Season of Creation IV

Dear Friends in Christ,

Week four of Season of Creation we are invited to advocate for the earth. The very first thing God does is create the cosmos, including our planet, “this fragile earth, our island home,” as our prayer book describes it (Eucharistic Prayer C, Book of Common Prayer (BCP) page 370). God proclaimed God’s creation “very good” (Genesis Ch. 1) and gave the care of that creation to humankind, to “till and keep” the Earth (Gen. 2:15), not as owners or rulers but as stewards and caregivers. Ps. 24:1 says, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to God.”

As Saint Paul wrote in Romans 1:20, humanity encounters and dwells with God through the natural world:

“For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.”

It is in creation that we often find God. It is through creation that God reveals God’s self to us. And it is creation itself that reveals God’s mighty power and great faithfulness.

Several years ago, I took a retreat at a Benedictine monastery north of Chico. When I arrived, I randomly opened my bible, the Message, a contemporary language interpretation by Eugene Peterson, and found a passage from Job 40:1-5:

“God then confronted Job directly:

“Now what do you have to say for yourself?
    Are you going to haul me, the Mighty One, into court and press charges?”

3-5 Job answered:

“I’m speechless, in awe—words fail me.
    I should never have opened my mouth!
I’ve talked too much, way too much.
    I’m ready to shut up and listen.”

This became my mantra, I’m ready to shut up and listen. And I waited… for God to speak. Every morning I walked through the plum and walnut orchards to an overlook above the creek where I sat to pray and meditate and wait for God to tell me what God wanted me to know.

A mountain lion had been seen nearby relatively recently and, even as I prayed, I remained vigilant to every sound and movement. My silence and stillness were rewarded over a few days with a doe and her fawn coming to the creek to drink, an eagle soaring overhead, a blue heron standing tall in a field, and a family of river otters who splashed and played their way downstream, but fortunately, no mountain lion! And still God hadn’t spoken.

On my last morning, frustrated by God’s apparent silence, I continued reading from Job, which is when God challenges the hapless Job who is complaining about his unfair treatment by God, by reminding Job of who God is.

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
    Tell me, if you know so much.
5 Who determined its dimensions
    and stretched out the surveying line?
6 What supports its foundations,
    and who laid its cornerstone
7 as the morning stars sang together
    and all the angels[a] shouted for joy?

8 “Who kept the sea inside its boundaries
    as it burst from the womb,

12 “Have you ever commanded the morning to appear
    and caused the dawn to rise in the east?
13 Have you made daylight spread to the ends of the earth,
    to bring an end to the night’s wickedness?”                Job 38:4-8,12-13.

God reminds Job that it was God who established the rhythms of the natural world and God alone knows the secrets of the seasons and mysteries of the weather. That God created the Behemoth and the Leviathan so who was Job to question God.

I realized that my answer had been before my eyes all the time. It was as if God said to me, what must I do to assure you I hear you? I sent you a doe and a fawn, an eagle, a heron, and a family of otters. What more do you need? Must I send the mountain lion to eat you before you understand who I am and what I want?

We are called not only to care for the earth but to speak up for it. Jesus, and many of our mystics, including the Desert Fathers and Saint Francis, took this responsibility seriously. They lived in close relationship with Creation and understood how closely the fate of humankind is interwoven with the fate of the earth. Our planet is in crisis and has no one to speak for it but us. It is time for us to live according to our faith.

To learn more and take action, please visit the Creation Care ministries of the Anglican Communion, the Episcopal Church, and your specific Province and Diocese. Global and national resources can be found at:

·            The Anglican Communion Environmental Network
acen.anglicancommunion.org

·            The Episcopal Church Ministry of Creation Care
www.episcopalchurch.org/ministries/creation-care

Yours in Christ,

Rev. Jane+