You
listened to the reading from the beautiful creation song Psalm 104, where the
wild animals and the untamed, sporty Leviathan share a place in creation with
human beings. We now read John's
imagery of Jesus as the fruit-bearing vine, to whom we are organically related.
"I am the vine, you are the
branches. Those who abide in me
and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15: 5)
Jesus points the way to Israel's fulfillment as God's vineyard, and he
affirms that all the nations will be gathered, the whole earth restored as
God's beloved garden.
We
turn also to the final chapter of the Bible. The author has had many spectacular and terrible visions, but
now describes the new Jerusalem, a utopian city transformed from dumping ground
to nourishing, life-giving garden. The gold streets clear as glass and the
other incredible mineral displays give way to more organic imagery, returning
us full circle to the garden of Eden, to trees and water and wholeness. "Then the angel showed me the river
of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of
the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree
of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the
leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations." (Revelation 22: 1-2)
Some
of you know that I visited the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve last week up by
Pawhuska. The most spectacular wildlife we saw were the bison, hundreds of dark-bearded,
golden-backed, statuesque creatures, looking thoughtful as they chewed on the
short (not tall at this season) grasses.
We might have missed the lowlier sights if the day hadn't been a
throwback to winter. We were the
Audubon club, which means birds,
right? And there were some birds
– the kestrel diving straight down to snatch a mouse (he or she missed
though) - but not the variety we were expecting to see. We were finishing lunch in the car
– you know it's a bad weather day when lunch is in the car. Patsy spotted the little guys rustling
in the grass near some scraggly trees.
A pair of sparrows - white-throated or white-crowned or something else?
- we never completely pinned down the species. But the fun part was seeing them with their beaks stuffed
with dandelion seeds, the dandelion fluff sticking out every which way as they
gorged on the only available food.
Dandelions, those pesky blots of yellow on our otherwise smooth green
lawns, those champion weeds spreading seeds with every gust of wind sweeping
across the Oklahoma prairie. These
were not the grand "lilies of the field" clothed like Solomon that Jesus
described for his disciples, not even the lovely Easter lilies still blooming
in this sanctuary, but scruffy dandelions, nevertheless part of God's grand
spiral of continuing creation.
Even the most annoying and insignificant creatures have important roles
to play in God's creation.
As
we move forward from Easter Sunday, we are looking for ways to make Easter part
of our everyday lives, not just one day a year, or even just every Sunday. Last week we saw how Easter came to
disciples unexpectedly at the supper table, where Jesus sat with them and they
recognized him in the breaking of bread.
So, we recognize Jesus in friends and strangers. Perhaps, stretching our
vision more, we can know his spirit through the body of Christ, which is the
healed, transformed earth, including all creatures great and small. Jesus was
not, strictly speaking, an environmentalist, not the founder of the Sierra Club
or a card-carrying supporter of Greenpeace. However, we Christians believe that he came to restore
wholeness and health to all creation, and particularly to restore all human
beings to their place as caretakers of the earth, sky, and sea. Jesus came to restore us, not as rulers
over nature with a reckless freedom to do anything we desire for the benefit of
a few human beings, but as stewards who live for others and look out for the
welfare of the many. Today stewardship means that we regain some balance and
harmony with the earth, that we "Touch the earth lightly."[1]
Over
the last several years, concern for our environment has become somewhat mainstream,
in church as well as culture, no longer the province of fringe groups of
tree-huggers. Some evangelicals on
the religious right (e.g. Rick Warren) have shifted priorities from personal
issues such as abortion and gay marriage, to focus more on creation. Christian evangelists on the other end
of the theological spectrum have added nature to our list of mission concerns
for vulnerable and oppressed peoples.
The hope is that the body of Christ will work together toward the
healing of creation, the world of which human beings are a part of, not set
apart from. Then the leaves of the
tree of life mentioned in Revelation would indeed be for the healing of the
nations. More and more, most
Christians think that the earth matters to God – "For God so loved the
world..." (John 3:16)
A
watchword in today's environmental movement is looking for our "ecological
footprints." I regard my lifestyle as modest, not extravagant and
wasteful. Yet, when I took the
ecological footprint quiz on the Earth Day Network website[2],
I found out that to maintain my usual activities and resources used, it would
take 32 acres of farmland. The site warned me somberly - "If everyone lived
like me, we would need 7.1 planets."
Although this is just one measure of my personal impact (and there are
others), it gave me pause to reflect.
Even so, I found Good News in Grove
(!) for reducing our ecological footprints, the kinds of things that regular
people can do.
1) Fertilizing
– We all want lush green grass.
