God Comes To Us Naturally

A scientist friend of mine sent some very recent research articles on studies of the human brain and how it works in relation to things religious and prayerful.  Apparently not a few brain synapses fire and connect in unique ways for people who meditate, pray, and place themselves quietly in the presence of the holy on a regular basis  

  By the way, did you know that the word religion itself comes from the root word for ligament, like the ligaments that connect every bone of your body to form the you that can walk and talk and throw a baseball?  Do you know that the word religion means ‘that which connects us’ into a whole being and experience of Being?

  Now today, Earth Sunday as it were, we are asked to ‘connect’ religiously our lives and our wills and our thoughts and actions to the realities of being part of the web of life on this planet earth.  Yes we are material girls as Madonna the singer says,  but we are more than that- there is more to our makeup and story.

   Not only does the Bible tell us so,  but that yearning inside us, and the occasional experience of oneness with the soul of the universe compels us to search for deeper connections/ connections of the soul to its Source.

   Last week with all the kids at worship with the adults I offered a rather light hearted meditation using recycled materials strewn all over this Holy sanctuary and we emphasized the imperative of viewing the outside world as sacred as the inside of a Church.  I asked us each to become more and more part of the ecological answer and less and less parts of the global problem.

   Keeping it light I did not mention that despite the Town supplying every home with a blue recycle container less than half our residents make use of them.  Keeping it light last week for the kids sake I didn’t mention the shameful and sinful record of the current Administration in Washington ( and his father before him) of willfully legislating increased damage to the environment  with a refusal to co-operate on pollution issues internationally and stubbornly ignoring the science and the solutions proven to work to help clean up the earth and promote the long term health of its people and creatures.

  So I took it easy.  But I also think we must keep it real, especially in our time. And I don’t believe we actually have a choice – I believe God wired us internally to care, to do better. Maybe New Hampshire needs license plates to read ‘Live Green or Die’.

  The point is, that as people of faith, we have to move forward on the issue of Earth Stewardship - on a level above the putrid political fray to better shape future policy because that’s part of the answer too.  And it turns out we human beings are equipped beautifully to make the connections necessary to give us a chance to get things right – to help creation, not be at odds with it.

  It turns out the recent neuro-scientific data affirms that prayer and meditation on the important matters of life spark all kinds of activity in the “hippocampus and amygdala’ of the brain.  In fact, quoting from “The Neuroscience of Spiritual Experience’’ this brain activity can stimulate feelings of mystical unity, oneness, peace and even the sensed presence of God..”   - Scientist Andrew Newburg even states that his studies show as fact that “the brain privileges” PRIVILEGES religious belief and thoughts.  Talk about a natural connection to the divine.

   Given this proclivity I am convinced that God has equipped us in such a way that we MUST connect with our Maker, you have built in standard equipment to do so. And that friend is the best news ever, both for you and for the future of the earth.  You are wired for a trusting, abiding, live and ultimately redeeming relationship with God and Creation.

   So plug that thing in and let that faith current flow.

   Listen freshly to God’s Word in scripture and for God’s heartbeat on a brisk sunrise walk - or during a brief breath of fresh air by the back door looking up at the stars of night as Spring peepers fill a background chorus. Their song says God has entrusted the world to people who can feel that trust, to people of prayer. 

     We have a calling to which we must respond in this crucial hour of human history – a call to turn things around for good , for earth, for our children and grandchildren and for all God’s creatures big and small.

  Yes let’s raise the current level of conversation and action friends. Let’s rise above the local squabbling over pinching pennies on our kids’ educations while we do nothing about the lame duck administration trying to slip through yet another nuclear arsenal build up to eclipse the 24000 warheads already stockpiled at a cost not of pennies but $150 billion more dollars and 80 new plutonium pits in somebody’s backyard – God’s backyard! All this while they also want to cut $300 million dollars of Environmental protection funding in 2009.  This is insanity … It goes against our nature. It is a disconnect from our religious wiring- our God given ability to be partners of creation – by living the way of Christ.

  “Ask the animals, they will teach you – the birds of the air, they will tell you,” says the Holy Scripture.   How can we find our way out of the current conundrum of polluted skies and toxic politics?  How can we know the way?  Well that’s what the apostle Thomas asked too,  and his Savior answered him just as He will answer you when you connect in prayer – Christ will whisper to your heart ,”I am the way” through this.. Through any challenge to find your life again and to support life in others; if you can pray for it we can find the way together says the Lord. “Yes, I am the way, let me guide you.”

  So reconnect with your God friends – use what the good Lord has given you to live and love, to try and to care.  The world needs you now more than ever to be part of answer , part of the way of light and life made present in Christ, made perceivable by Your Maker, made known through prayer and , yes, recently affirmed by modern science.

    To all of the above I say Amen. And finally to the Author of Life I say Thank You with my personal pledge to do better and better every blessed day to care for the earth in one new way.  I hope you will say Amen to that promise too; The research says you’ll feel better and better when you do, because that’s just how God has built us – and that is why, along with the rest of Creation, God has called us good.   Amen.