This was a first for St. Barnabas: a celebration of the Rogation Days, a practice from the 5th Century England where the priests and church would bless the land in hopes of a fruitful harvest. These days are celebrated right before the Ascension Day, whcn Jesus is finally lifted into heaven. And while this was primarily started as a time to ask a rogatio or blessing from God on the land, the Episcopal Church has expanded it to also include commerce and industry. This way urban and rural can meet each other in a time of seeking God's mercy and grace upon all that we do here on the planet.
As I said, St. Barnabas had never done a Rogation Day celebration before. But we have a group focused on Creation Care and linking faith to action in taking care of things around us. I felt that we could take some of that a little further...and came up with a sermon that looked at all of creation. See what you think.
Texts: Acts 10:44-48, Ps. 98, 1 John 5:1-6, John 15:9-17
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Rogation…that fancy schmancy word for “asking” or “petitioning”
God for a blessing.
We began our worship this morning outside at our gardens. We
prayed for the goodness of the soil and those who tend it.
We blessed the fish in our koi pond and sought God’s help to remember
our part in caring for the fish and all animals.
We gave thanks for the Bishop’s Garden and asked for a blessing
upon this space where we’ve gathered for prayer and worship.
We lift all these prayers on this Sunday.
If we really wanted to get into the spirit of
Rogation Days…we’d take this next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday as times to
seek divine providence to bless all industry and commerce in our area.
We’d be at the entrance to Moody Air Force Base…and downtown at
the seat of local government…at the offices of the Valdosta Lowndes County
Chamber of Commerce…at V-S-U and South Georgia Medical…blessing the industries
of our local area.
Maybe next year.
We blessed each of these areas with the waters of baptism.
The same waters that connected us to Jesus and the whole history
of God’s people.
We heard it in our first reading this morning from the Acts of the
Apostles.
Just like last week’s reading with the Ethiopian eunuch…Peter and
the other Jewish followers are witnesses to the truth that God’s grace, love,
and mercy are meant for everyone…without any kind of proof of proper pedigree
or pre-requisites.
The spontaneous response to this witness was to baptize these Gentiles…bring
them into the growing community of believers.
They use water to signify that those who were “them” are now one
of “us.”
Water as that symbol…that outward and visible sign of the inward
and spiritual grace.
And if you think about it…that’s what we’ve done today.
With our blessing of flowers…plants…and fish.
What we’ve said is that these wonders of creation are also one of
us.
It’s something that I don’t think we’re always aware of in our day-to-day
living.
That phrase about stopping to smell the roses…is more than just a
reminder to slow down. But to really understand that we have a connection to
those roses.
I think one of our greatest sins of our day is to separate
ourselves from all the rest of creation.
As wonderful and amazing as the Industrial Revolution was in
opening our minds to engineering better and more efficient ways to produce food
and make our lives more comfortable…I think it also disrupted our relationship
to the land and the sea and all that moves within it.
In those moments when we are reminded of our role as stewards of
creation…we can fall into thinking that stewardship means a paternalistic
role…as if we are the better and smarter part of creation that needs to tend to
these lesser things.
I remember some years ago attending a lecture by the Old Testament
scholar Dr. Ellen Davis of Duke Divinity School.
She was doing a teaching on the Book of Leviticus…which she says
is the greenest book of the Bible.
Dr. Davis talked about how in Leviticus the various codes of
proper living involved a trinitarian like relationship: God is in relationship
with humanity and with the land. She drew a triangle with God as the apex and
humanity at one corner and the land at the other with the lines connecting all
three together.
Davis said that God holds an equal relationship to humanity and
the land and that we…as the human part of creation…are to have an equal level
partnership with the land…not a domineering subduing type of relationship.
She noted that the Holiness Codes in Leviticus use the body as a
guidepost for how one is to treat and be in relationship with the land.
For instance…verses that talk about men not trimming the edges of
their beards were a bodily physical reminder to not trim the fruit from the
hedges…so that foreigners would have something they could pick and eat.
But Davis also drew our attention to the verses at the end of
chapter 18 in Leviticus…ones where God gives warning to humanity…to us…about
what can happen if we don’t treat the land with respect.
Right there in the text…the Hebrew is translated to say that the
land can “vomit us up” if we defile the land.
So our scriptures do give us guidance for how we are to treat the land…the
sea…and all that is in it. To see them as having equality to us in the eyes of
our creator God.
And while we work to improve how we treat those parts of
creation…our Gospel reminds us that we have another responsibility.
We must love one another as Christ loved us.
We must look to the ways in which Jesus stepped outside of
himself…went beyond just his own kind…to meet people in their lives…sat with
them at the water well and engaged with them. Took a stand for those whom the
rest of society were ready to stone to death. Most importantly…sat at the table
with the ones considered the disinherited rabble.
Not only did he “lay down himself for his friends” in the truest
sense by going to the cross; he laid down himself over and over again to heal
and treat people with the respect and the dignity and love for the other
person.
Because this is the love that God has for all of us. And Jesus
wanted the whole world to know it.
That message is just as true now as it was some two thousand years
ago.
Caring for creation means caring for all of creation…plants,
flowers, animals, fish, and human beings.
As we have blessed all those things that remind us of life…may we
remember that we have the responsibility to be a blessing to all others.
In the name of God…F/S/HS.
