"The Earth is the Lord's"
God provides
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Text: Genesis 9:1-17
This past week, I was sitting in my garden enjoying the beautiful weather when I saw the most bizarre incident. Along the top of my back fence there was a squirrel running for his life! Right above his tail was a little bird chirping away loudly, sounding very aggravated. It was obvious that the bird was chasing the squirrel. The squirrel looked over its shoulder to see if the bird was still there and nearly fell off the fence, so he put his head down and kept running. The two of them went along the fence, leapt onto a branch and went into a neighbour's garden.
I thought to myself, this bird has got some nerve! What would it have done if it had caught the squirrel? Probably nothing. The bird had no power over the squirrel whatsoever! He was posturing as something mighty and important! Nevertheless, the little bird was determined to make its point. Some worm or nut had caused a controversy, and the bird was going to let the squirrel know it did not approve.
There is an African parable that poignantly symbolizes the same idea. It is a reminder to everyone about who is the most powerful. One day, a hyena walked through the jungle feeling pretty proud about himself because he had intimidated and chased off all his opponents. He was the nastiest, meanest creature, and he was laughing all the way to glory.
As he was lying down thinking how wonderful he is, he heard a rustling in the bush. A springbuck, which has long antlers, ran toward the hyena. As the springbuck chased him, the hyena looked at him in fear, and ran away. The springbuck said, “Isn't it wonderful? I am the king of the jungle!”
The springbuck strutted around proudly, went up to an oasis to take a drink, then lay down. He heard a rustling behind him. A lion stared him down, flapped his tail, puffed up his mane, and roared, and the springbuck ran for his life! The lion said, “You're the king of the jungle? We all know who the king of the jungle is!” Then the lion lay down and said, “Isn't it wonderful! I am the king of the jungle! Now I'll have a rest.”
Suddenly, he heard a loud “bizzzzzzz.” When he looked up, a bee was sitting right between his eyes. The lion said, “Go away! I am the king of the jungle!” Then he went back to sleep. Still, the bee buzzed. The lion tried to bat it away, and it stung his nose. As the lion jumped up, screaming with pain, and ran into the bush, the bee buzzed around saying, “Now who is the king of the jungle?”
The bee rested on a big leaf by the oasis, thinking all was solved. He was the king of the jungle. He had a nice sleep until the wind came up, and started to sway the branch. The bee held on, and said, “It doesn't matter - I am the king of the jungle!” But the wind got fiercer, and fiercer until smack! The bee was squashed on the ground its force.
Then a voice from heaven said, “All right, all of you. Who really is the king of the jungle?”
This story is told in African circles to remind us that there is a force that transcends even the most powerful being in nature. A Creator, whose force is behind the universe, and greater than anything we can ever imagine.
But just like that bird chasing that squirrel along the fence, the hyena and the springbuck, and the lion and the bee, we humans sometimes forget who we are. We sometimes think we are more powerful than we are, and that we are not dependent on the forces of nature or the powers of the universe.
Since the height of rationalism, we have thought that through our technology and powers of reason we can control the universe- and we are shocked when we can't! René Descartes said, “Give me motion and give me matter and I will create the world!”
During the Industrial Revolution and the technology that emerged with it, the belief persisted that by virtue of our own reason and power, humans could control the world. Not only that we can control it, but that we ought to force it into the image that we want. Such is the power and the perception of the human imagination that we think we are the invincible ones.
When nature smacks us on the head with a calamity, we it is an anomaly, simply another challenge that will cause the great and the mighty human to rise up. I have been reading about the idea of creating screens in space to prevent the sun's rays from reaching the earth, thereby stopping global warming. We think we are technologically and rationally superior even to the forces of nature.
But that hasn't always been the case. In biblical times, there was an opposite view. There was a sense that human beings should be humble before the power of nature; a recognition that the elements can actually destroy us, and that we are dependent on them.
Some suggest the rise of Paganism, making God out of the elements of the earth and nature, arose so we could control nature vicariously. By creating gods that reflect an element in nature and appeasing those gods, we can actually cause them to look kindly upon us. It was a way, in a sense, of controlling the universe by myth, legend and prayer- an attempt to appease the gods of the powers around us.
The Bible, particularly the early parts of the Book of Genesis, tells a new epic. The story of Noah is a marvellous definition of how the earliest believers in one God understood the creation of the universe. They saw an epic movement from a world where there was paradise to a world where there was chaos. The flood represents chaos, the inability of humanity, because of its own sin, to control the elements around it, and the replacement of the Garden of Eden with the garden of disobedience.
As a result of this flood, there is now a new covenant with humanity; a new beginning where God says, “Look, I have taught you your lesson. Now you know there is an opportunity for a new beginning. I will make a covenant, not only with human beings, but with all the creatures of the earth not to destroy them again. But, because of this covenant, there is to be a new relationship that requires responsibility on your part.”
