Category: Religious

A Plan

Sermon on Isaiah 45:18

I refer to God here as He, capital H, because that’s what seems appropriate to me—if you’re gonna call it a him, it has to be a Him to be rendered as holy.  That’s why I capitalize Mother Nature, too.

Whose Earth is it?  How should its inhabitants act?  Does the creator get a little credit and appreciation from us humans?  Or, are we secure in our identity of being one of Earth’s several species of great apes?

Holy Bible, King James Version, Isaiah 45:18 says:  “For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.”

This is interpreted by me as: “The Creator of Earth and the heavens, Who formed Earth, didn’t do it in vain—He planned Earth to be inhabited, and says He is the LORD, nobody else is, dammit!”

Isaiah 45:18 asserts that God planned for some type of inhabitant on Earth.  Earth was supposed to be an environment for some type of denizen.  Life developed here, and evolved, leading to humans, planned to exist, according to the Bible, in God’s images (male and female—see Genesis, 1:26-7). 

No, He didn’t create us in vain.  But it’s up to us to prove our mettle and show—who?—Jehovah?—at least, us!—that we appreciate Him, and each other.  That’s why we call Him Our Father or Big Daddy.  To us, He is not only a lord, but The LORD, as we can experience His results—we live!

In the next chapter of Isaiah, God even talks of bearing in the womb his people and being committed to delivering them (46:3)—indeed, 46:13 says, “I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry: and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory.” It seems that He is asking for our faith.  

Indeed, Jehovah, in 45:19, expresses concern for His creations, His folks, as follows: “I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the Earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.”  This God deserves our loyalty—not only does He make us, he does and says other right things: He proves that He’s a special lord—the one and only LORD.

Jehovah acts like a creator, and He warns us not to question Him in 45: 9-10: “Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! …Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou?  or thy work, He hath no hands?  Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?” 

In the meantime, we can work/play with our neighbors, and the other species here.  Let’s start with “earth,” the word which means land where we make our homes.  Capitalized, it becomes the proper name of our own third rock from the Sun, just as Jehovah is our LORD’s name. 

We can gain direction by examining this title of our globe.  The word “planet” is the noun we now use to describe our physical sphere composed of lands and waters, inhabitants and phenomena.  But this actually works poorly for some of our fellow Earthlings, I’m guessing.  They don’t like “-net”!  Animals who make their homes in water, most likely, do not want their home to be referred to in a word partially composed of a human tool used to harvest and destroy them.  Neither do the bugs, I’ll bet; there are a lot of aquatic animals and insects that can be caught in nets by us people!  From Nature’s point of view, the orb’s been titled with a “-net” for too long!  I mean, this stuff goes into our consciousness!

There is an alternative: “-nit,” as in “plannit.”  We humans are squeamish about this name for parasitic insect eggs in the hair.  But Mother Nature loves to see Her apes grooming each other to remove nits; they feel closer and this is quite fine.  The use of two Ns encourages the speaker to avoid saying what sounds like “net,” while remaining true enough to the original word, planet.  So we can change the spelling of our home to include an animal reference, and a positive image, the reference to happy behavior of our great ape friends and relatives.  

What about the other part of the word—“plan-”?  This syllable suggests the Biblical passage we are talking about—God in Isaiah asserting His plan to have Earth inhabited, and this making Him The LORD!  Earth’s people could use a little planning to act better, in concert, these days, as well.

Also, looking at the last two letters of the “planet” alternative I am suggesting, we can see something familiar to people—the moniker “information technology” or IT.  Not only does this remedy the focus on yucky bugs that “plannit” suggests, it humanizes the word: IT is a distinctly human invention, one that connects people the world around, these days.  Information technology has been with us for years, but no other animal has developed the computer and internet, which have made global communication—suitable for the salvation of the whole Earth?—a possibility.  Controlling global warming, for example, might be doable, if our precognitive capacity could be developed.  (I know about this because my family has in it a neuroscientist researcher who’s written about these abilities.)  Perhaps utilizing digital apps to train us in using our full mental skills would work for this purpose.  Or, we might want to sit around and blame God, instead of developing ourselves to the fullest capacity possible that He has formed in us, while we drown and assert that we are not Noah.

While we’re at it, we can also deny responsibility for our fury at the challenges of life on our sphere—anger we turn inward, madness that kills our bodies.  This instead of us living forever, as promised in the Bible (see Revelation 21:4).

I suggest that we modify the spelling of our home sphere to “plannit,” a word containing the feminine name “ann.”  Ann was, to return to the Bible, the name of the mother of Mary, Jesus’ human parent. 

