[Magdalen] A Reflection

[Robert Rea]

I am reading Diane Ackerman, _The Human Age._ She looks at 
our effect on the environment. She tells about projects now 
being done that deal with some of these effects and give my 
heart and mind hope. Her language is almost utopian; she 
speaks of a world redeemed.

At Morning Prayer today some verses from Deuteronomy 
7:12-16 struck me. It speaks of the covenant between God 
and God's people:
"If you heed these ordinances, by diligently observing 
them, the LORD your God will maintain with you the covenant 
loyalty that he swore to your ancestors; he will love you, 
bless you, and multiply you; he will bless the fruit of your 
womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine 
and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the issue of 
your flock, in the land that he swore to your ancestors to 
give you. You shall be the most blessed of peoples, with 
neither sterility nor barrenness among you or your 
livestock. The LORD will turn away from you every illness; 
all the dread diseases of Egypt that you experienced, he 
will not inflict on you,"
This also sounds utopian. 

God is the creator of all this. What if the guidelines of 
the covenant serve to guide us on how best to live in the 
created world? If some of what Ackerman tells us about were 
to spread and to be fulfilled, we would be living more in 
tune with the creation. then we might flourish, the fruit 
of our soil might flourish, our cattle and us be well, and 
all our illnesses be healed.

All we need do is fulfill the covenant today.

And maybe what we hear about in the Scriptures as 
punishment for sin is just the necessary result of not 
living according to the creation. That's far too sweeping. 
It can't include some of the things the Scriptures say are 
consequences of sin. It can, however, include a lot of 
them. Acts do have consequences; we are suffering them 
nowadays.

-- 
Bob Rea
mailto:gapetard at stsams.org
http://www.petard.us
http://www.petard.us/blog
http://www.petard.us/gallery

What do you say to Jesus when he comes again?
Where have you been? You said you were coming right back.