The Earth Is the Lord s: Creation Care Genesis 1:20-28; Psalm 8 A Guide for Daily Reading and Meditation A Prayer for Every Day Gracious God, Creator of all that is good and beautiful, we thank you that we can see glimpses of you in your creation, which is all around us. We are truly blessed to be living in a place like Maryland where your presence can be seen so readily, from the beauty of old, inspiring mountains to lush valleys, fertile land and the waters of the rivers, the bay and the ocean. Help us as a people to never grow complacent in our love and care for your world. May we take seriously your first request of us to be caretakers of creation and not users and abusers of it. As we claim restoration and salvation for our personal lives, may we also claim it for the earth you gave us. Help us to live in balance with all of nature. Guide us and give us wisdom as we seek to renew ourselves, our commitment to you and our place in creation. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. 1 MONDAY Read Genesis 1:20-28 And God said, "Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky." 21 So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. 24 And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind." And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." 27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." Read this passage at least twice today. Preferably on paper, note your feelings with each verse, perhaps allowing these questions to guide you: How does God s action in each creative moment speak to you? What does it mean to you to be made in the image of God, especially in the context of the fullness of creation? Write just a couple of lines of prayer in response to this old, old story. 1 The Prayer for Every Day is adapted from a prayer by Rev. Gordon Salsman, Calvary Baptist Church, Denver, CO as found at www.eco-justice.org/pray-001.asp
TUESDAY Read Psalm 8 1 O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. 2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger. 3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; 4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? 5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. 6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. 9 O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! Both of the readings from Genesis 1 and Psalm 8 use the word dominion in relation to humans and the rest of creation, a word that has sometimes been misunderstood and misapplied. In last Sunday s Great Thanksgiving, we heard this: You set us free to live in your garden, and gave us dominion over all other creatures. You put us in your garden to till it and to keep it. But we have treated your garden as if it were ours, and we have exploited and damaged it to please our own desires. That portion of the prayer was a confession of how we have misapplied dominion. In his book, The Message of the Psalms, Walter Brueggemann, a nationally respected Hebrew Testament scholar, theologian and author beautifully articulates a theology of dominion that is in keeping with the whole of scripture. He writes: 1. It is widely thought that this psalm is closely related to Gen. 1:1-2:4a, i.e., to the mainstream of creation faith. As the Bible starts with a line of defence against chaos, so our understanding of the Psalms begins with the celebration of good order. In both texts humanity stands at the crucial center of that good order. 2. The humankind here celebrated is royal personhood. Probably Psalm 8 originated in the celebration of safe, luxuriant court circles. But now it is a mandate for all humankind to have authority and responsibility to order and care for God s world. 2 As creatures made in God s image, dominion gives us responsibility, not license. We are to order and care for creation with the same purposes of God. That is, as God s partners, we are to care lovingly and protectively for the creation. A blog that I read in preparation for this week quotes from When Heaven and Nature Sing by Edward R. Brown, further illustrating this point: The actions, purposes and goals we pursue in our management of God s creation must reflect God s purposes for us. We should be pursuing God s goals for creation and we can best do that by looking at the goals God has as he cares for us. It s like a creation-wide version of the golden rule: Not just that we should do unto others as we want them to do unto us but that we should care for all of creation as God cares for us. He goes on to write, God s care for us is in every case almost the opposite of how we act toward creation. God gives; we take. God seeks our best. Those God cares for blossom and flourish under his care. We, by contrast, seek from creation what is best for ourselves. Creation withers and dies under our hands. To what action does this theology of creation call you? 2 Walter Brueggemann, The Message of the Psalms, copyright 1984, Augsburg Publishing House. Page 37.
WEDNESDAY Read Psalm 8, verses 1 and 9 (above) What does it say (mean) to you that this Psalm begins and ends the same way? What does the majesty of God s name have to do with creation? Rewrite this sentence in your own words. THURSDAY Spend some time today considering your personal/household efforts at caring for the earth. Need some ideas? Explore this resource from Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake entitled The Chesapeake Bay Begins in Your Own Backyard: http://goo.gl/fkxnb5 The EPA offers this list for Taking Care of the Earth Every Day: Taking Care of the Earth Every Day The US Environmental Protection Agency You can do lots of good things for the earth. Here are ideas to keep in mind. o Keep Your Neighborhood Clean If you see trash on the ground, toss it in a trash can. o Recycle Cans, Bottles, and Paper Save them at home and at school, and help your family recycle them. o Help Keep the Air Clean Ride your bike or walk to school. Too many cars cause a lot of pollution. o Save Paper Use both sides of your paper at school and at home. To clean up messes, use sponges or washable cloths instead of paper towels. o Help Save Water Don't leave the water running while you brush your teeth. o Help Save Energy Turn off the lights when you leave the room. Turn off the TV when you're finished watching it. Don't leave the refrigerator door open. Get what you want quickly. And Remember Don t ever think you re not important to our earth. You are! One of the most precious of earth s resources is water. GreenFaith: Interfaith Partners for the Environment offers Top Ten Tips for Water Conservation: 1. Calculate your water footprint. (See http://goo.gl/krey4x for a tool) 2. Replace showerheads. Install low-flow showerheads, rated 1.5 gallons per minute (gpm) or less. 3. Install aerators. Screw aerators rated at 1.5 gpm onto your faucets. 4. Use toilet tank banks. Reduce water used per flush with these flexible inserts placed in the tank.
5. Go WaterSense. This certification ensures your appliances are the most water efficient in their class. (See https://www3.epa.gov/watersense/) 6. Turn it off! Shut off water when soaping up, shaving, washing dishes or brushing teeth. If you let it run to warm up/cool down, collect it for other uses. 7. Wash dishes wisely. Scrape, don t rinse, dishes before using the dishwasher. Plug up the sink/basin if washing dishes by hand. 8. Wash clothes with less. Do only full loads of laundry, or lower the water setting to match the size of the load. 9. Check for leaks. Each month check all appliances for leaks. 10. Avoid the garbage disposal! Collect food waste in a drain trap. FRIDAY Once again, get outside today or sometime over the weekend. In keeping with the notes last week about Rev. Eugene Peterson, take a small notebook with you and either sketch a leaf or flower or clump of moss or jot a phrase-prayer that expresses your feelings about your noticing God s handiwork. A phrase-prayer might look like one of these or could be a poetic string of similar phrases: Thank you, God, for that brilliant shade of green. Wow! That moss is incredibly delicate. Thank you. Yellow vibrant and warm. My heart is glad. ~ Rev. Vivian McCarthy, Pastor Reisterstown UMC April 10, 2016