Offering One's Self

I am scheduled to spend the next week in the village of Kaktovik, located on the Beaufort Sea in the far, northeast corner of Alaska.  The first time I visited Kaktovik was in 1978, when I was serving as Lay Pastor of a multi-cultural church in Fairbanks.  They asked me to spend five weeks in Kaktovik, leading Vacation Bible School, leading worship services, and learning from the saints who live there.  I have had occasion to visit Kaktovik off and on ever since.

Over the years I have found that my Christian outlook has been deeply affected by the teaching I have received from the Native American folks in Alaska’s churches.  The teaching sometimes comes through word and sometimes through actions, but always through relationships.  Over the years I continue to work with people from the villages, and I continue to be privileged to listen, to meditate, and to learn.  In fact, much of my understanding of why we live the way we do in the bioshelter has developed from that teaching.  To make my point, let me give an example from what I will be experiencing in Kaktovik next week.

Among other activities in the village, next week will include a Nalukataq celebration.  Nalukataq is the whaling celebration at the end of the year.  The last of the meat and maktak (blubber and skin) from the whale is distributed throughout the village, and it turns into quite the party.  People bring their favorite homemade sauces to dip the maktak in, the whaling crews distribute maktak and the meat—some frozen and some fermented into miqigak—and a time of great feasting and celebrating follows.

Perhaps the most famous part of Nalukataq celebrations is the blanket toss event.  As a child I was told by my Anglo, city teachers that the blanket toss enabled hunters to rise up and look far out to sea for whales to hunt.  When I began working with the Iñupiat people through the church, I was taught that such teaching was foolish.  Everyone knows that whales and other game animals have better senses than humans.  They can see you before you see them, hear you from afar, and otherwise avoid you if they wish.  In fact the only way to catch a whale, or any game animal, is if they see your need and offer themselves that you might eat and have life.

Blanket Toss Event

This, I was told, is the way of the world.  Animals see our need and respond when they offer themselves.  Indeed, this is also what Christ Jesus did.  Because of our need for salvation, Christ offered himself on our behalf in order that we might receive salvation—a life in proper relationship with God and with all of God’s creation. 

For me, already a Christian, this changed everything.  Christ died for me, and for all creation, that we might be restored to live well with God and with one another.  Animals die for me, offering themselves so that I can have life.  It raises the questions for me:  what am I willing to offer my very self for?

Interestingly, as I received this teaching I never received a direct answer as to why the blanket toss happens at the Nalukataq whaling festival.  One person told me that maybe it was so the whales could see the hunters and know of their need.  Maybe.  But I have never seen it done before a hunt.

I believe that the reason for the blanket toss is to show respect to the whales.  They can see the person flying high in gratitude for what has been given, and in respect of the whales that have given us life.  I believe it is a great celebration of the relationship between the people and the whale—which points directly to the relationship between the people and God.  After all, it is God, the Creator of all things, Who puts us in relationship with the whale (or the moose, or the beef) that we eat. 

I continue to develop my response to the question, “What I am willing to offer myself for.”  At this moment in the life Cindee and I share, living in a bioshelter is one rather graphic response.  We live in a bioshelter because the most burning issue for life on the planet today is whether human beings can live well with the rest of life on the planet or not.  The science is clear and the danger is clear.  Human civilization as we know it is at risk of imploding within only a couple of generations (and maybe less).  The diversity of life necessary for a healthy ecosystem is already on the verge of collapse. 

We live in a bioshelter to show that there are ways for humans to live well on this planet.  We use less fuel to heat the building; we are growing as much of our own food as we can while holding other jobs; we are catching and recycling water and composting as much of our waste as we can; we are building our greenhouse with Alaskan products that did not require much fossil fuel to collect; we are offering classes through our home with teachers who are demonstrating some of alternative ways of living, we are building relationships with our neighbors so that we can live well in community rather than in isolation.  In short, we believe pursuing a permanently sustainable culture (permaculture) is the best response we can give in offering ourselves on behalf of others. 

It is our fervent hope that others will see and respond, too.  Indeed, as we see it in the Bible:

But ask the animals, and they will teach you;

The birds of the air, and they will tell you;

Ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you;

And the fish of the sea will declare to you.

Job 12:7-8