Prayers for the Earth

Catching Fish

Earth Sunday – Christ on Capitol Hill                                 April 19, 2015

Alleluia! Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Here’s what I’ve learned about the earth through gardening experiences in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Minnesota… by the third year, plants are beginning to be established. By the fifth year… wow!

The first year, some plants don’t really take to the spot I’ve put them, or I’ve tried to plant things from greenhouses rather than transplants from neighbors nearby... and the transplants always do better. But as time goes along, the garden grows, more and more beautifully with each year of tending. So this year, we have rhubarb coming up, and lamb’s ears… and finally, the bleeding hearts, first planted in Wisconsin and transplanted in Illinois, and then planted at my parents’ home in Iowa while we moved from place to place… and divided and replanted in our backyard now… finally, the leaves have come up!

Somehow this is a metaphor for me about how much we have to learn from the Earth—from gardening, from caring for the creation. From trying, failing, and trying again with unfailing patience, endurance, persistence, learning again how to be stewards, caretakers of God’s gifts. In a culture that does not support us being in touch with the rhythms of the Creation, this Sunday, the Sunday closest to Earth Day, in the season of Easter—new life, resurrection—and with Spring unfolding all around us (I even saw wasps on the hot days this week!), we’re invited to be grateful for each opportunity to tend and care for the Earth, and see what we can learn. It’s one of the ways we’re called to be witnesses.

One day last spring, I visited the home of a couple to bring communion, and I saw a massive patch of violas in their rock bed alongside their house. “Volunteers!” the woman said. “All I did was just shake the flowers over the rocks when they had gone to seed last fall.” And here they were, a truly glorious patch of deep purple. Such beauty reminded me to be grateful, for the flowers… and for volunteers of all kinds, people and animals and plants who give themselves for the benefit of all.

Earth Day is certainly also a day when many voices, many organizations, very legitimately call us to be accountable for the ways that particularly wealthy countries, industries, economies, corporations, and citizens are over-using and abusing the Earth and all its creatures. There are both massive things that need to be done to repent and turn around our short-sighted ways in the world, and there are many small things that each one of us can do to be more conscious of what we use, what we throw away, and how to conserve, protect, reuse, recycle… how we can live more gently and sustainably with one another on this Earth.

But perhaps even more powerful than critique is the power of gratitude.

And I think that is the primary focus of the biblical witness that we hear in Genesis today.

In the days of Creation, described in Genesis, we hear how inter-related everything is. We hear about the distinctiveness and goodness of all the different parts of creation—light and dark, water and sky and sea, all kinds of plants and animals, birds and fish. On the sixth day, God creates adam – an earth person – and Elie Wiesel, a prolific Jewish writer, comments on this timing something like this:

Why did the Creator wait until the sixth day to give life to adam—why didn’t [God] do it at the very start? Answer: … well first God prepared a place for the human and only then created the person. Another answer: To keep the person from taking himself too seriously… for example, if a person is too proud, he could be asked: What are you boasting about—even mosquitos preceded you in the order of creation![1]

So, according to this perspective, humans are created not so much as the crowning moment of creation– as we have so often been taught – but humans are created in inter-dependence and in relationship to everything else.

And what is the “best for last” thing in the whole story of Creation?… It’s Sabbath. On the seventh day, God rested… giving permission to all of us to rest.
 Giving us permission not to have to be busy or earn or steward on that seventh day of rest… but simply to be in the love of our Creating, Saving, Renewing God so that all the other days of the week, we’ll know what that is like.

Don’t you think that being busy or too overworked to care or to be able do things differently, is at the heart of our brokenness in caring for the Earth? So many of the “improvements” to make life easier, cheaper, quicker, simpler are not good for us… but it’s incredibly hard to change our ways when these patterns are all we’ve ever known or what we’ve fallen into over time.

This week, part of the church staff: Angie, Joy and I had the opportunity to go and hear a wonderful presentation at the office of the Saint Paul Area Council of Churches about nutrition and how we can encourage our congregation members in practices of “eating clean,” avoiding four major things that we put into our bodies that end up being toxic to us because of their impact at the cellular level … and how making changes can make a big difference in the health of our bodies. One of the things the doctor who was presenting told us was that it makes him so angry when he sees someone filling their car with premium gasoline but filling their body with unhealthy garbage.

And this brings me, finally, to Jesus who as a resurrected body asked for something to eat… a food basic-to-life for his culture, on the shores of a lake… some broiled fish… and how that was a marker to followers of Jesus, then and now, that he was really among them. He was really a body, alive and needing basic nourishment, food re-creating the risen Christ as it re-creates us.

