The picture up
today is called Yggdrasil, the Norse Tree of Life which sustains all living
things in the world and connects all nine worlds of the Norse belief system. The
Tree of Life is found in many stories and myths – it appears in Revelation - but trees of wisdom and knowledge, trees of
life figure in other biblical stories. In the James Cameron movie Avatar, there
is a Home Tree, and then there is Eywa – the Mother Tree, Tree of Life which
connects everything on the planet.
I
want to tell you two experiences which stand out in my memory. One is from my
early childhood in southern Saskatchewan. I was about four years old, living in
a tiny town called Canora, in the southern part of the province. In the summer,
the wheat seemed to grow to about eight feet tall - or so it seemed to a child.
The skies were clear deep blue, and the wheat was golden, and when one was able
to stand on a small hillock and look over - it looked like the ocean and waves.
Those were the days when Monsanto didn’t claim it owned patents on seeds, and
didn’t sue farmers when stray seeds popped up fifty miles away in their
ditches. The grain was planted and grown as part of creation - not as part of a
company’s attempt to patent crops and control farming.
My second outstanding memory is about twenty years ago, sitting by the shore of Lake Nasijaarvi in Finland – where in the summer, the sun doesn’t set. As I watched, the sun gradually descended to the horizon, and there were all the deep red and gold colours of a sunset on the left. As it dipped partway below the horizon, it began to rise, and to the right there were the pale pinks and golds of a sunrise.
My second outstanding memory is about twenty years ago, sitting by the shore of Lake Nasijaarvi in Finland – where in the summer, the sun doesn’t set. As I watched, the sun gradually descended to the horizon, and there were all the deep red and gold colours of a sunset on the left. As it dipped partway below the horizon, it began to rise, and to the right there were the pale pinks and golds of a sunrise.
Steve Whitney is a professional environmentalist, blogger and former pastor. He tells a story of writing his first sermon on Earth Day - sitting in a pub with a Bible and a couple of books, and asked the waitress if she thought it was improper to write a sermon while sitting in a tavern. She replied by asking where he went to church. When he responded "St. Stephen's Episcopal" she chuckled and said "Oh, don't worry about it, they've all been here." “Well”, wrote Steve, that’s OK - because the Anglican tradition openly celebrates God's creation in all of its manifestations. The forests that blanket the landscape, the clear water that flows from the mountains, the bald eagles and killer whales, the flowering shrubs that paint our neighborhoods with flashes of pink and yellow, the diversity of human life, and yes, even the hops for our beer in a pub on an afternoon, writing a sermon. For all that we have, and all that we are, we owe thanks to God.”
Christians centuries ago knew this well. They set aside a few days a year during planting time, called Rogation Days, to offer their prayers for blessings. Not only Christians, though, and we err if we think it is only us. The early Israelite peoples celebrated the “Feast of Weeks” - the span of time from the giving of the Torah to Moses, to the time of the first harvest, and the giving of thanks. Native peoples in North America celebrated the “first fruits” in the spring, by picking and sharing strawberries, and giving thanks to the Creator. The Book of Revelation talks about the Tree of Life, and the River of the Water of Life; and this is echoed in the Druidic and Norse beliefs, the great tree Yggdrasil, whose branches went straight up to heaven, whose roots went down into the earth - and the trunk of the tree connected heaven and earth.
Creation isn’t just about rocks and trees, and lakes and harvests, though. In the story of Creation, God painstakingly put every piece together including human beings – and then said ‘care for this, look after it’. If you listened to the reading this morning – it was piece by piece, a complete symbolic story about everything coming into being. And for Noah, God set a rainbow in the skies to demonstrate a covenant with all creation, which included people. "I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the Earth." There’s nothing in there about destroying wilfully for personal gain.
I wonder what God thinks of our modern attitudes toward the diversity of life, where value is measured not in terms of the secrets the creatures may hold, but in dollars and cents. We treat the earth like an ark in reverse. Rather than march the animals two by two up the ramp of survival, we march them faster and faster down the gang-plank of extinction. "They are taking our property rights" we say, "just to save the spotted owl or the wild salmon."” Wolves are killing our cattle.” “Coyotes are invading our city space.” We have so-called trophy hunting, euphemistically called a ‘sport’ – eliminating species before our eyes. And always we believe the rights are ours. That attitude extends to other countries – where we mine for gold and pollute rivers and water courses, or insist that oil in other places is ‘ours’ and are willing to go to war, and kill in order to keep it.
I think we need to start asking ourselves
the question, whose property is it, really? On whose
authority do we use
private land to the detriment of God's creation? Who came up with ‘private
land’? Early peoples had no concept of ‘owning’ anything – North American
aboriginals had no sense of ‘ownership’. There is a saying among aboriginal
peoples – “when the white man came we had the land and they had the Bible; when
we opened our eyes from prayer, they had the land and we had the Bible.”
