ANY CHANCE FOR CHANGE?

New Pope, old church.

New President, old hat.

New economy, old problems.

New climate, old approaches.

There is this song:

Abide with me, fast falls the eventide
The darkness deepens, Lord with me abide
When other helpers fail and comforts flee
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day
Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away
Change and decay in all around I see
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

If there is a song, if there are lines that apply to today more than any other, they are the above cited lyrics, composed decades ago, supposedly played by its orchestra when the Titanic sank in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic in 1913.

Today, this year, this decade, the world is in its last stage of dissolution. Pessimistic? No. Optimistic, because I wholeheartedly believe, and do one hundred percent endorse, that after this terminally ongoing phase, there will be, for the sake of Christ-believers, an unexpected, all-comprehensive ending, telos, reckoning, judgement – whatever you call it – heralding the onset of the new Creation, of which numerous Bible passages speak, none more eloquently than Romans 8:

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

Please note: This passage is all about creation, and her increasing suffering, evident in rapidly vanishing species, and ever shrinking natural habitat.

Back to Today.

Back to Today, where we have experienced an interesting week. A week in which 133 old men, never married, reared in purely protective portals, within the ecclesiastic exterior of basically masculine mannerisms, chose a new leader for an institution that is quickly fading in importance. After all, its entire organisational structure is totally outdated, being based on an Old Testament model that died 2,000 years ago on Calvary’s Cross, when Jesus exclaimed: It is finished. Believe me: the priestly order is finished, even though it is taking 2,000 years to achieve a degree of reality.

Why?

At that precise moment Jesus died, he did his last miracle: “The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” (Mark 15: 38) That curtain separated, in the Old Testament Temple, the room where only the High Priest, once a year, was allowed to enter to make atonement. Suddenly, with Jesus’ death, atoning for all the world’s sins, this High-Priestly symbolic act was declared null and void, and with Jesus’ very final act, RELIGION received its final farewell: away with all manifest measures of ecclesiastical expressions, evident in church spires pointing to heaven, in clerical robes and collars of any kind, in ‘reverend’ designations of various grades: all gone when that curtain ripped.

Typical Conduct.

The rituals evident especially in choosing a new pope, and in church proceedings in general, where change is seen as sacrilegious, these factors are also in plain sight in other fields of human enterprise. New Pope, old church: Change has no chance.

New President, old hat.

The new president is a comical figure, who is trying to rule his world based on flimsy notions. Impossible! The societal structures solidified into staleness over centuries, are, just as the ecclesiastical entities, ready to implode. His ‘reign’ will simply accelerate this process.

New economy, old problems.

Is there really a new economy? No. Jesus lamented that ‘The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.’ (Matthew 26: 11). The rich control the economy, and, as Paul wrote to Timothy: For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. That was true then, and is true today. Yet, we are facing a new economy, as we are entering “The Limits of Growth”, for the simple reason that we live in a Finite World. That ‘finite’ condition will dominate our financial situation, resulting in shortages and inflation. The new economy requires ‘economy’, implying wartime conditions, not seen in 80 years, since the End of World War II.

New climate, old approaches.

We are facing impossible challenges, the most glaring being Climate Change. If there ever is a threat to LIFE, it is Global Heating, which has no solution anymore: it is baked into our human fate.