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EarthWords - connecting Scripture
and Creation
"Creation flavored" thoughts on the lectionary texts
Date: September 20, 2009
Text: Psalm 1
Thoughts
Happy are those who do not see nature from a profit perspective, or build and travel superhighways through wilderness
areas, or plunk down developments in scarce habitat areas.
Happy are those who reflect on the law of the Lord, the Revealed Word which helps us think about nature,
the Created Word. They are like trees, gardens, yardscapes that don't need extra irrigating or sprinkling. Even
in the heat of summer they look healthy and lively. They prosper - with a new understanding of prosperity.
It is not so much dollars in the bank as a healthy and nourishing environment. The way of the righteous endures, is
sustainable. The way of sustainability is righteous?
The fruits of the season - like apple cider mellowed by the first frosts. Flavor by nature, not (industrial) chemistry.
Now the wicked are like dry leaves that the wind blows from my yard to my neighbors - or the other way around.
In reality, Creation is self-healing, self-cleaning, self-raking unless pushed beyond its limits.
Text: Proverbs 31.10-31 The Good Wife - The
Faithful Earthkeeper?
Thoughts
She is more precious than jewels - not every ore body needs to be mined, not every tree needs to be cut, not every natural
resource needs to be "used". Some can simply be cherished - after all you've got a good wife/faithful Earthkeeper to
enjoy them with.
She laughs at the times to come, because she is living sustainably and her children's children will think well of her
for being an Earthkeeper! Let her works praise her (perhaps with a flower garden, or a green space with benches) at
the city limits.
Text: Mark 9.30-37
Thoughts
They went on - still on foot, close to the land, enjoying the warmth of the morning sun, drinking from the
stream at noon, finding shade under a tree from the afternoon heat, sleeping out? sleeping in? We drove home from Winston-Salem
- 1,800 miles in air-conditioned comfort, in supreme isolation.
Who/what is greatest? As I write, a spider shakes the web outside the window, birds soar over the
town, trees cover the hillside, presumably fish swim in the bay, squirrels and chipmunks race through the trees (I'm
working on the second floor of the Peter White Library for those of you who know Marquette). Yesterday I watched a squirrel
race down a tree trunk from branch to branch - it was amazingly beyond what any slalom ski racer could do. Who/what
is greatest? Who/what is most essential? Is anything of Creation inessential?
Whoever opens their arms to the creation and the creatures - large, small, lovely, not so lovely, two-legged,
four-legged, no-legged, living or not, animal, vegetable, mineral - opens their arms to the Creator.
Prayer
God before beginnings, God of no endings, God of this and each very moment,
encountering the wonder of your Creation
we can only stand in awe.
As we open our arms to your Revealed Word
may it teach us the significance of each part of your Created Word,
ourselves included.
And may our children's children think well of us.
One Thing to Do This Week
Enjoying local, seasonal fruit - which where I am means corn, tomatoes, blueberries, apples (solid and liquid!) - and
wearing natural fiber clothing, watch a spider or a chipmunk or some other small creature going about their day.
EarthWords is produced by Charlie West
Ink
permission given to copy, share, use, delete, forward, distribute, disagree
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