Dear People of God at St. Luke's,
I'm pretty sure that you, as I do, notice when a helicopter is flying over Scituate; I also hear the planes on their way to Logan, especially at night. If technological reports and for-profit company hopes are to be believed, we're going to have drones to add to the list sometime sooner than later. I shudder.
Now, I've read the amusing accounts of people objecting to trains, and then later cars, and the fears of society changing forever (it did) with dire consequences (usually not in reality). So I'm keenly aware that my dismay over drones might one day look just as quaint. (Driverless cars are a similar matter, but a topic for another day.)
Still....
Issues of privacy are at the top of the list of concerns, and ownership of space above our properties. Will utility companies one day come to trim trees for drone paths? And you know they'll crash into people, animals, houses, and cars.
On lots of TV murder mysteries and police procedurals an axiom I've heard is to look up, because nobody routinely looks up-in trees, roof tops, etc. We're coming on a time when looking up will be prudent and routine.
Which leads me to think about matters spiritual. Yes, we're long past thinking of God in heaven as living 'up there,' in the sky above sight, literally out of the earth's atmosphere. The power of metaphor though is strong. "Our Father, who art in heaven," Jesus' ascension into heaven being lifted up into the clouds*. God enthroned above and hell 'down there.'
Maybe drones could be a tipping point for our technologically over-saturated lives, an invitation to shift in perspective. The greater we move in one direction, the pull to see completely in the other becomes even more inviting. So drones in the metaphorical space of the spiritual-mechanical messengers-'angel' means messenger-invite us to think of the spiritual realities, the over-the-top intrusion of the material allowing for the message of some other, meaningful reality for which people I think will long for more and more.
We as individuals and as a faith community can offer some really good news to people who are looking for it, and increasingly those people will not have really heard the story of the good news of Jesus, not really. We have a message and the 'goods' that no drone can deliver.
Yours in Christ,
Grant
*Ascension happens during the Easter season, which is 50 days-which is what Pentecost means.. Ascension happens 10 days before Pentecost.
