"Creation flavored" thoughts on the lectionary texts
Date: Sunday, August 28, 2011 - and my calendar says "new moon" - hey,
it's getting dark at night!
(note corresponding EarthWords from 3 years ago archived on the website)
Text: Psalm 105.1-6, 23-26
Thoughts
"Remember the wonderful works God has done" - take a moment just to soak in and be aware of the wonder of Creation -
in the chipmunks that scurry around the woodpile, in the box elder stump that puts up 12-16 inch shoots just 2 weeks after
we cut it down (ok- it's a "trash tree", a weed, one of three trees you are not allowed to plant in the city of Marquette,
but still it's an amazing example of the strength of the life-force), in the bluejays, in the waterfalls, in the wildflowers,
and on and on and on. Just in my little corner of the world there are more wonders in Creation than I could count or
list.
The people were fruitful and strong. As long as there are adequate resources (and a circular path of resource use
whereby the "outputs/waste"(?!) - of one process easily and naturally become the imputs for the next process - seed,
soil, plant, food, compost, soil, seed,... ) a fruitful people can also be strong. When the people outgrow the
resources, or the resource path is truncated - oil, plastic, landfill (or worse - ocean!) - a fruitful people become
weak.
God sent Moses. And a whole line of prophets and poets and priests - MLK Jr on our minds this week with the dedication
of the memorial, Rachel Carson (wikipedia notes that it was published on Sept 27, 1962 - have any plans for the day?), Thomas
Berry, Wendell Berry, and others. Who comes from and speaks for God about the Creation in your life?
Text: Exodus 3. 1-15
Thoughts
Moses was keeping the flock - we went to the Co Fair and there was a demonstration of border collies herding sheep.
They were pretty amazing - going to one side of the sheep to turn them one way, scooting to the other side to turn then the
other way, flopping on their belly to let the sheep just go forward. They herded the sheep between two cones and then
through another set of cones and finally into the sheep pen.
The wilderness - a place free from human influence, a place available for God to speak clearly, or for God's words/works
to be seen clearly. Is there wilderness near where you live? Who goes there? If we don't set aside some
of these places, will God's word/works be harder to see?
The bush was burning but not being consumed. We cut down three trees in the backyard to open it up for solar panels
and for a food garden, and I've been splitting and stacking wood for a week now. Unfortunately, when it burns it's going
to be consumed and gone!
The bush was burning but not being consumed (second time around!) - there was a piece on the radio about solar
cookers being used (in Africa, I think) to provide a way of cooking that doesn't require scrounging firewood. Kind of
a "burning that doesn't consume"!
"Put off your shoes - the place where you are standing is holy ground." What strikes you as "holy ground"?
Fertile farm fields? A healthy forest with clear flowing stream? Green space in the city? A garden of food
("Don't step off the path and compact the soil"!) A riparian buffer beside a stream? A field of wildflowers?
(One of the states we drove through - I think West Virginia - had patches of wildflowers along the Interstate here and there.)
And what would be the equivalent of "taking off your shoes"? Not using pesticides? Adding compost to the soil?
Isolating a wilderness area? Or is the idea more about establishing your relationship to Creation? I've
heard of traditions where a newborn is taken outside and placed on the ground to begin his/her journey in connection with Creation.
What do you do day by day, week by week, to nurture your connection with Creation?
"A land good and broad, flowing with milk and honey." Now obviously you can't have literal rivers of milk or honey.
What God probably means is a place that's good for cows/goats and bees. We saw an actual "bee tree" on one of our walks
in Virginia - a big cluster of bees around a hole in the trunk about 12-15 feet off the ground. It was quite a sight.
Made us think of Pooh!
"I will be with you" - ok, this is getting little edgy I suppose, but what happens to/with the God of Creation as Creation
gets battered, stressed, weakened, harmed, damaged. Does God stay strong and healthy apart from Creation, or are they
so entwined that as Creation gets weak, so does God?
"I am who I am" - seems to suggest that God stands apart from Creation, but still if you had made something so wonderful,
and even perhaps poured some of yourself into it, kind of like Sauron and the One Ring(!), I'm sure you would be troubled,
hurt, disappointed, discouraged, even depressed, to see it harmed.
Text: Matthew 16.21-28
Thoughts
Jesus points his life away from the expected, typical path toward power and growth, and the disciples have trouble dealing
with it. Bill McKibben (Eaarth: making a life on a tough new planet) says that for the past 200 years or so,
the human paradigm has been growth and expansion, but that now is the time to "hunker down" and learn to live with
what we have or maybe (probably) even a little less! One of the other books on our Transition Marquette County
reading list is The Bridge at the Edge of the World, which I think (I haven't actually read it yet!) looks at what
alternative systems might be available to us besides just crass capitalism and consumerism, which while they have done pretty
well for us in the past, don't seem to be leading us to a very good place, what with global warming, resource depletion, peak
oil, and the increasing gap between the rich and the rest. Anyway - how are you with a new paradigm?
On the side of God or humans? And where does Creation fit into that "compare and contrast"?
Whoever would save their life will lose it; whoever loses it (for Creation's sake?) will gain it. This seems to
have a little bit of the flavor of "whoever lives at the expense of Creation is traveling (along with Creation) towards death;
whoever lives in harmonic connection with Creation is traveling (again, along with Creation) towards a fuller, better life.
(How does "fuller, better life" square with "hunker down and learn to live with less"? Can less really be more?)
What will it profit - if you have bank accounts and stuff galore, but the soil is exhausted and/or eroded away, or so
dried out that it won't grow food? There's a scene in World Made by Hand (Kunstler) where Brother Job buys
(extorts, really) a couple of fish for - I don't remember - $100, $500? The point is that money has become fairly worthless,
especially compared to fish which is food!
"Some who will not taste death before they see" - what do you expect to see in your lifetime? Higher temperatures?
Higher sea levels? Climate zones (and the plants/animals that inhabit them) moving northward? How does that look
to you? (We were talking with a guy today about how it might mean longer growing seasons for us, and hence maybe a better
chance at vine ripened tomatoes(!), but still - sounds disturbing.) What do you expect your children to see?
Prayer
God of Creation,
we are so enchanted to notice and remember the wonders around us.
We have indeed been fruitful and grown strong,
but in that journey we have distanced ourselves from Creation
and even lost sight of what makes our land good and even holy.
Help us learn from Moses, and Jesus, and all the others you send,
so that we might discover a new paradigm of Creation's harmony
by which to find and live and even gain our lives.
Give us the strength to turn away from the old paradigm before it is too late.
One Thing to Do This Week
Choose one of the wonders of Creation around you to embody in a poem or a song or a picture.
