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EarthWords - connecting Scripture
and Creation
"Creation flavored" thoughts on the lectionary texts
Date: September 28, 2008
(and these lessons are not going to coordinate completely with the Revised Common Lectionary. For local, congregational
reasons, we are starting to observe the Season of Creation this week. One or two of the lessons will be from that schedule,
the other one or two should be from the RCL.)
Text: Psalm 139.7-18
Thoughts
God's Spirit permeates the entire Creation - there is no place that cannot suddenly spring to life.
The darkness is coming upon us, here in the Northern Hemisphere. www.weatherunderground.com says that the sun rose at 7:36am and will set at 7:46pm, and that tomorrow will be about three minutes shorter than today!
It would be fun to take the same picture at the same time each day for a month or so and watch the change. When
the psalmist says the night is bright as the day", he/she was not talking about the streetlights, decorating lights, advertising
lights - even the solar ones. Again, she/he (!) envisions a time when night is dark but God can see anyway!
Being knit together in mother's womb, being formed in the depths of the earth. We come from and are of "Mother
Earth", not some other place.
Text: Gen 2.4-22
Thoughts
God formed the human when there were no plants and no herbs (no "pesto"!), but humans cannot survive in such an environment,
so God planted a garden, and set rivers flowing to water it.
It sounds a little like God formed this human and placed it into the garden as an unfamiliar or foreign object.
Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme remind us that we evolved as a part of Creation's development. We are intimately entwined
with the Creation, not "from someplace else".
The tree of life, the tree of knowledge of good and evil - how do you picture them? Which trees seem lively or
strong? (Balsams seem to spring up all over our property, White Pine seem strong and sturdy.) Which trees seem
wise?
Life is not an "individual experience lived in isolation". The first human is incomplete, not finished, until there
is another. In the same way, our lives are less than complete or finished when we are not in close connection with "the
beasts of the field and the birds of the air", and by extension, the plants of the ground, the fish of the sea.
Text: Philippians 2.1-13
Thoughts
Paul calls us to look not to our own interests, but to the interests of others in the web of creation.
"Work out your salvation with fear and trembling". When we look at some of the projected futures,
there is plenty of room for fear and trembling as the climate changes and that leads to further political instability.
But God is with us in this growing, developing, evolving experiment of Creation "in the heaven, on the earth, under the earth".
Prayer
Creator God,
thank you for the tilt of the earth
which gives this part of your Creation such variety and vitality.
As the seasons change
and your love remains constant
we are moved to sing your praise.
One Thing to Do This Week
Take a moment at sunrise and sunset (you can find out when they are in the newspaper or on the website above!) and let
yourself be awed by the balance and the shift of nature that brings us a change in seasons.
EarthWords is produced by Charlie West
Ink
permission given to copy, share, use, delete, forward, distribute, disagree
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