The story of Noah and the rainbow is not about a God who gives us the keys to the future and says, “Everything will be all right.” It is a statement of God's wish for the world and humanity, but with it comes a commensurate obligation to look after what has been created. In my mind, then, there is no need to have a new cosmology or religion to make us understand the responsibility we have to the environment and its creatures. It is all right here in Noah's high laws of the Book of Genesis.
There is a tension between blessing and responsibility in this new beginning that God gives through a covenant. With all the discussions about the state of the environment and climate change, maybe we are feeling that tension all over again. On one side of the equation, the world was made for us, but it still is God's. The world is for us, but nevertheless, it belongs to God.
There is a story about some early sailors who went along the coast of South America on the Atlantic side. The Amazon river has a 90 mile wide mouth. The amount of water that flows through it is the equivalent of the water that goes through the Nile, Mississippi and Yangtze rivers combined. Even 200 miles into the Atlantic, there are traces of water from the Amazon.
The early sailors often found that there were very light winds in the southern Atlantic. Many of them did not get to their destinations in time. They just sat on sea, became thirsty and hungry, and nearly died. Some locals would sail by and ask, “What is wrong? What can we do to help you?” The sailors would say they needed water, and the locals would laugh. They told them, “Just put your buckets down into the water and pull them up! You are still within the mouth of the mighty Amazon, and you can drink from it!”
It is amazing how God provides for us, and how this world is a gift to us. Sometimes, however, we are so fixated on ourselves, and unaware of the environment around us, that we do not draw from the waters of life. We do not take what is right in front of us.
I believe that at the heart of the environmental crisis is this fundamental error: We believe that somehow we are in charge of all of this, and we do not recognize that the creation around us is a gift. It is a covenantal gift of grace. But here is the great irony. It might be for us, but it is not ours. Therein is the tension, the struggle we face!
The second tension is that human life is sacred, but we are not always careful with it. It is sacred, but we are not the centre. Noah's story existed before the Ten Commandments ever came along. In it, there is a very clear line that says you should not take human life, you should preserve it. If you take the life of other animals, there are proper ways to do so. There is recognition that the life we have is sacred, and that what we have been given is important and meaningful.
Part of our problem is that we often do not see the correlation between the world the sacredness of life. If we destroy the world, then human life, that most sacred of all things, can be taken from us. There is a sense in which we need to care for the world around us if we are going to hold on to the sacredness of life.
This story contains one really strong prohibition: you mustn't take the life of another person. If you do take the life of another person, you are endangering yourself. There is a statement in the Scriptures that life is sacred and precious, but it is a gift. If we do not use what we have carefully, we will lose it.
Another tension exists between the fact that we have the power to destroy life, animals and creation, yet they are put in our hands to look after. Noah was told to take the animals “two-by-two” onto his Ark to be saved. We have the power to destroy animals, and therefore, there is dominion over them. There is no question about that! You can see that we are the biggest predator on earth! Strip all the other animals away, all the fish of the sea, and we are the most dangerous of all creatures! But we have an obligation to protect them.
I agree with E. F. Schumacher, who says that we are very small, therefore we should act as if we are very small and see beauty in smallness. We should be careful and thoughtful as human beings of how we deal with the world. There will always be critics, those who debate how we should care for those animals and creatures of the world that have been put in our hands.
Right now there is a huge debate, and many critics on both sides. I love an encounter that Jean Sibelius had with one of his students. This student had performed a magnificent piece of music, and afterwards, all the critics blasted it and tore it to shreds. Sibelius went to his student and said, “I am going to ask you one question: in what city in this great world is there a statue in honour of a critic?”
We might have different opinions; we might criticize each other as to how problems can be solved. We are going through that in every phase of our political life. But somehow, transcending all the criticisms, techniques and technologies, there should be an overriding understanding that we - human beings on this earth - have a responsibility for what God has given us. It is not we who have control and power: we have responsibility for what we have been given, but there is one who is greater than us to whom every one of us is accountable.
This goes not only to the environment; it goes to every facet of life. It goes to our moral and ethical behaviour, the sanctity of life, the preservation of the earth. It goes to the way that we treat other creatures. This is the point of the Noah High Laws. When we lose sight of that, chaos exists. We have broken our obligation to the Lord of the Universe.
There is a wonderful moment in The Brothers Karamazov where Dostoevsky, through Father Zossima, says these words. I think they are some of the most beautiful words ever written on this subject, and I leave you with them:
Brothers, love all creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God's light. Love the animals, love the plants: love everything! If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better everyday, and you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love. Love the animals. God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy and trouble. Do not trouble them. Do not harass them. Don't deprive them of their happiness. Don't work against God's intent. Humanity, do not pride yourself on superiority to the animals. They are without sin, and you with your greatness defile the earth by your appearance on it, and leave traces of your foulness after you.
Alas, it is true of every one of us! My friends, it is a time in history to be humble, for the earth belongs to the Lord and the fullness thereof. Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.