FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

April 17, 2005

Gen. 1: 26-31; John 10:1-10

Abundant Life

My husband, Neil, is the pastor of a small church in the Northeast Kingdom.  He and I were discussing what themes we might use today.  Certainly, the Shepherd theme from John’s Gospel is filled with spiritual riches; however, in our UCC calendars, we noted that this Sunday is called Integrity of Creation Sunday.  “What does that mean?”  Neil asked.  We talked about it for a few minutes and then decided that since this is the UCC, it probably refers to the environment but was drawn up by some committee whose members  couldn’t decide on how far to go in defining the environment and came up with a title that pretty much tucked everything in.   “Integrity of Creation” sounds more solemn and dignified than plain old  “Environment” Sunday.

Nevertheless, today I have chosen to honor that designation and invite you to view with me, the ideal suggested by the term: Integrity of Creation by using the prism of the Genesis and John passages to reflect on this beautiful world and all that lives on it.    There is a powerful relationship between the shepherd theme and that of God’s placing responsibility for all living matter in human hands.  From what I know or have heard about sheep, a flock is essentially leaderless and could not survive without human protection.  But also, those communities throughout the world who depend on sheep for livelihood, outerwear, blankets and food, cannot survive without the flock.  Therefore, the shepherd serves a critical role in ensuring that the sheep are not lost to storms, insufficient grazing fields or predators.    The wealth of a community might be measured in the number and health of sheep.  The shepherd although frequently unlettered and marginal, knows all there is to know about sheep.  Where he leads the sheep follow.  When he calls, they come.  Trusted by both humans and the flock, he is the custodian of the present and future security of the community. 

Speaking to his rural listeners in words that would evoke their own lives, Jesus used the shepherd analogy several times.  Farmers and shepherds would nod their heads in understanding as Jesus described a corral into which the sheep were driven.  Before going into their homes for the night, those folks customarily set guards around the corral and made sure the gate was locked.  They wouldn’t rest until the sheep were safe.  Indeed, often, they or their sons were the shepherds to those precious sheep.  Not thinking of their own safety, they had waded into torrential waters or climbed steep paths to rescue erring sheep.  If even one sheep were to be lost, the family would feel the effects in hunger or inadequate clothing.  So when Jesus spoke of that corral or of the gate or of thieves, they understood what he was saying.

What does this have to do with Genesis? 

“God said, “Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild animals and all the creatures that creep along the ground.”   The author of Genesis describes an exalted place for humanity in the cosmology of creation.  Having no other model than that of a great emperor who appoints governors to represent him with absolute authority in the far flung regions of the empire, the author of Genesis writes powerfully of God commissioning humans to act in God’s place in care of the earth.  As humans have been created in the image and likeness of God, so let them emulate the God whose image and likeness they carry.  Let humans be masters/ let them have dominion over all on earth that lives and moves and has being.    Yet even as God gave the humans this commission, God also assigned food for all living things. Humans would grow what they needed.  The birds would have seeds and the animals, the leaves of plants.   In this pristine world, there was to be harmony and peace.  Humans, in God’s image and with God’s authority were to maintain that harmony; to keep the balance.  When all was in place God looked on all that had been brought into being and blessed all the glorious creation saying, “It is very good.” 

In every generation back into the mists even before time was measured in more than days and seasons, humanity has been entrusted to bring the blessing forward, generation to generation.   We could also say that in every generation, humanity has been designated shepherd to all that lives, including the earth itself.  

Have humans proved themselves worthy of the divine mandate to shepherd the earth?  Certainly humans have that spark of God’s likeness in their creativity, imagination and perseverance.  Over eons upon eons humans learned how to control fire and transport water over many miles so that fields were watered and crops could grow.  Water allowed cities to be founded and filled with people all of whom had access to water, that most essential element for human life.  Humans learned how to plant fields and reap crops.  They domesticated cattle, sheep and goats .  They moved themselves from caves into stone and then wooden homes.  They imagined the wheel, created it and built carts in which they could bring the harvest to villages, towns and cities.    As they became more sophisticated, they harnessed the power of fire in smelters and created tools to farm and to build.  They harnessed the currents of rivers and built mills to grind the grain..  Using the winds of the air, they brought water up out of the ground and built sailing ships that harvested the riches of the oceans even as they discovered more lands to which they spread.   Throughout the centuries, miracle upon miracle of creativity has resulted in a world where the food on my table may come from Chile or from 10 miles away.  Once in my kitchen, it safely resides in the refrigerator until it is cooked with controlled heat.  I can have fresh fruit from California in February and fresh corn from local farms in August.  In so many ways, humanity has proven worthy of that blessing.

