April 16, 2023 - Earth Day
Earth Day Reflection - Take the Best - Carolyn Smith April 16, 2023
( after Choir Anthem “Turn the World Around”) Belafonte described that song as a gift sharing and singing of the mythology of his Black people- indigenous people as a reminder of humanity and connectedness. This mythology of the oneness of creation is so much like our theology of Beloved Creation.
I’m just back from my Sabbatical…. It’s not what I did or learned so much as the lens I looked through - “what are we doing here that matters?” What in my life matters…. What will I give my time and my energy and my heart to…? It’s a way of explaining ‘faith.’
I had 3 months to rest & play, to ponder & work (& declutter too!) on my WAY in the world…Theme: Take the Best, leave the rest…. (& I still brought Jay!)
Take the best and leave the rest…. We’re working as a congregation on this, and with TCF and some neighbour groups for the future … and this kind of spirit matters when we RE-create who we are… we have to know ourselves and what matters most, and get used to taking the best forward and leaving things behind that we’re ok now to let go of.
That’s a Resurrection perspective. As we are celebrating Easter - in this easter season, when the status quo - the greedy, powerful leaders with lots to lose chose to kill off the Way of love and Justice, and instead it became clear that greed can’t kill goodness, hate can’t kill love & faithfulness. One Radical Good guy was put to death, and 2000 years later we still celebrate the rising of Jesus’ Way. Some things rise to the top, they NEED to LIVE, they need to live on and capture our attention and be talked about…. And in this day and age, our energy needs to decide what matters most - caring for each other & neighbours as ourselves, with Justice & Equality, Indigenous and Racial Right relations, Our Affirming voice for 2S & LGBTQIA folks. All these mighty and worthy things are interwoven, they’re cousins of one another, interconnected in intersectionality. In all the stories of Jesus, the intersectionality of oppressed groups, struggling people, connects together around Kindom living - the way of compassion and love. In Jesus teaching, befriending, dying and rising, is the essence of the best, what will always rise again.
Resurrection stories point out What’s best - so this tiny resurrection story of Dorcas, or Tabitha matters in a few ways. The book of Acts is written by the same author as the book of Luke, and one difference from them compared to the other gospels is that it was becoming apparent that that Jesus’ WAY was catching the attention beyond just his Jewish community, their small Aramaic-speaking towns were surrounded by encroaching Greek and Roman cultures. Luke is filled with messages that say ALL people are beloved, this good news was for everyone, so that’s likely why Tabitha - an Aramaic name is tossed back and forth with Dorcas, the greek version meaning in English ‘Gazelle.’ Whoever she is, this character in this story matters to everyone.
Dorcas has fallen ill and died, and the ones who love her - called widows here, have come and are grieving - they’re not the powerful or the ones in charge, but struggling voiceless people who are the ones on the bottom, widows dont’ have status unless they marry again, and have little voice unless their male relatives give them permission. And they feel the loss of Tabitha deeply, the story makes this loss tangible because they hold garments and gifts in their hands that Tabitha has given them. They call for help, and not just anyone comes to their request, but Peter the Rock, the foundation of the new church is the one to come - and they show him all of her gifts, and he kneels beside her in prayer and she opened her eyes and sat up. Dorcas is resurrected to thriving life and she returns to her community. While the bible and so many universal teachings say virtually the same things - be kind, share your gifts and lift up the lowly, in this story she has a name and loving friends, and how can we not know she is worth raising up, worth a Resurrection story.
I couldn’t help but see Our precious Mother Earth in this story of Tabitha - this beloved mother, a clan mother for many worth Raising and remembering - and what an image I had of our struggling planet as Tabitha falling ill and dying… with her friends around realizing what had been lost.
I’ve been reading and re-reading a book, Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer. -she’s a PHD Biologist - an expert in teaching and training students in the science of plants and creatures and ecosystems, she can explain rhizomes and parenchyma and anaerobic processes. And she makes you love them, maybe because she is Indigenous, Powatami. She’s talking about them while paddling through cattails on her pond. Kimmerer was raised in her stories, raising her daughters in her traditions and melding the Science with ancient earth wisdom…Part of her graduate class program is to write papers on appreciation of the planet and … it’s appreciation of us. They study what it means for an organism to be alive, then notice how the Planet itself bears the same markers.
