How Do We Recover the Awe?

EARTHKEEPING NEWS
A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY

Volume Eleven, Number Two
January/February 2002

by Rev. Finley Schaef

In the first church, people sat in a circle. Church happened when our ancestors sat around a blazing fire under the stars. What made it "church" was their feeling — Awe. The primal spiritual response to the world is not confession, praise and thanksgiving, although they surely will follow, but Awe. Awe occurs when we are grasped by the mystery of the Creation and are overcome by wonder and dread.

In the Hebrew Bible, we read that God desires to be approached through an altar of dirt, rather than through an altar of acacia wood overlaid with bronze. Furthermore, says Yah, "If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones." ( Exodus 20: 24-25.) So we witness the progression of "church" from "viewing" to "fashioning" %#151; viewing the campfire under the stars to fashioning an earthy sacred place, an "altar," at which one is to perform a sacred "burnt offering" ritual of thanksgiving.

The mound of dirt eventually became the huge and gorgeous Temple, the heart of which was accessible only to an elite priesthood. Some time during the inter-testamental period, however, the synagogue came into being, probably first as a school, then as a place of worship. With Christianity came the "house church," but acceptance by the Empire brought new houses of communal worship fashioned after the Roman basilica. Grand cathedrals followed the accumulation of wealth and power. Breakaway Protestants gathered in sanctuaries that resembled classrooms, as in schools to hear the word.

Today the movement is either a complete break with church, or the formation of the "house church." NACCE calls it "earthkeeping circle." This church style is like the primordial fire circle because it springs from Awe. There is no hierarchy or power structure around the fire. Leadership roles are assumed by those who possess the leadership skills that are required to plan and conduct ritual (from which relevant social action flows). It is conducted outdoors as often as possible.

These earthkeeping circles are like the early church because they are mobile. The place is not as crucial to the religious life as the reality of human beings expressing their spirituality and celebrating their earthling-ness. The biblical portrait and the living reality of Jesus Christ is still central to our religious life, so we keep the Bible and other inspired Christian writings close to the heart, but we also honor the sentiment of the Thomases, Aquinas and Berry, that nature is every bit as revelatory of the Divine as is holy writ.

HOW DO WE RECOVER THE AWE?

Thoughts on Earthkeeping Circles