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
