"Creation flavored" thoughts on the lectionary texts
Date: October 11, 2009
(note corresponding EarthWords from 3 years ago archived on the website)
Text: Psalm 22.1-15
Thoughts
A cry of anguish - from the cross? From a spoiled Creation? "I cry by day, but thou dost not answer".
Is this a cry of future generations?
Our ancestors trusted (vs4). Consciously, they trusted God to guide them and be for them; unconsciously, they trusted
Creation to provide food, drink, clothing, shelter, a healthy and nourishing setting for human life. Who/What do we
trust today? What do we trust "it/life/God" for?
"I am poured out like water" - what kind of an image is that for you? One possibility is someone watering the flowers
or the garden. Another is pouring the last of the water into the desert sand. Another is pouring the dishwater
out beside the back door.
Text: Job 23.1-9, 16-17
Thoughts
"My complaint is bitter; Oh, that I knew where to find the one responsible for my plight!" Again, will this be
the cry of our children's children? Will the world we are shaping/creating for them be a place of loveliness, or a place
of hardship and danger? And note that environmental issues do not stop with clean air, fresh water, fertile soil, but
spill over into social unrest and international conflict.
Where is the complaint about the condition of Creation rightly lodged? Should we complain to God? Would that
help? Or should we make our complaint against the government? The industrial community? The financial folks?
Ourselves?
"I am hemmed in by darkness" - but look, the big orange full moon (almost still full) is climbing up over the horizon!
The night isn't quite as dark anymore. In fact there are some nights I feel like I could sit out on the deck and read
the paper by moonlight!
Text: Mark 10.17-31
Thoughts
As Jesus was starting out on his journey (walking), a rich man came running up (in a hurry to catch the
plane?)... Do we need to be reminded that true riches are not kept in bank vaults or even
online or offshore accounts, but in fields and forests and lakes and streams? What makes you feel rich?
"What must we do to touch eternity?" - here's a link to the report from a couple of weeks ago about the
scientists identifying 10 separate biophysical systems crucial to humanity’s flourishing http://www.grist.org/article/2009-09-22-scientists-identify-safe-operating-space-for-humanity-nature. Sort of like 10 Words for "Environmental" Life? Jesus said to the man, "You know the 10 Words that
enable human community". Is God saying to us, "Here are the 10 Words that enable environmental community"?
How hard it is for those who have access to resources voluntarily not to use them? That's why we keep
pushing "car-free days" and such.
All things are possible with God...but that doesn't mean God will necessarily do all things. I believe
that if we trash Creation and exceed the limits of the biophysical systems, well, that's what will happen, and God will start
making something else out of the pieces.
Creation seems to be designed to yield a hundred-fold and more, but that doesn't necessarily mean we should
push it to actually do that. I do better when I am not continually pushed to my limits - I assume Creation is the same!
Prayer
God of all times and spaces, all peoples and places,
in the 10 Words for Life you gave us boundaries for our life together.
As we discover the 10 Words for Creation Health
give us the wit and will to live with them
that our lives might touch eternity
and that children's children's children might sing our praises as well as yours.
One Thing to Do This Week
From the riches under your influence or control, make some kind of a "deposit" towards a healthier future. That
might mean money to an organization; if might mean one day of walking rather than driving; it might mean one meal of locally
grown food; it might mean one hour cleaning up and attending to the water that runs off your land.
