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This week we were introduced to one of our ancestors—homo naledi. And there were some extraordinary things about this 2013 find.
First, the bones found in a very remote part of the Denaledi cave in South Africa where other human ancestral bones had been found represent a huge sample--at least 15 individuals, ranging in age from infants to those who had lived many years.
Second, they represented an unusual combination of traits. A Human-like face, and legs that meant it stood upright. An Ape-like torso and hands that showed it climbed trees. And most surprising, evidence that this hominid used tools, but had a brain much smaller than our own (a combination that had not been considered before).
But most intriguing to me, the cluster of bones, in this very difficult place to get to, seem to suggest a kind of burial site. An intentional community, even after death.
We hear in the first creation story—God says, “Let us make human beings in our image…” I’ve always loved that “us”—I don’t believe it is the royal “we” showing up there. I believe it is God who is community in God’s own self talking. “Let US make human beings in OUR image.” From the beginning, we were meant to be together. It seems even the earliest humans knew, in life and in death, we were meant to be together, a community, in God’s image.
Male and Female God created us. So this community has diversity. God created not just one model, but at least two. So from the very beginning, we were meant to be together even in our diversity. And so we are, if our communities have young and old; male and female; black, and brown, and shades of pale; and opinions and interests that span the spectrum. Our diversity was not to break us apart, but to enrich us all.
Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town has said: “Africans have this thing called UBUNTU. “It is about the essence of being human, it is part of the gift that Africa will give the world. “It embraces hospitality, caring about others, being able to go the extra mile for the sake of others. We believe that a person is a person through another person, that my humanity is caught up, bound up, inextricably, with yours. When I dehumanise you, I inexorably dehumanise myself. The solitary human being is a contradiction in terms and therefore you seek to work for the common good because your humanity comes into its own in belonging.”
Ubuntu—that a person is a person through another person. That we are bound together. Intended to be community. From the very beginning, we were meant to be together. Ubuntu.
But we’re not done yet. God gave us the responsibility for the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and the living things upon the earth. From the very beginning, We were meant to be together in diversity with all of earth. Now that sounds overwhelming—and it is. And it sounds impossibly difficult—and it is. And we have forgotten, or misused, or intentionally disregarded this first instruction from God to humanity most of the time. If we thought Ubuntu was wishful thinking, just imagine the work stewardship of our planet entails!
Watching the Astronaut Wive’s Club has made me try to educate myself about the progression of our human exploration of space (since I don’t remember well the Mercury or Apollo missions). And I was reminded of that famous picture from Apollo 8 now dubbed Earthrise, taken by William (Bill) Anders on Christmas Eve 1968.
For the first time, people looked back and saw the planet we lived on. (From Backstory podcast) Bill Anders said: “It didn’t take long to realise that the moon was pretty beat-up. In fact, I described it as a dirty beach sand…But here was our home planet, looking beautiful, serene, delicate, looking peaceful. There were no country divisions, it was weird to think that folks on one side of it were trying to kill folks on the other side of it. Why don’t we try to get together.”
Famously he said, “It took going to the moon to discover earth.”
"It sounds incredible to us to think, 'Weren't they looking for [the Earth] when they got to the moon?' Says NPR corespondance Chaikim. "But as Bill Anders explained to me many years later, he said, 'Look, we were trained to go to the moon. We were focused on the moon, observing the moon, studying the moon, and the Earth was not really in our thoughts until it popped up above that horizon."
But when it popped up, when they saw “earthrise,” the crew scrambled to capture it on film. And Bill Anders took picture we all know today. Maybe it can help us remember our God-given work. That we were meant to be together, in diversity, with all of earth.
But Bill Anders also reminisced about the first time he had seen the earth as they were on their way to the moon. “It was funny to see it shrinking as we moved away. From a lunar perspective the earth is about the size of your fist at arm’s length. Not big. So that impressed me almost immediately, that our planet physically was really insignificant. But even though it wasn’t physically significant, it was our home, and therefore important to us. So we ought to learn to treat it better.”
How fascinating that being so many miles away, brought thoughts of how we ought to treat one another better, and learn to treat our beautiful home better as well.
Others have tried to capture this sense of responsibility. David Suzuki and Tara Cullis helped write a document called “The Declaration of Interdependance” for the 1992 UN Earth Summit which says in part:
This we know
We are the earth, through the plants and animals that nourish us.
We are the rains and the oceans that flow through our veins.
We are the breath of the forests of the land, and the plants of the sea.
We are human animals, related to all other life as descendants of the firstborn cell.
We share with these kin a common history, written in our genes.
We share a common present, filled with uncertainty.
And we share a common future, as yet untold.
We humans are but one of thirty million species weaving the thin layer of life enveloping the world.
The stability of communities of living things depends upon this diversity.
Linked in that web, we are interconnected — using, cleansing, sharing and replenishing the fundamental elements of life…
At this turning point in our relationship with Earth, we work for an evolution: from dominance to partnership; from fragmentation to connection; from insecurity, to interdependence.
From the beginning God created.
And We are created in the image of God.
Reflecting God’s nature.
Meant to practice Ubuntu.
Meant to include everything we know
in our community.
A huge task.
But we were meant to be together,
Relishing our diversity,
All of us:
Fish of the sea
Birds of the air
Creeping, Crawling things of the ground
Together for the glory of God, Alleluia, Amen.
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