Facing Easter and the Sun

By George Browning

My wife and I hope to build a retirement house this year on a beautiful site, near the beach. In Australia, all new houses now have to achieve an environmental rating set by the local shire council. In order to achieve this rating, the house's outlook should preferably be north facing , for in the southern hemisphere that is how we maximise energy from the sun. To face in a different direction is to deny the reality that the sun is the primary and constant source of energy, which if not utilised, will have to be substituted with an alternative that is costly, ultimately unsustainable and that will almost certainly be “dirty.” contributing to the degrading of the world rather than its renewal.

The threat of terrorism hangs constantly in the air, even in Australia; for a range of reasons hope is being lost. [Yet] Easter is the celebration of beginnings, the celebration of hope, the celebration of God's life business. . . the business of disallowing the last word to hurting, alienation and death.

I have begun the writing of this article on the afternoon of Easter. The celebrations have been particularly well attended this year, perhaps due to the fact that we are in the midst of one of the most unsettled periods of recent history. The threat of terrorism hangs constantly in the air, even in Australia; for a range of reasons hope is being lost. Easter is the celebration of beginnings, the celebration of hope, the celebration of God's life business. We Christians believe that what God does at Easter, God always does. This is not a divine aberration; this is a divine constant. God is forever in the life business, in the business of disallowing the last word to hurting, alienation and death. God is eternally Easter facing and the disciples of God, the disciples of Jesus must also be Easter facing.

In this article I want to argue that “ Easter facing ” and “ north facing ” are on the same sheet of music, they are scripted into the same song.

There will be as many views about the film The Passion of The Christ as there are people who see it. For me, the climax was either in the response of Simon of Cyrene when they reached Golgotha, or in the words of Jesus: “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

I saw the film in its National Parliament preview, and afterwards was invited to reflect upon it in the company of some of our federal politicians, other Christian leaders and some Jewish leaders. Many of Jesus' last 12 hours were spent in three “parliaments,” those belonging to the Sanhedrin, Pilate and Herod. In each case, the parliaments were not the slightest bit interested in Jesus, his cause, or justice as it might be understood in reference to him: out of their own anxieties they were interested in the preservation of power. They were certainly not “Easter facing.”

It gave me cause to reflect that systems of power, religious or secular, have an almost certain human frailty factor built into them, unless they are lead by persons of extraordinary charism . We should not be surprised, therefore, that governments are unlikely to be “north facing” unless self-interest drives them to be so. As I reflected on the extraordinary capacity of God to forgive such terrible atrocity, one of the Jewish leaders said: “of course we do not believe God does.” The Christian perspective on God's capacity for forgiveness, God's capacity to redeem the seemingly unredeemable, is surely the foolishness, or stumbling block , to which St. Paul referred. God is indeed stubbornly, incurably, Easter facing.

Being an island continent, Australia had a protected and pristine environment until 1788. Since that time, the continent has become host to innumerable exotic species, not least waves of immigrating human beings. They have brought with them their favourite birds, animals and plants to remind them of their place of origin. When one of these species gets out of control, we tend to bring another to modify its behaviour, each mistake being compounded by another. Perhaps our most serious mistake has been the introduction of the cane toad: introduced to control sugar cane pests, it has now rampaged through most of Queensland and the Northern Territory, causing the destruction of almost every native frog and reptile in its path.

. . .the emphasis placed on so called “personal sins” – especially those of a sexual nature – is out of kilter with the lack of emphasis given to sins of corporate responsibility, particularly the sinfulness of tramping so wilfully upon the sacredness of the created order.

We human beings have a great capacity for assuming we can turn things around while still facing in the wrong direction. If we have a problem with the environment, we are inclined to throw money at it, to develop it, to seek to control it further: it does not occur to us that what the environment most seeks is a rest from us, an opportunity to regroup. A parishioner wrote to me last week making the not-too-novel suggestion that sermons are too much focused on sin and that we equip people magnificently for guilt Oscars! The writer of the letter was probably partly right, that is to say the emphasis placed on so called “personal sins” – especially those of a sexual nature – is out of kilter with the lack of emphasis given to sins of corporate responsibility, particularly the sinfulness of tramping so wilfully upon the sacredness of the created order.

To consciously and specifically face in a particular direction we may have to make a decision of the will not to face where we have been previously facing. I would contend that this is as important for faith as it is for the environment.

Easter is about hope. No human being can live without hope, although many attempt to survive in such a state. When we encounter human beings living without hope, we first encounter their bad behaviour, behaviour we consider to be seriously crossing sacrosanct boundaries.

Terrorism is manifestly one of the worst forms of human behaviour, crossing boundaries in a most confronting and hostile manner. We are generally led to believe that terrorists are extremist thugs, living out a radical if not evil philosophy. This may well be the case, especially for the leadership of terrorist organizations. But we may equally well observe that ordinary people who behave in this unacceptable way might be reacting to a situation of hopelessness and despair. If this is the case, and if the efforts of the western, “Christian” world increase their despair, by implication the same efforts also increase the likelihood of terrorism.

How desperate our need has become to find leaders who will point us in a different direction, an Easter-facing direction. What I mean is that we do not only need to become more proficient with our security systems, or more efficient with the machinery of war, we need to find a way through which understanding can grow, poverty be eliminated, and hope given a chance to flourish once more.

Common to matters of faith as well as the environment is the need for us all to see with new eyes. The faith word for this is repentance. Like many “faith” words, it has a bad press. It is mostly understood in the negative, in terms of what has to be given up, or “repented of.” By contrast, the word metanoia is really about what needs to be embraced. We give up old ways, in the first instance, not because they are bad or wrong, as well they might be, but because the new ways to be embraced are so much more life-giving. The way of Jesus and the Kingdom is so much better than any other known way. The same issues face human beings in relation to the environment.

Turning around and facing another direction will not happen because people perceive that their present behaviour is wrong, but because there is a more fulfilling, more harmonious way in which to live. The most recent school to be built in our diocese is one that is at the cutting edge on many simultaneous fronts. Its buildings are all designed for minimum environmental impact and its programmes for maximum environmental learning. The school is situated next to an historic ruin from early settlement, for which it recently won a heritage award for the way it is incorporating the settlement into the present life of the community. The school has a fully functioning Indonesian centre, embracing the language, customs and values of our nearest neighbour, which is the largest Islamic country in the world. The school is unapologetically Christian in its values and proclamation and yet it enrols amongst its pupils children from families of “no religion” at a higher rate than the national average. Being north facing, Easter facing , is not the sign of religious, on the edge, green fundamentalism, but an indication of the most inclusive, life-giving manner of life that humans are capable of embracing.

This should not surprise us. God intends us for abundant life. God intends us to live in harmony with the whole of creation. God's coming to us in Jesus is a coming that embraces the whole created order, which is why matters of faith and matters of the environment do indeed belong on the same song sheet.  

The Rt. Rev. George Browning is bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn in Australia. He works with ecological-minded activists around the world to focus the church's attention to sustainable environment and development concerns, particularly increased energy efficiency. Bishop George may be reached by email at George.browning@anglican.org.au .