ECO-SPIRITUALITY: The Spirit, Globalisation and the
Human Heart
The scriptural
texts for Pentecost speak of a globalised world, where at
least fifteen nationalities and various ethnic groups are
gathered in Jerusalem. The scholars note a deliberate
reference here to the story of Babel, which seems to come
from an earlier chapter in the globalisation process, where
language is seen as a barrier to unifying the human race.
The suspicions generated at Babel are still with us!
As we read the Book of Acts, we see the globalised world of
the Mediterranean being criss-crossed by the early
Christians, largely following trade routes and pilgrimage
trails left them by earlier Jewish travellers. The impact
of previous Macedonian, Seleucid and Roman colonisation on
their world is everywhere obvious.
What hope did the Spirit released at Pentecost offer people
of such a world? It certainly drove the early Christians
to
move, travelling and
visiting, struggling across cultural and national barriers
at every turn. The Spirit also offered them
language, words that
spoke across the boundaries, words that won them welcome
and brought those listening into
community with them.
What marvellous words were these? We know the content of
their speeches, summarised at so many places in Acts. We
call it, rather glibly, the kerygma.
We can watch them change their images and terms, as they
slip from synagogue to agora, from city to sea-port, from
Jews to Greeks. If it moved people to a radical conversion,
it must have spoken
to their hearts. Acts 2, 37
says explicitly that it did so.
The long dreamy passages from John we have spent so much of
the Easter season mulling over (John 14 – 17) give us
another perspective on what was going on in the hearts of
first century people, as they abandoned old gods and
goddesses, their beloved laws and rituals. For all its
incoherence and obscurity, John’s language, in the
mouths of Jesus and his companions at table, moves in our
heart. It speaks of love, joy and friendship. Jesus takes
us into richer interior knowledge and deeper intimacy.
Those who study evolution see globalisation as an ongoing
process of
social complexity, that echoes
what happens in all living species, across the millennia.
As smaller units get caught up in larger wholes, they gain
new perspectives and powers, but lose some autonomy and
identity. If they don’t develop a deeper sense of
themselves, they become absorbed – “just
another brick in the wall” as Pink Floyd put it. For
those units who are conscious of themselves (like us), the
process is fraught with danger. Fundamentalism becomes a
very attractive alternative.
God’s Spirit promises us identity – a deep
interior life and a capacity to love others,
wholeheartedly. We are offered, in Jesus, the face of God.
But, our inner life now includes our
self-awareness as
part of our local ecosystems, and our love
life now includes
deeper bonds with all its mysterious, moving
components. As though in
protection against blind assimilation by gigantic forces,
we are rooted in our local soil, consoled by our local
plants, befriended by our local animals.
May the Spirit take us deeper and closer – to God, to
Earth, to each other.