Psalm 148, Romans 8:19-23
The architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright is uniquely American. He is considered by many to be the greatest American architect of all time. He was born in 1867, just after the end of the Civil War, in a time when everyone copied the styles of the European masters. Wright took the road less traveled by. He believed that the more humans were engulfed in nature, the greater their personal spiritual, physical and mental well-being. He advised students to “study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.” Elements of his designs imitated nature; and natural elements were everywhere present – water, wood, light, plants, rock. His buildings were designed for their landscapes, so that they dreamed to make nature even more beautiful. His Falling Water House in Pennsylvania is the epitome, where the house seems to float on the springs gushing forth water from deep in the earth under its foundation.
Pietro Belluschi, who designed First Presbyterian Church of Cottage Grove, followed a similar philosophy a generation later. That sanctuary is built with an entire wall of large panes of glass, bringing inside the beautiful garden outside. At least if the sermon gets boring or the music is off-key, one can look out and let nature lean in and heal your soul. And that just may be enough. It may be that this is one of the things that draws people into our sanctuary – wood. Perhaps we are tree-bathing here, being blessed by the wood itself.
All creation waits on tiptoes just to see the children of God revealed.
We know that connection with nature is healing. In Japanese medicine, doctors prescribe a specific number of minutes each day to walk among the trees. Hospitals often have forest paths on their grounds so that these prescriptions can be taken by patients there. It is not imagination. Besides converting our carbon dioxide to oxygen, the trees give off chemicals which are healing. It is metaphorically, like the trees are sharing their breath with us to make us whole.
All creation waits on tiptoes just to see the children of God revealed.
The good news is that peacemaking with nature is not all in our hands. Built into the design of creation is a desire within all things to be at one. Edward O. Wilson introduced and popularized this concept in his book, Biophilia (1984). He defines biophilia as “the urge to affiliate with other forms of life.” For example, adult mammals (especially humans) are generally attracted to baby mammal faces and find them appealing across species. The large eyes and small features of any young mammal face are far more appealing than those of the mature adults. It is suggested that the positive emotional response that adult mammals have toward baby mammals helps increase the survival rates of all mammals. We saw this phenomenon at work last Sunday, when we enjoyed the presence of our dogs with us to bless and be blessed in worship.
But biophilia does not end with our pets. People will go to great extremes to save plants and flowers, too. Initially, this was probably to protect a source for potential for food later. So we learned to pick flowers and to keep the seeds for next year, perhaps not so much for their beauty in our homes, though that was a plus, but for the abundance for next year which they represent. We have learned to protect the trees – in part because they clean the air for us and give us oxygen, but they also provide homes for so many creatures. In so many ways, trees keep our planet alive. And while we have so often not honored them for it, they continue to give us the breath of life.
All creation waits on tiptoes just to see the children of God revealed.
I offer us today another perspective on peacemaking with nature. Yes, peacemaking is our responsibility as we are the image of God and have been given responsibility for the health of the planet. But we are not alone.
Creation waits with eager longing for us to come to the table of peacemaking. Perhaps nature is more intentional about its calling to peacemaking than we think. Sometimes, when I am out in the wildness, I imagine that the sun has prepared a particular gleam, the animals follow me along, and the trees have cleaned the air just for me to come and see a hint of the glory they have seen in the heavens. All creation waits on tiptoes to see me emerge from the winding trail and they clap their hands when they see my smile, and feel me hold my breath, sometime laugh. They dance with me. It has been the surprise they have prepared just for me!
Maybe we should take the psalmist literally more often: The sun praises God. The stars praise God. The water, the fish, the clouds, the trees, the cattle, the birds – they all praise God. They are like a choir performance. Sparrows for sopranos, frogs for the bases, water for the tenors, and rustling leaves pick up the alto parts. A little percussion from the woodpeckers and fish jumping like cymbals crashing, burro hooves on the trail keep time. And the owl flaps its arms to orchestrate the whole thing!
Creation is performing a symphony, which calls us in. Calls us to be revealed. To come out from behind the duck-blind of our desire to possess, and simply dance in step with the performance.
We are not the only party in this dance of peacemaking. The Creator has built into all things the desire to be together, to be one, to be at peace. Fear creeps in, though. The Message translation says: “Everything in creation is being more or less held back.” The Greek of Paul is pretty wonky here. So translations are all over the map. I think this is one of the points where Paul began to speak in poetry, or maybe even in his prayer language, and his scribe is trying to write down every word, and it doesn’t quite work. But Eugene Peterson doesn’t try to untangle it. “Everything in creation is being more or less held back.” There is a good “basically Paul means…” kind of translation.
Everything in creation is being held back! By what? It has something to do with humans, because it says that creation is waiting on tiptoes for the children of God to be revealed. And who are the children of God?
Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.” Creation is waiting for the peacemakers! “They will not harm or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9). I can imagine creation yearning with all its being for the peacemakers to take away their fear and abuse, and to be partners in the goodness of all which God has given.
So what is holding human peacemakers back from being revealed? We are stuck behind our duck blinds protecting our power, afraid of the strength of what is out there. Sometimes, we have built such a sense of our own privilege that we think we can take whatever we want and store it in bigger and bigger barns. But most often, I think, we just don’t pay attention. We are not aware of the conscious yearning for peace built into our universe. Artists help us to pay attention – from architects to photographers to poets. Park designers.
In the beginning, God created human beings as the image of God, and gave us stewardship of all creation. We were to help it to be fruitful and multiply. We were to protect its ability to procreate and fill the earth, with us.
Stewardship is a wonderful word! I love it more all the time. What it means is that we don’t actually own, or control anything. Yes, we hold some stuff to care for, but it isn’t our possession. We care for it so we can hand it on as a legacy to the grace of God, trusting in the next hands to do what is needed in their time. Those who are our great cloud of witnesses at Mt. Tabor Church have done just this. None of us sitting here built this building. It was handed on from generations before us to do what is needed in our time. In their time, they filled it with worship services, choirs, children and youth classes, adult education and fun. And so do we. But in different ways. When we leave, the generations behind us will find new uses for this building which we never imagined. Is that okay with us?
The answer to that question will tell us whether we are acting as stewards or in one of the other ways – pride, self-interest or fear. Is it okay with us? Ponder that one.
This week, take the opportunity to interact with creation. Listen. It might be in your yard, it might even be by watching a nature TV program. It might be walking on Mt. Tabor. Pay attention to the little things. Walk slowly. Feel the earth supporting you. Listen to the sounds around you. Take in the small things. I have noticed that when I go in close to photograph a flower, there is almost always an insect in the picture, often one I didn’t see. There was a cricket on a seed stalk in the slide show. When I looked at it on my computer screen I realized why it was holding so still – not for me, but for its prey, another little insect on the stalk. Life isn’t posing for me, but I get to watch. Listen. Hear the symphony. And in that moment, we are at peace.
Perhaps the first step to being revealed as the children of God is to pay attention, to open our eyes and ears, to listen to the yearnings of nature itself. So much damage we have done out of blind self-interest. Now it is time to come out of our hiding, let ourselves listen, and act knowing that all creation is on our side, yearning for us to come to awareness and hear the song of the universe.
