Yesterday we gathered in the sanctuary for worship for the first time in fourteen months. Wearing masks, sitting in family groups, and observing social distancing, together we worshipped with joy in being together again.
After months of keeping on keeping on; months of just trying to make it through all that’s been going on in our world; months of separation from loved ones and friends and from familiar ways of being and doing; after months of remote learning and working from home, Zoom meetings, conference calls and face-timing with friends and family near and far; after months of dealing with the pandemic and with calls to confront injustice in our land - Jesus’ call to “abide in his love” was a welcome invitation.
“Abide in my love,” Jesus says. To abide in Jesus’ love is to stay with, to remain close to, to settle into a loving relationship with, to make a home with, to allow him to direct all that we do and say, and to fill every moment we live. It’s abiding in love that teaches us how to love. As we abide in love, we grow our love to become a shelter for one another, and together we do the hard work of putting our faith and love into action for the good of all people.
“I am the true vine,” says Jesus, “and you are the branches.” The image of the vine and branches describes Christian life as a community of loving interrelation where we give and receive love and grow and become more able to live and share that love. We are called to be a community of vine branches, connected to Jesus, the true vine, and rooted deeply in the heart of God, our true place of belonging.
After months without seeing one another and being the church in familiar ways through gatherings for worship, study and fellowship together, the reminder that together we are branches of the true vine, our Lord Jesus Christ, that we are intended to be connected to him and to one another, was a reminder – and a challenge, as we find our way back to one another.
Both that welcome invitation (to abide in love) and that reminder and challenge (to be vine branches connected to one another and to the true vine, our Lord Jesus Christ) fill our hearts as we enter a new season of ministry, which we pray will bear much fruit.
Elizabeth
Last Thursday, April 22 was Earth Day. This annual international celebration began in 1970, out of a growing concern for the future of the planet as our home. I remember special programs and activities at Centre College only weeks before graduation that year. I was so sure I would make a difference in the world in many ways, and caring for creation would certainly be one of them!
The next year I was teaching Third Grade in the little town of Narrows, Virginia, near Roanoke. (The town name came from the way the New River ran through the gap or “narrows” of the mountains.) My class walked through the community picking up trash, and we planted some trees in the town park. Fast forward 48 years, and I realize how little I’ve done to address our call to deal with such important issues.
As Christians, we are called to consider our relationship to the Earth and to all living things. According to the Book of Order (W.7-5000.) “God calls the Church in the power of the Holy Spirit to participate in God’s work of creation and preservation. God has given humankind awesome power and perilous responsibility to rule and tame the earth, to sustain and reshape it, to replenish and renew it … As stewards of God's creation who hold the earth in trust, the people of God are called:
to use the earth's resources responsibly without plundering, polluting, or destroying.
to develop technological methods and processes that work together with the earth's environment to preserve and enhance life.
to produce and consume in ways that make available to all people what is sufficient for life
to work for responsible attitudes and practices in procreation and reproduction
to use and shape earth's goods to create beauty, order, health, and peace in ways that reflect God's love for all creatures.”
Our denomination addresses these concerns through the work of “Presbyterians for Earth Care,” a national eco-justice network that cares for God’s creation by connecting, equipping, and inspiring Presbyterians to make creation care a concern of the church. “Presbyterians for Earth Care” began as “Presbyterians for Restoring Creation,“ founded in 1995 as a national, grassroots organization to support people of faith working towards “environmental wholeness with social justice.” PEC helps the church to fulfill its current environmental policies, to create new policies and practices and to energize and educate church members about eco-justice -the well-being of all humankind on a thriving earth.
I came across a Presbyterian Hunger Program Post that has much to say. Written by the Revs Bruce and Carolyn Winfrey Gillette - “The Lord’s Prayer and Creation Care- a Litany of Confession”:
Loving God, we remember that Jesus taught us to pray saying, “Our Father ..”
You created us, you made this world, and you called your Creation very good.
Yet often we forget that you are our loving Parent who continues to bless your world.
