"Creation flavored" thoughts on the lectionary texts
Date: October 5, 2008
(again, for local, congregational reasons we are observing week 2 of the Season of Creation. The Genesis reading
is from that calendar, the others are from the Revised Common Lectionary)
Text: Psalm 19 The heavens are telling......
Thoughts
Sunrise or sunset? Stars or full moon? (Hubble telescope images?) Sunlight on dark clouds? "Afternoon blue" sky?
Northern lights? White, marshmellowy clouds? How do the heavens speak to you? What are they telling you
today?
Each day proclaims its own truth - what is our earth proclaiming today?
The sun comes forth each day like a strong man, full of (solar) energy. And nothing is hid from its heat - even
things we might like hidden, such as polar ice caps, parched agricultural fields, asphalt parking lots. I live in a
place where usually (at least in summer) the days are comfortable and we seek shelter at night, but I guess there are others
who live where the nights are comfortable and they need to seek shelter from the heat of the day.
Most of the creation images in this psalm are in the first half, but then suddenly here's vs 10 with "gold" and "honey"!
"Who can discern their errors?" Well, sometimes the problem is ignorance (or stupidity!), but sometimes it is simply
an unwillingness to learn, believe, accept some new information, and then change. What is one environmental discovery
you had trouble learning, believing, accepting? Have you made any changes in your life associated with it?
Text: Gen 3.14-19, 4.8-16 The outcomes;
then "Cain and Abel" (You might say - the story of the ground in the hands of the humans!)
Thoughts
or "How the snake lost its legs!" I remember a storyteller saying with a wink, "because of course before this the
snake had legs like the rest of us"! It's a fun thought.
vs17 - "The ground is cursed because of you" - wow, with Superfund sites, with brownfields, with parking
lot or agricultural run-off, with embalming fluids (What! ? -See next item!).
Cain was a tiller of the ground, Abel a tender of sheep. They both seem to come under the heading of "till and
keep the garden", but now God accepts Abel's offering and not Cain's . The next time they are out in the field,
Cain kills Abel and Abel's blood sinks into the ground. Now God declares "You are cursed from the ground". It's
like the pollution cycle has come full circle from vs 17.
"It shall no longer give you its strength." Is that because "Earthcreature Cain" is cut off from the ground?
Is it because the soil is depleted, or laced with harmful chemicals? Is it because the topsoil has washed away?
(I guess we can grow hydroponic tomatoes, but I don't believe they are as good!)
Text: Philippians 3.4b-14
Thoughts
Ok - not much in the way of creation images here. Paul encourages the Philippians towards a spirituality and away
from a "confidence in (respect for?) the flesh". It could lead to a focus on spirituality and a lack of concern for
physical, natural, material things and environmental issues. Or it could lead us away from overly focusing
on "body shaping" and to being more aware of the health of Christ in the Creation. Along with gyms and workout machines
we might also start to have more gardens and parks and nature centers and recycling areas and farmers' markets and CSA's!
So the ground we leave behind could even be more fertile (blessed) than we found it!
Prayer
God of earth, God of sky, God of heaven,
we confess that too often our presence here
has not been a blessing for the ground
but a blight upon it.
Too often our (sometimes honestly ignorant) mistakes have cycled back to us
in the form of unhealthy food or water or air.
Help us learn, believe, accept, and change
so that we might be a "landblessing"
and that the ground might return our blessing to ourselves and our generations. Amen.
One Thing to Do This Week
