The Sustainist

Dreams, Visions and Prophecies

Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old shall dream dreams, your young shall see visions.  Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. (Joel 2:28-29)

This is a 2,500+ old text from the Prophet Joel recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures. In the biblical world, the ability to dream dreams and have visions and prophesy was reserved for a chosen few and they were usually powerful men – Moses, Abraham, Joseph, David and the Prophets. Hebrew scriptures identify 55 prophets; only 7 were women.

We can appreciate the radical inclusion of Joel’s prophecy by the fact that he specifically mentioned both sons and daughters, old and young, men and women, and even servants (in some translation slaves) as people who would have the abilities of a prophet, a spokesperson chosen by God to speak on God’s behalf to convey messages from God.  

About 500 years later during Pentecost, a Jewish festival celebrated 50 days after Passover, a small group of Jews who followed a teacher named Jesus claimed that this prophecy was fulfilled.   A few days before, Jesus had left this small group (the Ascension) leaving them leaderless and powerless. Certainly no one would expect this small group of people to be spokespersons for God. But on that Pentecost day, they prophesied.  But the real miracle was that the crowd who had come for the Pentecost feast was there and they heard this small group of people speaking in their own native tongue about God’s deeds of power. Many changed and became believers as a result. Christians recognized that day as the beginning of the Church.

We are living in a world dominated by the voices of the powerful and rich. They can buy TV ads and influence our media to spread lies and make people believe that their lies were the truth. They can manipulate the political system to make us believe that the rich should stay rich because the systems that they created are too big to fail. Their influential voices are moving us away from a sustainable future for all. We need a Pentecost soon if we are to turn this tide of unsustainability.

Where are the prophets for our world today? The prophetic voices of our time have to come from the powerless ones in our midst. They will tell us where resources are not flowing and recirculating.  They will tell us where in our network are the places of unsustainability because they are the ones who are suffering in them. But even if they are prophesying, are we listening?

 

With the internet and the World Wide Web, we are more likely able to hear the prophetic voices of the powerless. Youtube.com, for example, offers everyone who has a computer with a camera, free of charge, the ability to broadcast his/her voice and image to millions. Social media allows people to network globally with each other, thus by-passing the system controlled by the rich and powerful in our societies.

A sustainist listens to the powerless voices. A sustainist assists the powerless to network with others locally and globally to find their voice together.  A sustainist provides the powerless access to technologies that empower and amplify their voices. The fact is there are more powerless people in the world than there are powerful ones. There are more poor people than rich. If we can network and hear each other, support each other, and let our voices be amplified and circulated through our connections, then there is hope for a Pentecost in which the power would finally listen.  When the dreams, visions and prophecies of the poor and powerless are listened to, perhaps there is hope for a sustainable future where everyone is sustained and not just a powerful few.  

Reflection Questions for Day of Pentecost (Year C): Acts 2:1-21    Was this more a miracle of the tongue or miracle of the ear? What has been your own experience in communication? Genesis 11:1-9    What was the purpose for God to confuse the language of the earth? Psalm 104:25-35   What will happen if we let God send forth the spirit to renew the earth? Romans 14-17   What does it mean for us to be children of God? John 14-8-17 (25-27)   How do you receive the spirit of truth?

Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org

2013 Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist: July 15-19 Holy Currencies: Beyond Time, Talent and Treasure Los Angeles, CA August 19-23 Fundamental Skills for Building Inclusive Community and Holy Currencies Orientation Rainbow Lodge Retreat Center, North Bend (near Seattle), WA Register at:  www.kscopeinstitute.org

From Disconnect to Connect

I saw the movie Disconnect last week.  In the movie, we met a couple whose identities had been stolen through cyberspace, a young sex worker making a living using the internet, and two teenagers using social media to play a cruel trick on socially isolated youth. All these stories were heading toward a disastrous climax at the end of the movie. While I really appreciated the movie for raising up the concerns about the danger of digital media, and though I would recommend people to see it and have a dialogue about issues of our digitally enhanced era, I couldn’t help but notice the danger of the audience leaving the movie with their digital media phobia reinforced.

