5^th February 2006

Genes and our environment. - preached by John Ashe

Colossians 3: 12ff Matthew 13: 24ff

I have been reading about genetics recently and one thing I have discovered is that, at a microbiological level, there is very little to separate us all.

99.8% of human genes are identical for all human beings – we differ only by 0.2%!

Of course that’s an important 0.2% because it gives rise to an enormous diversity: no two people are the same.

Tiny changes in our DNA have major effects which is just as well because, genetically, we are 98% identical to chimpanzees; and 50% of our genes, we share with a banana!

If we apply this to Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the tares (an analogy of good and evil), a microbiologist would tell us that they are almost indistinguishable from one another.

Turning to the first reading, all the good qualities Paul encourages in the first reading (a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering) where do they come from when we are told that all our characteristics come from our genes??

Indeed, there have been instances of criminals offering as their defence in court: “My genes made me do it!”

We are more than a collection of genes. What scientists are now telling us is that it is not simply the gene itself which is important, but how that gene is switched on or off.

For example, all our genes are contained in every cell in our bodies: so what is it that tells the hair-producing gene to work on the top of my head, but not in my liver?

How the genes are controlled will be the matter of much more research, but scientists are already discovering that our genes are triggered to work more or less efficiently by our environment.

E.g. We don’t have to have a fatalistic approach which says that if we are genetically pre-disposed to getting heart disease, there is nothing we can do about it. On the contrary, there is a great deal we can do in terms of life-style which will prevent the heart disease gene from doing its worst.

At another level, we all know instinctively that stress, or tiredness can make us more susceptible to getting ill.

One recent study has shown that early smoking in men can alter the health of not only their sons – but also their grandsons.

It seems that the environment in which we live and grow affects the way our genes operate, the mechanism which switches a gene on or off.

So what am I getting at?

If our environment affects the way our bodies function, it should not surprise us to learn that the knowledge that we are loved will have a profound effect upon our well-being.

Inner security - the belief that we are accepted by others, even if we are different from them, will lead us to greater health. I guess that we will all have experienced the opposite - how a sense of rejection renders us less capable of success in what we are doing.

Bringing up children in a secure and loving environment, where they learn that they are loved unconditionally, really does make a difference.

The same is true of faith - faith in God’s unconditional love is not just in the mind. Faith really does something! It transforms us; it can even change the way our bodies function.

And when people change – the world changes.

As we take into ourselves the bread and wine of Holy Communion - these symbols of love, perhaps God is doing something at a level we had not understood before!

Our genetic understanding gives us another reason to build – and to live in – a community of love, which is what we, the church, are called to be.