"Creation flavored" thoughts on the lectionary texts
OK - I'm back, after a three week vacation to the 90's! Actually we were in Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley, which
is really beautiful and at one time the breadbox of the nation, but it was hot! Three straight weeks of every day in
the 90's and a few of them in the 100's! If the extreme weather of today is to become the normal weather of the future,
it's not much fun!
Anyway, starting up for one more (annual) round. And for those of you who were breathing a sigh of relief because
you didn't have Earthwords cluttering up your inbox for the past 6 weeks or so, and thought maybe it had just gone away, now
would be a good time to unsubscribe if you really don't want to get this anymore. Just hit "reply" and put "unsubscribe"
in the subject or the body someplace. And it really doesn't hurt my feelings - well, maybe just a tiny little bit, but
I get over it right away!
Date: August 21, 2011
(note corresponding EarthWords from 3 years ago archived on the website)
Text: Exodus 1.8-2.10
Thoughts
Overpopulation - if it's because the women are strong, or because the religious/cultural traditions say "Have as many
children as you can", or simply because people are careless or clueless or just haven't considered it, overpopulation is a
serious, and sometimes sensitive, issue. Sometimes it's one segment of a population "over-producing" and thus changing
the make-up of a nation, other times it is simply humans exceeding the limits of what earth (or some part of it) can support.
In any case, it is something that needs to be addressed by us before nature addresses it for us, and in ways that will be
even more harsh than what we have seen so far.
"They made their lives bitter with hard service" - I've been touched several times recently by how easy we have it.
In the history of the Shenandoah Valley, people (especially those who were enslaved) worked hard from sunup to sundown.
In The Town that Food Saved, Ben Hewitt notes that "Farming is damn hard work, typically done for damnable pay."
In the 50's and 60's, "children of those big farm families sought fortunes that didn't involve twice-a-day milking and 12-hour
stretches of haying under a scorching July sun." We made a bargain with agribusiness - they "got a guaranteed chunk
of our income and our full faith in their ability to keep us sustained. In return, we got to pursue life-styles that
don't revolve around soil and toil, and that allow us a measure of leisure time unprecedented in human history. In early
2009, American television viewing reached an all time record of a stunning 151 hours per month. That's more than 5 hours
per day, and let's be clear about something: You and I don't get to sprawl across the sofa masticating pork rinds and watching
American Idol unless someone else is growing the food."
And just one more side note on food - if you have been to church the past couple of weeks and heard about Joseph, I hope
it was mentioned that famines are not just biblical events - they happen today, they could happen (even to us) tomorrow.
Where does your food come from? How far does it travel to get to your kitchen? What happens when some part of
that chain breaks down? OK - moving on....
The midwives - I just like it that out of all the people in this story it's the brave/faithful midwives whose names get
remembered! (Not that I would be likely to call my daughter - if I had one - either Shiphrah or Puah!)
And then just to mention it one more time, "the people multiplied" is not always a good thing.
The things you find in the river - we were kayaking in Virginia and unfortunately one of the things it was not too hard
to find in the river was old tires! On a more whimsical note, can anyone think of a more appropriate verse for a kayaker
or canoist than 2.3?
Text: Psalm 124
Thoughts
The flood, the torrent, the raging waters - we've all seen plenty of examples recently. And as weather systems
get more intense with sharper gusts of wind (Indianapolis!), with heavier downpours, we'll be seeing more. Add to that
the slow but steady rise of sea levels and the slow but steady lowering of other water levels due to increased evaporation
or over use and you have a lot to think about!
"The Lord has not given us as prey to their teeth" - well, nobody wants to be "prey to their teeth", but every creature
needs to have some way to give back to the lifesystem of Creation. Some do it by being eaten, some do it by letting
their bodies decompose and add nutrients to the soil. We do it by - well, how do we do it? There was a piece on
NPR while we were gone about Pacific Island nations establishing shark sanctuaries. When you take the top predator out
of an ecosystem, bad things happen. They even had a figure - one shark can be worth one million eco-tourism dollars!
Back to that overpopulation theme - what are the "natural predators" that might limit human growth? Margaret Atwood's
novel, After the Flood, talks about a mysterious "waterless flood" that has occured. Some epidemic? A
crop failure? A waterborn toxin? Radiation sickness?
Text: Romans 12.1-8
Thoughts
OK - despite what Paul says here, this is the only world we have, or are ever going to have, and we darn well better
learn to conform our lives to it better than we have, before it starts conforming them for us! And at the same time
we darn well better start thinking about transforming our lives to conform to the world it is turning into! Read Eaarth:
Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, by Bill McKibben, or Hot - Living Through the Next 50 Years on Earth, by
Mark Hertsgaard. Both pretty sobering reads.
"One body, many members with different functions" - sounds like a discription of a "resilience circle" - a group of people
who have come together to support each other in hard times by offering mutual aid, taking social action, and learning about
the economic forces that impact their lives. (
http://localcircles.org/). This is one of my next projects to promote. When things start to fall apart, who are the people you are going
to face life together with? Is there a midwife? Is there someone who can fix things and make them work?
Someone who can grow food and teach you how? Someone who can help you feel better? Someone who can teach?
Someone who can make clothes? People you trust and who trust you?
Prayer
Eternal God,
in your wisdom you made us as we are.
Did you expect that more of us would fall prey to the snare of the fowler
or the raging waters?
Did you expect that we would be wise enough to self-limit?
In these changing times
give us knowledge to see how Creation works
and wisdom to conform our lives to it,
lest the "waterless flood" sweep us away.
One Thing to Do This Week
At your next meal, think about where the food came from. How much of it could you produce on your own? Alternatively,
for a little lighter fare, enjoy the full moon of August as it wanes!
