"Creation flavored" thoughts on the lectionary texts
Date: September 4, 2011 (Day before Labor Day, time to remember
especially those who labor to produce our foods - local small farmers, migrant workers, farmers who have little by little
become enmeshed in the agribusiness system and now can't extricate themselves!)
(note corresponding EarthWords from 3 years ago archived on the website)
Text: Ps 148 (I know it - lectionary - says Ps
149. I must be working off an older version. And I just like Ps 148!)
Thoughts
Praise the Lord - heavens (vs1-6) and earth (vs7-12). "Heavens, heights, sun, moon, stars, waters above the heavens,
angels/host" - how do angels/host fit in with the heavens, sun, moon, etc? Do the angels fly around in the heights?
Does the extra carbon dioxide bother them? (OK - a little whimsical there, but I was just wondering!)
I've been sleeping out the last couple of nights, enjoying the stars, though in the city there's still extra light all
night long, even with the new moon.
"The waters above the heavens" - well, we could use some. We're pretty dry here in Marquette. I guess the
folks in Vermont have had enough and more. When it says "God fixed their bounds", God must not have been planning on
our tinkering with climate! Rivers are creeping up and over their (recent historical) bounds. There was a note
in the news leading up to Irene about how they pump so many millions of gallons of water out of the NYC subways each day.
In Alan Weisman's book
World Without Us http://www.worldwithoutus.com/ it says one of the first things to go would be the subways without humans to run the pumps. I guess without electricity
the pumps would shut down humans or no! And the water would exceed its bounds.
"Fire, hail, snow, frost, strong winds" - how do these "fulfill God's command"? Does God want certain areas to
burn, or to be covered with snow, or bruised with hail? Or is it that by being fire, snow, wind the elements are fulfilling
God's "command of creation" (vs5)? If the latter, does that suggest that God envisioned/created/dreamed a balanced world
where as the elements are fully realized they work/fit together to make a healthy system?
Mountains and hills - after 3 weeks in the Shenandoah Valley we almost got used to looking up and off and seeing mountains
on the horizon.
Fruit trees - we're still planning to plant some dwarf fruit/nut trees in the backyard this fall.
Beasts and cattle, creeping (creepy?) things - OK, we had hamburgers (burned beast/cattle!) tonight to clear the buns
out of the freezer. There was a piece in The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/08/15/110815fa_fact_goodyear about how to get Americans to think about eating bugs/insects/"mini-livestock" - "a tasty and efficient source
of animal protein". OK - I think it would have to be ground up and mixed with other stuff (ala the infamous "pink slime")
so that you wouldn't know what you were eating. Come to think of it, we've got some "field roast grain brats" in the
freezer. Hmmm - wheat? oats? barley? grasshoppers? There were flies that bothered us as we ate our dinner.
I don't think I can quite make the jump to flies "being" our dinner!
Kings of the earth - scientists, politicians, activists - how does it work to praise the God of Creation, but still be
willing to harm that Creation by adding CO2, by drilling in wilderness areas, by pumping chemicals deep into the earth to
frack out the gas? I guess it must have to do with what people see as "harm". It baffles me the way some people
(ie, climate deniers, ie, apparently most of the Republican Party!) can trust science in some areas (health, medicine, industry)
but not in others (climate).
"Young men, maids, old men ("IR1"!), children" - grandchildren. Bill McKibben says that it's time to worry
not just about what kind of a world our grandchildren will face, but the world we ourselves are starting to experience.
It's not the same planet we grew up on any more. (He tells about how the road into his town in Vermont got washed away
a few years ago and they were working to rebuild it. I wonder if it is still there "post-Irene"?)
Anyway, just to sum up, this is a lovely psalm - all of Creation raises a witness of harmonious praise to the One who
creates and holds "all that is" together. Some of our activity adds to that praise by making Creation healthier, stronger;
some detracts from that praise by harming Creation.
Text: Exodus 12.1-14
Thoughts
A new time, a new age, is beginning. Thomas Berry speaks about the "ecozoic age". I Googled it and came
up with
http://www.ecozoicstudies.org/downloads/theecozoic/TheEcozoic-Issue1.pdf. It looks interesting. Especially the "Eat Something Wild Everyday"! (Like ants? grasshoppers?
grubs/"land shrimp"?) How is tomorrow morning going to be different from tonight? What things will need to be
killed? What things will die? What will you wear, carry, into this new time?
Text: Romans 13.8-14
Thoughts
"Owe no one, except to love one another." Usually we think of family, neighbors, the guy down the street, perhaps
the people in other places. But could "one-another" extend to the creatures (chipmunks, birds, deer, "creepy things"!)?
Or maybe even to the mountains and hills which don't want to be mined by having their tops bulldozed into the valley.
To the streams and rivers that really don't want to have to carry all that agricultural runoff.
"Remember the commandments" - how/where does our relationship with Creation get spelled out in the Ten Words for Life?
Respecting the Creation as the true Image of God and not damaging it? Not coveting what other people have? What
would happen if we could do kind of a "reverse coveting" and try to live simply as people do in less developed countries?
Not stealing - is causing the sea level to rise stealing the country of the Pacific Islands or other coastal areas?
"Do no wrong to a neighbor" - how about to those who live downstream from us? How about the creatures we have hunted/fished
to extinction or who's habitat we have destroyed? Are they "neighbor"? Is that "doing them wrong"?
Salvation is nearer now - as is the "tough new planet" which climate change is bringing about.
Prayer
Dear God,
the sun sang your praise as it shined on us today.
The gentle breeze sang your praise as it cooled our afternoon.
The rain did not praise you here, but perhaps it sang elsewhere.
The birds sang to you,
as did the beasts and crawling thengs.
The trees and flowers did their best, thirsty as they are.
We grieve for the whale that died.
We look forward to your (and our) tomorrow
as the elements of Creation are more fully realized
and fit together to further your dream.
One Thing to Do This Week