We are living in a time when individuals are powerfully expanded by digital media in two directions.  First, a person, who has access to electronic gadgets such as a computer, tablet, or smartphone, etc., can reach deeply into another’s personal life.  Second, a person, with the same gadgets, can also have the potential to reach millions of people.  Not since the impact of the printing press in the western world, have we experienced such a significant shift in personal power.  This is reality and no amount of phobia will make it go away.  The question for me is how can we use this power responsibly?  As Uncle Ben, a character in another movie, Spiderman, said, “With great power, comes great responsibility.” How do we use this digital power, not to control but to empower, not to isolate but to connect, not to spread fear but to build trust, not to propagate hate but to share compassion, not to break down community but to build sustainable communities? 

I have seen how this digital power, in the form of social networks, supported constructive revolutions, transforming governments.  I have seen how this digital power allowed the sharing of images that enhanced the capture of terrorists.  I have seen this digital power empower communities to raise needed money for good causes. I have experienced how this digital power brought people together, from high-tech to high-touch, raising consciousness on social issues and strengthening global and local networks.   So go and see Disconnect and engage each other in conversations about the dangers of these powerful media, but more importantly, explore how these digital media can be gifts that foster networked sustainable communities.

Reflection Questions for 7th Sunday of Easter (Year C): Acts 16:16-34    What does this story teach you about doing ministry in the hostile world? Psalm 97  What does this psalm say about your relationship with God? Revelation 22:12-13. 16-17, 20-21   How do you access the water of life? John 17:20-26   What does it mean to be one with Jesus?

Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org

2013 Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist: July 15-19 Holy Currencies: Beyond Time, Talent and Treasure Los Angeles, CA August 19-23 Fundamental Skills for Building Inclusive Community and Holy Currencies Orientation Rainbow Lodge Retreat Center, North Bend (near Seattle), WA Register at:  www.kscopeinstitute.org

Healing Leaves

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing…through the middle of the street of the city.On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. (Revelations 22:1-2) 

When we look at a beautiful scene such as the one described above in a painting, a photo or in reality, we tend to pay attention to the bright and sparkly parts that stand out from the scene, such as the water that is bright as crystal, and the fruit or flower that the trees produce.  Sometimes, we overlook the most essential part of the picture – the leaves on the trees.  Yes, the flowing water of life sparkling in the sun is important.  So is the fruit that a tree produces that gives us food. But it is the leaf that does all the work – converting the energy of the sun, the water source and things we considered waste, such as carbon dioxide, into oxygen and starch and sugar.  This is why in this vision from Revelations, “the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” 

The earth and the nations are not well because we don’t have enough people and communities that can act like leaves – transforming wastes into resources that will regenerate and rejuvenate human communities and the earth.  How can the earth be healed when we throw away so much material things everyday with little thoughts of recycling them?  How can our nations be healed when we throw away so many people whom we considered useless as evidenced by the over-crowding of prisons in the U.S., children dying of hunger, innocent people dying in wars? Yes, the sun is always there and the water of life is there and we know that there is enough for everyone and every nation on this earth, but without the transforming power of the leaves, there is no healing.

Sustainists act like leaves.  We see and acknowledge the abundance that are all around us but we also consciously take part in the circulation of resources, transforming waste into resources, taking the throw-away and recirculate them back into cyclical flow of resources. 

Father Gregory Boyle, in Tattoos on the Heart, wrote, “We stand there with those whose dignity has been denied. We locate ourselves with the poor and powerless and the voiceless. At the edges, we join the easily despised and the readily left out. We stand with the demonized so that the demonizing will stop.  We situate ourselves right next to the disposable so that the day will come when we stop throwing people away.”

Reflection Questions for 6th Sunday of Easter (Year C): Acts 16:9-15    What did you learn from this text about sharing resources? Psalm 67  What are your reasons for praising God? Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5   How can we take part in the healing of the nations? John 14:23-29   What does it mean to accept the peace that Jesus gives us?

Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org

2013 Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist: July 15-19 Holy Currencies: Beyond Time, Talent and Treasure Los Angeles, CA August 19-23 Fundamental Skills for Building Inclusive Community and Holy Currencies Orientation Rainbow Lodge Retreat Center, North Bend (near Seattle), WA Register at:  www.kscopeinstitute.org

From Limit to Grace

I carry a backpack containing my computer and the things I need for my meetings, workshops, travels and conferences all the time. I switched to a backpack a couple of years ago after carrying a heavy shoulder bag on one shoulder making my posture unbalanced for years. So, when in the midst of the frantic media reactions to the bombing at the Boston Marathon, someone suggested that we should ban all backpacks from public events, I was a little upset.  I was upset because this reaction to this tragedy was to set more limits, which is one of the typical responses to fear.  Here is the logic: since the last tragedy involved two people who carried backpacks with explosives, we should limit the use of backpacks to increase safety.  Using the same logic, why don’t we also ban baseball caps and immigrants from public events?

The two suspects who allegedly did this horrific crime probably lived very limited lives.  They did not have diverse friends nor a community of support.  As a result, they probably had a very limited view of the world—especially of the United States, of which one is a citizen.   Responding to this tragedy with more limits actually reinforces one of the causes of the problem—isolation, which leads to unsustainability.   The limiting response to fear will narrow our connections with others, further isolating individuals, communities and nations, thus diminishing our capacity to foster sustainable communities. 

Instead, a sustainist response to this fear-triggering tragedy is to do the opposite: instead of setting more limits, we widen our circles of knowledge and network.  Sustainists deal with fear by inviting people of different backgrounds, perspectives and experiences to enter into a gracious environment to speak the truth to each other in love, making real connections in the midst of diverse beliefs and viewpoints.  Sustainists create diverse communities and empower people to share words and actions that sustain, widening the circle of grace, truth, peace and love.

I wrote a song called “Sustain the Weary” last December as a response to the Newtown, CT school shooting. Here is the audio version of the song. Please share it with others. I would like to share this song with the families and friends of the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. 

Sustain the Weary 2

Download Sustain the Weary 2

Reflection Questions for 5th Sunday of Easter (Year C): Acts 11:18    What did you learn from this text about diversity? Psalm 148  How does this psalm inform you of the diversity of creation? Revelation 21:1-6   What is the new heaven and new earth? John 10:22-30   How is this new commandment to love new?

Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org

2013 Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist: July 15-19 Holy Currencies: Beyond Time, Talent and Treasure Los Angeles, CA August 19-23 Fundamental Skills for Building Inclusive Community and Holy Currencies Orientation Rainbow Lodge Retreat Center, North Bend (near Seattle), WA Register at:  www.kscopeinstitute.org

Psalm 23

Psalm 23 is one the most famous piece of Hebrew scripture.  It has been used in many funeral and memorial services.  Many composers have set this text to music.  It begins: 

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want. 

The image of God as a shepherd might have been a common idea when the psalm was composed.  Perhaps, many who sang this psalm were shepherds themselves or they knew a real shepherd in their daily life.  But for today, how many of us really know a real shepherd? So, the image of God as the shepherd can be quite foreign for us today. 

As I read the psalm trying to capture the relationship between God and her people, I realize that this relationship is quite simple.

He makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters.

A shepherd knows where the green pastures and sources of water are (sustenance for the sheep) and lead the sheep to these sources.

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I shall fear no evil; for you are with me . . .

A shepherd provides a safe environment so that the sheep do not live in fear of scarcity but in the assurance of abundance.

… my cup is running over.

In other words, the shepherd is a sustainist leader.

A sustainist leader knows the needs of the people in the community. A sustainist leader knows from where the resources for wellness flow.  A sustainist leader enables the people to connect, utilize and benefit from these sources.  A sustainist protects the people in the community from harm, assuring them that there is an abundance of resources that can feed everyone spiritually, physically, socially and economically.

Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life . . .

Reflection Questions for 4th Sunday of Easter (Year C): Acts 9:36-43    What did you learn from this text about healing and wellness? Psalm 23  How do goodness and mercy follow you all the days of your life? Revelation 7:9-17   How does the vision in the passage inform your community? John 10:22-30   What does this passage teach you about leadership?

Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org

2013 Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist: July 15-19 Holy Currencies: Beyond Time, Talent and Treasure Los Angeles, CA August 19-23 Fundamental Skills for Building Inclusive Community and Holy Currencies Orientation Rainbow Lodge Retreat Center, North Bend (near Seattle), WA Register at:  www.kscopeinstitute.org