Latest / Eurasia Region Podcast / S1-E121 | Everyday Eurasia |  Caleb Cray Haynes

Transcript

S1-E121 | Everyday Eurasia |  Caleb Cray Haynes · Eurasia Region Podcast

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  Hello and welcome to the Everyday Eurasia podcast,
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  Inspiring Faith for Every Day. Each day we are on a journey
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  with Jesus in our churches, our homes, our workplaces, and in so
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  many different places around the world.
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  Is it beautiful that no matter where we are, we can walk with
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  him every single day? Jesus is the one who connects us
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  all and stands at the very center of our lives day after
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  day. Through this podcast, you'll
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  hear voices from across the region sharing devotionals that
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  reminds us of God's presence in our everyday moments.
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  This week, we will join Reverend Caleb Gray Haynes.
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  He directs Ness Rings for Creation Care.
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  He has written multiple books on creation care, including his
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  newest book, Earthbound Christian.
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  Caleb host the Econ Christian Podcast and serves on the board
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  of Directors at Creation Justice Ministries.
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  Greetings, friends. This is Reverend Caleb Cray
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  Haines. Today, what does it mean to talk
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  about holiness within all of God's creation?
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  Holiness isn't about us though, is it?
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  No. Holiness is about God because
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  our God is the one who is holy, and so the only way we know
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  anything about holiness is by knowing the one who is holy.
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  H Ray Dunning wrote that any person, place, or thing may be
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  holy only in a derivative sense by being brought into relation
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  to the holy God. So this holiness is a relational
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  reality, and this relationality is best known through holy love.
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  As holiness theologian Mildred Bangs Weinku put it, love is the
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  essential inner character of holiness, and holiness does not
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  exist apart from love. Did you know that the term
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  ecology refers to the study of relationships in nature?
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  It deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to
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  their physical surroundings. I love that it's the study of
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  relationships. Aren't we all some form of
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  ecologist? Aren't we all students of how
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  everything relates to everything else?
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  I just wonder as a holiness people, as a people who are
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  particularly invested in a theology that seeks to embody
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  loving relationality, might we be closer than most to seeking a
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  loving care ethic toward God's creation?
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  I love talking about passages like Leviticus 19.
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  The Holiness Code is what we call it.
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  It's where God says, speak to all the congregation of the
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  people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I
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  the Lord your God am holy. And then it gets real practical.
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  And start talking about what it means for the people of God
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  thousands of years ago to live practical holy lives in their
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  day, to exhibit love and justice and grace to everything and
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  everyone. It's actually where we first get
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  love. Your neighbor as yourself.
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  You read Leviticus 19 and all of a sudden we're talking about how
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  we breed our animals, sow our seeds, eat fruit, eat from our
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  trees, rock our sideburns. Are you with me?
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  How we use our bodies, how we eat, how we welcome the refugee.
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  Here's the deal, though. These aren't arbitrary rules
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  that are here to torture us as we attempt to muster up enough
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  energy to jump through God's nonsensical, ridiculous hoops or
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  something, right? Leviticus isn't God messing with
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  us? No, these are words about issues
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  of love and justice. Passages like this are trying to
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  answer the question of what does living life look like in the
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  presence of this holy God? And so this whole thing we call
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  life beckons us to live in such a way that we reflect, mirror,
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  become ourselves like this holy presence in our world.
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  This holiness code, if it does anything, reminds us that God's
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  holy presence has something to say about how we treat our
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  neighbors right to the how we speak to the how we allow our
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  fruit trees to establish before we start consuming them.
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  In other words, if God is God right, there is no person, no
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  place, no thing where God is absent that God doesn't have a
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  better word to speak. And so the temptation for us, as
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  the church today may be to over spiritualize our faith or
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  interpret holiness as something that is just inward or personal
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  rather than also social or ecological.
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  Are you with me? And so Holiness thinking about
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  creation care, Holiness has something to say about the soil
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  that grew our food that grew the cotton, right.
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  Holiness wants to know about the biodiversity and how the land
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  was treated. Holiness wants to know if there
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  were harmful chemicals involved. Holiness wants to know about the
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  farmers and how they're doing in their hands and if they have
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  enough to eat. Holiness wants to know about the
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  workers who are sewing the shirts together.
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  Holiness wants to know about the conditions and the fair wages.
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  Holiness wants to know about the ethics and the values and the
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  heart and the spirit of it all. It's looking at the thing behind
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  the thing. Holiness wants to know about the
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  carbon footprint, because holiness considers how our
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  choices affect all of God's creation.
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  Holiness is about wholeness about the whole thing, and it's
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  beautiful and it's interconnected.
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  And friends, there is no such thing as loving God and our
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  neighbors without wrestling with the way in which we live in the
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  world. This is good news, friends,
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  Let's pray. Creator God, remind us.
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  We pray of who we are in you. Remind us that our worth is not
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  contingent upon our production, but rooted in your love.
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  Remind us that we are your children.
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  God, give us the patience and grace to aim for Your Kingdom.
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  Help us to seek your face with our whole hearts and Your
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  Kingdom above all else. Jog our memory that we may
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  reorient our entire lives around the economy of Your Kingdom as
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  it is the only place in which flourishing occurs.
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  Amen. Thank you for listening to the
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  Everyday Eurasia podcast, Inspiring Fate for everyday.
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  For more Everyday Stories, subscribe on this podcast
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  channel, follow our socials, Facebook and Instagram, or our
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  newsletter Snapshots. For our newsletter and further
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  information about the Eurasia region, visit our website,
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  eurasiaregion.org.