Our covenant: Caring for the Earth and each other because our lives depend on it
April 22, 2017
Prelude:
Today we celebrate Earth Day. Gaia or Gaea, known as Earth or Mother Earth (the Greek word for "land" is ge or ga). She was an early earth goddess and the myths tell us that Gaia was born from Chaos, the great void of emptiness within the universe, and with her came Eros. She gave birth to Pontus (the Sea) and Uranus (the Sky). She achieved this without male intervention (parthenogenetically).
This earthen chalice was born of clay and water, the flesh and blood of Gaia;
Given form by the hand of the potter;
Set by the bonding fire of the kiln.
As we touch the flame to her lips, joining fire and air,
May her light remind us of that unity
Of earth, air, fire, and water,
of plant and animal, human and mineral,
that we and the earth are one.
Affirmation: Adapted from " The Earth Charter"
We stand at a critical moment in Earth's history.
A time when humanity must choose its future.
In our increasingly interdependent and fragile world, the future holds great peril and great promise.
We must see that in the midst of a diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny.
We must work to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for human rights, economic justice and a culture of peace.
It is imperative that we, peoples of the Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations.
Spirit of Life, Light of the Universe, Teach us to love this Earth, our home. We dwell together on this tiny,
fragile planet, this beautiful blue orb floating in the embrace of space. Help us to appreciate your abundant gifts.
To be alive in this magnificent, self-organizing universe to participate in the dance of life with senses to
perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it is a wonder beyond words.
Teach us
gratitude, O Spirit of Abundance.
This is also a dark time, filled with suffering and uncertainty. Like living cells in a larger body, we feel the
trauma of our world.
Spirit of the Dark, teach us not to be afraid of our own anguish, or anger, or fear, For these
responses show us the depth of our caring, and the truth of our interconnectedness with all beings. Create in us
compassion for the suffering of the earth and all her beings.
Spirit of Hope, teach us that since every particle in our body goes back to the first flaring forth of space and
time, we are really as old as the universe. Help us to know in our bones that we carry not only the particles of the
origin, but also the wisdom of the Universe. Somewhere in the recesses of our hearts, we know that a new world
can emerge from our dreams.
Spirit of Love, Help us to trust that, even though we cannot clearly see how it will turn out, we are called to
let the future into our imagination. Give us the strength to choose to take part in the self-healing of our world.
Great Spirit of on-going Life, open our ears to the call of the earth. Give us the courage to follow our hearts,
to always reach toward that which brings us joy. And knowing how deeply our lives intertwine, lead us join with
others with whom we can find strength and common purpose. Allow us to turn our minds and hearts toward one
another in trust, Giving love, seeking comfort, and celebrating together, All the days of our lives.
Amen. And Blessed Be.
Joys and concerns:
(We throw a small stone into this bowl filled with water, to symbolize our thoughts, which move in circular rings eternally, like concentric waves.)
We invite you to share your joys and concerns since our last meeting
For the beauty of the earth,
for the glory of the skies,
for the love which from our birth
over and around us lies;
Source of all, to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.
For the joy of ear and eye,
for the heart and mind's delight,
for the mystic harmony,
linking sense to sound and sight;
Source of all, to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.
For the wonder of each hour
of the day and of the night,
hill and vale, and tree and flower,
sun and moon, and stars of light;
Source of all, to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.
For the joy of human care,
sister, brother, parent, child,
for the kinship we all share
for all gentle thoughts and mild;
Source of all, to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.
First Reading:
EARTH PEOPLE HAVE WORK
We are people of the Earth. We come from the Earth. We are sustained through the Earth. We are inspired by the Earth. Music must have risen in the human spirit out of bird-song, the sound of waves breaking upon the shore, the sigh of wind in the trees, the drumbeat of our own hearts. The soul of the natural world pours out of us in poetry. We plumb the depths of a Ponderosa Pine or a Monarch Butterfly and suddenly we are more ourselves, more present, more whole. Suddenly the world opens to us as we open to it, as we enter what seems other than us and discover our own authentic selves in the encounter.
Inside this clay jug there are canyons and pine mountains,
and the maker of canyons and pine mountains!
