"Creation flavored" thoughts on the lectionary texts
Date: December 7, 2008
Text: Psalm 85.1-2,8-13 The Lord
will speak peace to her/his people
Thoughts
The health of the land is linked to the health (physical and spiritual) of the people (individual and communal).
How contemporary is that!
God will dwell with us in all God's glory - where does God's glory appear to you? Is it in a natural setting like
a forest or streamside or waterfall? Or in a human setting - family at the table, children playing?
The ground and the sky (along with the sea!) work together to support life. Ellen Bernstein, in The Splendor
of Creation, points out to me that there is no "And God saw that it was good" on the second day of creation in which
the firmament separated out a space for the air! It is only on the third day of creation, when the waters, the dry land,
and the air are working together that God sees that it is good. If we tamper with any of the three, we affect the others
as well, (increasing CO2 in the ocean, for example) and threaten life's well being.
Again in vs12-13, the land producing wonderful crops is a justice issue. Migrant workers, water use and removal,
long distance food transport, confined animal feeding operations (factory farms), responsible mining, logging, and agriculture
are all faith issues (eco-issues), even more than economic issues
Wonderful crops - the growing season has pretty much ended where I live (there is 6-8 inches of snow on the ground).
Carrots still in the ground are getting sweeter by the day. Squash is piled on the porch.
Finally it's not really an eco-issue, but I just love the way the psalmist seems to relish using the word set - steadfast
love, faithfulness, righteousness, and peace - and interweaves them through the poem.
Text: Isaiah 40.1-11 Comfort my people
Thoughts
Making a way in the desert/wilderness - a straight road, filled in valleys, flattened off mountains.
It sounds like mountaintop removal coal mining. We get the idea - God's coming and going and travelling with God is
going to be a snap - but we might choose a different set of images. Winding streams, country roads,... Did you
hear Don Gonya describing the roadtrip the auto execs would be taking from Detroit to Washington? (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97765979) "Lovely mountain scenery in Pennsylvania!"
The wilderness ("unhumaned land"?) as God's special place. Where does God go when the wilderness is
gone?
What lasts? Humans are as grass, but our affect on the Creation might last a little longer!
In fact we are on the threshold of altering earth's atmosphere and environment as certainly as did the blue-green bacteria
that thrived in the oxygen free environment of early earth! (Read or re-read TheWorld Without Us www.worldwithoutus.com) The grass decays and builds the soil. Many of us still go into the soil carrying all kinds of embalming
fluid and casket materials. (I was riding to the cemetery for a graveside service and asked the funeral home associate
if they had heard of green burials. They hadn't!)
vs10-11 God as warrior bringing along the aftermath of war, or God as shepherd caring for the sheep!
How do you deal with, reconcile(?), the juxtaposition of these two images?
Text: Mark 1.1-8 John the Forerunner
Thoughts
Again, the desert, wilderness - God's special place. Israel got to know God in the wilderness, John comes from
the wilderness, Jesus went into the wilderness, after John is killed Jesus tries to take the friends and followers to the
wilderness -surprise - he finds the crowds already there! What happens to us when one after another of the "special
places" are developed? (Although a notice in the paper today that National Forest visits are down by 13 percent!
Some point to video games, others to fees and noisy off-road vehicles!)
Baptism in the Jordan - washing all the dirt away. Or at least downstream. Too bad for the ones downstream,
either geographically or chronologically. What has washed into your life? What is washing downstream from you?
Pharmaceuticals? Lawn chemicals? Motor oil? Cleaning supplies? Air pollution?
Nice clothes, John. Only don't let PETA get too near! And nice dinner - only the Northern Vegans would not
approve of the grasshoppers! (Ok, a little bit flip there - it's late! I'll try to make it up in the "One thing...".)
Prayer
God of earth and sky and sea -
so often we think the creation is as it always has been and always will be,
and we press its healing qualities farther than we realize.
Give us your wisdom and your love for "unhumaned places".
Help us find the strength to leave some of your Creation (inhabitants included) alone.
One Thing to Do This Week
Have a day of "animal free clothes" and vegetarian meals!
