Today Bella Energy completed, mostly, the installation of 106 solar panels on the new and older roofs of Our Savior's Lutheran Church. At 2pm we had a gathering of several community people, including Channel 4, Green Print Media, and other political and community leaders. To see the panels is one thing, but to experience the human reaction to the project said something important to me about the future. We care, deeply, about our shared future. Today jobs were created, creation will be cleaner, and it was accomplished by a few rather normal folks. It was a very good day.
We are, and I am, moved when things seem to move in a direction that values the common good and not simply the good of a few. There will be profit for some in this project and Our Savior's itself will see its investment return with interest over 15-20 years, beginning in 2010. But that's not the motivation for doing this or for the reaction that I saw today. What I think I saw was the power that we have as citizens, as people of faith, as a shared community of human beings working together for the good of all to shape the future. President Obama likes to say that history is bending towards justice. I like that. But we do the bending. We take the risks. We catch and share the vision. As the current Lutheran (ELCA) slogan says, "God's work; Our hands."
The Christian faith is often accused of being at the root of the environmental problems of the earth. The argument is that Christians have taught that God ordered the domination of the earth by human beings. But Genesis only says that we are to steward the earth, be its caretakers. You can't dominate-think "exploit"- and be a responsible steward at the same time. Maybe we should take a look at unregulated capitalism or simply greed without restraint as something to blame, if blaming does any good.
It's possible that Christianity has historically given the future over to God and not taken seriously enough the role that we play as co-creators with God. In certain Christian circles we hear the proclamation, not of the kingdom of God, but of the end of world. This particular narrative has civilization on a road to ruin, a train out of control. All that's left is the final train wreck and humanity thrown into oblivion. A few worthy souls, hard to give a number, will be saved from all of this so it's not all bad news, I guess. But a hard ending is coming and there is no choice in the matter.
A more generous narrative, and one much closer to the teachings we have from Jesus, tells a story of people empowered for social and personal transformation. If there is to be justice, we will have to act justly, empowered by the Spirit of God. If there is to be social transformation, clean air, unpolluted water, and all the rest we will be the ones who take care of it. Doing this for others and for the earth is serving Christ himself, doing it to him it says in Matthew 25. There is no inevitability to history. Giving up is not an option. Christianity serves creation's best interests and empowers us to do it. It is, if you like, our call and our salvation. At least that's a Christian narrative that makes sense to me.
Copenhagen has exposed once again the influence of moneyed interests. The developing nations have had a tough time getting their message across to the richer nations doing the majority of the environmental damage. As far back as 1986 a particular administration tore down the solar panels from the roof of the White House in defiance of another administration's vision of the future. But today Our Savior's has solar panels on its roof because we and a solar energy company (Bella) found a way and made a commitment to do it. People were moved and excited. History changes from the bottom up. Maybe that's why Jesus spent his time on the margins of society, not on the top but on the bottom.
So in a way I saw today the future we might have, the future we can choose. It was an emotional day, a hopeful day. The compromised future in Copenhagen was overshadowed for me by 106 solar panels on the roof of one church, and that church could easily be just one of many churches, non-profits, homes and businesses to come. That is the real story here. Was history made today? We'll see. But I think so.
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