But at the same time, despite all that creativity, perseverance and imagination, humanity has found it extremely difficult to strike a balance between being the shepherd and being the thief.     For at least 2000 years writers and philosophers have commented on the inadequacy of human shepherding of the earth and its resources.  Listen to these statements: 

About 2000 years ago, Pliny the Elder said in his book on Natural History:

Such is the audacity of man, that he hath learned to counterfeit Nature, yea, and is so bold as to challenge her in her work

In 1656, Cyrano deBergerac complained that:

The insufferable arrogance of human beings to think that Nature was made solely for their benefit, as if it was conceivable that the sun had been set afire merely to ripen men's apples and head their cabbages

Chief Seattle, in 1855 reminded the human family that:

Humankind has not woven the web of life.  We are but one thread within it.  Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.  All things are bound together.  All things connect. 

And, in 1970, Art Buchwald, the humorist and columnist developed his own translation of the Genesis passage:

And Man created the plastic bag and the tin and aluminum can and the cellophane wrapper and the paper plate, and this was good because Man could then take his automobile and buy all his food in one place and He could save that which was good to eat in the refrigerator and throw away that which had no further use.  And soon the earth was covered with plastic bags and aluminum cans and paper plates and disposable bottles and there was nowhere to sit down or walk, and Man shook his head and cried:  "Look at this Godawful mess." 

In all the ages of humanity, have we been good shepherds?  Or have we forgotten that we are partnered with God in sustaining the miracle of creation?   During the long history of humanity, and with each new discovery, humans have made conscious power choices that have impacted the balance that God blessed in Genesis.  Fire not only warmed homes and cooked food.  Fire became a weapon viciously used to burn the crops of the enemy so that starvation of whole towns resulted.  The smelters that produced tools also produced weapons.  The harnessed winds brought ships filled with slaves to sow and reap fields of the rich and powerful.  With the advance of civilization, forests were cut down to build homes and furniture for the increasing numbers of humans who planted more and more fields.  Without the protection of trees, winds became the enemy bringing dust that despoiled good land and people starved.  And droughts and famines and disease kill millions in Africa while I enjoy my Chilean blueberries on my morning cereal.

A growing dependence on power sources required humans to dig for coal and search for oil.  Air and water became polluted and each summer brown air settled over cities all over the world.  Nuclear energy, the by-product of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was going to save the world’s air by replacing coal and oil with clean energy.  And then there was 3 Mile Island and Chernobyl.  It was said in the aftermath of Chernobyl that  molecules of contaminated air were breathed by every human being in every country on earth.  And now there are spent rods and nuclear waste that, to keep humanity safe, must be buried deep in the earth for thousands of years.   

Over thousands of centuries humanity has gradually lost the balance.  The burden of that loss is what we pass on to the next generation.  Rather than guarding the gate of our resources, humanity has come like a thief over the fence and stolen the heritage that ensures the vitality of our children’s children’s future.  

As we have lost our balance we have also grown increasingly arrogant.  We assure ourselves that can clean up this mess because we continue to have creativity, imagination and perseverance.  Do we also have the willingness to give up some comforts; some conveniences?  If a flock of sheep has any teaching value for us it is in the flock itself.  Each sheep feels most comfortable in the safety of the flock.  Perhaps we need to take note of that.  When humans learn that if each member of the community is protected than all the community is protected, we take a step toward recovering balance.

Albert Einstein, one of the greatest minds of the twentieth Century laid the groundwork for the atomic bomb and regretted his involvement  to the day he died.  He also saw the potential within humanity to restore the balance and regain the blessing.  He said:

A human being is part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space.  He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.  This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.  Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole [of] nature in its beauty. 

If Einstein believed in humanity, there is still hope for the power of the blessing to restore our earth to the original Integrity of Creation.  Even through the small tasks of recycling or making choices to keep the heat down or drive less, we are honoring God’s blessing.  God had not abandoned us.  May we never  abandon the goodness that is at the heart of all that lives and moves and has being.  Amen.