A Sermon For The Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost - Season Of Creation
We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now... - Romans 8:18-25
Trinity Lutheran Church is celebrating the Season of Creation (seasonofcreation.org) in its liturgy and worship today. The sermon is based on Romans 8:18-25. In retrospect, this sermon seems to take on increased meaning with the “confluence” of Hurricane Helene! May our prayers be with those who have suffered loss.
GOD LOVES CREATION…SO SHOULD WE!
(Groaning Creation: A Biblical Interpretation Of Gift Rather Than Commodity)
The Creation “poem” of Genesis, chapter 1 is familiar to us. I particularly like Eugene Peterson’s translation in The Message version of the Bible. Rather than beginning with the “formless void” that we are familiar with, Peterson says that God created the world out of a “soup of nothingness.” He then recites the details of each day of creation: light from dark; heaven and earth; land and oceans; plants and trees; sun, moon, and stars; birds and fish. On the sixth day, animals and humans. And only after the sixth day, God says that it is not just good, but very good. Now, Bible scholars, what did God do on the seventh day?... Yes, God rested and called it a holy day, a Sabbath.
Now, I’m going to add my imagination to the Creation poem. I imagine that God looked on all the majesty and beauty of Creation and God said to Godself, “Wow, God, this is amazing! This is awesome! This is beauty to behold! God, you have outdone yourself!” God said that it was very good. That tells me that from the beginning, God loved Creation. And if God loved and continues to love Creation…then so should we!
In The Message, Peterson says that God made “humans to be responsible for the fish in the seas, the birds in the air, the cattle, and yes, Earth itself.” Friends, this is the whole premise and foundation for all that I have to say today. God loves, cherishes, and adores Creation. As people who profess belief in a Triune God - creator of heaven and earth - so should we love and be responsible for Creation!
Sister Paula Gonzalez, now living with the saints, was a Sister of Charity in Cincinnati. She had a Ph.D. in biology and had dedicated more than thirty years of her life to sustainable living and advocating for renewable energy. One year we invited her to speak about Creation care at one of our mid-week Lenten worship services at my former congregation. This diminutive nun lovingly embraced and coddled a globe for her entire talk! What a non-verbal message that was! God loves the Earth. Sister Paula dedicated her life to doing likewise. That is our calling too.
I am going to make a broad assumption this morning. I suspect that part of the reason (maybe a big part) that you live in Vermilion is because you appreciate, maybe even love Creation; the Lake, the farmlands, the sunrises and sunsets, the breeze, the birds…and yes, even the Woolybear! (This is Woolybear festival weekend in Vermilion.) I don’t have to convince you to take note of Creation – to love, appreciate, and care for it – you already do. I join you. You can read my Living Lake poem at the end of the worship folder (below) as I praise God for Creation, even just outside of my front door.
In today’s epistle reading from Romans, Paul writes about the “eschaton.” In Greek, eschaton is the last things, the end times, and the fullness of our redemption. Paul writes about it in cosmic terms. At the end of time, not just humanity, but the whole of Creation will be redeemed. He uses language that has always caught my attention and intrigued me. Paul writes, “the whole creation is groaning for this redemption.” That is pretty big stuff, right? Theologically, Paul is saying that we anxiously await the time when our futility, decay, oppression, and pain will be no more, even as big as the pain of the entire cosmos.
Now appreciate that Paul had little of the scientific knowledge that we have today. For him, the Earth was flat and everything in the sky revolved around the Earth. So how might we interpret that thought for today, that Creation is groaning?... It takes on new meaning, doesn’t it? My interpretation may differ from yours, and I acknowledge that I could be wrong about this. My interpretation is that under the weight of humanity, unprecedented consumption, and the burden of advanced machinery and technology today, the Earth is groaning. So, we are left with this conundrum: As people of faith, we are called to love Creation and be its caretakers, but Creation is groaning from us. What do we do with that?...
I have shared with you that my former congregation had a relationship with missionaries in Guatemala. That family originated from Canada. When their youngest son was engaged to a woman from Canada, they asked me to officiate at the wedding. The wedding took place in the Niagara on the Lake area of Canada, home to a very large Dutch Reformed community. The Dutch Reformed branch of Christianity is very conservative, biblically and socially. One of the family wedding gatherings happened at the home of a dentist in Hamilton, at the very western tip of Lake Ontario. It was a beautiful home, high up on the slope, with a breathtaking, panoramic view of the lake below.
