to neglect or carelessness. But God is love and the source of all love, and the ministry of reconciliation first seeks to reconnect that circuit so that the power of love, life, and the spirit can flow again, bringing us back to healthy spiritual life. Re-establishing that connection to God means re-establishing the connection we have to infinite power. We are not that infinite power, and yet that infinite power is made available to us. It is the same infinite power that is the origin of the life force inside of us, and it is the same power that can effect miracles in the world around: what keeps healthy bodies living can also raise dead bodies to life, whether literally or spiritually speaking. This infinite power is our power source, and we seek to form a circuit and become “fully connected.” Thus, the ministry of reconciliation first seeks to restore harmony between ourselves and God, the source of all things. The primary tool that we use to effect this reconciliation is prayer, seeking to establish a dialog and communion with God within our own souls.

The ministry of reconciliation also realizes that much of the misery and heartache in our world is caused by hurting human beings in turn hurting other human beings. We see not only negative aspects of human nature, but also sociological patterns: cycles of poverty, cycles of crime, cycles of hurting people hurting other people and perpetuating a pattern that can only be resolved by being broken, or, put differently, can only be resolved by being healed. Within ourselves as well, there is often a deep hurt that never quite goes away, an existential hole that never seems quite filled. We spend much of our lives seeking to fill up our own brokenness, our faults and insecurities often the very things that wound others deeply and keep us trapped within ourselves. Second, then, the ministry of reconciliation involves the reconciliation and healing within and between human beings, both between families, friends, nations, and nationalities as well as within ourselves. We seek to bring the infinite power of God’s love and healing to bear on the relationships in and between human beings. We try, as much as we are able through God’s grace and wisdom, to be peace keepers, and to recognize our own need for healing. We try to restore the harmony between people and reconcile differences when and where we can. One way that we do that is through action. But direct action is not always practical, possible, or wise. Another way that we can work on behalf of the reconciliation of persons is with the same tool with which we effect reconciliation with God: prayer is a great force for good in our world, and can open doors that cannot be opened any other way. And prayer, as we suggest above, connects us to the very source of our power, which is the source of all healing, both our own inner healing and the healing in and between other human beings.

The ministry of reconciliation also understands that we are not the only living creatures on this planet. The earth is our home, and we share this home with a vast number of other life forms. So, a third interrelated aspect of this total picture of the ministry of reconciliation is to live peaceably with all living creatures. Rather than being thoughtless in our actions in regard to the other forms of animal and plant life that share this planet with us, we recognize that our higher level of awareness also gives us a great responsibility to tend to these forms and ensure that they too enjoy a prosperous and high quality of life. That means that we are never intentionally cruel, and it also means that when we do take the life of animals or harvest plants for food and other resources, we do so responsibly. We could learn a lesson from the Native American Indians who made oblations to the animals that they killed, animals that supplied the tribe with their meat, fur, and horns. The Indians not only did not waste any part of the animal, but they thanked the animal (often a Buffalo) for giving its life so that the tribe could in turn live and prosper. The Native American Indians realized that taking the life of any living creature was a serious and grave act and that they were not entitled to its gifts, but instead were honored and grateful. They also learned how to use herbs and plants for medicinal purposes without endangering them or taking their healing powers for granted. The Great Spirit was found in all of nature, the same life force animating the buffalo also gave to the plants their medicinal powers. Human beings were all a part of this “web of life” and the Indians not only felt gratitude for its blessings, but well understood that the delicate balance of all life forms is reciprocal, the part affecting the whole, the whole the parts.

Last, the ministry of reconciliation also looks to the earth itself, seeking to restore ecological health to the planet, for it is our home and the home of our children. We are children of the earth, and the earth is part of God’s creation. In this area, at least, the recent focus on environmentalism—on “going green”—has made great inroads. I was reading just recently in Time magazine (the March 24, 2008, issue “Ideas that are Changing the World”), for example, of various solutions innovative people have derived that are friendly to the environment and beneficial to humanity as well. One example was that of “metal-eating worms.” Ordinary earthworms, it was discovered, can remove toxic waste from soil. To test, four acres of land in India were seeded with 300,000 worms. In just a single year, there was a 60% reduction in heavy metals. The only potentially negative side effect is that the worms were sifted out of the soil and burned—very likely, if we understood the whole of the ecosystem better, there is a way that we could save even the worms, which accomplishes two ends: it saves us the trouble of sifting while allowing the worms their own unmolested space on this beautiful (if broken) planet. Another inroad mentioned is that of “algae oil.” Vertigo Energy in El Paso, Texas, has figured out a way to grow algae in plastic bags, creating a closed-looped bioreactor process. The result is siphoned off and the lipids extracted. These lipids in turn are refined into biodiesel and other fuels. Whereas corn yields 20 gallons of fuel per acre, algae yields 100,000 gallons of fuel per acre. Plus the algae is grown in greenhouses, conserving even more space. Simply put, focusing on the environment is smarter, healthier, and works for the greater good of all the parts. This is yet another subset of the total picture of the ministry of reconciliation: as spiritual caretakers, we are to be good stewards of the natural resources with which God has entrusted us.

Archive note: See also the discussion forum thread regarding this newsletter.

The second part of the famous Lord’s Prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray to God states: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” The ministry of reconciliation is a “top-down” process. It begins with our connection to the source of infinite power, our connection to God through a life of prayer, through a life that consciously invites God to come into our lives, illumine our awareness, heal our inner being, and effect a similar healing in others. From that power source we establish a circuit for the spirit and divine love of God to flow through us. That divine heavenly force—that force that is described as originating from “the kingdom of heaven”—flows through us here on earth. God heals the world through us, first by healing us, and then in turn empowering us to take this healing on to other people, to the plants and animals, and to nature itself, this earth which is our home. In fact, sometimes God heals us as we take healing to these other levels. And that is what the kingdom of heaven looks like on earth, and it is summarized by the ministry of reconciliation. It is the ultimate measure of spiritual progress, and it offers a complete, holistic picture, re-establishing harmony amongst all parts, so that the cells of the whole replenish, grow, and are ever-more made new, so that the life-force of God flows through all of creation, restoring those parts that are broken or otherwise need to be made whole.

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The Ministry of Reconciliation: “Ever New” Under the Sun