Healing the World-Part 2

Healing the Earth – Part 2    8-10-13

God, Creator of the Universe and of this planet earth we call “home”, teach us to treasure all that you have placed in our presence to enjoy, preserve, and protect.   Teach us to care and to care deeply.  Speak to us through your messengers—the trees and sky and people.  Amen

          Just the other day I was talking to a tree—our  tree, the big one in the center of the driveway, the one around which Kathy has so lovingly tended a garden and made the space even more beautiful.  Anyway, it was a lovely time of day, I was alone on the campus, it had already rained and cooled a little, and I was sitting outside on Annie’s bench.  The chimes were singing softly and the breeze was gently blowing the leaves so that the big tree looked like a moving, undulating, mass of green.  I was troubled that day—troubled because of all that I felt I had left undone and concerned about how to get enough hours in the day.  I suspect every one of you have felt the same way.  So rather than working myself up into a dither, I went outside to find some center and solid ground on which to stand.  I checked in with myself and with God and said, “This sermon on healing the earth—it feels hopeless, overwhelming; and, certainly there must be someone more studied in the whole ecology thing than I am”.  I tell you, I’m fairly certain I heard that tree say, “Oh, there are many people more learned than you are but you are the one here and now”.   The tree (and by now I was getting pretty comfortable listening to a talking tree) said, “Let me sing you a song.  It will tell you all that you need to know”.  And, so, the tree began to sing, first in a high treble as the upper leaves danced in the wind and then in a lower baritone as the roots began to shake the earth ever so slightly.  Then the whole tree began to sing together in a verdant mass of voices and instruments more beautiful than any music I had ever heard before. 

          I cannot tell you the words or if, indeed, there even were any words; but, I left her presence and returned to my desk to begin to do my research for this sermon full of the knowledge of what God wanted me to say today.   Zen Master, Thich Nhat Hanh (Tik * N'yat * Hawn) speaks of where we must start when he says, “Be aware of the contact between your feet and the Earth. Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet. We have caused a lot of damage to the Earth. Now it is time for us to take good care of her. We bring our peace and calm to the surface of the Earth and share the lesson of love. We walk in that spirit.” 
          We have talked these past few weeks of healing –healing ourselves, healing each other, and healing Mother Earth.  Those species among us who are sentient, living and breathing in this faithful environment have a separate and special responsibility to work for the survival of our Mother. And in that quest, I am reminded of apple seeds my own mother, or perhaps grandmother, let me plant in Dixie cups.  It was a grand experiment for as long as my interest could be maintained.  Once the seed had sprouted and shot through the dirt into the air, the day to day watering and care grew tedious and was easily forgotten.  We are often much the same in our commitment to our Mother Earth—we hear something, it affects us—but once the excitement is over, we return to our mostly irresponsible using up of irreplaceable natural resources. 

          Webs of people on the internet are dedicated to the healing of the planet, our planet, this place we live and breathe and have our being.  Their desire is to heal the world from the inside out.  But these actions merely touch the surface, though they are valid and valiant efforts.  All of these efforts, as well as all of ours, require that a seismic shift occurs in the Hearts and Minds of Humanity.  We are the only ones who can change and heal the earth.  Period. 

          Transcendentalist poet and author, Ralph Waldo Emerson, said this about Nature, “Nature is made to conspire with spirit to emancipate us.”  One cannot help then but to ask—“and what of us?”  Are we not made to emancipate Nature?”  Should there not be a sacred reciprocity between Humanity and the rest of the Creator’s Creation?  Popular spiritual author, Eckhart Tolle, speaks of this relationship in a way that speaks differently about that relationship.  He says, “You add a very important dimension to nature when you perceive it through the depth of your Being. Because, ultimately you are not separate from it, and as you perceive it, nature knows itself through you, its own beauty, its sacredness.”
          The congruence of Emerson’s and Tolle’s two brief statements is immediately apparent when we are able to see ourselves as one with the rest of God’s creation.  However, this requires some hefty paradigm shifting on our parts.  If creation and her natural processes were not created solely to sustain those parts of creation which claim great privilege, and, if we are truly one with God and God’s creation, then to abuse our Mother Earth is to abuse ourselves and every other expression of Humanity throughout the earth.  At that point, religion truly does not matter.  It does not matter to God why or how we come to a place of understanding this hallowed unity between Humankind and the rest of God’s works.  And, I am absolutely positive that the beautifully singing tree in the center or our campus does not care why you love her, only that you do.  The outcome of that love cannot help but be tender, loving, generous care towards her and all of the cosmos.

          It is spiritually awkward if not ethically unacceptable to come to a place of celebrating diversity among humankind while, simultaneously, destroying the diversity of the rest of creation.  We all know that there is an always-expanding demand for natural resources of all kinds.  Living spaces and perceived needs of humans in the over-developed world continue to take priority while toxins and poisons continue to accelerate the devastation of our water and soil.  Biodiversity—the diversity of plants, animals, and other species—is being destroyed worldwide even as we sit here this morning.  Can you fathom this frightening fact?  Half of the world’s forests and a quarter of the coral reefs are simply gone—lost to our children and grandchildren. Threats increase to the oceans exponentially each year.  And while we are no longer damaging the ozone layer as quickly as we once were, but there is still a large hole remaining.  “Global warming”—a concept as controversial as it is terrifying—suggests that the changes in the world’s climate are due to the proliferation of human-made, so-called “greenhouse gases”—gases that we could avoid producing if we undertook to make our methods of production of energy and other products managed by the level of damage to the planet instead of speed and convenience.   

          The world is easily perceived as a breathing, living being—constantly engaged in the production of all we believe we need to survive.  But it is not so easy for her to continue to provide for these needs as it was in the past.  We, in the developed world, believe that there will always be enough, or at least, enough for us.  We somehow manage to ignore the fact, or work to blame it on someone else, that there are those already doing without.  We have forgotten our inter-connectedness—between each of us and each other and to the world.  Although clearly designed to be caretakers of the world, we have, collectively, become simply takers from the world.  And, while we perceive that we have a choice, in reality we don’t.  Either we contribute to the healing of the world, or we contribute to her and, subsequently, our own destruction. 

          Our singing tree calls to us—come visit her. We know that we are here on this earth for a very short time—every day is a gift.  Our impermanence need not lead to waste and carelessness with our children’s futures.  When we choose to connect to the deep positive energy that exists wherever humankind remembers their sacred care-taking task and takes it seriously, we will join the ranks of those ready to make a change.  When we are present to this moment, we can feel joy and can listen to the silent revelation of hope generated from the center of our being and the center of the Earth.  As we rest we take guidance from the Divine Breath of Creation.  We breathe in God’s call to our hearts; we hold it there for just the time between our inhale and exhale.  And, that is enough—truly enough to change our hearts and minds.  When we exhale, we have been changed by God’s visitation of Sacred Grace in our hearts.  We breathe in God’s call to our hearts—and in the time it takes for our lungs to switch from inhaling to exhaling, we have been changed. 

There is an ancient Gaelic religious group known as the Druids.  Very little is known of their spiritual practices.  However, one thing seems certain—the Druids were spiritually in tune with the Creator and the Creation.  There is a lovely prayer associated with them.  Can you hear the background music from the trees when they prayed?  “Deep within the still center of my being, may I find peace.  Silently within the quiet of the Grove, may I share peace.  Gently and powerfully, within the greater circle of humankind, may I radiate peace.”  Amen and amen.