4th OF EASTER AND EARTH SUNDAY MEDITATION
by Angela Clifton
This is the Season of Easter. The lesson from this season is that death is not final, that life renews itself. Life is a
cycle. A tree grows through a season, it leafs out, fruit ripens and is picked, then the branches go barren, the tree
seemingly dies, until the next spring when it is reborn with delicate buds. And the caterpillar that ate the leaves of the
tree in summer, encloses itself in a hard shell in fall, waits through the winter, and is reborn in spring as a beautiful
butterfly. We are all part of something greater than our own short lives.
Today is Earth Day. Some churches call it Creation Sunday or Good Seed Sunday. But Earth Day began as a political
movement 45 years ago, and some now believe that the environment is a secular topic, or a political issue, and thus we
have no business addressing it in Church. And that may be. Faith and Nature: I think that reading the Bible shows us
that our relationship to the environment is fundamental to the Christian faith. We don't even have to read beyond the
first sentence in the book of Genesis to see that environment and faith in God are tied together: "In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth." And all that is in it. Our environment exists as a Divine act, and "God saw
everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good."
And we know that in the second chapter we read: "God planted a garden in Eden, and there he put the humans he had
formed to till and keep it." We, too, are here as stewards of this earth. The Earth, God's creation, this Eden, is not
ours, but it is ours to tend, and to care for. If we tend it well, it will provide for us. The earth will feed us; but it is not a
pantry shelf, a grocery store or a fast-food restaurant. It is a garden: and we must work in it, if we are to be supported by
it. Some call this story a Creation Myth, and by "myth" they mean a falsehood, a fiction. But I believe that myths are
stories which contain the deepest, unchanging truths, even if the details of the story cannot always be proven. The
Creation story contains a truth that our modern science has proven: our life depends on the health of the planet. We
need clean air, and water, and food and all that the earth provides if we are to survive, be healthy, and thrive.
Nature provides us with more than a life support system. A continued reading of the Bible shows that nature is a
central player in the stories and events that inform our faith: the Flood and Noah who took responsibility for all the
creatures of the earth; the revelations that Abraham, Moses and Jesus received while in the vastness of the sand and
stars of the desert; Jonah being saved by a whale; the importance of water, whether it was struck from a rock or the
crossing of the Jordan or the baptisms performed by John.
These are but a few of the examples of how nature defines and informs our faith. I have not even touched on the
Psalms and the glory of creation that inspires so many of them. We encounter God in nature. Job, when put to the test,
retreats to the wilderness. His supposed friends ask him how he will find righteousness there; the answer: "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."
Nature and Humanity: We are meant to be connected to nature, as part of our worship, as part of our calling, as part of
our sustenance. But we have lost, or are losing, that connection; and we do so at our peril, both physically and
spiritually. The author, Richard Louv, wrote "Last Child in the Woods." He makes the compelling case that children
need to spend more time outdoors exploring creation. The author, writes this: "nature--the sublime, the harsh, and the
beautiful--offers something that the computer game cannot. Nature presents the young with something so much greater
than they are; it offers an environment where they can easily contemplate infinity and eternity." I have to put in a plug:
for Today is also Camping Sunday – that day to think about how we can send our children to camp.
And of course it is not just the young that can get this from nature. I realized in writing this that it has been a long time
since I had spent a sustained time in nature. And I realize that some of my own spiritual malaise, my preoccupations
with certain tasks, and my over-inflated sense of all the things I have to do – You know the line “You wouldn’t believe
how busy I’ve been”. This might be cured by a walk outside, rather than a long meeting or a day spent with a canoe
paddle rather than a laptop.
Stewardship: So what have we done to be good stewards of the Garden? Well, the good news is that since the first
Earth Day in 1970 we, as a people, have done some impressive things to clean up our air, remove toxic pollutants from
our foods, protect endangered species, and save some precious natural places. In our community, we are good at
recycling – it is automatic now. Here, too, we are doing a better job caring for the animals that enrich our lives. And we
all have more opportunities to eat healthier food and be more efficient in our use of fuel and energy. We have wind
turbines.
We have learned a lot about the environment. However, as we have gained more knowledge, we have lost some of our
motivation as the problems have become more difficult and more complex. These are called Wicked Problems – so
complex, there is not an easy solution. Sending a check to The Nature Conservation fund to buy a scenic forest or a
Mahone Bay Island is easy; protecting the waters of the Atlantic whitefish is much harder. Banning DDT took an act of
government, but what we should do to control greenhouses gasses is not as clear. Even after the winter we have had, I
think it is safe to say that global warming is here.
Climate Change: At the risk of talking about a politically charged topic, let me say a word about climate change, or
global warming. What we know for sure is that there is much more carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere now than
there was even 50 years ago. Most of it comes from burning fossil fuels. Our planet has warmed and our weather has
changed. We haven't fully figured out and weather and climate change, so we debate the impacts of global warming. I
don't know the answer to this problem; some people don't think it's a problem, and some deny it is even happening. I
would argue that we as a nation, as a people, are not able to fully comprehend, much less address, this issue because we
are thinking and talking about it only in political or scientific technical terms. To be sure there are political and scientific
dimensions to this issue, but it is, at root, a spiritual issue. If we were think about climate change as a moral issue, and
draw on the tools of our faith, and our scientific knowledge to seek solutions, we might be able to begin to move
toward an answer. Rather than partisan debates, the questions to ask are: what is our role in caring for Creation? Are
we grateful for the gifts, and the resources we have been given and are we using them in a way that keeps us and this
earth healthy? Are we being responsible in our stewardship to those with whom we share this Garden? Will the
goodness of the earth persist for the next generation and the generations after that?
Our Place in Nature. These questions come from looking at ourselves as God's children. We are a part of Creation; we
are not above or below Creation. If we ignore nature, we will neglect and abuse it, and this, as science tells us, will
endanger our existence. Putting humanity above nature is the curse of the modern technological age, and in the last
century we have been using nature as only an unconstrained consumer can. We have taken, and harvested, and eaten,
and burned, and otherwise used up the fruits of creation at a startling, extraordinary rate.
As the writer Wendell Berry says "The problem with us is not only prodigal extravagance but also an assumed
limitlessness. We have obscured the issue by refusing to see that limitlessness is a godly trait." As humans, our lives
have limits; only God is infinite and without boundary. To live, as we are living now, without regards to limits, is
disobedient of the command to be stewards.
But just as we should not put ourselves above nature, nor should we put ourselves below nature. We don't worship
Creation. We worship God in Creation. If we see God as separate from nature, or if we imagine nature without God,
then we get confused about our role. Our task is clear; our responsibilities are defined and unique. We are to be the
caretakers of Creation. Not the consumers of nature. Yes, we can, and must make use of nature, but we must do so in
a way that ensures not only the health and productivity of the garden, but also its long term sustainability. We need to
plant, weed, grow, and harvest the garden. But we must also mulch, plow, fertilize and ensure so that there is clean
water and air for the garden to thrive. Our children and our children's children, and all the children to come, need this
garden too.
And this is the point: we are part of a grand circle. Life is not linear. We are born and reborn, and at some point we
will roll forward, we will recycle into something bigger than we can comprehend, something beyond time and place. But
here and now we occupy this Garden, and our task is to tend the Garden. Thanks be to God, Amen