Deuteronomy 30: 15-20, Proverbs 8: 22-36

Choose Life!

Deuteronomy 30: 15-20, Proverbs 8: 22-36

4/22/12 Earth Day Sunday

On this Earth Day Sunday the words of Moses in Deuteronomy can take on new meaning as they echo centuries beyond their origin when Moses was preparing Israel to move forward without him ---and are heard today:

“I have set before you life and death…therefore, choose life that you and your descendants may live.”

As people of this spiritual covenant– we are called to affirm the life made possible through our relationship with God and in turn, with all of God’s creation. We are called to live for the sake of ALL LIFE in a particular way, a way that assures a healthy future for living things…not just our family – not just our tribe or nation – but all life.

The awareness of how all creation is intimately connected is increasing as scientists continue to help us understand the evolutionary process that brings forth life and how the way we live impacts the continuation of life. As people of faith we do not turn away from what scientists reveal to us, this knowledge continues to affirm the miracle of life which our faith proclaims.

Each of you as individuals are an amazing creation – each of you are a unique product of billions of years of planetary change so that in a precise moment in time you were chosen to be you. You and no one else.

It is simply incredible to begin to understand how the fact that we are here at all rests on the creative power infused into the elements of nature.

And we are amazingly connected to the rest of creation – “from the great network of plant growth in the tropical rainforest to the tiniest microorganisms, life is a complex whole. My life and your life are bound to the whole of creation.” (Bill Moyer, “Earth on Edge” documentary)

What a wonder! What a beautiful and remarkable universe we are blessed to dwell in and yet we have been complicit in not really “choosing life” with this in mind. We Christians can be heard using our scriptures as an excuse to subdue and exploit life in its various forms and in places all across the world.

We have failed to remember that our scriptures tell us that we are guests on this planet and on this land; we have ignored the song of the Psalmist as he proclaims “the earth is God’s and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein”.

We have misinterpreted and misunderstood – The Bible does not teach contempt for nature, it teaches awe, reverence and a profound cherishing.

We are asked to “choose life” not just for ourselves, but for the sake of the whole.

Praise God that is changing as more and more communities, in and outside of the church, awake to the depth and breadth of the charge to “choose life”.

We are waking up.

We “choose life” as people of faith by adopting an attitude and an intentionalway of living that affirms and respects the interconnectedness of all creation.

We “choose life” as God intends by not treating this planet as if its resources were inexhaustible and its future unlimited.

We “choose life” by not choosing unbridled consumerism that has a highly destructive impact on the earth.

In the second reading this morning from Proverbs we are given a spiritual image of how God created Wisdom first, even before the earth so Wisdom was present and woven into the making of the earth itself, in its foundations – its mountains and seas. It seems to me that is what scientists of all kind affirm time and again as they continue to discover things about evolution, biology and genetics – Wisdom is right there in creation itself. It has so much to teach us if we will listen.

The writer of Proverbs affirms in verses 32-36 that if we listen to this wisdom that is sewn into the very fabric of nature and not neglect it, we will learn and find life and happiness.

Creation is not to be dominated or ignored – it is a storehouse of wisdom, beauty and sustainability. We are called to PAY ATTENTION and live as guests on an amazing planet.

Annie Dillard wrote in her book “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek”: “I go my way and my left foot says “glory”, and my right foot says “Amen”, in and out of shadow Creek, upstream mid down, exultant, in a daze, dancing, to the twin silver trumpets of praise.”

Sue Olsen recently loaned me a book she brought back from their last visit to Alaska about the Museum of the North in Fairbanks which houses what is known as “The Place Where You Go to Listen” where composer John Luther Adams has created a sound-and-light installation where you can listen to the sounds of music that has been created from raw data that comes from seismological, meteorological and geomagnetic stations in various parts of Alaska and is fed into a computer and transformed into sound.

It sounds like an amazing place; I hope to go there one day.

If you travel to Alaska and don’t get to see the aurora borealis, you can go to this museum and at least listen to it.

You sit on a bench and you listen, and if you stay long enough you can listen to the “Day choir” and then to the “Night choir” – imagine, you can hear the moon rising! (What would that sound like?)

This place sounds magical to me – it strikes me as a place where we could go and hear the sounds of Proverbs “Wisdom” as she moves, sings and dances within the earth.

Places like this can nourish a deep sense of awe for creation. As the composer of “The Place” say’s himself – his goal is for us to pay better attention to the world.

Listen to his words here:

“At this moment things look bleak for humanity. But at almost any moment in our history things have probably looked bleak. And as desperate as things may be, life is still an unfathomable miracle and the world is still staggeringly beautiful. This is cause for wonder and celebration. Things may get better. Or they may get worse than we can imagine. One way or another, with or without us, the earth will take care of itself. The greatest challenge we face now is our own delusion. We need to be grounded more in sense and less in sensibility…Let us engage directly and passionately with this miraculous world in which we live. Let us cherish the world not for what we want it to be, but for what it actually is. This requires honesty and a modicum of humility. It requires patience. It requires listening.”

As people of faith, as people of the covenant that began with Moses and continued through the prophets and into the life and teachings of Jesus and into our time and place – we are called to “choose life” on behalf of ALL LIFE. From how we take care of our garbage or drive less and walk more, to how we practice civility in our relationships or feed the hungry– we are called to “Choose life” on behalf of All Life across this world. It does take humility and a willingness to respect the Wisdom that is inherent in the earth itself. Our scriptures affirm that – may we seek to affirm it with our lives.

Amen and amen.

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