LOVE: Relationship and Connection

I remember the overwhelming sense of wonder all around me as we drifted down a river or across a billabong or hurtled down a highway en-route to another place of beauty and experienced the vastness, the diverse raw beauty surrounding the coach. The sky seemed close and vast. The trees enormous, small, white, grey, black, brown and in infinite forms and array. The magnificent crocodiles that lay in wait along riverbanks or billabongs, seductively quiet and seemingly asleep only to burst into immediate life s opportunity arose. Their capacity to ‘leap’ from the water and grab food dangling high up was incomprehensible. The birdlife was magnificent and vibrant and everywhere. Experience we had in Kakadu, when we were taken to an out of the way place below the escarpment and by a billabong. There were rock formations, rock art – and a small cave!

This was the cave of Big Bill Neidjie, who had been a local Aboriginal elder and this was where he led his people and taught them. We took a moment to pay respect to him, his memory and the land on which we stood, land that his people had cared for and related to in deep and profound ways for millennia. We looked at his art, drawings and writings that taught other indigenous people how to live on the land, with the land and its creatures and behaviour.  He also gave them a basic education in white fella ways and language because he had been able to go to a mission school for a bit.

I found a book of his life, poetry and wisdom, that spoke of how important, vital and real his relationship with land, creatures, seasons and everything around him, truly was. Some academics met with him, followed him around and listened to him, recording his words and wisdom. He spoke about relationships, with each other, with the Earth and its creatures. He reminds us of how easy we are seduced by things that glitter or glow and chase after wealth and prosperity and lose our souls in the process. I am amazed as I read his words and their simple beauty and wonder. He truly understood the land on which he gently walked. He recognised fellow creatures and understood the seasons and changes and felt deep connection with everything around him. In using his cave to teach his people, he revealed the lore and law of the elders, passed down from generation, wisdom and understanding – and life. He taught them white fella language and culture and nurtured relationship but with warnings of the seductions and temptations that would take them away from the wisdom of their own culture. As I listen to Bill Neidjie, I recognise the significance of relationship. It is integral to everything because relationship is fundamental to who we are as people sharing the Earth together, with each other and with the land, waterways and all the creatures that inhabit this beautiful planet.

Through September many churches are engaging in a Season of Creation whereby they reflect on the beauty, wonder and fragility of the world around us. They hear the call for humanity to remember our place within the whole ecosystem of life as stewards called to care for the Earth and its creatures. The absolute necessity of the relationships between us and all the Earth becomes obvious. Our spiritual, physical and emotional well-being depend upon the restoration of our relationships with the Earth and its creatures. The Earth is suffering under the weight of human activity, and we need to relearn the ancient practices and wisdom, even if we don’t retain the associated mythology. The Season of Creation invites us to reflect on the wisdom literature of the ancient world and to rekindle a sense of wonder, along with the restoration of relationships with all things. This year the theme is ‘Peace with Creation.’

Other churches will read an intriguing story from Luke’s Gospel (Luke 16:1-13), which speaks about a dishonest steward. This middleman for a wealthy landowner is responsible for the buying and selling of goods on behalf of the master. He has control over the business interests in a particular region. He takes his cut on the profits and lives it up. Stories emerge that he is squandering the Master’s wealth, and he is called in and reprimanded. In desperation (and recognition that if he is sacked, he isn’t fit to do manual labour and doesn’t want to beg), he hatches a scheme to use some of his (and perhaps the Master’s?) wealth to nurture some relationships with his master’s clients so they will look favourably upon him.  He reduces their debts significantly and they are indeed grateful and act favourably towards him. The master surprisingly commends the steward for his actions and Jesus uses him as a positive example of how we might act and live. Suffice it to say that scholars and preachers argue endlessly over this puzzling story and its implications. This is perhaps the best and only way to fully engage it – to argue and debate it within a group.

A clear implication within the story is that the steward, out of self-interest, acts shrewdly and reverses the nature of the relationships between himself and those who are in debt to his Master. No longer do they relate through the power that debt imposes and implies but through mercy and even something approaching justice (even though the Steward doesn’t ever appeal to justice). There is a more genuine relationship between him and the clients.  His shrewd desperation restores something of their relationship, and he realises that relationships are more important to his future than money alone. He uses his resources to rebalance relationships and create a positive future – which, incidentally, benefits all people involved. This is the nature of God’s realm, a reversing of the power imbalances and a restoration of relationship between people and people.

The crossover between this story and the Season of Creation is that relationships are at the heart of our future.  If we do not see the desperate need for the restoration of relationships and learn to act shrewdly, we will suffer – or continue to suffer as the Earth struggles with changing climates, distorted ecosystems and the imbalance of relationships between humans and non-human creation. The story from Luke invites us to shrewd restoration of relationships, if not for the well-being of all, then for our own self-interest that will also ultimately benefit all creation and bring peace to the Earth. In this story, the steward acts for his own self-preservation, nurturing relationships for his own uncertain future.

Jesus invites us to be people of relationship. If we can’t quite recognise the broader significance of this for our world, perhaps we can see through the eyes of our own self-interest and act for the sake of those close to us. Perhaps, as we take small steps to deeper relationship, we will be drawn into the deeper way of God’s love and grace which is the healing of our world and the nurturing of the inclusive community of all creation.