"Creation flavored" thoughts on the lectionary texts
Date: October 18, 2009
(note corresponding EarthWords from 3 years ago archived on the website)
Text: Psalm 104.1-9, 26, 35
Thoughts
God clothed with sunlight, starlight, moonlight, firelight. Interesting idea - light as garment. Brings to
mind "Immortal, Invisible, God only wise.....'tis only the splendor of light hideth thee."
The heavens like a tent - kind of leaky tent here right now. We are having rain and snow off and on. Early,
it seems. Global warming? I guess it's the difference between weather and climate. I am writing this and
watching the storms roll in over the western hills with the sunshine breaking through a hole in the eastern sky and glistening
on the bay. Wow!
Chariots of cloud, wings of wind - nice.
The earth shall never be shaken - well, no, earth is a little more dynamic, even lively, than that.
Earth covered with the deep as with a garment, which God then appoints into certain areas, uncovering other areas.
Kind of like turning a tee shirt and jeans into a bikini?
And that is just the beginning of God's "manifold" works. Manifold means many - so what happens to God's glory,
greatness, praise, splendor when species go extinct, or when we settle on just a few strains of corn or tomatoes or peaches.
Text: Job 38.1-7,34-41
Thoughts
God spoke from the storm - where were you
-when I laid the foundations and the cornerstone (nice to think of Earth as having a "cornerstone"!)
-when the morning stars sang together,
-when the autumn leaves rang in praise,
-when the moonlight tinkling on the bay?
"Can you call flood water, send forth lightening, satisfy the young lion and the raven?" Well, yes, there is quite
that we can do to cause floods and sea level rising and speed up ice shield melting and bring drought. The key here
is in vs 36 - "who has wisdom of the clouds, understanding of the mist?" The problem is that we can do, and are doing,
a lot of things that we don't understand or recognize the consequences of.
Text: Mark 10.35-45
Thoughts
James and John want the places of honor, to be the ones
-who can take, use, even waste as much water or other resource as they want,
-who can live in and heat and cool big houses and drive big, powerful cars without worrying about where
that energy is coming from and what damage producing it might cause,
-who can eat "out of season food" shipped in from the other side of the world,
-who don't have to care about brothers and sisters or morning stars or spring rains or the young lions and
ravens -
Sounds good at first, but then kind of lonely. Why would someone cut themselves off from the manifold
works of God like that?
Prayer
God of works both manifold and marvelous,
the morning stars sing together even when we oversleep,
the autumn leaves ring out on the hillsides even when we close ourselves away in mansions and malls,
the young lions and ravens find their breakfast while we stop at McDonalds on the way to Wal-mMart.
Give us the wisdom of the children and the clouds
that we might also experience the blessing of your works of Creation.
One Thing to Do This Week
Eat locally for a day or two - and see how that goes. It's a good time to visit the Farmers' Market. Barbara
Kingsolver (in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle) writes about going to the Farmer's Market in snow-flurry late fall and
buying something from each vendor just for moral support! Not a bad idea.
