In today’s sermon, since it is “Earth Care Sunday” (Or, “Earth Stewardship Sunday”), I’m going to introduce you to some of my closest friends… and by friends, I mean some of my favorite trees.
This incense cedar tree I encountered on a hike along Vivian Creek near Mount San Gorgonio, the highest mountain in southern California. When I saw it, I literally stopped, and gasped.
My son Tristan, who was with me on that hike, probably thought: What is Dad doing? Has he never seen a tree before?
But this tree was beautiful and magnificent. And it had been through some things, as you can tell. It was hollowed out on the inside, with black fire scars. Perhaps it had been struck by lightning at some point in its life.
I began to imagine what stories this tree could tell, and probably would tell, if I were patient enough to sit and listen.
But trees speak very slowly, and we had a mountain to climb…
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This stunted, gnarly oak tree can be found at Disneyland in California, in the line for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The branches spread out more horizontally than vertically, providing lots of shade to people waiting in line to ride.
This is one spot where I wish the line for the ride would actually move slowly, because I just want to spend some time here, tracing the branches with my eyes…
By the way, there are only two pictures today that I didn’t take myself. I found this photo online, on a Facebook page dedicated to the horticulture of Disneyland. Apparently someone else appreciates this tree as much as I do.
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Another favorite tree of mine is a giant, 150-year-old oak tree at Loch Leven, our Disciples camp in southern California. Loch Leven is located in a dry, desert-like environment; however, the camp is located where two canyon streams meet, and there, where those streams meet, are many shady trees, creating a cool oasis.
And for many of the summers I spent there, campers could safely climb to the top of the tallest of these trees by harnessing themselves into a professionally-installed system of ropes.
There were even a few hammocks placed high in that tree. Some campers liked to hoist themselves up 40 or 50 feet off the ground, and lay in one of those hammocks. If there was a breeze, they’d feel a gentle rocking motion. Sometimes they’d just stay there, and wouldn’t come down until it was time for dinner.
Those campers fell in love with this tree as much as I did. I’m pretty sure that, in those moments, those campers were being taught by the trees, as our scripture says.
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The toyon is a California tree so small that it is sometimes considered a bush and not a tree. This toyon is one I photographed on Catalina Island, on a hike I took one day after substitute teaching at the school there.
When I look at this picture, one of the things it tells me is that school must have been dismissed early that day. How do I know this? Well, because toyon berries only grow in winter; and in winter, the sun sets too early for me to have time to go for a hike after school… unless school got out early.
Birds and wildlife love Toyon berries. And native Americans—the Tongva and Chumash people—made use of them as well. In fact, the name of the plant—toyon—is derived from the Ohlone language, a Native American people of Central California.
The toyon is a signature plant in southern California; so much so, that the restroom interiors at the Hollywood Bowl are painted a shade of green that was color matched to the toyon.
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After I moved to Illinois, I was walking through Ewing Park one day, and I saw these two small trees that looked a lot like toyon. I took this picture a few weeks ago, but when I first saw these trees, it was early summer, and the branches were full of dark green leaves and bright red berries.
I learned that these trees—the ones I saw in Ewing Park—are called serviceberry. Since toyon doesn’t grow in the midwest, the serviceberry quickly became my favorite Illinois tree.
And midwestern birds love serviceberry just as much as California birds love toyon.
A few months after I decided that serviceberry was my new favorite tree, Robin Wall Kimmerer published a book she titled… Serviceberry. So when it came out, I had to read it.
In the opening pages of that book, Kimmerer writes that “the Serviceberry supports biodiversity. It is a preferred browse of Deer and Moose, a vital source of early pollen for newly emerging insects, and host to a suite of butterfly larvae—like Tiger Swallowtails, Viceroys, Admirals, and Hairstreaks—and berry-feasting birds who rely on those calories in breeding season.
Kimmerer also writes that “Human people, too, rely on those calories, especially in traditional Indigenous food practices. Serviceberries were a critical ingredient in the making of pemmican. The dried berries, along with dried venison or bison, were pounded to a fine powder, bound with rendered fat, and solidified into the original energy bars. This highly concentrated, preserved food provided full nutritional sustenance through seasons of hunger, was easily transportable, and could be cached or carried.
“Pemmican became part of the traditional trade economy, a sophisticated local and transcontinental network that distributed vital materials across ecosystems and cultures. Surplus Serviceberry calories could be exchanged for other goods not locally available.”
I love Kimmerer’s writing so much; it’s tempting to read her whole book to you this morning, but I’ll just share a little more.
She writes that “The leaves of the Serviceberry [like the leaves of most plants] draw carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which they make into sugar via photosynthesis.”
I don’t know about you, but I still remember that exciting day in high school when I learned the chemical equation for photosynthesis: CO₂+H₂0+sunlight → C₆H₁₂0₆ + O₂. (I’ll leave it to you to balance that equation.)
The sugar that photosynthesis produces in the serviceberry is stored in the berry, along with essential nutrients and minerals. Kimmerer notes that a bird (say) eats the berry, and some of that carbon becomes a beautiful, brightly colored feather. When that feather falls to the ground, it becomes food for beetles, who become food for a Vole whose death feeds the Serviceberry.