But one source of water pollution comes from overuse of
fertilizers. The high levels of
phosphorus wash easily into the lake, causing algae to "bloom," which yields
that ugly pond scum look. The
bloomin' algae take away sunlight from deeper aquatic plants and algae, plus
some are toxic when eaten by fish, livestock, and human beings. When these
algae die, their scavengers use up precious oxygen (or at night, the oxygen
supply plunges downward until it can be replenished the following day). In both
cases, larger critters (like fish) can suffocate, and over time the lake goes
dead. We can point fingers at what
other people could do to fix this excess (get rid of industrial poultry and hog
farms, for example), but we can begin to take care of our own landscapes. Get
your soil tested at the state extension office in Jay, for low-cost advice on
the best treatments for your landscape. Whether we are do-it-yourselfers or use
lawn services, we can use fertilizer with high nitrogen to phosphorus ratios
– look carefully at the numbers on the bag (1st – N, 2nd
– P, 3rd – K).
2) Rain Gardens
– Did you know that Grove is the first city in Oklahoma to plant rain
gardens? We are part of a
wonderful experiment. Nine rain
gardens are going in at various locations around town this spring and summer, one
of the most visible by the Cherokee Queen dock. Better than retention ponds that simply hold extra water, a
rain garden catches runoff from rainstorms that contain pesticides,
fertilizers, oil, and heavy metals. And it produces clean water to drain into
Grand Lake. Building a rain garden
requires digging out a small area, putting in layers of sand, then soil, and
topped with a collection of colorful and hardy native plants, all to latch onto
toxic chemicals. The plants are
particularly good at soaking up heavy metals like lead and arsenic and the sandier
components leave space for the water to drain and trap toxic chemicals on their
surfaces. Like the carbon-filtering water pitchers we
have in our refrigerators. The filtering is effective up to 99 years for many
substances.[3] Amazing good news!
3) Native plants reducing soil erosion – One of the large-scale, terrible effects of storms,
coastal hurricanes or inland tornados is the amount of soil eroded and swept
into rivers. The Gulf of Mexico
water has a large "dead zone," where there is so little oxygen that fishing is
threatened – a problem all of us shrimp and seafood lovers ought to be
aware of. Anything we can do, like
growing plants that are native to our region, can help to reduce the soil that
washes away each year. What we do
locally can have far-reaching effects.
4) Buy Local Food – Do you buy strawberries in November, tomatos in February? These luxuries (though they don't always taste that great) are flown and trucked thousands of gas guzzling miles to our super-grocery stores. I can't wait for the farmer's trucks to appear sprinkled throughout Grove and surrounding to buy fresh produce and to see the fruits of our congregation's gardens.
5) Walking and biking trails – Wouldn't it be nice if the green spots in Grove (parks, etc.)
were connected by walking/biking paths so that we could get more exercise and
get from one place to another and use our cars less? We could thank our city for putting in sidewalks where
possible and encouraging the increase of this practice.
6) Recycling – Recycling gets a bum rap, especially when stories appear about recyclables getting dumped into the same landfill as our other waste. But we can all reduce, reuse, and recycle some of our trash. We can pay attention to the purchases we make and try to pick out things that have less packaging. I use my endless supply of Wal-mart bags for wastebasket liners, recycle my glass and newspapers. Of course, that's just a drop in the bucket, but it is my responsibility to keep doing it.
We
do all these things not for ourselves alone, but for future generations. Following Jesus today means reducing
our "ecological footprints" wherever we can. The earth does matter to God and all its creatures great and
small. Listen to my favorite resurrection
poem from E.E. Cummings:
i
thank You God for most this amazing
day:
for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and
a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which
is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i
who have died am alive again today,
and
this is the sunÕs birthday, this is the birth
day
of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great
happening illimitably earth)
how
should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing
any – lifted from the no
of
all nothing – human merely being
doubt
unimaginable You?
(now
the ears of my ears awake and
now
the eyes of my eyes are opened)[4]
God's great and mysterious "Yes!" of Easter reverberates
throughout creation and is echoed by poets and scientists, by artists and
ecologists, by wondering children and amazed grown-ups. As Jesus said often
– Let anyone with ears listen and live. Hear God's "yes!" of life
overcoming the "no" of death. And
all the people said – Yes! and Amen!
[1] from the
hymn ÒTouch the Earth LightlyÓ by Shirley Erena Murray. In Every Corner Sing, 1992.
[2] http://www.earthday.net/footprint/index.asp , accessed on 4/18/07.
[3] http://grandlakefun.com/cleargrand/RainGardens.htm,
accessed on 4/16/07.
[4] E.E. Cummings (1894-1962), Òi thank You God for most this amazingÓ