"Falling in Love with Creation" (Psalm 104)

In hearing Psalm 104, one fact stands out to me: the psalmist was intimately familiar with creation.  The psalmist was in love with creation.  And because the psalmist recognized creation as a manifestation of the Creator, the psalmist was able to fall in love with God through knowing, intimately, the beauty and wonder of nature.

Like any loving, intimate relationship, this one takes time to develop.  Having a sunset startle you, surprise you, take your breath away as you rush from one place to another – that’s a momentary crush.  It’s puppy love.  It’s like the rush of excitement that comes from seeing a goodlooking man or woman walking down the beach.

But that is not the same thing as an intimate, loving relationship.  An intimate, loving relationship takes time to develop.  It takes time to truly fall in love.

The psalmist has taken the time.  The psalmist has noticed the stars in the sky, the phases of the moon, the setting of the sun, not just once, but over and over.  The psalmist has gazed into the eyes of creation, memorizing every detail.

How about you?  How intimately connected are you to God through creation?  Let’s find out, with a little pop quiz….

1.     What is the current phase of the moon?  Approximately what time did it rise or set yesterday?

2.     What constellations – and what planets – can you see in the night sky this week?

3.     When was the last time you noticed the song of a mourning dove?  There is a good chance you heard it this morning as you walked to your car, but did you notice it?

4.     The trees on your street:  what kind are they?  Can you picture in your mind what the leaves look like, what the bark looks like?  Do you remember what it smells like?  Have you noticed any squirrels or birds in its branches?

There is simply no way to fall in love with creation if we don’t even take the time to notice creation.

The psalmist has taken the time…  The psalmist has noticed the birds singing in branches beside a stream.

The psalmist has noticed the cedars of Lebanon, with their sharp, four-sided needles and small, rounded cones.  These cedars can live up to 2,000 years, which means that the oldest cedars alive today may have been tiny seedlings in Jesus’ time.  Unfortunately, global warming is causing a decline in cedar forests, and these trees that live for thousands of years may be gone in a few decades.

The psalmist has noticed the goats in the mountains, which is actually something I’ve seen as well.  If you follow the San Gabriel River (which runs along the east side of Long Beach) up into the mountains, and patiently scout the rocky hilltops with your eyes, you might see them, too.

The psalmist has noticed the coneys finding refuge in the rocks.  An animal that is very similar to what the Bible calls a coney is a pika.  On hikes I’ve taken up Lassen Peak in northern California, I’ve heard the high-pitched chirp of the pikas.  It sounds like the chirp of a smoke detector that needs its battery replaced.  Another, similar animal that I’ve seen is the marmot, like this one that I saw on Mt. Whitney last summer.

In any loving, intimate relationship, there is reciprocity.  Both partners give love and receive love.  Both partners teach, and both partners give.  Both partners care deeply and protect one another.

Creation has many gifts and lessons for us, if we will only take the time to receive them.

Creation teaches us the value of unity.  In creation, there exists a web of life composed of many strands.  Perhaps the most well-known description of this web of life is attributed to Chief Seattle, who is said to have written a letter to the U.S. government in 1854. 

According to the letter:

Every part of the earth is sacred…Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing and humming insect is holy….

We are part of the earth and it is part of us….All things are connected.  Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth.  Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it.  Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

Our God is the same God.  The earth is precious to him.

Creation teaches us the value of sacrifice and compassion.  In most species, reproduction is the most important goal; everything a parent does is for the sake of its offspring.  And it has been documented that certain types of trees can even communicate warnings to other trees; when one tree is afflicted with a disease or insect infestation, other trees nearby know to begin building up their defenses.

Creation teaches us the value of diversity.  Why aren’t all trees alike, all flowers, all animals?  Because God values diversity.  God sees beauty in diversity.  Diversity is a gift from God, and people who value diversity are a blessing to God.

Creation teaches us stewardship, and the joy of stewardship.  George Washington once said that it is delightful to care for the earth, so much more delightful “than all the vain glory that can be achieved by ravaging it.”  It is truly a joy to care for all that God has entrusted to us.

Creation helps us be mindful.  When Jesus needed to clear his mind, find his bearings, and restore some sanity to his crazy, tumultuous life, he went out into the wilderness, to pray, to be alone with nature and with God.  There is a sense of peace that can be found only in nature.  That’s why John Muir climbed the mountains, “to get their good tidings.”  It’s why Henry David Thoreau spent time in the woods at Walden Pond.  To find peace of mind, to dwell in the embrace of God’s creation.