Abraham Heschel writes in The Sabbath, “Creation, we are taught, is not an act that happened once upon a time, once and for ever. The act of bringing the world into existence is a continuous process. God called the world into being, and that call goes on. There is this present moment because God is present. Every instant is an act of creation.”[2]

So… we continue to witness the creating work of God; we continue to be invited to the model of work and rest; we continue to need basic nourishment.

We gather to tend and honor the Earth, to share a meal and receive basic nourishment, to encounter the Creator and the risen Christ… and in all this, the Spirit calls us to be witnesses, not only seeing for ourselves but sharing the good news of what God has done for us… and not only for us, but for the whole Creation.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!

---

[1] Paraphrased from the work Messengers of God by Elie Wiesel, p. 10, Excerpt accessed through Google Play on 4/17/2015.

[2] Heschel, as cited on http://inwardoutward.org/quote-author/abraham-heschel/, accessed 4/17/2015.

I doubt it. Show me.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Five years ago, this Sunday, the second Sunday of Easter, my children were baptized at St. Paul and the Redeemer church in Chicago… As a family, we’re remembering that day today and remembering back even a little further to our journey to and from Ethiopia.

In the few days before we met our children, Ben and I stayed at the Hilton hotel in Addis Ababa, the capitol city of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is a very faith-filled country and this is expressed in a whole variety of ways, from ancient historical sites to the tiniest architectural details in a hotel room—so for example, the detailing around the doorknob was in the shape of a cross. More dramatic was the swimming pool outside—a huge, cross-shaped pool, like a gigantic, ancient baptismal font with steps down into it and back up. The pool was empty when we first arrived. We figured at first that it was because it was late December… but as it turned out, it was just being cleaned. So on New Year’s Eve morning, the last day before we began the adventure of parenting, Ben noticed from our bird’s eye balcony view that the pool was almost full with fog surrounding it.

I almost missed the experience since the outside temperatures were not exactly warm, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to go out there to swim… but Ben coaxed me to come so we both experienced this incredible cross-shaped pool, fed by hot springs. We were immersed in these waters as we waited to celebrate a new thing—as we said goodbye to one part of life (experiencing a little death) in order to welcome a new life (and resurrection). Did I mention that I almost missed it… because of my doubt?

Maybe that is why I have always felt compassion for Thomas—the doubter. Never mind that Thomas is remembered in the gospels for far more than just the story we heard today… other things Thomas said include:

When Jesus suggested going to Jerusalem and Thomas said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” [John 11:16]

Also, he asked Jesus, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? [John 13:5]

But in today’s gospel, we hear what Thomas is best known for—

“Thomas, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’ [John 20:24-25] or in short… I doubt it. Show me.

Somehow, “doubting Thomas” was the name that stuck—an unfair nickname, maybe… so I appreciate Jesus’ response to Thomas. Since Thomas missed the first appearance to the eleven, Jesus comes again. Since Thomas needs to actually touch the wounds to believe, Jesus invites Thomas to touch him. Yes, Jesus says—blessed are all of you who believe without seeing—but Jesus also meets Thomas at his point of need.

And in a way, this is also the reason we baptize. God meets us at our place of need. It’s not so much that God needs us to be washed in these cleansing and refreshing waters—it’s that we need that physical reminder of God’s presence. In this sacrament, God makes ordinary water mixed with God’s word… extraordinary.

In this sacrament, we are marked with the cross of Christ forever because there will be days, weeks, even years when we are not so sure that we can believe in the resurrected Christ. There will be times when we are so filled with grief, fear, disbelief, even despair that we’ll say with Thomas, “Not until I see for myself… not until I can put my hands in the wounds…”

There are times when we cannot individually believe… that is when a community surrounding us, believing on our behalf will be so important.

Even before we believe, Jesus meets us… in water, at the table, and Jesus breathes on us, “Peace be with you.”

Here’s what we promise at baptism. We promise to continue a life of faith and to resist evil and to proclaim in word and deed the good news of God in Christ. We promise to love our neighbors and to strive for justice and peace. We promise to welcome newcomers into the house of God—and trust that all those welcomed here are our real family, not by blood, not merely because of legal documents, but by something far stronger—by the waters of baptism, by love. And we can renew these promises over and over throughout life, even daily. They are the promises that we remember all the way to death.

Even more significant than the promises we make around the baptismal font is the promise that God makes to us in baptism—that not even death, which can so sharply separate us from those we love, will ever separate us from the deep love of God. That whatever life brings, Jesus walks with us. That through all the changes and chances of life, the Holy Spirit is as present as our life-sustaining breath.