When our ancestors first left Europe, they discovered lands on this side of the ocean when people had no concept of land ownership. The land belonged to the Creator, and we were allowed to use it. An Ojibway friend told me that in traditional North American aboriginal cultures, it is common to give thanks to the animals for giving up their lives to be food on our tables. Everything needs to be respected.
Are people of faith doing enough to ensure Creation is a blessing for everyone? It’s easy for us to give thanks, to say that we feel close to God when we are out at the lake, or sitting in awe watching icebergs, or walking in the woods in Algonquin Park, or sitting beside a pristine lake in Finland – or standing with our jaws dropped, at the magnificent and overpowering mountains of Norway. What about the children of Syria, whose creation consists of nothing more than sand; little or no shelter, no food, subject to violence, rape and disease. What about the children in Palestine, being shot for trying to defend the bits of land left to them? What would they think, hearing us talking about the beauty of the world?
God made a covenant with “the Earth”, and all that is in it. That means there are certain things which are not negotiable. Every child, every person living, has a right to food, to shelter, to water, to education, to health care. Those are basic human rights which must not be denied. They also have the right not to live in fear, not to suffer from war or violence. To try to patent seeds and claim ownership, to modify foods without knowing the outcome, to perpetrate violence on others for whatever reasons we may use to rationalise being right - the truth is we do not respect God’s creation, nor all the creatures in it. Did you know that the 12 percent of the world’s population that lives in North America and Western Europe accounts for 60 percent of private consumption spending, while the one-third living in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa accounts for only 3.2 percent. Did you know that Canadians produce more garbage per capita than any other country in the world, and that in terms of effective use of our natural resources we rank at D.
When our ancestors first left Europe, they discovered lands on this side of the ocean when people had no concept of land ownership. The land belonged to the Creator, and we were allowed to use it. An Ojibway friend told me that in traditional North American aboriginal cultures, it is common to give thanks to the animals for giving up their lives to be food on our tables. Everything needs to be respected.
Are people of faith doing enough to ensure Creation is a blessing for everyone? It’s easy for us to give thanks, to say that we feel close to God when we are out at the lake, or sitting in awe watching icebergs, or walking in the woods in Algonquin Park, or sitting beside a pristine lake in Finland – or standing with our jaws dropped, at the magnificent and overpowering mountains of Norway. What about the children of Syria, whose creation consists of nothing more than sand; little or no shelter, no food, subject to violence, rape and disease. What about the children in Palestine, being shot for trying to defend the bits of land left to them? What would they think, hearing us talking about the beauty of the world?
God made a covenant with “the Earth”, and all that is in it. That means there are certain things which are not negotiable. Every child, every person living, has a right to food, to shelter, to water, to education, to health care. Those are basic human rights which must not be denied. They also have the right not to live in fear, not to suffer from war or violence. To try to patent seeds and claim ownership, to modify foods without knowing the outcome, to perpetrate violence on others for whatever reasons we may use to rationalise being right - the truth is we do not respect God’s creation, nor all the creatures in it. Did you know that the 12 percent of the world’s population that lives in North America and Western Europe accounts for 60 percent of private consumption spending, while the one-third living in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa accounts for only 3.2 percent. Did you know that Canadians produce more garbage per capita than any other country in the world, and that in terms of effective use of our natural resources we rank at D.
Today I want us to pray that as children of God, we may be faithful stewards. Faithful stewards. What does it mean to be a faithful steward of God's creation? Good question. Fortunately the Bible provides guidance -- in Genesis 2 God placed the human creature in the garden "to till it and keep it." So we have the responsibility, to till the Earth in order to make its productive powers flourish. This does not mean we are to plant and harvest all of it. We are also called to sustain it, conserve it, perpetuate it -- to "keep" the Earth by protecting its God- created life systems and life forms.
We who profess to be Christians have a calling to a life in Creation. We cannot preach any kind of message if we do not strive, in whatever way possible, to live that message as it applies to the earth, the waters, the skies, the people; and yes, it might get ‘political – which to me means that a gospel of life for all IS political in today’s world, which denies life and health to some while enhancing it for many out of all proportion to what is appropriate. May we see with new eyes and hear with new ears, as we walk through this world - and may we find ways to be good co-Creators with God’s ongoing creation - the Tree of Life. Amen.
Sources:
1.
“All God’s
Creation” by Rev. Fran Ota Earth Day 2012
2.
Steven Whitney, sermon preached at St. Stephen's
Episcopal Church, Earth Day Sunday, April 21, 1996.
