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Sermon “Reading Scripture with an Ecological Eye-part 1”
for Northwood United Church, Surrey
Second Sunday after Epiphany Year A,
January 15, 2023
John 1:29-34; Psalm 40:1 - 11
The Reverend Dr. Dorothy A. Jeffery
Prayer of illumination
Between the words that I speak,
And words that you hear
May the Holy Spirit move and bring you new visions
AMEN
It is along time since I have been with you in gathered faith community. It is good to see you again and meet new people. I have however kept in touch through weekly newsletters that Scott sends out to your community and subscribers like me. I know that you have a new Vision statement for Northwood United Church which includes
NORTHWOOD’S VISION & MISSION (Revised 2022)
VISION: Embracing all of God’s Creation with the love of Christ
I am delighted to see this vision, since it dovetails nicely with what I want to offer you in word (and potential actions).
Visions are a way we assess our current situation and plan how we may move into a desired future. As a faith community we listen to God and discern what we can faithfully do to respond to God’s will.
For visions to be effective they need to be specific, and actionable. Sounds all very prosaic and within our control. But we humbly know the future is not within our control and often not defined by our past actions.
The earth and all that is in it are facing an existential crisis: Climate change has gone to being climate crisis, no longer can it be denied, no longer does it affect only other countries – the evidence is right here in Canada – extreme weather events (hot and cold, wet and dry), floods and fires, melting glaciers and permafrost.
The crisis seems so big that we don’t know what to do about it. Add to this that in 1967 a writer Lynn White wrote an oft quoted article that blamed Climate change largely on the Western Christian worldview.
His seminal article The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis essentially established the academic study of religion and nature. He argued that religions—particularly Western Christianity—are a major cause of the worldwide ecological crises.
If we are to halt, let alone reverse, anthropogenic damages to the environment, we need to radically transform religious cosmologies.
Another voice, John Muir, an eco theologian said “The earth we are told, was made especially for man – a presumption not supported by all the facts
In his reflection John Muir asks
“Why should man value himself as more than a small part of the one great unit of creation?
And what creature of all that the Lord has taken the pains to make is not essential to the completeness of that unit—the cosmos?
The universe would be incomplete without man; but it would also be incomplete without the smallest microscopic creature that dwells beyond our conceitful prideful eyes and knowledge.
From the dust of the earth, from a common elementary fund, the Creator has made Homo sapiens.
From the same material [God] has made every other creature, however noxious and insignificant to us.
They are earth-born companions …
As Christians our worldview is shaped by the way we read the bible. The way we read the bible is interpretative. Each week we hear our ministers interpret to us. There are many ways to read and interpret the bible. As United Church people we believe the bible is inspired by God but is also living word with changing meaning for us over time.
The ancient document we call the bible has a surplus of meaning – though we think we know the message of the bible there are many other meanings that careful study and reading can reveal. There is much more in the biblical text than the traditional reading of the scripture.
Many times, we read a passage and quickly move to the familiar story.
The way of reading the bible that Lynn White spoke of is that the bible is only about God and his people to exclusion of all else. This has never been my way of reading the bible.
We are officially into the season of EPIPHANY, the season of manifestation of the Christ. We all have heard and received different Advent messages. For me two phrases linger for me from Advent “we are spiritually wired for love”, and “we are called to widen our hearts". Today a want to talk to you about widening your hearts to love all of the created order of the universe.
Thomas Berry, the famous eco theologian said
“We need to move from a spirituality of alienation from the natural world to a spirituality of intimacy with it,
from a spirituality of the divine as revealed [only] in verbal revelation to a spirituality of the divine as [also] revealed in the visible world about us,
from a spirituality of concern with justice simply to humans to a justice that includes the larger Earth community.”
As Christians we believe that God created … everything animate and inanimate, and it was good.
As protestant Christians we believe that God reveals God’s self through the bible, the “Living word”, the bible inspired by God and interpreted by us.
Catholics have an earlier natural philosophy from Saint Francis of Assisi (1182- 1226) quoted in opening prayer.
Natural theology (or natural philosophy) teaches that God can be known by reason.