These are promises that we deeply need—because like Thomas, we are human—we struggle with grief and loss, loneliness and heartache, questions about identity and where we belong. We are both saints and sinners—sometimes there’s evidence of that in quicker succession than we can believe—and we live in a world that is broken and through which we can glimpse the greatness of God.

At the end of our week in Ethiopia, we had another opportunity to try out the cross-shaped pool, this time with Dinkenesh and Abenet. We had been together just six short days so our communication was still very limited but when we saw the pool, our children’s eyes got big. Do you want to try it? we asked. A quick shake of the head led us to the swings and playground equipment first. However, after about an hour, we asked again, showing them their new swimsuits. For me??? Mine??? Dinkenesh and Abenet asked with excitement. They grabbed onto us as we entered into the pool and then reacted with glee. We’re pretty sure this was a first swimming experience ever, but they took to the pool like fish coming home to water.

Baptism is like coming home to our first parent, our Creator, the One who has called each of us since we swam in our birth mother’s womb. In baptism, God reminds us that God adopts us… that Jesus walks with us as a loving sibling, One who knows our story, died and was raised so that we might know that there is hope in our daily struggles and that there is life beyond the grave. In baptism, we are filled with the Holy Spirit as our lungs are filled with breath, our cells with oxygen and our spirits with life.

So now, in Easter hope, let’s celebrate this day—with those who doubt, and yet have come to believe, with the great cloud of witnesses that includes Thomas, Clayton, and all who have died…that includes Christians throughout the world, and especially our loved ones in Cambodian, China, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Liberia, Nigeria, Papau New Guinea (to name just a few…) as well as those who are gathered in body and in spirit here today—celebrating God’s promise of resurrection and new life.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia!

In celebration: Clayton Knutson

Clayton Knutson

Ecclesiastes 3              2 Corinthians              John 14:1-7, 25-27                   April 11, 2015

There is a time for everything, a time to be born and a time to die… this is something that Clayton, who loved the land and the outdoors knew deeply; and yet, this is a day that we did not anticipate just a few months ago. Although he suffered from Alzheimer’s for the last few years, and perhaps longer, Clayton’s journey from relatively good health to death felt fast…

Just last January, he was able to go out for breakfast and enjoy a very big cinnamon roll when John visited... Even when things became too difficult to remain at home, and Clayton moved to Lyngblomsten weeks ago, he was at least somewhat aware of where he was going and it was a special gift that he recognized his loved ones to the end. Even when he had stopped eating and speaking… he squeezed my hand powerfully as we sang and prayed with him, showing that he knew that Carolyn, Charlie, and I were gathered around him. And on Palm Sunday, with Carolyn and Thessaly nearby, he peacefully died. Moving from this life into the next, we commended him to God’s care.

Today we acknowledge the ways we are grateful and celebrate Clayton’s life, and we are grateful that his suffering is over; but also, it is difficult to say goodbye.

In John, Jesus speaks to disciples who, put simply, can’t imagine their life without him. Jesus is talking about his upcoming death and they don’t want to hear it. They don’t want to face losing him, and Jesus reassures them… Don’t be afraid. I am going to die, but death does not have the final word. I’m going ahead of you so you can be reassured that when you come this way, entering the mystery of life after death, you’ll know I’m there, with a place for you.

And what’s more, as Jesus faces his own death, he promises a gift for those who cannot imagine life without him—the presence of the Holy Spirit—who blows where it will, who teaches, who reminds them of what they know, and fills them with peace. Not the temporary, unsatisfying peace that doesn’t last, but deep peace and love that takes our fear and despair away.

Doesn’t that sound like Clayton?

In the binder of photos and stories that you may have seen on your way in, a creative gathering of stories and pictures from children and grandchildren, you can glimpse story after story of how his family remember the ways that Clayton extended grace to them… sometimes through a well-placed word or story or joke… sometimes through his incredible gift for small talk… but also simply through his presence, his hand on a shoulder, his hand of blessing on their heads.

He was not only loving and gentle… he also had a truly adventurous, completely courageous, maybe even a little dangerous side… picking up his young kids in the loader bucket with the snow and dumping them on the snow pile, encouraging them to take risks and have adventures, supporting them in all their independent and creative endeavors.  Sometimes, Clayton also forgot the kids, leaving them behind not just once but frankly, so often that they learned strategies for what to do. Wait right where you are. He’ll be coming back, even if it’s a few hours.
And through both his deep attentiveness as father, as grandfather … and his forgiving, and forgetting… he has given incredible gifts to each of you, Charlie, Kathy, John…Andrew, Claire, Alex, Thessaly, Linnae, and Elise, gifts that he would want you to carry on through your whole lives.

