Many people today know we must find a way out of the ecological oppression of Earth through forms of government and economics that continue in the illusion that we can use far more than what our one planet can supply. So thousands of us are bent on realigning with the planet and making nature our standard. It’s quite a process of conversion.
Jubilee is overlooked or cast aside by most people identifying as Jew or Christian. But not by Wes Howard-Brook, adjunct faculty at Seattle University, a Jesuit Catholic University in the middle of Seattle. Wes understands that Jubilee is not a matter of a few references scattered throughout the Bible, but part of the worldview of creation religion which, throughout the Bible, resists the worldview of empire religion.
Last year was the first year OneEarth Jubilee put a Covenant on our website. Nearly fifteen of you/us signed it and used it to guide decisions, honing our intentions for OneEarth living. Throughout the year, the Covenant worked its way more and more into the consciousness of all of us who let it work on us.
When I wrote my first book, I was wrestling with a question that baffled me: Why do we humans continue to live using the resources of more than one planet even when we know we have only one planet to live on? Early on in the writing process, a recognition grew in me that not all humans did live this way. That, in fact, there are two macro-stories that guide human decisions and actions.
How can the new creation that is the framework for the birth story of Jesus frame our lives today?
Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Judea. Christ is the name of a consciousness that transcends human birth. Jesus grew into that consciousness quickly. Whether we do it quickly or slowly, we can do it.