Prayers of the People: The Human Family ~ 3rd Sunday in the Season of Creation '25

For Sunday, October 26, 2025, Season of Creation 3*, Readings: Genesis 1:20-31,  Psalm 146, 

Chief Seattle**, Luke 10:25-37

  Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness…So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them…God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit…for food... And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. [Genesis 1:26-27,29-31]

   Happy are they who have the God of  Jacob for their help whose hope is in the Lord their God; Who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them; who keeps his promise for ever; Who gives justice to those who are oppressed, And food to those who hunger. [Psalm 146:5-7]

  The Great - and I presume good - White Chief sends us word that he wished to buy our lands but is willing to allow us enough to live comfortably...How can one buy or sell the air, the warmth of the land? That is difficult for us to imagine. If we don’t own the sweet air and the bubbling water, how can you buy it from us…?The wind that gave my grandfather his first breath also received his last sigh. And the wind also breathes life into our children.  All things are bound together. All things connect. Whatever happens to the Earth happens to the children of the Earth. Man has not woven the web of life. He is but one thread in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.  [Chief Seattle**]

    Just then a lawyer  stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher, he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." And Jesus said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live." But wanting to justify himself he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?”  [Luke 10:25-29] 

   This Creation Story in Genesis 1 is my favorite. It wasn’t until I began a program known as Education for Ministry [EfM], a small-group distance learning program from the School of Theology of the University of the South [by which I was later employed], that I learned about TWO Creation stories! Raised Roman Catholic, in eight years of Catholic school and 4 more years of weekly religion classes in high school, we knew liturgical prayers and practice, and doctrinal catechism, pre-Vatican II. We were taught “the” story of Creation, but it wasn’t until many, many years later that I discovered there was another and it came before the one we were taught, and enlighteningly [new word?], in that one I wasn’t merely a helper/rib. It was through that 4 year program, actually half-way through, that I proceeded into graduate work in theology ~ ironically as an Episcopalian in an Arch-Diocesan, Pontifical Status, Roman Catholic Seminary ~ the Dean thought it was hilarious and we had regular conversations. I realized later, that surprisingly, I found “me” there, not as RC, but as fully human. Sadly, not much of what I was taught and learned there ever made it to the pew in my prior RC time.

   The Psalmist speaks to us all about our God in whom there is hope, justice, love, and care for ourselves and for those oppressed, sometimes even by us.

   This piece by Chief Seattle is breathtaking ~ the full text is below ~ and especially in my own day in my own home-town and my entire small state. I saw word today that more family farms have been sold for yet more home construction. The rural country I once knew is mostly gone. Sigh... The President of which he spoke was Franklin Pierce, a northern democrat of a wholly different political understanding of Democrat and Republican. Among other things, Pierce believed that the abolitionist movement was a threat to national unity and signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act. There is no wondering about why Chief Seattle wrote so eloquently about the Earth… our ways are different from yours…the air is valuable to us…[it] gave my grandfather his first breath [and] also received his last sigh… Painfully beautiful and sadly all too true now as then.

   Luke’s Gospel reminds of us the words we think we know so well and utter easily and without deep examination of how we apply them in our everyday moments, especially in the most difficult circumstances. Too often, especially in these fraught times, we look at "others" as different from ourselves by skin color, nationality, religion, political views, sexual orientation, life circumstance, or, merely, because someone lives in a different part of the world, the country, or a community. How easily we dismiss, and worse, completely reject those whom we designate as not one of us or as unworthy. Suddenly "they" become one of them, not to be trusted or valued as the full human person God created in God's own image. How very sad and tragic it is that we set ourselves, within our self-limited chosen circles, as above another individual or group as if our opinions, or neighborhood, or economic circumstance, or political views are the only ones that matter. Sure, we need to be careful with our interactions with strangers, but there are still ways to understand, and care, and help in ways that may not be up close and personal without being dismissive, negative, or self-righteous. Even more sad is that too many of us may actually love God and our neighbors in the way we really do love ourselves: badly. Judgment, criticism, anger, mockery, even hatred, may be more of a mirror than we recognize or are willing to admit.

     The ways in which we care for each other ~ all others ~ and ourselves, with the love for God and our Human Family that Jesus has exhorted us to give, is a measure of the depth (or shallowness) of our own love for God. To prosper only ourselves and our us-group, may carry us in this short temporal existence but it is not the way of Jesus nor does it turn us toward the ultimate reward of eternal life.

     The humility that Jesus exemplified is difficult to achieve and uncomfortable in an environment of excessive greed, selfishness, and disdain for the life of others and this planet. We are/I am called to seek to become united with God from within ourselves. We begin through a simple “help me” prayer, the germinating power for our words and actions to be works of true charity for others and oneself. It is time to relinquish marking personal achievements so as to live more simply, putting one foot in front of the other, making each and every breath a prayer and every step in love and with love and toward justice for our whole Human Family. WE are created in God’s own image and so are all the others around us.