Here is some of the wisdom that Clayton embodied and lived out for you, Carolyn and kids and grandkids, family, loved ones, friends…

Be good to one another. Forgive what you need to forgive. Although toys can be fun, experiences are more important than things. Hold your families close. I love you.

We grieve the loss of this incredibly likeable, fun, and even-tempered man, but we also have received so much from him that can never be taken away.  Clayton taught and gave and told stories and modeled a way of living and loving. What he showed you—the love and the time he gave you—and the way that he would have given you whatever you needed. That is the kind of love that lasts and can live on in and through you.

Also, Clayton was pretty private. He would continually deflect conversation away from himself. In fact, he was not generally keen on being the center of attention, unless it was to occasionally be the life of the party… and that is how he would want us to move forward… with a spirit of celebrating all that has been good, all that has been gift, that our tears might turn into tears of joy, that our mourning might become singing—or maybe whistling—that we would tell stories, and embody love.

Jesus promises, “‘I have said these things to you while I am still with you. ²⁶But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. ²⁷Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

There is a time for everything… a time to be born, a time to die; a time to plant, a time for harvest; a time to weep, a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. In this time, in these days, in this season of resurrection and new life, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, and may the Holy Spirit bring you peace.

The secret's out!

Easter Sunday, Mark 15, Christ on Capitol Hill                                           

Alleluia. Christ is risen!          Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia!

“Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.
But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”

“Do not be alarmed. Do not be afraid.”

This is the typical thing that every messenger from heaven always says…

“True. You are looking for Jesus, the one who was killed. He’s been raised; he’s not here.” Yes, you’re in the right place… although the circumstances are highly unusual.

“But go tell his disciples, especially Peter” – who denied knowing him after promising never to leave him… so might not think he qualifies as “disciple” anymore… so especially go tell Peter – “…to go to Galilee. Jesus, the risen One, will meet you there.”

Just like many of us, disciples in Mark’s story never completely get it … so at the end of the story, even the women—who have been faithful through every single part of the journey, even at the foot of the cross—even they are afraid and don’t tell anyone.
Or did they? They’ve got a totally incredible story to tell, so does fear really have the last word? Or does the secret get out?

Later writers tried to help out the gospel of Mark’s awkward ending by adding some parts to fill out the story. So, in some ancient accounts, they wrote just one more verse… Really, they added, the women went and told the disciples around Peter (hmmmm… )… and the word went out about Jesus in every direction. A quick fix.

OR here was another slightly longer version… Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene and she told the disciples in the middle of their mourning and weeping, but they didn’t believe her.

AND Jesus appeared to two walking on the road, and they told, but they didn’t believe them. AND so finally, Jesus appeared to the 11 at the table, and said, “Come on, you stubborn people! If seeing is the only way you’ll believe… and if you won’t even go to see me where I told you to meet me… well, here I am, right at your table. Go out and spread the story!” And so, finally, seeing was believing… and they did.
Alleluia. Christ is risen!          Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia!

We know that this is true because the story of Jesus has traveled many, many places from its tiny start at the tomb. It’s no easier to believe now than then, and still, witnesses share their own stories of faith and doubt and miracles… but others may or may not believe them. And every Easter, not to mention every Sunday, we gather to wonder together in dialog with these stories… will fear really have the last word? Or will the secret get out?

The secret. For many who gather together in churches, and many who don’t… if we’re thinking about Jesus at all, Jesus is a real mystery. Most people don’t know what they believe about him, and if someone knows it all, we’re mostly suspicious… and in some cases, rightly so. You can find all kinds of information from a whole variety of sources that may or may not be helpful in getting to know Jesus…

Plus, who can we really trust? Can we really trust tradition, institutions, leaders, even other people to serve and guide us? There are plenty of reasons to fear. We can find reasons to fear everywhere.

So, how remarkable that in Mark’s original, unedited story, the risen Jesus doesn’t even appear… simply a messenger, saying, “Go forward into your daily life. That’s where you’ll find Jesus. You can expect to see this One who loves you, who forgives whatever you’re worried about and stuck on—whatever you think would keep God from really accepting you… oh say, like for example, denial, betrayal, fear—whatever it might be keeping you apart. God can bridge that gap. Jesus is inviting you, you & Peter, anyway.

This kind of witness is the exact opposite of the ways that people have used judgment in the past and in the present to keep people out. Jesus especially names the ones who might think they’re not welcome, so they can know for sure… yes, and you are part of this, too.

