BY REVEREND BILLY | Peace on Earth was something the planet already had when the Bible’s writers came up with the brand. And “God’s Only Son,” “Virgin Birth,” “Resurrection” and “Ascension” — these are words trying to catch up to the Evolution of Life. Each chapter in the Greatest Story Ever Told is parallel to the development of a living cell.
But now life needs to be explained another way, because we are out of time. God is the medium that destroyed the message. Peace on Earth is enough. Peace is life. Peace is Love. And real worship is the electric jolt of Peace.
Everything is very different when a mass extinction is underway. Our handle on it is mostly through Climate Change. That is like the pop culture simplification of the whole thing, which is a planet-scale seizure of ecosystems. There have been only five extinctions in the past 450 million years.
One challenge for virtually everyone alive today: How do we experience Extinction? How do we recognize it, understand it, and respond to the emergency? Very few public figures seem able to express this phenomenon — the passing of most living beings, so that some essence of life, a “surviving seed,” can go forward in time in the Earth’s mysterious task: to always provide a way for life to continue.
The Earth is a “Life Planet.” There is a spirit in the materials of the Earth that insists on Life’s going forward through time. That spirit is there in the charging of our bodies and minds, as we fall in love and create more life. And what we know of the Earth’s gift to human beings to care for it, is far more powerful than the religious, or the economic, or the patriotic promises that we hear.
In the short time we have left, we need to bypass old human constructions. None of the major institutions have openly accepted what is happening to us. The marketers and lawyers that surround executives find many ways to stall. But do you need religion for your Christmas? Go straight to the Earth. Economy? The Earth provides — if you let it. Patriotism? Well, now in the time of the Sixth Extinction, it is foolhardy to fight wars. Nothing is harder on the Earth than war. Nothing is harder on us humans too, as a part of Earth.
Peace on Earth is there in the demand that the Earth makes, that life always continues. Peace is there. In the last extinction, 66 million years ago, greenhouse gasses were also the central toxin, and scientists tell us that dinosaurs survived, evolving into birds! The dove of Peace!
The recent religious celebrations at the solstice should have seen their meaning become clear, as light and heat increase, heading toward the love and seeds and green leaves of spring that will take us into the future. Stay with these miracles as they unfold and gradually we will understand our role in the Earth’s struggle.
We best go straight to the Earth to find love. And go straight to the Earth to find that revolutionary, creative fervor that will save us from the toxic industries that speed the Sixth Extinction. In Evolution, some living beings die, so that the whole of life will go on living. In Revolution, some will die that the whole of life will not be extinguished.
All the American social movements that have given us freedom have shared certain qualities, and among them are compelling storytellers and comedians, music and more music, and, yes, the risk of life and limb. And looking back on this past year, let us remember Cop City foe Manuel Paez Teran, “Tortuguita,” murdered by Atlanta police for trying to save the beautiful Weelaunee Forest.
Our holiday season should celebrate the Evolution/Revolution that must come, the living and also the dying who will try to bless us with new life.
The Church of Stop Shopping kicks off its 2024 Earthchxrch services on Sun., Jan. 14, at 5 p.m. EST, at 36 Avenue C in New York’s East Village. Come to Revbilly.com for LiveStream info.
We should all go to Burning Man next year , if we don’t get nuked before it , get naked , stoned and screw, right Billy ? I hope you and your followers are going to NYC Ceasefire protests for Gaza since so many have died in that genocidal tragedy. Glad you are still preaching after all these years. PS…. I stopped shopping because I am too poor to buy anything, otherwise I would be stocking up on those prepper-distaster, longtime storage meals they sell on the internet, and I suggest that you start advising your congregation to do the same. Mark Zuckerberg is building a WW3 hideout now costing billions and I hear he does not LIKE your stop shopping message, but when all the rest of us poor slobs are gone, he and his family will repopulate the earth.
I forgot to mention that while passing time here in Arizona I was watching YouTube from NYC and there were large numbers of pre-Christmas protesters marching around 5th Ave. at Trump Tower chanting STOP SHOPPING and Demand an IDF Ceasefire. At first I thought they were your church members but soon realized they were yelling at people to Stop Shopping for what is left of Gaza’s children and I hope you were there but did not see you in any of the videos.