EASTER 2001@ Inavale Farm
MORGAN'S MOMENT
“Walk in the world for me…”
           she writes from her walled-in life.
I read the letter on our deck…
           overlooking green pastures
           sheep grazing sun shining.
I look along our road toward far hills…
           we are free to walk it anytime
           and we do almost daily.
I see our car in the driveway…
           back from 4000 miles on the road
           ready to head out again soon.
I plan to watch a grandson
           play a baseball game
           and maybe eat out after.
I write a note there on my lap-top
           promising to take it into town
           and get it in the mail to her.
I promise her that I will remember
           her lack of freedom
           and walk in the world for her.
I think of Easter
           and the One who lives outside the tomb
           when we walk in the world for Him.
— Art Morgan 
MOMENT MINISTRIES
April 02, 2001
home address:  25921 SW Airport Ave.
Corvallis, OR 97333   541-753-3942
email at  a-morgan@peak.org
Easter at Inavale Farm has become a happy tradition.
Drive west out Airport Road through green fields and rolling hills. Pass Independent school at Fern Road. A mile or so more on Airport takes you to Sexton Road. That leads to the gate of Horse Farm Lane that passes the horse barns and riding arena. The lane winds through oaks and tall firs, ending at the Glass’s home.
Paul will have his music set up so that we can begin to begin at 10:00 a.m.
The house will ring with Easter music, traditional and not so traditional. There will be a brief “moment” about what Easter is all about. Then a celebrative, happy Easter brunch. 
It’s a family event. It’s a friend event. People come from as far as Portland.
All you need to know:
  Easter Sunday is April 15
  The Music and Service begins at 10 a.m.
  The Potluck Brunch follows
  The Glass’s phone number is 929-5776
MOMENT NEWS
       Max Peters spent Spring Vacation in the hospital and at home, instead of skiing, due to a “fractured spleen.”  Paul and Mary Pritchard were in Palm Springs, expecting to contact Ross and Shirley Warren (who plan to join us on Easter).  Barbara Ross is back from Los Angeles where she played grandma and greeted the birth of Jenni’s third child.  Jean and Art will be spending a few days at Punta Colorada, Baja del Sur, where Art retreats to prepare his annual Easter “moment” and to work on his tan for Easter Sunday.  How many remember our first Moment Ministries Easter, and what kind of weather we had?
 

the back page

THIS WORLD WAS MADE FOR US?
          I had skimmed a fascinating article in the National Geographic on Mars. My universe has been greatly impacted by the Geographic. In fact, my theology has been impacted as well. I was about ready to move on when I glanced at letters to the editor. This one ruined my day:
“Your article lamented that ‘new construction projects keep claiming
   desert land.’ Am I to understand the construction is bad? The world
   was made for us, not the other way around.” (February, 2001)
          No matter how often I read that sentence it always came out the same. “The world was made for us.”
          I started humming, “This land is your land, this land is my land, from California to the New York Island…This land was made for you and me.”
          I’ve always liked singing that song. It stirs feelings similar to those I have when I sing, “O beautiful for spacious skies…America, America, God shed his grace on thee…”
          You don’t want to let your left brain think about those songs. Whose land was this? Whose land is it really? Did God make this place just for us?
 That, of course is The American Faith. 
          It’s a nice, comfortable, patriotic, inspiring faith. It is the Faith of the American Dream. It is the Faith of Manifest Destiny. It is the Faith of Free Market Capitalism.
          I’ve gone too far. Meddling. Some things you don’t want to think about. But sometimes your soul (or the devil?) makes you think when you might better walk away.
          “God,” I thought, not meaning it reverently, “this is the theological foundation of our ruling political party!”
          Theology is not much of a problem most of the time, since most people pretty much ignore it. It becomes a problem when it dominates a political agenda. The prevailing American Theology is that “The world was made for us.”
          If you press those who enjoy this illusion, they will turn to the Bible. Again, the Bible is not usually a problem until it is used as a bulwark for someone’s political agenda. Here are the guiding words:
“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion
   over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living
   thing that moves on the face of the earth.” (Genesis 1:28)
          That’s the mandate for the American Faith that “the world was made for us.”
          It’s hard to imagine the Creator spending 4 billion years crafting this planet in order to hand it over to a breed of creatures that evolved in a very recent moment in time. And it’s hard to imagine that such a Creator intends that the gods of Profit, Economy, Power, Appetite, Greed and the like, should take priority over soil, natural resources, air and water. It’s hard to imagine a Creator encouraging a few to benefit from the resources of the world, while most are in need of basic requirements for life.
          In the last election more voted against this theology than for it. There was no mandate for this political theology to prevail. It is a theology that came out of previous centuries that no longer can be supported by biblical interpretation or common sense. 
         This Faith is killing us. How can any among us say to our grandchildren that in 2001 we truly believed that economy, profit and jobs were more important than a healthy planet for those who come after us? Or do you believe the Creator really made the world just for us?
   Art Morgan – April 2001