So if you see something in social media or hear something on the TV or radio that expresses bigotry, hatred, fear, condemnation coming from the mouth of Jesus? Well, you can know for sure that doesn’t come from God. Messengers from God always begin this way, “Do not fear.” And then, they talk about how God has chosen people—ordinary people—and made them acceptable in God’s sight, not because of who they are but because of who God is.

God certainly judges, but it’s never what we expect. Jesus continually surprised those closest to him… And from all that we can see in the good news according to Mark, the way that Jesus came to save was to bring good news, to heal, to change the world order, to bring to life … and yes, he was put to death for it… but the miracle was that somehow, God transformed even that horrible tragedy into something different. God transformed it so totally that when we look at the cross today, it is not just a source of pain and death…
it’s a source of hope and new life, a tree of life.

Maybe that’s metaphor, poetry… but maybe it’s also exactly what that messenger at the tomb promised. A place where we learn not to fear because just beyond it, we see Jesus.

The end of Mark’s story is just the beginning. Over 2,000+ years, there have certainly a whole range of experiences of meeting Jesus again and for the first time… but the empty tomb, the story of resurrection keeps inviting us back into the story. “Don’t be afraid. But DO expect to see Jesus in your daily life, because Jesus is living”—the One who helps us to know God better, the One who breathes on us and fills us with peace, the One who never gives up on us but just keeps calling us out of our fearful judgments into new life, again and again.

So, do not fear… but be ready. As you go ahead into this day, this week, this spring, you’ll see Jesus in daily life, just as he said. Fear doesn’t get the last word, because God’s good news is already out … in forgiveness, inclusion, peace, love. The last word, the secret we’re invited to share is Jesus.

Think a minute… who could you share it with? A word of forgiveness? A healing prayer? A loving gesture? We who have heard anything at all, we who have tasted a morsel, we who have said even one Alleluia… we are witnesses to something that so many people are longing to hear—good news. So, don’t be afraid. The secret’s out… and you are part of God’s vision for spreading good news far and wide.

Alleluia. Christ is risen!          Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Maundy Thursday

This is a night that has four big actions, or if we think of worship like participatory theatre, four main acts.

The first big action is Confession and Forgiveness. All of Lent is a season of confession, admitting the truth about our struggles and failures, our addictions, our self-absorption or self-hatred, our wounded and messy and broken parts... We cry out for healing and renewal. And on this night, we bring to an end, for now, that season’s work and are reminded of God's forgiveness and command to walk in love, as we shift our focus, all eyes on Jesus as he goes to the cross.

Secondly, we hear Jesus’ words and are invited to experience Jesus washing feet, to hear the command of Jesus to wash each other's feet. Whether we actually participate in that action tonight or not, at least part of why we gather as church is exactly for that reason-- to serve and be served. For some of us, it's easier to do just one of those. For some of us, it's easier to do the other. But, Jesus' action on this night shows us the necessity of both, and challenges us to humbly serve, and to let others minister to us in ways that help us know how deeply we need each other.

The third big action is sharing a meal. It's a meal that has roots in the meal that God's people shared since the exodus, a Passover meal, a meal that makes us ready, a meal in preparation for a journey through a wilderness to a new place. We're on that journey, too—sometimes literally, sometimes metaphorically. We eat together this evening because just as Jesus showed disciples who he really was at the last supper, God continues to show up at dinner tables, in our daily lives, and we don't want to lose the sense that the meal we share in Holy Communion is not just symbolic but is really a place where Jesus keeps showing up, over and over, offering himself as the host of the meal; mysteriously as the meal--in/with/and under the bread and wine; and as the transforming one that changes us through this bread and cup into his body, living and active, so that we go out from the meal filled, with something to offer to all who need to see God in us.

The fourth big action is remembering. We remember together as this holy space is stripped of all it's adornments, until it's bare, how this is the night when Jesus was betrayed by a friend who was disappointed in him, how Jesus prayed to God and struggled alone while others slept. On this night, Jesus experienced violence, trials, threats, physical pain, and suffering; this night, he was handed over to people who wanted to kill him; he was stripped of his clothes; he was vulnerable, alone.

Tonight, Jesus forgives, we forgive. Jesus serves, we serve. Jesus shares a meal, we share a meal. Jesus goes toward his passion, and we go, too.
At the end of this night, we'll “press pause” and leave in quiet to continue the story tomorrow...
Knowing that there is more to the story and that God has called us to be a part of this great work of love where God is making all things new.