Unfortunately, White’s thinking about the ecological crisis, for many has engendered guilt in Christians to the extent that some of us fail to mention our faith in the context of regular conversations. For some of we fail to connect our faith of the physical environment.
To counter that kind of thinking I want to offer you an alternate reading of scripture “An ecological reading of scripture". I did not invent it; early credit goes to the late Sallie McFague, Sister Elaine Wainwright and Jane Dawson.
I am taking it as a challenge to read the appointed lectionary text with an ecological lens. After years of reading scripture in a human centered way this is a challenge worthy to take up and to offer to you.
A definition of ecology may be useful here:
Ecology is the relationship all things to the to each other and can be thought of as the web of life – in which we are all immersed.
Ecological eyes see the interconnecting of all in systems. Our human perspectives are far too much views of human needs and in religious sense how the spiritual realm interacts with us, that is a sort of tunnel vision.
I have found myself reading with ecological eyes even in my recreational reading of novels, subliminally chosen from my box of books to read. Most recently I read Barbara Kingsolver’s book “Flight behaviour”. I read immersively, slowly, savoring the story. I don't rush to the ending, rather I live within the story. Perhaps I am wired / predisposed to reading with an ecological eye. Reading with an Ecological eye requires looking for detail, and depth even when it is only a small portion of the whole text.
The first and simplest step in reading scripture ecologically is to bring the background forward. You might contrast this to a walk or drive down a road where you see only the destination and fail to notice the trees along the way.
By making the earth the centre of our focus, not just the human part we can make the earth a character in the biblical story. This is shifting our gaze with idea of essentially bringing elements that are often in the background into the foreground.
Ecological hermeneutics (interpretation) – putting Earth at the centre by bringing the background into the foreground is the first step we will consider today.
Similar to more conventional interpretation we can also consider
Time
Place
Action
Context
As well as connecting to our time and our home places.
These are other steps to engage later in this journey of biblical interpretation.
Today I have chosen the psalm for this day, Psalm 40.
Reading Psalm 40 almost immediately at verse 2 you hear about the earth, so this is a place to bring the background forward. It is a metaphor for certain - a metaphor but that is no reason to ignore what the scripture is saying about the earth in an ecological reading.
The meaning of some words may have changed over time since they were used in the ancient scriptures. Some of the words in this verse are worth looking at their root meaning. I am using the NRSV which is a version of the bible considered to best translation of the ancient scripture without layering in the translator’s interpretation.
Psalm 40:2 He drew me up from the desolate pit,
out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
I bet you are wondering what a “miry bog” is or if you have been caught in one. Not a word I use.
Where would you find a “desolate pit”?
Reading through verse 2 in order here are some ancient meanings for these words. This may help us to understand the use by the author of the scripture and also to imagine what their context was.
**H7588 horrible in KJV, desolate in NRSV
shâ'ôn
shaw-one'
From H7582; uproar (as of rushing); by implication destruction: - X horrible, noise, pomp, rushing, tumult (X -uous).
Total KJV occurrences:18 יָוֵן
H953 Pit**
בּוֹר
bôr bore
From H952 (in the sense of H877); a pit hole (especially one used as a cistern or prison): - cistern, dungeon, fountain, pit, well.
Total KJV occurrences: 69
**H3121 Miry
יָוֵן
yâvên
yaw-ven'
From the same as H3196; properly dregs (as effervescing); hence mud: - mire, miry.
Total KJV occurrences: 2
**H2916 clay appears in KJV rather than bog of NRSV
טִיט
ṭı̂yṭ
teet
From an unused root meaning apparently to be sticky (rather perhaps a denominative from H2894, through the idea of dirt to be swept away); mud or clay; figuratively calamity: - clay, dirt, mire.
Total KJV occurrences: 13
**V. 2 a rock H5553
סֶלַע sela‛ seh'-lah
From an unused root meaning to be lofty;
a craggy rock, literally or figuratively (a fortress): - (ragged) rock, stone (-ny), strong hold.