Jesus told us that you are “…in heaven…”
Yet, we fail to live in awe of you. We take you for granted, and we don’t see the awesome beauty of the world you have made. We pray “Hallowed be your name …”
We confess that our reverence for you does not always lead us to care reverently for your earth, sky and sea.
We pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven …”
We confess that we often put our own interests first, exploiting your Creation and living for our own convenience and self-interest.
We pray, “Give us today our daily bread.”
We confess that we consume more than our share of the world’s resources, while billions go hungry every day and your whole Creation suffers.
We pray, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”
We confess that we see these words only in spiritual terms, while the Bible is filled with teachings about economic justice and Creation care.
We pray, “Save us from the time of trial.”
Help us to resist the temptations of spending more, using more, acquiring more, and wasting more.
We pray, “Deliver us from evil…”
Free us from greed and self-centeredness that separate us from you and others.
We pray, “For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and forever.”
Help us to know that by caring for your wonderful world, we are working for your kingdom, being good stewards of your creative power and giving you glory.
We pray, “Amen.”
We end our prayers with “Amen,” a word that means “let it be so.” We know we can be faithful disciples by your grace. Amen!
Amen! Let it be so!
Elizabeth
In “Justice for God’s World,” his monthly column in Presbyterians Today, Vernon Broyles, puts this challenge before us: the need for “Getting ourselves out of a mess. ” ( Presbyterians Today, Jan-Feb 2021)
He first speaks of God’s people, called the “chosen ones, ” who are somehow unable to live faithfully in gratitude to God, in spite of God’s love, grace and care for them. Again and again, they are tempted by the “gods“ of the cultures around them and they forget the source of the true freedom they’ve been given as God’s own children. Finally, God “gave them over to their stubborn hearts” (Psalm 81:10-12)
“It is clear from Israel’s history that the people too often fell into such self-confidence and arrogance about their own importance, wealth and power that they did not need God … Have we, the United States of America, not fallen into a similar trap? Proud of our wealth, power and standing in the world, perhaps we have drifted into this dilemma. And lest anyone doubt, we are determined to recoup any standing that we may have lost. Humility be cursed! We are the greatest!” ( Broyles)
During these many months of the pandemic I’ve done lots of reading in areas that are new to me, and I’ve learned things I’d missed along the way, as I imagine many of us have. Somehow the pieces of the puzzle that I’m discovering are not fitting into a pretty picture. I’ve wondered why I never knew these things before, and I’m saddened and sometimes angered, with what I’m learning. I’m grateful for this “awakening,” yet troubled with the challenges before us.
“Amid this arrogance,” Broyles write, “God has brought us face-to-face with the moral poverty of our use of the “divine right” invoked in the Doctrine of Discovery that allowed us to build this nation on the land and bodies of men, women and children who were here when our Caucasian ancestors arrived. And that hubris led us to build our economic power through the labor of people of color, shipped here not as children of God, but as economic assets … But perhaps now things have become transparent enough that we who have dominated are coming to terms with the evil we have done. What we do know is that those who have been used and abused are claiming their rights as children of God and participants in a society where everyone is to be valued. May all our leaders commit themselves to making it so.”
Yesterday’s sermon at Jackson Springs Presbyterian Church was entitled “Living as Children of God.” I spoke of how God works in us and through us until we reflect the spirit and character of Jesus, living together as children of God, with passionate concern that the will and way of God be done on earth as it is in heaven. We are called to be agents of reconciliation and understanding, and bearers of healing and hope, and love and mercy. We are called to speak words of resurrection hope in circumstances of hopelessness. In this world that is broken in so many ways, we are called to stand in the gaps; we are called to offer glimpses of grace and share the abundant life Jesus came to give us.
Each of us is transformed in a uniquely personal way, to fulfill God’s calling in our lives, and we continue to be transformed by God’s love, growing more and more in the likeness of Jesus Christ. Perhaps each of us, as children of God, will be a fresh new piece in the puzzle of this life, bringing much-needed healing and hope to all of God’s children.
I’m grateful for writers who open my mind and heart to learnings I missed along the way, and for those streams of mercy to carry all of us through to better days.
Elizabeth