Sermon Archive
Borrowed from our children
Sermon preached by Fiona Hutchison at Evensong on 2 October 2005, for West End Churches Together service
Deuteronomy 26:1-11 ; 2 Corinthians 9:6-15
“We do not inherit the Earth from our parents, we borrow it from our children.” These words are from an old native American saying, and are worth repeating. “We do not inherit the Earth from our parents, we borrow it from our children.”
It rather gives these words from Deuteronomy “the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess” another perspective, another slant. After all, when we borrow something we surely would want to give it back in at least as good a condition as it was when we received it. There is a certain responsibility involved in looking after something we have borrowed – and this particular responsibility happens to be God-given.
But I wonder how God feels when he looks at the way human beings have responded to the faith he has placed in us to care for our inheritance. I wonder if he regrets his decision when he looks at the destruction of the rainforest; when he counts the number of endangered species, not to mention those that are already extinct; when he sees people starving because their land is parched and dry and can no longer sustain the crops and animals needed to give them food; when he looks at the devastation caused by the tsunami and the recent hurricanes in America. According to some who would deny the existence of global warming, these are uncontrollable forces of nature. But according to scientists and ecologists they are forces of nature made worse by our appalling stewardship of the Earth.
Human beings have taken what has been given to us in trust, and have used and abused it for our own selfish and greedy ends.
Have we become so distant and detached from the land itself that we no longer recognise that what we do in our towns and cities, in our offices, homes and, yes, in our churches, in our everyday life – that what we do has a global effect?
Have we got to the point where we accept certain things without question? For example:That there is nothing we as individuals, or as communities of faith, can do against the greed of multinational corporations? That somehow it has nothing to do with us? That the monopoly of technology by richer nations is bound to be a good thing for poorer ones? That global warming is a problem, but not on our own doorstep, so what can we do about it?
Have we lost the sense of interconnectedness and interdependence between us and the natural world, and also between us and our fellow human beings around the world? An interconnectedness and interdependence that was only too clear to a native American chief – Chief Seattle – way back in 1854. Speaking to the then President of the United States, Chief Seattle said this:
“Teach your children what we have taught our children;
That the Earth does not belong to humanity;
Humanity belongs to the Earth.
This we know.
All things are connected like the blood that unites one family.
Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons and daughters of the Earth.
Men and women did not weave the web of life;
They are merely a strand in it.
Whatever they do to the web, they do to themselves.”
Maybe Chief Seattle’s words need to be repeated today to the present President of the United States.
However this image of the web of life in which we merely make up the strands is not unique to native American spirituality. St. Francis of Assisi too had a strong sense of the connections between all living beings. He is of course known as the saint who was surrounded by little furry animals and had birds perching all over him – a sort of 13th Century Percy the Park Keeper – for those of you who know the children’s books by Nick Butterworth. And it’s true that Francis loved the natural world. He did have a strong affinity with birds and bees. It may be legend – but it’s a nice legend – that as he walked along the paths around Assisi he would often stop and pick up worms which had strayed onto the path and place them on the grass verge to prevent them from being trampled underfoot. Let’s hope he placed them on the verge they were heading towards, rather than the one they had come from!
If you visit Assisi today it’s still possible to imagine Francis walking along the paths among the vineyards and olive groves in the hills around the town, so little seems to have changed in the intervening centuries. When I went there on one of Tom’s pilgrimages to Assisi two years ago I found it quite a moving experience to walk in the footsteps of Francis- but be assured I was never even slightly tempted to pick up any worms I happened to encounter. I just walked round them!
Francis was also famous for taking care of wounded animals, but he wasn’t just concerned with foxes and rabbits which had been caught in traps, he was concerned too with the wounded humanity which he saw all around him caught in the traps of poverty and despair. He felt a responsibility to serve them and to heal them – he was a strand in the web of life, connected to his suffering brothers and sisters in the human family, just as he was connected to all other living creatures and to the Earth itself. Francis’s spirituality was very akin not just to the native American spirituality I mentioned earlier, but also to our own Celtic spirituality, where God is seen to be in the whole of creation and the whole of life. And someone a bit closer to us in time and space who found Celtic theology deeply illuminating and inspiring was an illustrious predecessor of mine at St Cuthbert’s – George MacLeod, founder of the Iona Community and perhaps Scotland’s most distinguished churchman.
MacLeod’s spirituality was about being aware of God in the midst of the change and movement and flow of life - of being aware of God in the rising of the morning sun, in our work, in our daily relationships, in the struggles of society. But like Francis’, this spirituality which could have degenerated into some kind of soft, fluffy pantheism, was instead deeply rooted in a pastoral ministry, Francis’ to the poor of his day, Macleod’s to those living in the inner city slums and new housing estates of Glasgow in the 1930’s. Out of this parish ministry to the unemployed and poverty stricken people of Govan came his vision of rebuilding Iona abbey and founding the Iona Community. George MacLeod was also a prophet ahead of his time – in the 1940’s he predicted the environmental and ecological crisis we now have.
I’m sure that George MacLeod would approve of what we are celebrating here tonight – an involvement and participation by St. John’s in Eco-Congregation Scotland. A recognition that as the world faces environmental crisis we, as Christian communities and also as individuals, are called to witness to our faith through our everyday actions to halt the crisis, through simple, almost mundane, actions. Your leaflet, “Earth Be Glad” is full of suggestions and ideas of how we can improve our stewardship of the Earth and recognise our responsibility as guardians of the inheritance which we have received from God – inherited not from our parents, but borrowed from our children, if you remember the native American saying I mentioned at the beginning of my address.
Towards the end of the service, representatives of West End Churches Together will have the opportunity to bring forward leaves to hang on the tree – leaves which symbolise the environmental pledges we have made as individuals and as groups. As we carry out this symbolic action we shall have the opportunity to reflect on the web of life in which we are strands connected to each other, and dependent upon each other; to reflect upon the awesome responsibility with which God has entrusted us, as guardians of the earth; and to recognise, paraphrasing the words of St Teresa of Avila, that we are called to be Christ’s body here on Earth. Through us his compassion and love shine forth upon our troubled world, through us his work is done.
Lord of Life and Love, thank you for the ways in which we learn from each other in our community in the city centre of Edinburgh. Help us to grow together in our understanding and appreciation of each other and to value the work we do together. Enable us to work for justice in our community.
Lord of Life and Love, give us the spiritual strength to participate in activities which will bring about better living conditions for people in developing nations. Open our minds to existing and new ways of caring for people and sustaining the Earth. Enable us to turn around our lifestyles; to become less demanding in our wants and desires, and to recognise that we are all part of the web of life.
Awaken our conscience with people wherever they may be as if people and the Earth matter.
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen
Earth be Glad: Environmental issues at St John's
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