I was sitting up on the highest deck of the house with a member of their church. Our conversation started out friendly, but then I sensed that he wanted to challenge my theology. He began with Noah and the ark, and asked whether I believed it literally, because he surely did. Before I knew it, we were into the subject of Creation and global warming. He did not believe in climate change, which was fine with me. But then he went further. He said that he believed that God has given us oil and gas and coal as resources to use and that we should use as much of it as we want. In fact, he said, “Henry, do you see all those barges with coal down there on the lake?” There were many of them and the view was crystal clear. He went on, “God wants us to use all of that coal, as much of it as we want!”…
More than appalled, I was hurt by his comments. I was hurt for the sake of an already groaning Creation. His thoughts seemed hedonistic, self-indulgent, and greedy. How could he say that? He was just as biblically literate as I am. He, I presume, loved God and was just as faithful as I am. The answer is biblical interpretation! He, from the Dutch Reformed tradition, is a biblical literalist. He believes in Armageddon, that God will destroy the Earth at the end times, but first God will rapture up all the faithful Christians. So, if the Earth is going to be destroyed, we ought to just use it all up now. In his theology the Earth is a commodity, a resource for our unbridled consumption. That is not the theology of the ELCA. Creation is a gift not a commodity. Ravaging the Earth is not consistent with the stewardship of caretaking.
I believe that we can find common ground today in an unflinching commitment to care for Mother Earth. Whether we believe in climate change or not, whether we believe that human activity contributes to climate change or not…the Earth is groaning and believing whether Creation is a gift, or a commodity determines how we live. Would any of you want to remove every fish from Lake Erie for your satisfaction?...
We all know that Native Americans have a special spiritual oneness with the land. I learned a lot about the depth of that oneness from Braiding Sweetgrass. Robin Wall Kimmerer is a Native American botanist, professor, poet, and artist. This is what she writes about animacy, how we are one with all Creation, “When we tell our children that the tree is not a who, but an it, we make that maple an object; we put a barrier between us, absolving ourselves of moral responsibility and opening the door to exploitation. Saying it makes a living land into “natural resources.” If a maple is an it, we can take up the chain saw. If a maple is a her, we think twice.”
She goes on (and I wish that I would have had this language on that deck in Canada), “Taking coal buried deep in the earth, for which we must inflict irreparable damage, violates every precept of the code (of Honorable Harvest). By no stretch of the imagination is coal “given” to us. We have to wound the land and water to gouge it from Mother Earth…. It doesn’t mean that we can’t consume the energy we need, but it does mean that we honorably take only what is given. The wind blows every day, every day the sun shines, every day the waves roll against the shore, and the earth is warm below us. We can understand these renewable sources of energy as given to us, since they are sources that have powered life on the planet for as long as there has been a planet.”
So, what can we do as people of faith? We begin by appreciating and truly honoring Creation in our daily practices. After a Creation care sermon in my former congregation, one of the members told me that nothing organic ever leaves his property. I was really struck by that simple practice. Maybe you might read Braiding Sweetgrass. I highly recommend it. It will surely deepen your understanding of our oneness with Creation. We can all advocate. Consider beginning with the bulletin insert today (fossilfueltreaty.org). I hear our political candidates throwing around a lot of personal attacks, but I don’t hear any of them talking much about Creation care. They need to hear from us. Thinking congregationally, maybe we might consider adding a Creation Care mission team. Many congregations have them. Loving Creation begins with living faithfully and doing the right things. Our faith commitments matter. When enough of us come together, change happens. That is our hope!
Let me leave you with an anecdote from Braiding Sweetgrass. “I once knew and loved a man who lived most of his life in the city, but when he was dragged off to the ocean or the woods he seemed to enjoy it well enough – as long as he could find an Internet connection. He had lived in a lot of places, so I asked him where he found his greatest sense of place. He didn’t understand the expression. I explained that I wanted to know where he felt most nurtured and supported. What is the place that you understand best? That you know best and knows you in return?
