Who Am I - First Sunday of the Season of Creation
Author: Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
September 08, 2024
Years ago Michael and I traveled to the Southwest to hike national parks like the Grand Canyon, and also Monument Valley, the national park of the Dine’ nation, people we call “Navajo.” Monument Valley is one of the few remaining locations in the United States with naturally dark skies. Seeing sunset was mind-blowing with the curve of increasing darkness, andspectrum colors breaking down like the layers of a rainbow. That image still captured in my photos is one of my go-to’s when I need to be grounded. We stayed overnight and our room opened up straight onto the desert floor. I learned it would be the best stargazing ever, so I set my alarm for the dead of night. At 2:30 or 3 am, I tried to wake Michael up and he was like, “Are you nuts?!”
It truly was pitch black. I fumbled to the patio door, stepped out into the night, and looked up, to be greeted by the most breathtaking beauty I’ve ever seen. Stars upon stars, the Milky Way, planets, shooting stars and utter silence. Nothing can fully describe it, but what came to mind was Psalm 8, “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established. Who are humans that you are mindful of them, that you care for them?” Who am I in such a vast and
glorious thing?
Take a moment and reflect on a moment of beauty in God’s creation…
It doesn’t need a roadtrip. Even the view out our window can give us such beauty largescale or in the very tiny, yet intricate. The center of a flower, even the wing of a fly. Imagine the hands that created and traced these lovingly like the way perhaps we have traced a finger on the cheek of a loved one, stroked their hair. Each of these is a moment of God’s intense love for us.
The Dine’ are folks whose name literally means “The People.” They speak of their arrival on earth as a part of their story of creation as the Earth People. who are an integral part of the universe and must do all they can to maintain harmony or balance with Mother Earth. How similar to the way Paul speaks in Romans, of the Earth as a Mother, groaning as in childbirth (Rom 8:22). Or the way Francis of Assisi spoke when he referred to the Earth as our sister and our mother in his Canticle of Creatures.
The times we live in show that we are often not relating to creation, including fellow humans, as a loving gifts from our Creator. That can drain us of hope with a different version of “but who are we?”
Yet, Christians around the globe increasingly believe we must be people of hope in changing times. It is a time to wait in hope, but act in courage. We remember the constant love of our Creator who calls each and every creature beloved, but also if we want to see change, we have to change. Now you know why I have that sunset picture. The love of our Creator calls to us to come and worship here, and then take our prayers into the world, working together for a future. This is active hope. Over the next weeks we
will be focusing upon the gift and beauty of creation, taking moments to be in awe, and then commit ourselves to work together so that hope will be continue to be born. Together, because like the heavens lovingly arranged by God, Scripture tells us we are entrusted to each other. To love.
In the words of a forest engineer from Senegal, “we will care for only what we love; we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught.” When all is said and done, life boils down to those people and places we love and how we take care of them." Here is the tricky part. Our theme for today is “Love Your Neighbor.” I know lots of people say
they prefer animals to people. Jesus doesn’t just say “love adorable kitties or puppies” or “otters, bunnies or capybaras.” It is to take that same love and imagine it enfolding people. It gets at who we decide is worthy of love.And all our feelings. As Jesus tells us to serve one another. If we go back to the quote from the man from Senegal, “we will care for only WHO we love; we will love only WHO we understand; and we will only understand WHO we are taught to know.”
“If your love is the kind of love blinded to some and not others, it cannot endure. We have to yearn for a kind of love you can give to any and every one. A love that wants every one to be rid of the things that cause us to not see humanity or dignity or grace or redemption in each other. A love that sees the personhood of each person.” 1 Well, to love like that I have to understand. To understand I have to be taught. Recently I learned that among the Dine’ people there are 15,000 people without electricity. In
2024. Never were there any efforts to bring electricity. They’ve been living with woodstoves, or generators to have even the smallest refrigerator and no heat in the coldest winters if you run out. Finally, there’s an effort to provide them with solar panels to 100 of 15,000 households this year. There I was staying at a hotel that was a main source of employment and having all the nice things. My only complaint was that they only had iceberg lettuce- how petty.
Meanwhile thousands of my siblings had no electricity, which means no running water. That took my breath away in a completely different way. How can we be this way to each other? But…Who am I? Someone with much to learn about love.
To bring things closer to home, my beautiful beloveds, there is an ever- increasing trend into which we all can bring hope and courage amidst the growth of loneliness, and isolation. God never intended us to be solo acts. Some days we look at the beauty of nature, but are also overwhelmed by the magnitude of struggles, the disappointment of missed opportunities or
the heartbreaks of failures. It can be hard to wait in hope and act in courage. One way we can all love our neighbors is to risk conversations. Get out of comfort zones and learn, understand and love those we do not know. Don’t worry, when you wonder, “Who am I?” Jesus is already sitting there too.
Awhile ago I read a book by Marc Gellman called Does God have a Big Toe? Marc is a Jewish writer who took up the tradition of midrash, telling of old Scripture stories in relatable ways, so they can be understood. One chapter is called “Partners.” God and the angels are sitting around, and everything is just globs of water and rocks. The angels tell God, “this is really a mess,
you should do something.” So, God takes some of the rocks and makes them into planets, and mountains and some are just rocks. He takes some water and turns it into oceans and rivers and clouds. The angels watch. God then makes creeping things, swimming things, flying things and eventually makes humans. Then God tells the humans, “Look, this is almost done, and
I am putting you I charge.” The humans recoil and tell God “we are too small for this.” So God says, “If you promise to help, we can be partners. We need each other. On the days when you think I am not doing enough, and on the days I think you are not doing enough, we will remember we are in this as partners together.” And then we will keep working together. It is who we are- those looking for the moments of beauty and glory, filling each other with hope and courage, knowing everyone has been touched by that divine fingertip that traced its image in love. I think if we remember we are partners in this holy and beautiful yet unfolding story, we will indeed find there is so much more room for love in this world.
1 Bryan Stevenson, “Love Mercy,” on the “Everything Happens” podcast with Kate Bowler.
Copyright Rev. Carolyn K. Hetrick, 2024 All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission.
Sermon Text: Psalm 8
O Lord our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are humans that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?
Yet you have made them a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet,
O Lord our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
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