Extinction: The Last Days,

INTRODUCTION

I want to talk in a little different language today.

We usually talk in Religious-ese. We spell out the story as the bible relates it.

I Want to use the other major grand story of creation.

The story of creation as science tells us.

STORY OF CREATION

Science tells us that the world is approximately 13.8 Billion years old.

Life has been ever so slowly evolving for 4.5 billions years since the formation of the earth.

EXTINCTIONS

Now we jump forward to a relatively recent time.

4. 5 million years ago

The earliest signs of life which had been emerging over time became extinct.

There have been 5 major occasions that life has become extinct on this planet.

Living creatures slowly develop until something happens and they get wiped out.

We more commonly talk about the extinction of the dinoursaus some 60 million year ago

Scientists speak of us encountering the 6th great extinction now.

The Carbon Dioxide extinction. Climate Change.

CLIMATE CHANGE

The planet cannot survive the continual buildup of Carbon Dioxide.

So we are in a race against time.

Not in our lifetime but who knows how many generations to come before life is on a downward spiral before the planet is unlivable.

What is the legacy that we are leaving?

JEREMY RIFKIN

Jeremy Rifkin is one researcher who leads the way in addressing this catastrophic issue.

Put simply he proposes that the digital network and the change in power structure across the planet gives us the greatest chance of at least slowing down the great threat.

The digital world gives power to the common person. As long as it is used for good and overcomes the dark web there will be a new world order.

And then the power structures need to be reshaped. The 60 wealthiest people on the planet hold half the wealth of humanity. And they essentially hold the power, supported by the increasingly corrupt leadership.

We need a whole new living structure of humanity.

A very big task.

SCRIPTURES

A man who I regard as a Prophet of our times, recently deceased Raimon Panikkar, a Roman Catholic mystic, with doctorates in Philosophy, Science and Theolgy, declared that we are on the point of extinction, through climate change or the nuclear build up whichever strikes first.

THE FUTURE

One can’t imagine humanity going on indefinitely.

The scriptures speak of the end of days.

Maybe it is time.

But extinctions usually take time.

Scripture paints a very dramatic picture of extreme catastrophe.

But I believe the symbolic, metaphorical language can be miss-read.

The end times will come relatively slowly in the thousands of years rather than the hundreds.

But the warnings are stark.

THE TASK AT HAND

Where does our hope come from

We have a task before us

I cannot believe the end is out of vengeance on the part of God.

He seeks goodwill amongst all

We are a globalized world. We still have before us the challenge of learning to live peaceably together

We have tragic inequality over the entire planet but we must learn to live in a communal way, where none go without.

A FINAL POINT

There is a final point to be made.

The new way of viewing the world is an integral world. All things are interrelated.

This means that it is time to reimagine the story of Christ and his resurrection.

It can be interpreted as applying to the afterlife, but that is one aspect.

It begins with the approach to life in the here and now.

Resurrection takes us far deeper into the reality of all that is.

Christ is to be seen as the universal Christ.

But we go further. We must come to see him as the cosmic Christ continuing his work of the redemption of all creation

Despite the threat of extinction, the Cosmic Christ is superior

That will not stop.

CONCLUSION

Whether we are heading toward the 6th extinction or not, the cosmic Christ is working for the good of all.