All seven oceans are inside, and hundreds of millions of stars.
The acid that tests gold is there, and the one who judges jewels.
And the music from the strings that no one touches,
and the source of all water.
If you want the truth, I will tell you the truth:
Friend, listen: the Spirit whom I love is inside.
Kabir
Homily:
Celebrate the Web of Life -A Homily for Earth Day- from the UU Ministry for Earth
Springtime, the season of rebirth, is the perfect time to Celebrate Earth Sunday as
humans have celebrated the bounty of Earth since ancient times. Everything we need for life
comes from this Earth. There is no other source. So on this special occasion, let us celebrate
the web of life . . . seeing the divinity in every living thing.
Attending to our relationship with Earth, and our responsibility for its care is crucial in
this time as Earth suffers under the burden of careless human activities. And in gratitude for the
beauty and bounty of this precious planet, let us also commit ourselves to protect the lives of all
that share the glory of the Earth.
Where do you go to feed your spirit? When asked this question, almost everyone
responds they go outdoors, into nature. Our spirit is nourished by an intimate connection with
nature. This relationship can nurture and sweeten the journey of life.
When we reflect deeply on what our spirit receives from nature, few of us think first of
our backyard, or our neighborhood park. Many of us imagine the solitude and beauty of
wilderness. According to Terry Tempest Williams, a writer and naturalist in the American
Southwest, wilderness is a metaphor of unlimited possibility. What do we wish for? she
asks. To be whole. To be complete. Wildness reminds us what it means to be human, what we
are connected to rather than what we are separate from. . .
Williams, encourages us to go into the wilderness . . . to watch, and listen, and absorb the
wisdom of the Earth that is embedded in the cycles of nature. But most of us do not even need to go to
the wilderness to find that wisdom. We are most familiar with the cycles of the seasons that we
observe at home, right outside our front doors.
The changing seasons are more than a change in temperature and color. Spring is a time
of new life and growth the planting season when hopes for the future are made real by hard
work. Summer is a time of taking care, of weeding and watching, working and watering. It is
also a time of playing outdoors, exploring the abundance of nature all around. And anticipating
the harvest to come. Fall is a time of harvest, of reaping what has been sown; of storing away the
bounty of the earth for the coming of winter. And winter is a time of rest, of decay and recycling,
of gathering strength. A time of waiting quietly for the dawn, for the new birth that will come in
the spring. It is the time of transition. This pattern, this cycle of the seasons, gives us comfort
and reassurance. We learn to trust the pattern, knowing that spring always follows winter,
eventually.
Earth shares much wisdom with us if we just pay attention. One of the gifts nature
writers like Williams give us is access to that wisdom. They are the translators. Images from
nature illustrate fundamental truths about the world and our place in it. From watching natural
processes we can learn about the complexities of life, about the interrelationships between
species and their environments, even about the collaboration among various species in ways that
enhance life for each one in that process called symbiosis. We must understand that whatever we
do that affects those other life forms will ultimately affect us as well. Nature’s metaphors impart
a wisdom that we ignore at our peril.
In this excerpt, Gary Gunderson draws wisdom from the image and the reality of the
forest to teach us about right relations with the earth. He uses the metaphor of a tree to describe
our roles and relationships in a healthy community in his book, Deeply Woven Roots.
It is hard not to look up in awe into the high reaches of a deep and healthy forest. But the
true story is in the dirt, the roots. And what is forest loam but fallen trees? Everywhere you look
in a natural forest you see trees on their way to loam, and soil on its way to the sky. I think of a
congregation and its surrounding community as a forest, an image that leads us into the future in
two ways. First, we can see ourselves as one of the trees, taking comfort in the complex richness
of our enduring connections. Second, we can see ourselves as foresters, with the humble patience
of stewards who measure their contribution in terms of decades, nurturing and defending a living
process.
