There is not a day that goes by that the prospect of climate change is not mentioned. If it is not once it is a hundred times on news broadcasts, talk back, and the blogosphere. I do not intend to enter this debate except to say that the world seems ever to be lurching from one crisis to another. The real issue is not the earthly events that matter but the heavenly. Despite the noise and confusion, the fear and foreboding, this passage tells us to not be afraid. We are bidden to ‘stand up and raise (our) heads’ an echo of the multitude of times in scripture God lifts people who have fallen on their faces to their feet, restoring their primal dignity to stand rather than grovel before the Almighty and to use our God given brains rather than mindlessly comply.

I sometimes think that humanity is the cancer whose uncontrollable growth pushes out everything else and eventually leads to the death of the whole organism. Yet we are given brains and somehow we have to use them for the betterment of all. And it seems that our continuing existence is dependent on the continuing existence of other things – the forests, the animal kingdom, even the quality of the air we breathe. We cannot conquer and exterminate these things without jeopardizing our own existence also. We may have indeed been given dominion over the birds of the air and the fish of the sea and all the animals, but if we exterminate them all – in the end there will be nothing over which to have dominion.

I want to make the point that the fact that ‘the powers of the heavens will be shaken’ suggests that not all these powers are necessarily beneficial or of God. Certainly there are lots of things masquerading as divine but which are in fact not. If we see God lifting us to our feet as the essential paradigm of God’s action, then that which seeks to control others, to keep others grovelling and compliant is essentially not of God. And much which masquerades as ‘christian’ seeks to keep others grovelling and compliant, rather than 'live our lives fully, love wastefully and become everything God created us to be' – in the memorable words of Bishop John Spong.

As I look back in my life, I marvel at the changes that have taken place. My own sons would not credit that I grew up and there was no television until I went to high school. We had a radio at home but even records were a novelty. Photography was expensive so that we had them only for very special occasions. When it was hot we had an old hotel fan in a wooden frame we put by the back door to stir the air. No air-conditioning for us. My father never had a new car, the fridge was second hand as was most of the furniture. The suburbs of Adelaide north of the Anzac Highway we never visited, so our knowledge of our own capital was limited to perhaps a quarter of it. I must say I still don't have air-conditioning in the home, but I've had lots of new cars, new furniture and appliances. I have travelled around the world, though there is much of Australia I still haven't visited. Through the internet we have access to a whole world of news and views.

And these shake the powers of the heavens, for all knowledge upsets those forces that seek to keep our attention solely on them. As the invention of printing brought the actual words of scripture to ordinary people, this upset those who had been the authorised interpreters of scripture for everyone else. So also the internet brings the actuality of other peoples' existence and beliefs into the general milieu and everyone has the ability to digest and evaluate all sorts of beliefs and practices. If we have not already realised it our intellect is being raised to it's proper place of importance, and this is a sign that again the powers of heaven are being shaken. Those who condemned Galileo for propounding scientific truth were shaken when he questioned the established orthodoxy. It was not just the view that everything circled around the earth, they wanted everything to circle around **them**.

From my own personal experience I went into the church thinking that I had to find out what my perception of the faith was. And slowly but surely I have been brought to realise that it is me that is important and not what I believe, that it is everyone who is important not the details of their belief, and that I must live in the present and make the most of this life, for myself and for others.

So when we hear of advancing secularism and are fearful of those who criticise the religious paradigms of the past, rejoice and be glad! That which has gone before has been stultifying and abusive. There is, of course, more that is similarly stultifying and abusive, and perhaps humanity will never be entirely free of all that would enslave us – but I for one would never go back!

I was reflecting recently that the issue of the ordination of women and the opening up of the magnitude of the reality of sexual abuse in the church seems to have happened concurrently. And I suspect that these might not be as unrelated as might initially be thought. As (alright I admit just parts of) the church have embraced the feminine, we have also been led to recognise the abuse of the past as victims have found their voice. I suspect those Anglicans who want to go back to Rome to hide from the ordination of women and acceptance of gay and lesbian persons are those who lament that the powers of heaven are shaking. I rejoice that these things are so. Those evangelicals who lament the general scriptural illiteracy too find their hold on the hearts and minds of modern people slipping. But it is still a more humane society than 50 years ago and no thanks to the evangelicals!

I think of the last verse of Charles Wesley's lovely hymn: Love Divine: which says:
'till we cast our crowns before thee,
lost in wonder, love and praise.'

Our crowns are those things that suggest we rule over others – our colonial pretensions, our racial presumptions, the suggestion that our straight lifestyle puts us above others morally.

Today we begin the season of Advent, that time of preparation for the coming feast of the incarnation of our Lord and Saviour. We also think of the second coming, when God will wrap up this world and take it to him or herself. But right at the outset my text brings us to remember that each and every day, in the wilderness of existence, God came to John the Baptist, even after a lifetime of devout upbringing. God still comes and still comes to shake the powers of heaven, all that would enslave us to fear and compliance. And this coming is obviously something that is eternal. It comes not just to others, but to you and me as we are finding ourselves and finding others around us, in the wilderness of real life.

(Comments to Chris at frsparky@bigpond.net.au.)

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Chaplain – Orange Health Service