Furthermore, the final letter of our word can be a reference to the wooden cross that Jesus died on, as a “T.”  The ultimate sacrifice—death exposed on a structure of wood—was shared by the many African Americans hung from trees in the racist history of the USA.  In another English-speaking nation, Scotland, my ancestor, George Wishart, Protestant martyr, was burned alive, most likely by wood-fueled fire.  Our family motto is “Mercy Is My Desire!” 

To take the bull by the horns, the name of our dear home, Earth, can be expressed as our “Plannit.”  The use of a capitalization to write the proper name Earth should be extended to describe its noun.  Plannit Earth can never be far from godliness or global intimacy: Mother Nature meets God the Father.  

Let us fuel ourselves with compassion, collaboration, and cooperation and let the trees alone: we need them to breathe from!  Let the new English name of our home sphere reflect the others who share it, and the glory that we have created here, for every tongue—including those of other species; even the plants, such a big part of our system, which are run by both feminine and masculine powers.  As Pope Francis quotes, “‘Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with colored flowers and herbs,’” as St. Francis of Assisi wrote in Canticle of the Creatures (first page in On Care for Our Common Home, Laudato Si’, Encyclical Letter, 2015, Washington, DC, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops).  

May peace and mercy flourish in endless tomorrows for all!

~C. Jennifer Walbridge, December 12, 2023, Chicago, IL, USA

by C. Jenny Walbridge

“And if you’re in a tricky spot—

Then worry what you’ll say do not.

For the Holy Ghost

Will tell you the most

Appropriate words: cool—a lot!” 

(Luke 12:11-12, in Luke in Limericks, by me)

I’m wanting to share about my favorite Bible passages.  I’m not a minister, rabbi, etc.—I’m not an official spokesperson here.  But the Holy Ghost may be telling me what to say!  

“…I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord’…” (John 1:23)

During this age of confusion, we can embrace these words of John.  If we’re going to have a God around here—Jesus, whoever—we need to do some clutter busting!  It is time to stop the divisions in ourselves and become more either yin (feminine, dark, and passive) or yang (masculine, light, and active).   I’m not talking about being gay or straight, or trans or not trans; in these lifetimes we are in, God seems to have suggested that we love in any form.   His bonobo apes, our closest relation, not only look cute–they have hair parted in the middle on their heads– they also indulge in frequent homosexual as well as heterosexual sexuality. 

For the future, we may decide to embrace sexual activities for fun and to diffuse tensions, like those apes, who do not have nuclear families (“It takes a village,” right, as goes the African proverb, to raise kids?).  (They also have babies only around every four years; see my essay, Conception, in the Feminist section of this website, for my ideas about birth control strategies.)

Also, we may decide that visual and other differences are just too challenging for humans to deal with, and that we should embrace cloning to create just several versions of males and females that will cut down on differing characteristics so we can work more on getting things done than wasting time on simple face-to-face interacting (navigating each other). 

In the meantime, we all have to be angels in order to get along with each other.  Fortunately, we have tools like music, stories, Aesop’s Fables the Smothers Brothers Way and the Virtues Project International Virtues Reflection Cards to use to learn the virtues we need.  The United Nations tries to help, but the USA is recalcitrant, something we should modify. We also have smarts to change our behavior if that’s a good idea that can be progressive for our human race—like having more intimacy.  (Maybe even gays should have occasional male-female intercourse; all our skin is chemical and needs touching, right? Sex is something prisoners—of jails or of offices—have, to offer; and we may need it, if we want healthy and mentally well populations here on Earth, it seems to me.) 

If we believe that, we could ask if rape or child intercourse are okay.  No!  In fact, if hunger–an insult to a naturally bountiful world–and rapine–seizure of body or property–were no longer part of our globe, we would be in much better shape all around; I think Sister Earth would feel less insulted. Human affairs would be more secure if people’s property was not allowed to be taken out from under them–as in rape; or auto impounding; or fracking, in which someone else can get the gas under your farm. Instead, let’s go with “Victory Through Harmony” or “Victoria Concordia Crescit,” as English soccer team Arsenal says!  They also say, “Black Liver Matter”!

“And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” (John 1:5)  

I have done this journey, so you don’t have to.  Because of confused parenting–and a crazy society and world– I grew up trying to distance myself from the light—I tried to avoid the masculine/light/active principle, what is thought of in some Asian cultures as yang.  Finally, through therapy, I learned that I need to embrace it—it is psychologically necessary for my health.  I went into insanity and returned from it, and I can tell you that it was a long, and lonely, way to go. However, the trip brought these ideas into being.

