Article 1 - "LONG REACH OF CONSEQUENCE" by Jessica Kuzmier June 2008 edition of First Church of The Streets

     Life is full of action, actions which seem to come so fast and furious that it may become easy to not see what one is doing. A person may be in the midst of doing a project, say, filing business taxes, while his mind is either on yesterday's golf game or tomorrow's baseball playoff. So entrenched he is in his fantasy he may not notice a curse he utters over the government or an entry that he forgot to filled out. If someone calls him on his bad language, he may even deny that he said anything untoward. If he is audited for his omission, he may swear that he filled it out. Just because he didn't notice his actions doesn't mean that they were not recorded, or that they didn't have any effect.

     The same can be said for when one calls her actions into question at the end of the day. Whether one chooses to inventory her life or not, her actions have consequences. Some people call this karma, some other people call it sowing what one reaps. Still others believe in the chaos theory, which has to do with one's actions having unseen, random effects. Now that phenomena such as carbon and human footprints have become more accepted theories, it is easier to see that everything one does has some mark upon the world, whether on a spiritual level or even a physical one.

     Even so, it can be easy to pretend that some things just don't matter, that if one forgets about them, they somehow fade from existence. It is as though the repository of memory is the only reality. If I pretend I didn't do this or forget that I said that, then it didn't happen. This shield of denial then helps a person in this state feel that on things not remembered, no responsibility is theirs. Whatever consequences of these forgotten actions and thoughts take place, it has nothing to do with them if they don't remember it happening. An example might be someone who said a sarcastic comment to his co-worker, conveniently forgetting that he said something specific, or at the very best, when confronted, insists "it must have been a joke" as though this should wipe everything clean. But to the recipient of this comment, the acidity of the comment stays, fomenting distrust of the co-worker that hadn't been there before the comment. Just because a person forgets what he says doesn't mean he hasn't sown seeds of discord.

     The Preacher makes note of this reality when he says that God will judge all things, good or evil, even when it is done in secret (Eccl. 12: 14). If there is some underlying reality that transcends everything that exists, it would make sense that this Highest One would have to take absolutely everything into account in order to manage the Creation that he has designed. If everything is connected by various laws and dynamics, then all things become a factor to be considered. Whether it is the jet stream in the Atlantic, the magnetic field by the poles, or someone's angry thought, all things need to be considered as ingredients for the recipe that makes up the entire creation.

     To some, it may feel disconcerting to be put in the same equation as quarks. One has thoughts and feelings, a soul. To put this in the same category as a proton seems disrespectful to the Creator, especially to those who see man's role as being of a special calling from a Holy God. But one does not have to be a secularist to be able to appreciate the correlation. In fact, many people believe in creationism, which basically deigns that a higher power must have created everything because it is so complex. That being so, the Creator made the proton, the quark and the lepton in the same way that he made the man, the woman and the child. They are part of his creation, and play just as much into the equation of life as do human beings. Conversely, if leptons and other subatomic particles have an intricate design that alter reality, then anything that a man, woman or child does affects reality, no matter how "big" or "small" it may be considered in the larger culture.

     But it is easy to forget how even the smallest thing affects reality. Much of culture has determined that there are those who are powerless. This entails various groups, depending on the person who is making the determination. The "powerless" may be the impoverished, the elderly, the disabled, children, women, racial minorities, or even executive vice-presidents if the boss is enough of a jerk. "Powerless" in this sense more or less means that a person is unable to make the decisions to change his external conditions. But what a person does or doesn't do, regardless of circumstances, has just as much affect on the world as anyone else. Consider those who are disabled who are bitter, and what effect that might be on those they come in contact with. This attitude will paint the attitude of other witnesses, and then radiate out from there. And some of the most powerless people on earth have been able to affect change, such as some blacks under slavery, Jim Crow laws and South African apartheid. Clearly, being "powerless" is more an observation than true reality. The smallest person in the smallest context can affect change.

     The judgment of all actions, which many have used as a tool of intimidation to depict a God ravenous for righteousness, is really only a reflection of the business management of an Ultimate Power. The vastness and complexity of creation has myriads of factors that make up its reality. For the Preacher to say that God will bring all things into judgment is only God's way of showing how all things matter to him, and that he is not "too busy" to be concerned about what a particular culture considers to be small. A God who brings all things into judgment is a God who cares about any and all details of one's particular life, no matter what he does or who is in the finite world. What the larger picture amounts to is beyond our knowledge, because of all the intricacies that make up creation. But one is never powerless, and no one is too small to really matter in this world.