April 2, 2006

The Earth is a Love Letter from God

by Julianne Stokstad

In our scripture today, the prophet Jeremiah speaks of a coming time when God will make a new covenant with us. Covenants show us the relational nature of God. I've been speaking about covenants - sacred agreements between God and Hebrew and Christian peoples - throughout Lent. The covenants have built with each succeeding covenant requiring more from us than the one before. The first, the rainbow covenant, was God's promise of ever-lasting faithfulness with all creation and us. Like babies we didn't have to promise anything. The covenant with Abraham and Sarah required their response, a sign of their promise of their faithfulness. The Decalogue and all of the laws outlined the right actions required to be in right relationship with God and community. This covenant is different because it requires our mature response. It is written on our hearts, the hearts of all peoples. No longer will we have to teach each other, require others believe as we do. We longer have to beat each other up. No longer can we reject anyone! This scripture was very important to Jesus and the early church. We hear its echoes in the gospels "as the word became flesh" and in the words of communion. The "New Testament" is better translated the "New Covenant." As Christians we understand ourselves as people of the new covenant.

How would a new covenant written on our hearts look? Paul writes in Romans, "Creation itself is waiting with anxious expectation for the revelation of the children of God." (Romans 8:19) I see God's promise on our Earth. In fact, I consider the Earth as a love letter from God.

It has been a long time since I've thought about love letters. So I've asked a number of people what would be a love letter? It might be a good practice for all of us to write a love letter: to our beloved partner or children or God. My approach has been to consider the qualities that I most value.

The first quality is faithfulness. So how is our earth faithful? It's always here. The light shines upon us all, warming the earth. The morning comes after every night, providing radiant energy to our earth systems so food can be made by the plants. There is stability on our Earth, a dynamic balance maintained by complex self-regulating systems.

The second quality is unconditional love. No matter what we do, the earth systems work. I see these complex self-regulating systems as a kind of unconditional love. We can do what we want, and the earth will still respond to support us. It doesn't matter if we are good or bad, the earth still gives us what we need. This is a quality we have chosen to abuse greatly, and now we are learning there are limits.

The third quality is to be taken care of. Our earth provides us what we need to live. The essential oxygen is made by the plants and is there for us, held in our atmosphere. Fresh water rains down upon us (albeit in excess in this last month). We have used our brains to make our homes, but all creatures have places to live. The birds build nests, wolves have dens; all know how to do this. Plants thrive in places where their unique needs are met. Redwood trees need fog; palo verde trees can survive desert conditions. As we study and learn about our earth environment, we see complex webs of interactions and interdependency. We see how the fruit trees need bees to pollinate their flowers and how the bees need the nectar to live and make honey. Bears (and us) like the honey.

The fourth is freedom. We have total freedom to choose what we do, how we respond. To be sure, our culture, our parents, our peers all try very hard to mold us. There are infinite ways for us to be in this world. Humans can choose what to eat and our bodies automatically adapt, we can choose where to live, what to do. We are free to pay attention to God's new covenant or not. I believe the religious urge is something programmed within all humans. By this I mean a sense of awe and wonder and an awareness of that which is greater than us.

Fifth is forgiveness. The earth repairs and heals, just as our bodies do. They are designed to be healthy, to self-heal and to sustain life. The earth is as well. Within limits, the earth forgives abuses. The earth holds no grudges, it simply is. Parasites flourish in crowded communities. Through our human minds we have learned how to live in greater health. We have the knowledge, we have the means and we have chosen not to share this with all peoples.

Sixth, creating new life. All living things have the God-like ability to create new life. Without it life would disappear. While, passion seems a human preoccupation, all life is able to make new life of its own kind. Change is its natural way. As life adapts to changing circumstances, evolution occurs.

Lastly a love letter has surprises. The earth is filled with amazing surprises. Look outside for a rainbow or a goldfinch. Listen and hear frogs croaking in the creek or an owl calling in the early morning. Butterflies, nudibranchs, iris tubers, and oak trees, the earth is filled with surprises that seem to appear just when I need hope.

The great sadness is that God's love letter is lying dusty and ignored. The earth is being overcome and its beautiful diversity destroyed by greed, carelessness and fear. We are in a crisis where the earth is being pushed past its limits into self-destructive cycles. We humans have set into motion the changes, and we have the ability and the means to stop and reverse the changes. Where is our will?

This is a spiritual crisis. External force brings stubborn resistance. How can we change from the inside? Only the transformative power of love can do that. We have not listened deep within us to the quiet still voice that cries STOP. We can do better. Why do we have to hurt the earth, the children ask?

I want to end with words from the Iona community in Scotland, echoing Native American wisdom:

This we know: the earth does not belong to us, we belong to the earth.

This we know: all things are connected, like the blood that unites one family.

This we know: we did not weave the web of life, we are merely a strand in it.

This we know: whatever we do to the web of life, we do to ourselves.

Let us give thanks for the gift of creation, let us give thanks that all things hold together in Christ.

Amen.

(For more resources on Faith and the Evironment, visit our Green Page)