“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” (John 3:17)

“[H]im” is the example of Jesus which can inspire Americans and those of other lands to live like Jesus, not necessarily becoming members of any particular creed, but showing love rather than judgement to our neighbors, letting God judge, which is His job.  It maybe means that Jesus has or will come back to us (in the form of a woman perhaps, does it really matter what gender?) to help us see the error of our ways and to get us to save our world—for the future, for our offspring, for the species, even for other species! 

The envelope that I have with 3:17 on it is on the carpet next to my Southern Poverty Law Center sticker, FIGHT HATE, which I also have a problem with (fire versus fire?), though I support the group’s work.  It reminds me of the gullible American commoner, who feels hate of the monied of this country and confuses them with the government.  It’s an honest mistake—sometimes, our white-dominant, fancy-dressing, highly-paid elected official system doesn’t seem very progressive in its lack of attention to pervasive societal problems.  But the time may come when government will listen to these words and the messages from the stepped-on and, in doing its allotted duties, will care for us by working/playing with us, and all will benefit!

“Then Jesus [(a Jew)] went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.  And, behold, a [(non-Jew)] woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.  But he answered her not a word.  And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.  But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.  But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and cast it to dogs.  And she said, Truth, Lord; yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.  Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt.  And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.”  (Matthew 15:21-28)

Here it seems as if Jesus made a mistake at first.  People can make mistakes.  People wrote the Bible, about people, including Jesus, who was made in the image of God.  

By the way, if God is male, can I, a woman, exist in His image?  But if God is beyond gender—or embraces male AND female—I’m going to call Him, Her. She’s probably sick of us constantly ignoring Her whole nature by referring to Her only as masculine! 

Who is sicker?  The community who stays poor and violent or the (non-communing) community that gives them guns and keeps them poor by not helping them ascend?  What does it take to be able to pull oneself up by one’s own bootstraps and get out of poverty and violence?  It does take examples and encouragement; but also change—giving food relief and providing decent housing, schooling and therapy, things our service-economy does not offer people enough chances to take advantage of.  Apparently the U. S. A. can’t manage that. How very stupid we must be! I must take personal blame for not figuring out what the psychological stages of human development are, sooner, and not spending more time on proposing solutions to get us out of our misery. You can see my “The Ages of Humankind and our Future” on this website (in the Matriotic section). I have also been distracted, though for the better, by my mate, who this night tells me about the final lynching in our South in 1981 and reads me the lyrics of Billie Holiday’s song “Strange Fruit.”

Getting un-poor takes opportunity to succeed–and perspective, things that many of our white and black poor don’t get from American society.  This according to my partner. The way we do it now, the poor are shut out from any chance for small capitalistic success, and chance to grow, because the greedy rich don’t want competition.  But competition is virtuous, isn’t that what they’re telling us?  “Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, compete with us in the market!”  Huh!  We try but we need some boots here!

Charity makes the givers feel good; it stimulates the brain’s dopamine pleasure center.  Who feels guilty about being well-off when others are not?  The rich should—the poor are right if they say that.  They get to be morally correct—American society has taken away their tools, so they can’t ascend, but they do get the moral righteousness.  But if they don’t get better with help—and structural (global, if necessary) change, they are “wrong.”  Well, guess what?  They ALWAYS d0! 

We Americans save money by, for example, hiring a bunch of cops rather than finding the real solution for the major problems we have; meanwhile, people are murdered by police and drug use.  Is this really the best course of action? And why is our tax money never used to get the poor out of poverty for good?

The pattern of our society is repeated internationally.  Look at Central America and Afghanistan—the U. S. gave or sold them guns and now they are hooked into an economy of drugs run by gangs.  It’s very sad!   When we are more connected globally, this won’t occur.

I have learned a lot about myself, the mental health community, and what sanity means.  It means that your world is nuts and you keep ploughing through.  It means you can be inspired—when things aren’t working out for you the way they work out for anyone else, somehow you have faith.  You have faith in yourself because you are beautiful inside—you have something to share, to offer to your fellow person.

Julia Cameron, like me, is from Libertyville, Illinois.  She wrote the book The Artist’s Way and came up with an acronym for God—”Good Orderly Direction.”  My website has on it a bunch of my acronyms—like LIFE and LOVE and BEAUTY: Living Our Virtue—Empathy; LOVERS’ Intelligence Flows Everywhere; and Being Elegant And Understanding True Youth.  Artificial intelligence could be used to come up with acronyms that humans would then discard or use to think about ourselves. We should enjoy this!