Earth Day Sermon (Easter 4)

(8 am sermon)

We give you thanks, most gracious God, for the beauty of earth and sky and sea; for the richness of mountains, plains, and rivers; for the songs of birds and the loveliness of flowers. We praise you for these good gifts, and pray that we may safeguard them for our posterity. Grant that we may continue to grow in our grateful enjoyment of your abundant creation, to the honor and glory of your Name, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP p. 840)

As we continue our celebration of Easter, today we remember its Earth Day, a day to remind ourselves as Christians that as we celebrate new life in Easter, we also give thanks to God for this beautiful plant and all living creatures that our God created and we remind ourselves to be good stewards of all of this.

As I thought about Earth Day and Jesus, I came across this saying – Jesus said, "I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained. Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.” (Gospel of Thomas, 77)

It’s from the Gospel of Thomas. An ancient text written in Greek sometime in 100 – 200 CE – the copy we have is from Egypt and written in Coptic from around the year 350 CE. We will be studying this apocryphal Gospel beginning on Wednesday (how’s that for a plug!).

But for me, this passage from Thomas, reminds me of words from the Gospel of John – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1: 1-5)

Jesus (the Word) was there from the beginning – all came into being through him; he is the life that is the light of all people. He is the light over all things – look around creation and you will find Jesus, you will find God in the beauty of creation, wood and stone. And if you look you just might find life.

"Earth is crammed with Heaven.
And every bush aflame with God.
But only those who see take off their shoes."
~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Mark Hirsch loved his job as a photographer and visuals editor for the Dubuque Telegraph Herald, capturing life along the northern Mississippi. But, in the cutbacks that have become endemic in print journalism, his job was suddenly eliminated after 19 years. Mark's flourishing freelance career was cut short when he was almost killed when he was hit by a truck. For a long time after the crash, he was unable to work; he had trouble sleeping and suffered from memory issues. Life was pretty bleak for Mark and his family.

Then he got an iPhone. Learning how to use the device, he started taking pictures with it. His first picture was that of a 160-year-old Bur Oak tree sitting in a cornfield near his Wisconsin home. Mark had driven by that tree every day for 19 years, but had never really looked at it. Like most professional photographers, he scorned the iPhone as a camera - but Mark was surprised at the quality of the image of the old tree. A photographer friend was equally impressed - and challenged him to do an entire series of images of the tree.

And so in March 2012, Mark began to take a picture of that tree every day for the next year - before sunrise, after sunset, anytime, in every season. Every day Mark would be at that old tree, waiting and watching, noting the simple beauty he had missed for so long. He captured images with his iPhone of a darting blackbird, a nest of eggs, a brilliant firefly, the full moon, meteorites streaking in the dark sky behind the tree.

The local paper heard about Mark's project and began to publish the daily photo. Mark also began to post his images on Facebook. Soon thousands were following his daily posts. For the final photo on day 365, Mark invited anyone to join him at the old tree. Three hundred people showed up - and many who couldn't be there sent objects to decorate the tree.

The images have been published in a beautiful book titled That Tree. But for Mark, the old Bur Oak was much more than a photographic subject.

"I would describe that tree as I would a friend. My initial description a year ago would have been as simple as a tree in a cornfield, but now I would describe it as a tree of life in its own realm. I was never very good at slowing down but I am now. I've learned to see things differently. And I've embraced an incredible appreciation for the land in and around that tree.

"That tree gave me healing and inspiration that I needed more than I had realized. And it taught me to slow down, take time to look around, and appreciate the almost (but not quite) hidden beauty that abounds in our world - sometimes even in your own backyard." [CBS Sunday Morning, CBS-TV, July 28, 2013.]

With his photographer's eye, Mark Hirsch experienced that moment of realization that the beauty & wonder of our loving God is in our midst in the simple, the ordinary, the everyday of creation. The discerning eye of a photographer who is moved by the natural beauty of a magnificent old tree, we, too, can be transformed by such joyful gratitude to God who gave us this beautiful and bountiful earth and through the new life of Easter, we have our being & our light. Our relationship with creation is important.

“How we treat the earth defines the relationship that each of us has with God.” – Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

“Be good to the land and the land will be good to you.” - Philip James Jones, founder of the Jones Family Farm in Shelton, (1821-1912).

Amen.

Amen.