Here is something she says about a planet that mothers us…(and think of your own backyard or garden or moments you have LOVED your earth)
How do we show our children our love? Each in our own way by a shower of gifts and heavy rain of lessons.
Maybe it was the smell of ripe tomatoes, or the oriole singing, or that certain slant of light on a yellow afternoon and the beans hanging thick around me. It just came to me in a wash of happiness that made me laugh out loud, startling the chickadees who were picking at the sunflowers, raining back and white hulls on the ground. I knew it with a certainty as warm and clear as the the September Sunshine. The land loves us back. She loves us with beans and tomatoes, with roasting ears and blackberries and birdsongs. By a shower of gifts and heavy rain of lessons, She provides for us and teaches us to provide for ourselves. That’s what good mothers do. ~RWK
Robin feels the earth around her with personality, in a way that brings LIFE to lessons and connects us in ways we can all connect to…
And those cattails , as she was paddling through them, she thought “I hadn’t realized that I had come to the lake and said feed me, but my empty heart was fed. I had a good mother. she gives what we need without being asked. I wonder if she gets tired, old Mother Earth, or if she too is fed by the giving. “Thanks,” I whispered, “for all of this.”
We’ve all seen David Suzuki, Jane Goodall, Greta Thunberg, even Bill Nye the Science Guy - they’ve helped us keep in touch with and make some sense of this vast planet and it’s struggles and our part in it. It’s hard for you or me to know what to do, how to Take the best and leave behind mistakes, bad ideas, and problematic things because we’re so surrounded with it. Everything we touch and eat and wear is plastic-made, oil-fuelled, consumption-driven and we’re tired, stressed, sick, divided and putting one foot in front of the other so that fixing BIG things is beyond us. So we get a bit forgetful so we can sleep at night.
Forgetfulness of the externalized costs of convenience. Forgetfulness that we are connected despite politics or skin colour or species, forgetfulness that we could flourish, forgetfulness of what we lose in that disconnection. Forgetfulness Of who and who’s we are - how did the choir’s song go?
do I know who you are? Do you know who I am?
In this forgetfulness, I forget who and whose I am….
And who feels the pain of this most keenly - the voiceless ones, indigenous cultures whose wisdom is laughed at, the tiny insects and birds going extinct each day, Polar Bears and Whales. Anything living where there isn’t clean water or good soil, Families who can’t afford healthy food or housing with no choices to live their values. Most of this planet is not so insulated from the loss the way we in the GTA are, they are the ones standing at the bedside, grieving Mother Earth, they feel all that is being lost tangibly. They KNOW her… And the song went…
Do you know who I am? Do I know who you are?
See we one another clearly. Do we know who we are?
We are of the spirit. Truly of the spirit, Only can the spirit Turn the world around.
How can we remember? I bet you remember more easily who you are when you arrived at your cottage and see the lake glistening, or get out in your garden poking in the flowers,… or you taste a fresh strawberry or walk in the woods or see a grandchild smile and grow. In real tangible ways you remember…
This video might help us better today collectively… Another prophet of the planet: Sir David Attenborough -Such a treasure of a scientist, teacher, - how does this help you remember and reconnect? VIDEO -A Life on our Planet - David Attenborough. Can we turn this world around?
The widows gripped the garments in their hands that Tabitha had made, they felt her loss with grief - what would they do now? We know by all science that the decline of Mother Earth is costing us already, and if not us, our dear ones, our dear places… greatly.
If resurrection is about KNOWING in essence what is most precious, and it is about seeing it around us in one another… then the tingle of memory and KNOWING what is BEST and worthy and precious is the Spirit alive rising among us, connected through us.
May we know Who and Whose we are, may we see that essence in each face, and remember our Mother in each creature, each new discovery we make, with the Spirit tingling, connecting, resurrecting us to one another.
Heart is of the river, Body is the mountain,
Spirit is the sunlight, Turn the world around
We are of the spirit, Truly of the spirit
Only can the spirit, Turn the world around
May it be so!——————