The Meek Will Inherit the Earth

At first glance, the idea of Jesus being the answer to climate change seems like nonsense. After all, aren’t the solutions to climate change all about science and technology? The reality is, we have plenty of great science describing the problem and we know the kinds of technological changes we need to make. Unfortunately, we are unable to the implement solutions because of weaknesses in our cooperation skills. How do we overcome this barrier? In this episode we examine the approaches taken to climate change by Bill Gates and Greta Thunberg. Hopefully by contrasting their approaches we can increase our understanding of what it takes to get past climate change and to promote long-term human wellness.Contact: brianpracticingforpeace@zohomail.comOriginally published January 2, 2023Transcript: https://brianpracticingforpeace.medium.com/meek6-jesus-is-the-answer-to-climate-change-ae04d97ffcf3

The apostle Paul called Jesus the second Adam. By this he meant Jesus is the prototype for a new type of humanity; whereas the original Adam and Eve represent humanity as we know it. This episode will start by looking at what is unique about Homo sapiens such that they are able to dominate all the other animals. Hint: It isn’t technology or intelligence. Building on that foundation, we will see that Jesus and the new humanity he was creating represent a new twist on our uniqueness. Again, we will see that our technology and intelligence are important, but they are more likely to lead to evolutionary disruption, than to endless economic growth.Contact: brianpracticingforpeace@zohomail.comOriginally published November 5, 2022Transcript: https://brianpracticingforpeace.medium.com/meek5-human-origins-similarities-between-the-first-adam-and-the-second-adam-80076f0c19d9Tim Mackie’s podcast, episode 8, “Torah Crash Course Part 1 - Genesis”. Tim explains the most important themes from the first eleven chapters of Genesis. https://bibleproject.com/podcast/torah-crash-course-part-1/Homo Deus, A Brief History of Tomorrow. By Yuval Noah Harari. Harari gives a helpful telling of the story of human evolution and how we differ from animals.Violence and the Sacred and Things Hidden since the Foundation of the World are two ground-breaking books by Rene Girard that illuminate and explore how Homo Sapiens enhance cooperation through communal blaming and violence.

The Bible tells us God created the earth. Science tells us that the earth as we know it evolved over billions of years. Many Christians, including myself, do not see any contradiction here. I don’t fully understand it, but God somehow uses evolution in his creative process. The question for this episode is, what about the new creation? The Bible tells us the God is making everything new (Revelations 21:5). Is evolution also part of God’s process of new creation?Contact: brianpracticingforpeace@zohomail.comOriginally published on October 4, 2022Transcript: https://brianpracticingforpeace.medium.com/meek3-creation-evolution-and-salvation-are-all-the-same-thing-62d8702ddd81Tim Mackie’s talk on science and faith:  https://bibleproject.com/podcast/science-faith/

The gospel according to Matthew notes that the crowds were amazed, ‘because [Jesus] taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law’. The irony here is that the teachers of the law were appointed by Jewish religious institutions and therefore, they had what we think of as real authority, whereas Jesus had none. We will see that Matthew understands authority differently – instead of coming from human institutions, divine authority comes from alignment with the heavens and the earth that God created. In addition, human institutional authority normally finds divine authority threatening and is hostile to it.Contact: brianpracticingforpeace@zohomail.comOriginally published on October 17, 2022Transcript: https://brianpracticingforpeace.medium.com/meek4-he-taught-as-one-who-had-authority-a0215464356e Tim Mackie’s episode “Who can forgive sins”. E91: https://bibleproject.com/podcast/matthew-p16-who-can-forgive-sins/?utm_source=web_social_share&medium=shared_podcastIf you want to dig deeper, the following two “Tim Mackie” episodes dive into to stories I discussed in this episode:E91 “Make me Clean”: https://bibleproject.com/podcast/matthew-p13-make-me-clean/?utm_source=web_social_share&medium=shared_podcastE92 “Storms and Swine”: https://bibleproject.com/podcast/matthew-p14-storms-and-swine/?utm_source=web_social_share&medium=shared_podcast 

In this episode we will review the gospel according to Matthew and see that the Kingdom of God was the central focus of Jesus’s message. As Jesus explained it, the Kingdom of God is a new kind of human society; it is organized on different principles, and its members behave differently. It is good news because it is the world of peace and justice we say we want. However, the inescapable conclusion is that this is a big change – the new humanity will be as different from Homo sapiens as Homo sapiens were from the hominins who preceded them (e.g. Neanderthals, Homo erectus).Contact: brianpracticingforpeace@zohomail.comOriginally published on October 2, 2022Transcript: https://medium.com/@brianpracticingforpeace/meek1-the-good-news-the-kingdom-of-god-is-near-e87bbb55b8bThe quotes from Tim Mackie can be found in the following links: (Two of the quotes are right in the show notes. The last one, ‘a better name for the Sermon on the Mount’ is at 29:00 of E82.)E19  https://www.stitcher.com/show/exploring-my-strange-bible/episode/gods-kingdom-has-arrived-new-testament-themes-part-1-51358652E82 https://www.stitcher.com/show/exploring-my-strange-bible/episode/jesus-and-the-kingdom-of-god-gospel-of-matthew-part-4-54566395