I leave behind even
my walking stick. My knife
is in my pocket, but that
I have forgot.
I bring no car, no cell phone,
no computer, no camera,
no CD player, no fax, no
TV, not even a book. I go
into the woods. I sit on
A log provided at no cost.
It is the earth itself, I’ve come to,
the earth itself, sadly
abused by the stupidity
Only humans are capable of
but, as ever, itself Free.
A bargain! Get it while it lasts.
[“Look It Over” by Wendell Berry. Leavings: Poems (Kindle Location 16). Kindle Edition].
A fine poem by one of America’s leading writers, Wendell Berry … who always reminds me of the basic things of life … stuff that counts … what’s important … truth to live on.
Creation …
It’s never just dirt and trees and water and storm and snow and oceans …
It’s creation … God’s creation!
And every bit of it is Holy Ground.
Which is why children love to run around without shoes.
Children are smart enough to know that it’s Holy Ground they run on … God’s good earth …
A little dirt between the toes … a little bit of God’s handwork ground into the soles of their feet …
Creation … God dreamed it up … and made it so.
God said, Let it be, and it is … full of life.
Creative and creating …
Beetles and bumblebees … humming birds and hawks … whales and walruses … lions and lemmings … alligators and aardvarks … all in their place, and a place for them all.
And when God was done with it all,
God wondered … can I yet make a creature?
To care for it, up close and personal?
A creature to be my hands and feet and mind and heart?
A creature who will love the world as I love it?
A creature who can take the raw stuff and cook it a little bit … take the clay and mold it … take a tree and cut it down with a prayer, because that tree has life, a part of my life … and with love, create a board to build a home … a plank to build a ship … a stave to build a barrel?
What does God want?
A creature to share God’s heart.
God’s heart for creation … and all of its creatures, great and small …
When it comes to creation, to be mindful … to be thoughtful about consuming … polluting … what we buy and what we throw away …
When it comes to our politicians, women and men who have a heart for creation, let us pray … they don’t have to be Christians, or Jews, or believe anything at all about God … but if they care about the earth, about air and water and land … how we farm it, how we mine it, how we use it - pay attention to politicians who care about the earth, and give them our support.
When it comes to corporations who mindlessly break the earth to please Wall Street, make our views known … protest irresponsible mining of the Appalachian Mountains for coal … the Niger Delta for oil … Peru for lead and copper … and the terrible smelting factories that belch out pollution sickening the population and killing the children in so many third-world nations.
What does God want?
A creature who shares God’s heart for creation.
A creature who understand justice … how to level the playing field …
A creature who looks upon the whole of the human race and sees only sisters and brothers … we’re all in the same race, if you will, the human race … we all share the same ancestors … our blood is red, our tears salty …
We all love our families and our friends … we all have hopes and dreams … we all lay awake at night fretting … and when someone tells a good joke, we laugh our heads off, and when someone close to us dies, we cry.
Justice … to be sure that everyone has a chance … remember the Year of Jubilee … when God told Israel to start the whole game over again - every 50 years - free the slaves, return property, cancel debt - restart the game, so those who have gotten much won’t have too much, and those who gained little won’t have too little.
We can be mindful of charities and their good work … when it comes to politicians, listen carefully to the message … to whom do their words cater? … is it to the wealthy who make a great show of their wealth as they walk up to the offering box in the temple to put in their bags of gold and demand the best seats in the house?
Or to the widow who gives her last two pennies?
Be mindful of the politicians and what they say …
What DOES God want?
God wants justice … and kindness.
What can be said about kindness? … we all know it when it happens … kindness heals a broken heart; helps a fallen friend … kindness forgives and kindness gives another chance … kindness rejoices with those who rejoice, and weeps with those who weep … kindness laughs a lot … restrains the mouth, restrains the hand on the keyboard … thinks before it speaks, and speaks with the heart of God.
Kindness …
That’s what God wants.
And to walk humbly with God … to presume nothing, receive everything …
Whatever we have, it’s been given … no matter how hard we’ve worked, it’s all by grace … call it chance, fate, luck, whatever …
Never a reason to pat ourselves on the back and look down on anyone else … Paul the Apostle put it well, I am what I am by God’s grace … and God’s grace hasn’t been for nothing. In fact, I’ve worked harder than all the others - that is, it wasn’t me but the grace of God that is with me [1 Corinthians 15.10].
In the Bible, we’re all just takers … as it should be, and God is the Maker, the Supreme Maker, the only maker of all things good and bright …
What does God want?
A creature who looks at hungry crowds and wonders they can be fed.
Those first disciples looked at the hungry crowd and got frightened … how can we feed so many? We have barely enough for ourselves. Send them away LORD. They can fend for themselves. They weren’t smart enough to bring extra food anyway, so it’s their problem Why should we worry? Send ‘em away.
And Jesus said, No, you feed them. You have what it takes. Don’t be afraid. You can do it. Take what you have and let it go. Be open-handed, and open-minded, and you’ll be surprised by what can happen. Besides, here I am. Have you no faith in what I can do with what you can give? Give it to me first, and then you can give it away to the hungry throngs, and I tell you this clearly and directly, they will be fed, they will be full, there will be leftovers, twelve baskets worth of leftovers - enough for another day … but nothing will happen if you give in to fear … if you think there won’t be enough for you; believe me, if that’s what you believe, there won’t be enough for you; you will starve to death on your own greed.
A friend of mine tells of the very first Easter Egg she and her young children were in … she went home discouraged, as she watched the children push and shove one another out of the way to get all the eggs they could.
When she became an early-childhood specialist, she arranged Easter Egg hunts with a twist: each child could find eight eggs, only eight, and then help those who hadn’t yet found eight eggs.
They learned to count, and they learned to help one another … lessons vital to the good life … life truly good, and life truly life.
What does God want?
Disciples who look upon the hunger of others with compassion and a determination to do something about it …
Disciples who don’t blame the hungry for their hunger … the poor for their poverty … the sick for their disease …
Disciples who look into the face of the naked and the bruised and see the face of Jesus who was himself crucified naked, and bruised by the whips of Rome.
What does God want?
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to answer the question … we can read it for ourselves … page after page of Scripture … the rich traditions of the Christian faith … our hymns and prayers …
Genesis 2.15-20; Micah 6.1-3, 6-16; Matthew 14.13-21
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist - it does take some courage … to open the doors, and let God have God’s way.
We can run, but we’ll never hide from God … the will of God will never leave us alone … there is no cave in which Elijah could hide … or far-away land where Moses could run … there is no place of hiding for Jacob … no sea big enough to hide Jonah from God’s purpose …
But it took courage for Moses to leave Midian and return to Egypt to lead his people out … it took courage for Jacob to return home and face his brother Esau … it took courage for Jonah to finally admit that maybe God had a point … it courage for Elijah to leave the cave and get on with the hard work of speaking to dangerous kings and rulers.
What does God want?
A creature to care for creation …
Someone with God’s heart for justice … who loves kindness …
Wise enough to be humble.
May it be said of Calvary Presbyterian Church, that when this church professed its faith in Jesus, it really meant it … you really believed in Jesus and what he said and what he did … may it be said of this place on the Boulevard, it really took Bible seriously … you paid attention to your politics and fed the hungry … you condemned no one and welcomed everyone … you were not proud, but humble … you spent what you had, and what you had, you spent … you were givers for sure … giving time and treasure … reaching deep into you pockets and deep into your hearts, because you trusted God to do great things with what you could do for the love of God.
Amen and Amen!
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