Although a forest may span miles, any one tree has to grow where it happened to sprout,
hoping to bear the fruit it can. Storms and fires sweep aside the weak. Some are more resilient
than others; some keep growing even after they are knocked down. But the big difference is
whom they grow next to, whose roots tangle with their own. The resilience of the forest reflects its
diversity. Any one tree relies not just on its own roots, but on an interwoven fabric of roots. And
while it is a good thing to put down roots, grow into the wind, and rise high into the sky, it is also
good to know that, even in our falling, even as our individual memories slip behind, we will
continue to be a part of the whole.
The wisdom the Earth shares with us requires getting to know a place, a location, a
particular spot of ground. Developing a relationship with it. A sense of place that comes from a
personal connection grows out of our direct experience with that place. It is a deeper connection
that allows us to view the land as something more than just an object to be utilized to get the
most out of it. It becomes possible to know the land as a sacred inheritance, with an
accompanying responsibility to take care of it, to express gratitude for its gifts, and to pass it on
to future generations without diminishing its condition.
In the early Hebrew Scriptures, land is the central theme of the biblical faith. You
would not know that from most of the interpretations today. But as the Hebrew tribes coalesced
into a kingdom of Israel, the land where they lived was seen as a gift from God, given to the
Chosen People. It was accompanied with rules for its use and responsibilities for its care. It is
from this theology that the people of Israel developed the practice of leaving the land fallow to
replenish itself every seventh year, and the notion of Jubilee, in which land that had been sold or
traded to settle a debt, was supposed to be returned to its original owner and the debt forgiven
every 49th year.
Our relationship with the Earth is, in some way, the very foundation of the way we live,
and breathe, and relate to one another, you see. The early pagans were probably not far off with
their belief that the Earth was our Mother, that the very possibility of life was a divine presence
all around us. This belief instructed the clan, or the tribe, in how to behave toward nature. They
found wisdom in what they saw all around them, learning from how the plants and animals
related to each other. And they figured that they were subject to the same rules as the rest of
nature. If we still believed that way, it would have profound implications for how we live on the
Earth today.
If we pay attention, the Earth will teach us gratitude instead of grasping, simple joy
instead of compulsive consumption, openness to life instead of a driven (and fruitless) attempt to
control everything. Thoughtlessness needs to give way to awareness, arrogance to compassion,
addiction to balanced calm. A deep and abiding connection with nature can be that antidote to the
compulsiveness and stresses of a life spent chasing the materialism of our post-modern American
Dream.
As Unitarian Universalists, we profess to believe in the interdependent web, the unity of
all existence. And we acknowledge that we are a part of it. Not outside of it. Not separate from
it. And not subject to a different set of rules, or consequences. The evidence for its Truth is
found in science, and also art and spirituality. We feel the interdependence in our relationships
with each other, and our relationships with non-human creatures, and specific places. Our
consciousness of these connections has to influence the way we live. How can we allow
ourselves to use more of the Earth’s gifts than we need, knowing that our grandchildren and
future generations will not have what they need for survival? How can we let our greed get in
the way of our relationships?
We Americans suffer from a Gratitude Deficit Disorder we keep trying to make
ourselves happy through more stuff, but it never works, so we have to grab for even more stuff.
It is a never ending escalation, this addiction to stuff. We must break the cycle, remembering that
happiness comes from relationships, connections, satisfaction of worthwhile endeavors. Joanna
Macy's expression of gratitude is beautifully poetic: To be alive (she says) in this beautiful,
self-organizing universe to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that
breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it is a wonder beyond words. Gratitude for the
gift of life is the primary wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of the mystic, the source of all
true art. Furthermore, it is a privilege to be alive in this time when we can choose to take part in
the self-healing of our world.
In the final analysis, to love the Earth is to participate in the circles of life with respect
and compassion. It is to live, work, and play in communities... communities that celebrate our
interconnectedness and strengthen our ties... with one another, with the land, and with all of
nature. We must deepen our sense of place, and take time to watch, and listen, and absorb the
wisdom of the Earth.
Our longing for a healthy future for all beings may seem too good to be true when
everything in our world conspires against our efforts to reach that vision. But hope assumes that,
in the end, all will be well. That all must be well! Hope is not based on facts. Hope is a choice
built on the faith that we have the imagination and creativity to build such a future. And that we
are, in fact, building it. Hope lies in the recognition that there is more happening to heal and
enrich our lives than we are aware of, even if the corporate media choose not to report it.