He didn’t take long to answer. “My car,” he said. “In my car. It provides me with everything I need in just the way I like it. My favorite music. Seat position fully adjustable. Automatic mirrors. Two cup holders. I’m safe. And it always takes me where I want to go.” Years later, he tried to kill himself. In his car.”
What is your sense of place?... Let’s get out of our “cars” and take a long walk on the beach at sunset. God gives it to us as a gift to enjoy and care for. It’s free. That’s grace!
Living Lake
They say that you only get one chance to make a first impression.
I distinctly remember our first encounter; March 2022.
It was an ominous day; dark, cold, windy, raining…
last gasp of winter…
when the chill takes residence in your bones.
She was foreboding…
and yet, I found her mysteriously inviting.
Perhaps she could be tamed. Perhaps…we could have a relationship.
And now, I have known her for seven weeks.
She is special, becoming a bit less mysterious…more known.
I am falling in love.
I thoroughly enjoy our daily hook-ups…sometimes multiple times a day.
They say that change is a part of life.
Only living things, by definition, change.
Most of us don’t like change. We like our routines; what is known and comfortable.
Most of us live in our comfort zones and like it there, but we know…
that change is a necessary part of life.
Dare we?
Dare we open ourselves and become vulnerable to a living one…
who may call forth change, deeper understanding of the mystery of “I”?
If change defines life…then she is alive.
Others may deny it, but I am sure…she…is…alive!
Why? Because every day she is new.
I didn’t realize that in our first, chilly encounter…
only now do I appreciate her liveliness!
Some days she is placid…and I feel like I can walk out and stand in her midst.
Maybe that is how Jesus did it!
I like placid. It is peaceful. Silence invites dreams and reflection.
Other days she is angry…and does she ever have a temper!
The waves jump up over the rocks on the shore…showering those who walk by.
In these fits of rage, she sometimes thrusts up trees along the rocks.
I once saw one that was about thirty feet long…hung up on the boulders…
and weeks later, it was, amazingly, gone! She had reclaimed it as her possession.
She is alive and she interacts with all life…
the ducks glide by in parade…
the geese sing in harmony…
two eagles nest in the trees on the west end, majestically, they guard the lakeshore…
one day I saw a man on the jetty pulling in a fish; perch or walleye?...
I need an education!
The clouds and sun give her a different complexion each day; green, blue, and brown…
even a shade of pink one day!
Some clear days, I see coasters in the distance (Cedar Point)…
and I can imagine the squeals of children!
Other days, I feel like I can see the other side…does one fall off the edge over there?
On a warm, lovely day last week, she finally invited me into her.
The water was chill but felt healing to my joints.
Once in her, I discovered she was quite rocky. Those rocks, not visible from the path.
Slow walk…careful walk…clear water…and she offered up her gifts.
I removed some stones of various shapes with striated colors.
These, in addition to her gifts of (drift)wood, adorn my yard…
and they silently announce to the world that I live by the living lake.
Not yet, but in time, in another season…
I imagine myself sitting in my antique lawn chair…
perched on her beach…
listening to her whisper or to the roar…
and I know that she will…
because she is alive.
What will she say? What wisdom will she offer?
That mystery is yet to be disclosed.
I can wait because there is enough of new things for now…
something new in every encounter.
She is not Superior…
But she is large enough for me.
She is not Michigan…
Ohio is fine with me.
Some say she is too placid…
just placid enough for me.
Some say she is too temperamental…
I appreciate her expressiveness.
When I was a young person, I lived by other water.
It was a place to drink beer with the boys.
It was a place to get a tan and watch the girls in bikinis.
Every visit was the same. The water was merely utilitarian.
Now that I’m older and (perhaps) wiser…
I appreciate that she is alive and that every visit is new.
She draws me out…
she takes me deep within.
She blesses me...and teaches me.
She is Erie. She is a living lake.
I am gratified to have met her.
I am excited to know her more intimately…
because as I take note of her, she helps me to better know myself.
Listen to the whisper! Listen to the life! Know thyself!
Pastor Zorn’s blog, October 26, 2023.
listeningtothewhisper.substack.com
🙏
What an awesome poem!