Ask the Animals

"But ask the animals, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you; ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Creator of Life has done this? In God's hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being.

"But ask the animals, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you; ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you."

As we gather here in this lovely park today I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to share with you once more some of my own passion for God's creation.

We began our worship this morning with a "time for listening" to the music that surrounds here.

I also wanted to remind you that before this lovely park was here - before the farmers were here - before the loggers stripped the land, there was here in this place a forest that began it's life probably long before the first two legged stood erect.

Listen if you will again, listen for the rustling in the leaves of ancient trees and shrubs that's not been heard here for decades or centuries.

[PAUSE]

The Church of the Brethren statement "Creation: Called to Care", the United Church of Christ "Priority on the Integrity of Creation, Justice and Peace," and the Disciples of Christ's resolution on Becoming Sustainable Churches all recognize that Christian concern for the environment is shaped by

* the Word of God spoken in creation so beautifully painted for us at the Beginning of the John Gospel,

* the Love of God hanging on a cross, and

* the Breath of God daily renewing the face of the earth so passionately spoken by Paul.

Virtually every "main line" national church confesses that both our witness to God's goodness in creation and our acceptance of responsibility to care and sustain have often been weak and uncertain.

Central to our vision of God's profound involvement with the world we have been born into is the Incarnation.

In Christ, the Word - that "essence of God" through which all creation happens --- The Word is made flesh, proclaims the John Gospel. This incarnation has a significance not just for the two legged creatures, but as Paul so passionately proclaims in Romans 8: the entire creation longs to be released from the bondage of the current time. And so it is yet today that all creation groans to be "saved" from oppression and abuse by the human ones.

The living Word still comes to us in the waters of baptism, and in, with, and through the bread and wine, fruits of the cooperative work of the earth, the seeds, the rain, the air, and the work of human hands.

God perpetually meets us where we live, through the earthy matter that is the sustenance of our lives and the delight of our senses.

Humanity is intimately related to the rest of creation.

Our Hebrew stories remind us that we, like other creatures, are formed from the earth. Scripture speaks of humanity's kinship with other creatures and God cares faithfully for us, and together we join in singing the "hymn of all creation". We look forward to a redemption what includes all creation.

Humans, in service to God, have special roles on behalf of the whole of creation. Made in the image of God, we are called to care for the earth as God cares for the earth. God's command to humanity at the conclusion of the book of Genesis creation story has traditionally been understood as a command to dominate and subjugate - to conquer - the earth.

More recently, Biblical scholars and Christian Theologians have expressed the view that experience and careful reading of Scripture demonstrate that this is not a license, as has popularly understood for the past 1500 years, to dominate and exploit. The human dominion referred to in Genesis 1 and Psalm 8, are in fact a special responsibility, and need to be understood in light of what we know of God's way of ruling in our own times as the sovereign whose sovereignty takes the form of a servant, caring, healing, accepting and loving.

In the story of the flood, Noah understood God's will "to save life" as extending to "every living thing, birds, four legged and two legged land animals, every creeping thing, and every kind of food that is eaten." And if there is one thing that life and even a cursory examination of the way the world works has taught me, it is that God intended that in our time, we are all to be food.

There is nothing that God's love has brought into being that is not food for others at some point, and usually throughout in its life cycle.

Our national park and wildlife systems, the endangered species act, control of toxics released into our world are the Noah's Ark of our day and our culture. We must not punch holes in the bottoms of these all too inadequate efforts to protect what amounts to the last four percent of the U.S. mainland that has not become part of the "built environment."

We are called in Psalm 8 to live according to God's wisdom in creation, Sophia God who brings together God's truth and goodness.

Wisdom, Sophia, is God's way of governing creation. It is discerned in every culture and era in various ways. In our time, science and technology can help us to discover how to live according to God's creative wisdom.

Such caring, serving, keeping, loving, and living by wisdom sum up what is meant by acting as God's stewards of the earth. God's gift of responsibility for the earth dignifies humanity without debasing the rest of creation. We depend upon God, who places us in a vast interconnected web of life where connections and interdependencies are so infinitely complex and full of God's mystery that it is highly improbable that humanity will ever understand the full scope and nature our relationships with one another and with all creation.

Aldo Leopold, and early 20th century "conservationist wrote in the foreword to his spirit-filled reflection on his relationship with the world around him, The Sand County Almanac:

There are some who can live without wild things, some who cannot.

Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question of whether a 'higher standard of living' is worth its cost in things natural, wild, and free. For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important than television, and the chance to find a pasqueflower us a right as inalienable as free speech -- and I would say more inalienable than the strange notion of "private property and the "right" to develop" any land holding in a world our scriptures remind us "belongs" to our God: The earth is The Sovereign God's and the fullness thereof.

The wild things, says Leopold, I admit, had little human value until mechanization assured us of a good breakfast, and until science ( I would add hearing with "new ears" the wisdom of the stories of relationships told by indigenous peoples) disclosed the drama of where they come from and how they live. The whole conflict thus boils down to a question of degree. We of the minority see a law of diminishing returns in progress . . .

Leopold also reminds us that, "When the last corner lot is covered with tenements we can still make a playground or even park by tearing them down, but when the last antelope goes by the board, not all the playground associations in Christendom can do ought to replace the loss."

Given the power of sin and evil in this world, given the complexity of and our inability to fully comprehend environmental problems - we must in frustration admit that there is no "quick fix"-- technological, economic, or spiritual. A sustainable world requires a sustained effort from everyone.

The prospect of doing too little too late leads many people to despair. The feeling of powerlessness can discourage even the most concerned and good hearted person.

But as people of faith, captives of hope, and vehicles of God's promise, we face the reality of what the animals and plants have to tell us as they become extinct at the rate of three per hour - a holocaust for God's creation. We claim the promise of "a new heaven and a new earth" in Revelations and we remember the Wisdom from the book of Job: