Bear with me. I’m in a train of thought that goes something like this:

The Indigenous teachers I’m listening to in my attempt to grapple with the big issues present in the world, all say: ‘you’re going the wrong way! Turn around, return to your original connection to God, each other, and the planet’ …. Hold on, that sounds somewhat like … Jesus! Perhaps then, I can listen to Jesus as an Indigenous teacher?

A core Indigenous teaching is that there is no separation between us and the rest of creation. ‘Nature’ is not other than us – we are nature ….. perhaps Incarnation is saying the same thing? Perhaps when Jesus holds up bread and wine and says ‘this is my body’ we can take that quite literally, without needing fancy terms – like trans-substantiation? Maybe he sees no separation between himself and these other fruits of the earth. … maybe also, when he multiplies loaves and fish, or withers a fig tree, or heals a leper, he simply knows himself to not be other than these other beings ….

On a recent retreat day I hold a small stone and hear ‘You are holding God’, and that the chair I’m sitting in, made of wood, nylon (fossil fuels), is God holding me …. I go for a walk, buying a croissant to eat as I go …. Perhaps everything I see, or eat – trees, stones, river, croissant – all being fruits of – are the body of God.

‘This is my body’ …. Eat me.