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader:  ~ Most Gracious Creator of our Entire Human Family, keep us ever mindful that we are each sometimes the other, creating and receiving suspicion and fear when we step away from our familiar cultures and communities. May our eyes continually radiate Your Light, and may our everyday thoughts, actions, and prayers reflect the overflow of our love for You from within ourselves and outwardly to all we meet.
 
                               O God of The Human Family                                              
RESPONSE:     As your image we are to love our neighbors and ourselves

~ Most Gracious Creator, grant us each and all, in our many shapes, sizes, colors, races, ages, economic status, and genders, the ability to be Your true voice in action. Let us challenge all in governments across this planet, to work together to achieve the peace, for all we kindred, to live together in unity. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

                               O God of The Human Family                                             
                               As your image we are to love our neighbors and ourselves
 
~ Most Gracious Creator, comfort all who are burdened with serious illness, addiction, and/or emotional distress, and fill those who give them care with energy and peace. We pray especially for: add your own petitions
 
                               O God of The Human Family                                             
                               As your image we are to love our neighbors and ourselves
 
~ Most Gracious Creator, in the midst of sorrow for our earthly loss, we give joyful thanksgiving for the glorious welcome of our loved ones into Your eternal kingdom.  We pray especially for… add your own petitions
  
                               O God of The Human Family                                             
                               As your image we are to love our neighbors and ourselves
 
~ Most Gracious Creator, we pause in this moment to offer You our other heartfelt thanksgivings, intercessions, petitions, and memorials, aloud or silently… add your own petitions
  
                               O God of The Human Family                                             
                               As your image we are to love our neighbors and ourselves
 
~ Most Gracious Creator, we give You thanks for all who are chosen to show us by Word and example, in prayer and preaching, how to live in this life with our whole Human Family, and who walk with us on the path leading to You. We pray especially for: add your own petitions
  

                                O God of The Human Family                                             

                               As your image we are to love our neighbors and ourselves

 The Celebrant adds: O God of the Hungry and the Privileged, O Lord of those Raised High and those Laid Low, grant us the joyful yet solemn awareness that we each physically, and spiritually, bear within us the very substance of Your Incarnate Son. Let us be the seeds that germinate the power of Your love, bear the fruit of unity among us, and intentionally seek to be fully Yours in every day, so to love You and each other as we are to love ourselves. We ask through the Compassion of Jesus our Christ; and the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit; who live and reign with You as One God, every day, every way, always, and forever. Amen. 

 

* The Season of Creation originated in the Anglican Church of South Africa and was formalized in 2008. It is designed for us to explore our faith from a Creation perspective. Click here for more information about: Season of Creation ~ In The Beginning

**A READING FROM CHIEF SEATTLE: The Great - and I presume good - White Chief sends us word that he wished to buy our lands but is willing to allow us enough to live comfortably. We shall consider your offer to buy our land. “What is it that the White Man wants to buy?”, my people will ask. It is difficult for us to understand. How can one buy or sell the air, the warmth of the land? That is difficult for us to imagine. If we don’t own the sweet air and the bubbling water, how can you buy it from us? Each pine tree shining in the sun, each sandy beach, the mist hanging in the dark woods, every space, each humming bee is holy in the thoughts and memory of our people. The sap rising in the tree bears the memory of the Red Man. We are part of the earth and the earth is a part of us. The fragrant flowers are our sisters; the reindeer, the horse, the great eagle are our brothers. The foamy crest of the waves in the river, the sap of the meadow flowers, the pony’s sweat and the man’s sweat is all one and the same race, our race. So when the Great Chief in Washington sends word that he wants to buy our land, he asks a great deal of us We know that the White Man does not understand our way of life. To him, one piece of land is much like the other.  He is a stranger coming in the night taking from the land what he needs. The earth is not his brother but his enemy, and when he has conquered it he moves on. He cares nothing for the land; he forgets his father’s grave and his children’s heritage. He treats his mother the Earth and his brother the Sky like merchandise. His hunger will eat the earth bare and leave only a desert. I do not understand - our ways are different from yours. If we should sell our land then you must know that the air is valuable to us, that the air passes its breath over all life that it  maintains. The wind that gave my grandfather his first breath also received his last sigh. And the wind also breathes life into our children.  All things are bound together. All things connect. Whatever happens to the Earth happens to the children of the Earth. Man has not woven the web of life. He is but one thread in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

     ~ Attributed to Chief Seattle, Duwamish Tribe, 1855

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