Listen to the Voice of Creation

What does creation say? 

Listening to the Voice of creation suggests there is one voice, when of course there are many.

Just yesterday I was at my magic space on Isle St Helene, and the birds had many voices in the trees, who speak too.  A Philadelphia vireo came close eyeing me as a friend.  I heard the pips of a sort of sparrow that turns out was a black and white warbler and then the red-eyed vireo. further away piped up, saying alls well, carry on.  And hearing creation is a life-giving habit.

              But I don’t that sentiment is behind the theme that was chosen for the season of creation this year.  No, I think, of course it comes from Jesus.  The sort of Jesus who was not hesitant to challenge, privileged people like me.  That things are not the same when God’s realm is close. Even your family is suspect.  There are choices to be made and they don’t come in neat packages of culture.   In fact, culture is suspect to Jesus.  He asked people, what is the foundation of life and challenged them to live from this, not from conventions.

            If you pay attention to the letter of Philemon you can realise Paul knew this too.  He may have written that the powers of the state are God ordained but he also knew Roman power was mistaken.  This put him in prison.  And from prison he is helped by Onesimus a run-away slave. In his letter to the slave owner Philemon, also a Christian he does not plead that slavery is wrong so as a good Christian Philemon should let Onesimus be free.  He goes even deeper to the sort of new being God creates in someone who trusts Grace, thanks to the story of Jesus and the knowledge Christ is risen.    Philemon is to break out of the master-slave relationship, that is  false for the master as much as the slave.  He is to realise the new relationship with God makes his former slave his brother.

           So Paul is subverting slavery, by pointing out what surpasses it.  He makes this explicit elsewhere when he writes, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, but all are one in Christ.

               Hearing Creation for us in 2022, is not listening to happy bird song, it is to hear the cries of extinction of people flooded from the little they had, and to be deeply troubled.  It is to realise God subverts what we take to be fixed, like our cultures and systems and ways of doing things.  People said slavery could not, should not be, abolished because society depended upon it.  But it was subverted by deep conviction and todays people smugglers  and sex trade traffickers exploit the most vulnerable.

                Hearing Creation is to join the dots, that our systems are just as changeable as slavery.   Jesus did this.  He heard creation for his day, and took on the systems of animal sacrifice, and idolatry of sabbath law, that kept ordinary people excluded from honourable relationships with God.  He had a radical and critical outlook to the social systems that hurt and damaged human lives.  So, how much he would rail against our runaway human activities, that damage the earth.  The calamity of poverty that forces women to view their children as their old age security, while at the other end of our condition the elite refuse to question any limits to growth, or to sit down to talk about cancelling debts.  Taxing the super rich escapes us just as limits to national power for the global good are so contentious.   There is a longstanding negotiation right now about the open oceans, that is decades old and still disputed.   Our systems are as suspect as those of the Romans, and it is nature, and indigenous peoples and the destitute poor who pay the price.  

                But listening to Creation is not only prophetic and challenging.  It is renewing, empowering us to face change.  It is about joining overwhelming joy, such joy you would give up your life for it and leave everything because you know in the end you have it all.  This poem written from Wild Church experiences, by Wendy Janzen. I introduce it with a short explanation from her ministry

Burning Bush Forest Church

It is our hope that worshiping in and with nature will transform us as we deepen our connection with the community of creation, and with our Creator. We hope to open our awareness and fine tune our attention to wonder and mystery. We recognize that in nature nothing stands alone, but that everything is interconnected with other parts of the ecosystem. And so, we recognize the importance of being connected with larger systems beyond ourselves.

We are partners in the Wild Church Network, a group of churches who encounter God through creation from across North America and beyond.   Our beginnings are also connected with the Forest Church movement based out of the UK. In 2014 Wendy’s son was participating in a forest school program. One afternoon as she picked him up from forest school she had an epiphany – if there could be such a thing as forest school, why couldn’t there be forest church?! She googled the term and came across the Mystic Christ website and learned of forest church groups meeting in the UK. From that moment a seed was planted, and eventually Burning Bush Forest Church sprouted and grew.

Last Sunday I went

to bird church,

or maybe

it was river church.

Either way,

I was greeted by gulls,

mallards, heron,

cedar wax wings,

and approached

by Mystery,

There were flowers

offering praise and beauty,

in purples and gold.

The sky opened

space for us,

the constant flow

of the river whispered

ageless truths.

I wandered prayerfully

then returned and waited,

wondering who would

offer the benediction.

I thought it might be gull,

perched proudly

on a rock in the

center of the river.

But, no.

Soundlessly,

a single yellow

leaf spun down

from above,

swirling to a

resting place

in front of my feet:

Go in peace.

– Wendy Janzen

#sabbath

Listen.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.