It is so important to take some time now and then to fall in love with creation, to nurture that loving, intimate relationship with the world God created.  Failure to do so is to risk treating creation not as a lover, but – to borrow an image from the prophets – as a whore, using creation for your own instant gratification, neither loving nor caring.

And isn’t that exactly what we have done?  We have cut down the forests that once adorned our planet the way a young woman’s hair adorns her face.  We have penetrated the earth with mines and drills, raping the planet, and expelling tremendous amounts of waste into the atmosphere in the process, removing mountaintops, polluting shorelines, creating holes underground in a process known as fracking which, it turns out, is causing an increase in earthquake activity even in areas where earthquakes are rare … just so we can have a cheap and abundant supply of fossil fuels.

Through our wasteful use of energy, we have pushed the amount of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere to 392 parts per million, a number that continues to rise, even though scientists tell us that we must get that number back down to no more than 350 parts per million in order to preserve a planet that can sustain life.

Among the many effects of these high levels of carbon dioxide is the dying off of the world’s coral reefs.  Coral is one of the most important strands on the web of life; so many species depend on it.  Destroy the coral, and you destroy the entire web.

Currently, the former president of the Maldives is touring the world, pleading with people to cut their carbon emissions.  The Maldives is an island nation in the Indian Ocean; they’ve had to evacuate sixteen of their islands already due to rising sea levels.  He’s pleading with the nations and the people of the world to slow down sea level rise by using cleaner energy, and getting carbon levels back down to 350 parts per million, before his nation disappears completely.

Kiribati is an island nation in the Pacific.  Its leaders are considering moving the entire population to Fiji, because rising sea levels are threatening to contaminate Kiribati’s fresh water supplies and inundate the islands themselves.  The Pacific Ocean is currently rising one inch per decade, and that – combined with stronger hurricanes and bigger waves – will soon make Kiribati uninhabitable.

Our Disciples global missionaries, and the people working with Week of Compassion, have seen the effects of environmental destruction:  from stronger, more frequent tornadoes and hurricanes in the United States to more severe and longer-lasting droughts in Africa, humanity’s effects on the planet are becoming more apparent.

In earth’s history, there have always been fluctuations in climate.  But never have they occurred so rapidly as now; never have the changes been witnessed or even noticed over the course of a single generation.  And never have they been so severe and drastic. 

And yet, we keep on polluting.  We continue to subsidize polluters, like the oil companies.  Exxon Mobil is the biggest, most profitable company in the history of money – it is also one of the biggest contributors to global warming – and yet we subsidize it with our tax dollars.  With all that money, it’s no big deal for companies like Exxon Mobil to hire teams and teams of scientists to convince people that global warming is a myth; and it’s no big deal to hire lobbyists that outnumber members of Congress 6-to-1, to convince them that God’s creation can take care of itself and that we can just go on polluting.

Therefore we spend very little to research and develop alternative, green forms of energy.  Fuel economy could be so much better than it is now, if only we had the will to make it so.  Our homes are filled with appliances that suck energy even when they are turned off; TVs and cell phone chargers and laptop computer chargers; if they’re plugged in, they’re using electricity.  Because it’s more important to have a TV that you can turn on and not have to wait for it to warm up than it is to take care of God’s creation.

God’s glory and majesty is seen in the world God created.  What happens to God once we destroy that world? 

Hear these words of the prophet Ezekiel:  “Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture?  When you drink of clear water, must you foul the rest with your feet?  And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have fouled with your feet?” [Ezekiel 34:18-19]

Were Ezekiel alive today, he could add:  “Is it not enough for you to use energy from the earth to meet your needs, but you must destroy the earth in the process?  When you consume all the oil, must you also waste it and foul the atmosphere?  And must my people in the Maldives and Kiribati and Bangladesh and Africa – the poorest of my people, who lack resources to cope – face the worst effects of your overconsumption?”

Let us pray with Ezekiel for God to give us a new heart.  Let us pray that God may say to us:  “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” [Ezekiel 36:26]

Let us pray for a heart that, like the psalmist, is deeply in love with God’s creation.  Let us pray for a heart that seeks healing, wholeness and salvation for this broken, hurting world.