Total KJV occurrences: 61
“Rock appears many times in Hebrew and Christian (Greek language) scriptures but many in other context or meaning. Strong #6697, 4581, 2497, 4073
**H3559 established
כּוּן
kûn
koon
A primitive root; properly to be erect (that is, stand perpendicular);. hence (causatively) to set up, in a great variety of applications, whether literal (establish, fix, prepare, apply), or figurative (appoint, render sure, proper or prosperous): - certain (-ty), confirm, direct, faithfulness, fashion, fasten, firm, be fitted, be fixed, frame, be meet, ordain, order, perfect, (make) preparation, prepare (self), provide, make provision, (be, make) ready, right, set (aright, fast, forth), be stable, (e-) stablish, stand, tarry, X very deed.
Total KJV occurrences: 217
Psalm 40:2 He drew me up from the desolate pit,
out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
This kind of word study can help us get a sense of the image the original author has in mind, but we can never know for sure. In our modern use of a word an entirely different image may come to mind.
I have a varied background, in the 1960's I studied pharmacy when our focus was on the physical and chemical properties of medicines and their preparation (compounding) into useable and safe forms. Today pharmacy students study the human body physiology.
It is interesting that reading scripture with an ecological eye requires seeing the physical part of scripture which interconnects body mind and spirit in God's creation. No interconnection is to be overlooked the circle of knowledge the circle of life.
So, what do I see in this verse 2 about the earth or from the earth’s perspective.
“from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.”
This miry bog may be a slippery hole of clay and water. One of the properties of clay is that when mixed with water it can be a slippery mixture on which no one can stand, a person (or animal) can be caught. We might think of it as a “sink” hole, a trap. In this slippery place we become unbalanced The animal or person cannot stand.
One of the uses of wet clay today is as a lubricant in oil drilling. But when the clay dries whatever is encased can be imprisoned, not able to escape without considerable effort.
Moving on in verse 2 (someone God, ourselves, a branch from an adjacent tree) assists in re-balancing. Today the world is struggling with ecological crises all over – re-balancing is needed – what is our part? It may be an individual effort that spreads to and impacts others.
A member of my bible study group gave a personal example of impacts on the environment by actions of one spreading to many. One person can start a new thing ecologically. As a boy he with scouts collected newspapers for recycling. This evolved into the “Blue box” and “Yellow bag” recycling program. In most towns and cities this recycling program thrives, but it was initiated years ago by the actions of a few. Boy scouts have moved on to other programs for ecological healing.
Another single voice has led to worldwide movements. Most of us know of Greta Thunberg. One word can spark a convergence of interests.
Just this past Monday on CBC Radio One (the Current) started a series on Optimism with good news stories about the ecological crisis. This new series called Reasons for Optimism, look at where to find hope and promise in the sometimes grim world around us.
The first guest was Donna Strickland, from the University of Waterloo in Ontario. She won the 2018 Nobel Prize in physics for her research on lasers. Now she launching a new project aimed at restoring trust in science. Trust is a secure footing for communications through science, or in our case in church in learning as a faith community.
https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-63/clip/15958675
The Current January 9, 2023, link to listen.
Psalm 40.2 may be the ecological good news of sermon. The pit and desolation are overcome by the stability of a rock. From there we can widen our view to the who created order. Imagine the Lion King old or young lion standing of the promontory rock and viewing the Circle of life that we talked about in “the time 4 Young at Heart”.
The Circle of Life is not a concrete thing you can point to or look at. Rather, it's a symbolic term for the series of events that unfolds on earth, bringing us from cradle to grave, through ups and downs, love and misfortune, and so on.
The Circle of Life is greater than all of us, and yet we are all connected to it. From the smallest ant to the largest antelope, we're all just living in this world and trying to make our own way. We see animals of all shapes and sizes traveling to Simba's presentation. Although they're all extremely different, these animals exist together in a peaceful and beautiful harmony that mirrors the Circle of Life itself.
This ties neatly with many of the themes of spirituality and interspecies inter-connectedness.
"When we die, our bodies become the grass. And the antelope eat the grass. And so, we are all connected in the great Circle of Life."
So, as we live in this uncertain time may we be lifted up by our neighbours, be respectful of creation, see with a new perspective of Ecological eyes and trust that we, with God’s guidance, live in love.