Was it for This the Clay Grew Tall?
Reflections | Qalehong Course, Johannesburg, 2008
The sad and haunting words of Wilfred Owen (from his poem Futility) come back to me, as I reflect on the two weeks we spent, as a group of ten, in Johannesburg, close to so many important sites for human evolution. Through field trips, museum visits, and some excellent speakers, we were able to mingle with the early humans (or ëhomininsí as they are now called) that walked these veldts before us. We saw their skulls, their teeth, their feet and hands, their tools.
Wilfrid Owen, poet
Some speakers, and our visit to the Maropeng Museum, threw us even further back, into the very stuff of our evolving cosmos. Energy, matter, fundamental particles, even String Theory, passed before us, as scientists explained emerging understandings of where we all came from. We were amazed to find that so much of us, and the stuff we are made of, is empty! A visit to the local Planetarium took us into the far reaches of outer space, where the same vast emptiness enclosed all the galaxies and star systems. Yet here was born the universe we know.
At this level, of human and cosmic evolution, we were pondering the extraordinary fact that the clay ëgrew tallí at all! But, every day, with a series of fascinating insights into Genesis, supported by living scripture scholars and stimulating articles, we struggled with ëwhyí the clay grew tall. Our texts, our inspired scriptures, were able to yield meanings for twenty-first century seekers (us). Questions of purpose, intention, creation and redemption surfaced again and again. We had time and leisure to discuss, think, reflect, share, and pray about them.
Landscape, Maropeng
Cradle of Humankind
Norm Habel and his Earth Bible team of scholars were part of our regular reading. Can the Bible be read from the perspective of Earth? Is there a story of Earth behind and beneath the story of God and Jesus we know so well? The texts yielded all sorts of secrets to us. We came home with new ways of opening our own scriptures, so that they shed light on todayís ecological issues.
And this formed the third and sharpest set of questions that energised us for those fourteen days. What has the clay grown tall done to the clay itself? What is the human race doing to Earth? We had wonderful stimulation from local people who wrestle daily with efforts to live sustainably, so the whole human race can survive on Earth. Al Gore, Paul Hawken and Annie Leonard joined us (via video) to put a passionate case for our being the generation that can and will reverse the damage.
I am left reflecting on Owenís question, thrown in the teeth of those responsible for the worst war (hitherto) of all time, in terms of its loss of human life. The risk we humans are to ourselves, and to other living things, haunted our earliest footsteps on the African grasslands. Did we stand, did we walk, did we fashion technology, did we talk, did we think, merely for self-destruction as a species? What better place to seek answers to this and the great questions of our salvation than those low hills where it all began? Qalehong lets the answers emerge.
More information on Qalehong can be found at bethmcd@powerup.com.au or kevinmcd@sm.cfc.edu.au