Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ

Preached by the Rev. Ken Pennings on May 16, 2010

Prior to the 16th century, people conceived of the earth as the center of the universe. Then Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo introduced us to a whole new view of the cosmos. We’re now a space-age people.

We know today that in our single galaxy, which we call the Milky Way, there are 100 billion stars of which our sun is one. The sun is not anywhere near the largest star in our galaxy. Indeed, some stars in our galaxy are bigger than the earth’s entire orbit around the sun including the sun. And our solar system isn’t even the center of our galaxy. We’re located about two thirds of the way out to the edge of the Milky Way. And beyond that, we’ve now become aware that there are between 100 billion and 100 trillion other galaxies. And our single galaxy is so large that if we could travel at the speed of light at 186,000 miles per second, it would take 100,000 years for us to go from one end of our galaxy to the other. The distances and expanses stagger us.

We know for a fact that the earth is NOT the center of the universe. Then why do we humans think everything revolves around us!

In April, Dr. Ken Stone, of Chicago Theological Seminary, taught a workshop called, “Eco-Justice and the Hebrew Bible.”

I traveled with Ken all over Wisconsin, and had the privilege of hearing his lectures four days in a row.

I was most fascinated how Ken used Psalm 104 as a way to frame our discussion of the creation accounts of Genesis 1 & 2.

Many of us, I included, have always read the creation accounts in Genesis 1 & 2 in a big hurry to get to the good part, the part about US!

You remember the stories in Genesis. God creates the heavens and the earth, including the dry land and seas, vegetation, the sun & moon, the fish, birds and animals.… and then, drum roll please…the stars of the show…HUMAN BEINGS!

Here they are, center stage, the pinnacle of God’s creation! And we read in Genesis how God has given human beings everything they could possibly want and need for their own flourishing. Isn’t that the way we’ve read the story? How human beings are to dominate and subdue creation, which means of course, in the way we’ve read it, that we can use and abuse the planet any way we darn well please. Right?

Some might read the creation accounts in Genesis from this anthropocentric, or human-centered, point of view.

And who knows how much damage and destruction of the planet has been justified through such careless anthropocentric interpretations of Bible passages!?

When Ken Stone walked us through Psalm 104, what we saw, quite frankly, surprised us. Humans were partnering right alongside, not over and above, the rest of creation. Then through that lens, we saw the same partnering going on in the more familiar nature texts of Genesis 1 & 2.

Ken helped us see many texts in the Hebrew Bible that deal with ecological and economic justice, including a startling verse in Ps. 36 – You save humans and animals alike (v. 6). In Hebrew Bible, God not only creates animals, but God saves or delivers animals also.

He pointed us to the strain of wisdom within ancient Israelite religion that urged human beings to know their place in God’s larger scheme of things. Through many of these texts, it’s like God is saying, “You there, homo sapiens, you who are walking on two legs rather than four, I’m concerned about all kinds of things, and not only you. The cosmos wasn’t set up to benefit humans exclusively.”

So what is the place of humans in Ps. 104? Here, the psalmist is in awe of the marvelous interplay of God and all of God’s creation. In this psalm, every raindrop, birds nest and prairie dog is as great a wonder as human beings themselves.

Psalm 104:10-14 – Note that in this psalm, God provides food and water not just for humans, but for the birds and animals.

vv. 17-18 – The birds build their nests in the trees. The high mountains are home for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the coneys (rabbits or rodents). Everyone and everything has its place, its home.
vv. 21-23 – Interesting juxtaposition of lions and humans. God is equally concerned with both. At night the lions come out and roar for their prey. The sun comes up, the lions go into their dens, and the people come out and work till dark. There is a time and place for all creatures to do what they need to do.

vv. 25-27 – Yonder is the sea, the home for all kinds of living things, and there go the ships (as though humans are friendly visitors just passing through the habitat of the sea creatures).

And who else do we find in the sea (v. 26)? Leviathan, a Hebrew word often translated “sea monster.”

Now humans are generally terrified of sea monsters, but in this psalm God feeds scary sea monsters also!

And what’s Leviathan doing in the water (v. 26)? — sporting & playing in it. As one preacher commented, “Leviathan is God’s rubber ducky.”

God is caring for the critters we like and those we don’t like. Well what’s that about?

vv. 29-30 The word “ruah” translated “breath” in v. 29 is translated “spirit” in v. 30. God gives ruah to humans and animals. Animals and humans have the same breath. We don’t often think of animals as having the spirit of God.

What is Ps. 104 saying about God? That God wants every fish, bird, animal and human to have a place to live and have plenty to drink and eat. Forests, rivers, sea creatures, birds and animals exist and have value in their own right. They are not simply there for human use.

Everyone has a place on earth except whom? V. 35 – sinners. What might sin mean in this context? Disrupting the balance of the created order, exploiting the environment, destroying the web of life.

What happens when we shave off the top of a mountain? What happens to the natural habitat of the mountain goats?

And what about over-fishing in our lakes, rivers and seas? What about spewing billions of gallons of crude oil into our ocean?

Modern agribusiness allows us to eat food at affordable prices, but at what cost to the environment?

Now through the lens of Ps. 104, we look briefly at Genesis 1. V. 31 “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.” Often we read, “Now that the people are here, it’s very good.” But the sense is, “Now that everything is here, it’s very good, and not because of any utilitarian purpose, but simply because it exists.” Humans are part of the whole. And it is all very good

For forty years, I really didn’t have much interest in or concern for the environment. I didn’t litter. But I really didn’t see care of the earth as part of Christian discipleship. Why not? Because any minute Jesus was going to return from heaven, rapture the church, take Christians out of this horrible mess, and create a new heaven and a new earth. Why worry about this earth if God is going to create a new one? I cringe to think of the millions of Americans who maintain that theology and are indifferent about the condition of Mother Earth.

In Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Shug is explaining to Celie her ideas about God:

God ain’t a he or a she, but a, It.
But what do it look like? I ast.
Don’t look like nothing, she say. It ain’t a picture show. It ain’t something you can look at apart from anything else, including yourself. I believe God is everything, say Shug. Everything that is or ever was or ever will be. And when you can feel that, and be happy to feel that, you’ve found It.

….One day when I was sitting quiet and feeling like a motherless child, which I was, it come to me: that feeling of being part of everything, not separate at all. I knew that if I cut a tree, my arm would bleed. And I laughed and I cried and I run all round the house. I knew just what it was. In fact, when it happen, you can’t miss it.

What is needed, not only for Christians, but for all people, is a change of heart and a new ethic, one that safeguards and celebrates the intrinsic goodness of all creation, and one that flows from an ever-deepening love that can feel and understand the pain and ecstasy of life in all its interrelatedness.

We need that feeling of being part of everything, not separate at all