This demonstrates that God’s creation is characterized by abundance and reciprocity (giving back); and reciprocity, borne out of gratitude, would go a long way toward making our world a better place, if only we humans learned the lesson of creation—if only we allowed ourselves to be taught by the plants—and put those lessons into practice.
Yet we often take without giving back. And we create systems in which scarcity, not abundance, governs how we think, how we act, and the economies we develop. There is no reciprocity, and no gratitude.
Data centers have been in the news a lot lately, and are a good example of what I’m talking about.
Data centers suck up enormous amounts of energy, and enormous amounts of water. Utilities struggle to keep up with the demand, and to help finance the need for more energy and more water, they raise their rates… for everyone. WE are paying higher utility costs because of these data centers.
But that’s not all. Data centers generate a tremendous amount of heat. Some large data centers have raised the average temperature of the surrounding region by as much as six degrees. With the climate already warming due to climate change, you can see why this is a big problem.
Data centers take so much in terms of earth’s resources, but give nothing back to creation.
But I believe that we have the solutions, if not the will to implement those solutions. We have the technology and the ability. God has given us the knowledge and wisdom we need.
The companies that build data centers could, if they were motivated enough, find a way to do it without that huge, negative environmental impact. We—and our leaders in government—need to find a way to give them that motivation, and work together to undo the environmental harm we’ve caused.
It is possible! We CAN make positive environmental changes!
I’ve seen it happen.
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This is the other photo that is not mine. It shows that when I was growing up in southern California in the 1970s, the smog was terrible. Los Angeles regularly looked like it does on the left side of this photo.
After a day of playing outside, my lungs literally hurt, and it was hard to breathe.
But then we passed the Clean Air Act, and California in particular took controlling smog seriously.
Smog still exists, but it has gotten a lot better. Today, Los Angeles looks more like the right side of this photo.
It IS possible to create POSITIVE environmental change.
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And there are other things we can do, to actually help cool the environment. Trees have a natural cooling effect.
In 1955, Disney imagineers planted a jungle in Anaheim, California. Now, 70 years later, that jungle has matured quite a bit, with some of the trees reaching incredible heights. And that jungle has created its own micro-climate, where the temperature is actually cooler than the surrounding city.
Now, when I took this picture from the Jungle Cruise boat several years ago, I do wonder what the other people on the boat thought when I spent much of the ride gazing up at the trees, instead of looking at the elephants, the hippos, or the “backside of water.”
But I know I’m not the only one. Did you know that, at Disneyland, you can walk into City Hall on Main Street, and right there under the counter, they have this massively thick binder in which every tree and plant at Disneyland is listed? The species name is listed, along with its location in the park; and any special watering needs or care instructions for that tree are also noted. And anyone can just go in and ask to look at that binder…
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At camp this summer, I’m not going to lecture the campers about all the details of all the trees in camp.
But I do hope that campers will find a tree or two that they can get to know, and learn from. A tree that they will spend some time listening to, and gain some of the wisdom that is referred to in today’s scripture.
Because trees, and all of creation, really are great teachers.
This week, I want you to let creation teach you. And for that to happen, you need to spend some time noticing creation…. And noticing God in creation.
If you don’t know where to start, here are some things to find out through observation. Don’t look it up on google; find these things out by spending some time in creation:
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 listened to the song of a mourning dove? (I heard one the other day… I love the song of a mourning dove!)
4. What trees grow on your street? What do the leaves look like? What does the bark look like? What does the tree smell like?
If you notice any of these things, then you are well on your way to receiving the wisdom of creation.
Two weeks ago, I planted two serviceberry trees in my front yard.
I don’t know how long I’ll have to wait for berries to appear on those trees. Probably several years.
And when the berries do appear, I don’t know that I’ll eat any. I feel like I should at least try one.
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On Catalina Island, there is a plant called “lemonadeberry,” and so naturally when I worked at a camp there, I, and the students I taught, tasted those berries… and they really were sour and sweet and tart—and sticky—just like lemonade…
Robin Wall Kimmerer says that The Potawatomi called serviceberries Bozakmin, which means “the best berry.” So maybe, when the berries appear on my trees, I’ll at least give them a try.
But even if I don’t eat them, when I see them, I will learn from them.
I will be reminded of the things I do eat, and where those foods came from. I will ask myself if the food I eat is made from real, natural ingredients, or artificial ingredients created in a lab.
I will be reminded of the miracle that is present in every bite I take, and to offer up gratitude for the blessing of nourishment and raiment.
I will remember that the berries and all real foods are dependent on good soil and clean water. Everything I eat is dependent on good soil and clean water.
I will remember that, since it all comes from the land, the earth, everything I eat is a gift of God. It is all precious and sacred. To take or use anything thoughtlessly is a great sin. And to buy something that is used only for a moment, and then thrown away, is an insult to God the creator.
When I see the serviceberries, I will remember how interconnected I am with all of creation, that I myself am a part of God’s creation, and that my wellbeing is dependent on the wellbeing of creation itself.
The trees have so much to teach us. Creation has so much to teach us.
And I will be reminded, as Clayton—our Camp Walter Scott caretaker always says—to “care gently for God’s creation… and that includes you.”
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