WALKING GENTLY ON THE EARTH
(Preached on Sunday, April 26, 2009)
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet,... -Psalm 8:6
A Baptist preacher and his wife decided they needed a dog. Ever mindful of the congregation, they knew the dog must also be Baptist. They visited an expensive kennel and explained their needs to the manager, who assured them he had just the dog for them. The dog was produced and the manager said “Fetch the Bible.” The dog bounded to the bookshelf, scrutinized the books, located the Bible, and brought it to the manager. The manager then said,, “Find Psalms 23.” The dog, showing marvelous dexterity with his paws, leafed through the Bible, found the correct passage, and pointed to it with his paw. Duly impressed the couple purchased the dog. That evening a group of parishioners came to visit. The preacher and his wife began to show off the dog, having him locate several Bible verses. The visitors were amazed. Finally, one man asked, “Can he do normal dog tricks, too?” “Let’s see,” said the preacher. Pointing his finger at the dog, he commanded “Heel!” The dog immediately jumped up on a chair, placed one paw on the preacher’s forehead and began to howl. The preacher turned to his wife and exclaimed, “Good grief, we’ve bought a Pentecostal dog!”
Today as we gather in the Easter season to celebrate God’s good creation, and especially our brothers and sisters in the animal kingdom who live with us as companions and family in our homes, I want to invite you to listen to them to hear what they might teach us about our Creator. Thomas Berry, a Catholic priest who is also a geologist, has reminded us that the original scripture is creation itself in its infinite unfolding of divine creativity.
These are not new insights. The ancient Hebrews understood this view, as witnessed in the Psalm we shared this morning. In Psalm 8 the poet is reflecting on the majesty and sovereignty of God, not as witnessed in the mighty acts of God in the history of the Israelite people, but rather as experienced in the glories of the created world. All the earth bears witness to God’s majestic name and presence. God’s glory shines down from the heavens and bubbles up from the babbling of babies. When the poet looks up at the heavens at night, at the moon and all the countless stars, she begins to feel very insignificant as a mortal human being and wonders who we are in the scheme of God’s vast and infinite universe. How dare we even consider that God should even think about us or care for us? And yet, she realizes, we are the crown of God’s creation. We have been created only a little below God. In fact, God has made us responsible for all the rest of the world, for everything else in this world which God has created — all the animals, all the plant life, all the oceans and rivers, everything. God has placed it all under our feet. Wow! What a responsibility! Are you ready for that?
It has become more and more evident that the real question is, are we ready for that responsibility as a species? For far too long we have interpreted such statements in the scripture as suggesting that we were given the right to do whatever we wanted with the natural world. Over the centuries, too many people have used the gifts of this earth with little thought to the consequences of how they were using them. We have abused its resources — air, water, minerals, land, animals, birds & fish — as though we had no responsibility for their welfare or care, as though we were not intended to be stewards, shepherds, gardeners, caretakers. We thought the earth infinite in its ability to renew itself, to bear our thoughtless consumption and waste, to support our extravagant consumption. We treated the natural world as though it lacked any sacred nature, any divinity.
But the earth is a gift most precious from the God most loving, who also gave us Jesus as a gift most precious, another gift which we abused and rejected and killed. One can argue we have done all this out of ignorance, but it does not change the harmful nature of our greed and our inability to live love. Thomas Berry suggests that “an absence of a sense of the sacred is the basic flaw in many of our efforts at ecologically or environmentally adjusting our human presence to the natural world. It has been said, ‘We will not save what we do not love.’ It is also true that we will neither love nor save what we do not experience as sacred.” As a result, Father Berry suggests “we find ourselves in a critical moment when the religious traditions need to awaken again to the natural world as the primary manifestation of the divine to human intelligence. The very nature and purpose of the human is to experience this intimate presence that comes to us through natural phenomena... Everywhere we find ourselves invaded by the world of the sacred... Eventually only our sense of the sacred will save us.”
This is the Easter season. We have been reminded of God’s resurrection power which demonstrates it is never too late with God. Even death is not the end, will not ultimately triumph, for God holds the victory and there is always the possibility for more life. That does not mean we are off the hook and can continue merrily in our ignorance as we have. More and more we are confronted with the unhealthy affects of our behavior, for ourselves and for the planet. Easter means there is the possibility for us, though, of repenting. Repentance means ever so much more than feeling guilty. Guilt is an emotion, and repentance is an action. When we are called to repent, the question before us is, “How ill we behave differently, now that we know?” “How can we live more gently upon this earth, our home, and the sacred vessel for holding the precious presence of God?”
To help us begin to reclaim our ability to see the sacred in the natural world around us, let me close with a story. It is about a ministry of transformation that a hospice chaplain discovered with one of her patients. Lucille was a “Master Gardener.” Together she and the chaplain would page through gardening magazines like children giggling at holiday toy catalogs. One afternoon, after seeing a picture of a monarch butterfly in a magazine, Lucille asked about their life cycle. The chaplain went home and researched it. When she returned a few days later with her new knowledge, Lucille’s physical deterioration was quite noticeable. As she listened to what the chaplain had learned about the life cycle of the monarch, her lethargy appeared to be replaced with vitality. The chaplain discovered a patch of milkweed on her way back to Lucille’s a few days later, the plant monarch’s love to munch when they are caterpillars. Sure enough, she found a mammoth caterpillar munching a leaf and she pinched the leaf and took the caterpillar with some extra leaves to Lucille. Lucille was exhilarated by the gift and she spent her days observing the caterpillar in its jar home. The next time the chaplain visited the caterpillar had been replaced by a green chrysalis encircled with golden thread. As they watched its transformation over time, they shared an intimate dialogue about sorrow, regret, fear, and then hope, joy, and expectancy. When the butterfly eventually emerged, Lucille invited a group of friends and family to participate in a “butterfly releasing” party. Lucille’s physical condition deteriorated rapidly after that. The chaplain would sit quietly beside her; at times she would open her eyes and smile faintly, reaching for the chaplain’s hand. The last time they were together Lucille whispered, “I am getting closer.” With a soft voice the chaplain asked, “Closer to what?” Lucille replied, “I am closer to becoming a butterfly.”
Our God is a glorious Creator, and yes, God has given us responsibility for the creation and placed it under our feet. But God’s fingerprints are all over that creation and God’s presence permeates it and fills it with divinity, so that it is sacred and holy. Therefore, let us walk gently on the earth, with our eyes and ears and hearts open to seeing the divine within the natural world, and let us treasure it for the sacred and holy gift which it is.