Around the globe, people are creating new solutions, motivating each other, coming
together in community, celebrating abundance of the earth. Frances Moore Lappe and her
daughter Anna Lappe recognize this in their Epilogue to their book called Hope’s Edge. It
describes hopeful stories from all over the world, proving that we can create the world we want
for our children, and grandchildren, and all the beings of Earth. Listen to this:
. . . Hope does not come from convincing ourselves the good news is winning out over
the bad. Nor does it come from assessing what is possible and going for that. Since it is not
possible to know what is possible . . . we find new energy in this very truth. In the awareness of
possibility itself always unknowable we are free to focus on creating the world we want.
Hope, we are learning, comes from a place deep within. Hope is not what we find in evidence. It
is what we become in action. We become hope because we are alive. We become hope because
our planet needs us to. And our hope can spur us on to take our own stand, to choose.
What a beautiful vision! The principle of the interconnected web reminds us that we are
connected to each other as well as to the Earth and all the creatures that are a part of nature. And
we must spread the message of our that connection, a message that challenges us to heal the
Earth for our children, and for all of Beings on this precious planet. We must all envision and
work towards a future that will be healthy for all beings as if our lives depended on it. Because,
in fact, it does.
May we be among those bringing forth that vision.
And may that vision come to be our reality. Amen. And Blessed Be!
Discussion Theme: Earth Day Copyright Congregation Unitarian Universalist of Puerto Rico Domestic Non-Profit Corporation #6268.
Throughout human history there was always some new part of the ocean to plunder, some new forest to devour, some new farmlands to exploit, but now that economic development has become a global enterprise of every country we have run out of virgin oceans and lands for new rising economic powers like India and China to exploit. Many countries are now chasing too few fish, trees and water resources, and are either devouring their own or plundering those of neighbors at alarming rates.
We are becoming aware on a global scale that our relationship to the
Earth needs to change. How do we cultivate the heart and wisdom to
navigate this, the great work of our time? What and from whom can we learn
about the nature of God or Gaia, our relationship to the Earth, one
another, and our most remarkable selves?
The environment the set of all live things ( plants and animals) that surround us, what are the methods available to us to help endangered species? to prevent extinction?
How can we build a sustainable society
in harmony with the natural world? How can we care for the Earth and each other because our lives depend on it? How can we help others to see this inconvenient truth.
Humans are busy thinking only about their own lives. We have the power to destroy huge numbers of species, whole landscapes of habitat and, in fact, the balance of life on earth.
Do you agree that the greatest moral issue of our time is our responsibility to the planet and to all its inhabitants?
What can one person do to stop contributing to Global Warming?
What can our congregation do to stop Global Warming?
Are we already in the 11th hour, is it too late to do anything?
How can we find the moral courage to rise and successfully resolve a crisis that so many have said was impossible to solve?
What are we doing personally and as a community to recycle newspapers, plastics and aluminum cans? How can we increase these efforts?
How does our seventh principle guide us in living a life that respects sustainability for the environment in our life choices?
What changes are needed to reduce our carbon footprint? Use less gasoline and other fossil fuels? Move closer to our jobs? Purchase a hybrid vehicle ? Use fans not air conditioning? Car pool? Use less heat, Put on not just a sweater, but ANOTHER sweater.
How do we encourage alternate sources of energy from sun, wind, water, geo-thermal sources?
Closing Words:
by Wangari Maathai, from her Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech
(Holding hands or link arms as you read the closing words together)
We are called to assist the earth,
to heal her wounds and in the process, heal our own
indeed, to embrace the whole creation
in all its diversity, beauty, and wonder.
This is our hope:
That the children born today may still have
a bit of green grass under their bare feet,
a breath of clean air to breathe,
a patch of blue water to sail upon,
and a whale on the horizon to set them dreaming.
Final Thought:
Our World: Born out of gas and dust, we must exercise caution dealing with the delicate balance of Nature in order that we do not END as we began.
Let There be Peace on Earth
