Today is earth day. The first earth day was celebrated on April 22, 1970. We have come a long way from that day with one billion people participating in Earth Day celebrations in 192 countries.
Usually, ministers don't preach about earth day because, it is considered a “worldly” topic. Few years ago, I would not have noticed this day, or paid any attention to it, let alone preach about it. So much has changed in my spiritual life that I consider earth day as important as other religious holy days.
It is not because I am a new age guru, or a tree lugger or ardent environmentalist, which are usually used as pejorative terms. It is because, I have reflected deeply about the unfathomable beauty, mystery and magnificence of this moving, yes moving blue dot in space which holds me up as God holds me tenderly in the palm of His/Her hand.
Today, I invite you to join me in reflecting about the earth from a spiritual point of view. I want you consider it from a divine perspective. As a matter of fact, we do it every Sunday, but we don't pay much attention to it. We start the service by singing, “we are standing on holy ground.” We think of church as holy ground, but I want you expand your mind to include every ground as holy, the whole earth as holy, because, it is created by God.
Gen 1:1 says: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” That is why the psalmist proclaims (24:1) “the earth is the Lord's and everything in it.” In Ps.102:25, the psalmist says, “In the beginning, you laid the foundations of the earth.” “Be exalted, O God above the heavens and let your glory be over all the earth (108:5).
Thomas Aquinas who understood the deeper meaning of that psalm said: “Divine revelation comes in two volumes; scripture and nature.” More than half of the population of this world is illiterate. They can't read or write. They will never read a bible, but they can look at nature and if they stop and pay attention to the earth and the universe around them, they will see God everywhere.
We usually focus our attention on the Bible and look for God in the book. There is nothing wrong with it. But just for today, I like you to focus on the earth beneath you and around you to experience God.
I have lived on this earth 21,170 days and it has never failed to provide for me: air, water and food, the three most basic ingredients needed for my very existence. Thank you holy mother earth. As I walk gently on this holy ground, I join with prophet Isaiah this morning to say: “The whole earth proclaims the glory of God.”
Let us take a closer look at our home planet. We usually experience it as stationary, because that is what our five senses tell us. But if we could stop for a moment and reflect, we will realize that we are moving, rather spinning, and yet staying put...that is a huge mystery worthy of adoration itself.
The earth spins around her axis at the speed of 1,000 miles an hour at the equator. It takes 24 hours to spin around once. The spinning makes our days and nights. But as we spin, we are also on another circle journey as we orbit round the sun. Traveling at the speed of 66,600 miles an hour, this second journey takes 365 days to complete. In that annual pilgrimage around the sun, we travel 595 million miles.
This moving planet is huge. But compared to the sun, earth is very tiny...the sun is 1.3 million times bigger than the earth, but compared to Antares, the 15th brightest star in the sky, which is a 1000 light years away, the sun is a pixel. It is mind boggling mystery.
Back to earth; It weighs a gazillion tons, a normal calculator don't have digits for that. It is 6, 24 zeroes after that. The surface is 300 million square miles; there are 7.7. million species of animals living on it. We are familiar with a cat or a dog or a cow or an elephant, a donkey or a horse but there are millions of others. There are 2700 different species of snakes. Have you ever stood front of an aquarium and watched those beautiful fishes with different colors and textures? We might see a dozen varieties; but there are 2400 different ones. There are a 1000 species of birds.
And the amazing thing is that this huge earth with everything in it is not attached to anything...nothing below, nothing above, nothing in front or back, except deep dark endless space...and yet we don't fall down or spin out of control.....we don't deviate from the path...because, if we deviate from the orbit by one inch closer to the sun, we will be incinerated; one inch away, we will be frozen to death; to me that is the greatest mystery and miracle that God has created.
Just go to the beach, look at the vast ocean and endless sky and contemplate the universe and ..if your eyes bulge with tears, and your heart pound with wonder and your mind feels a deep awe, you are having a spiritual experience. You are connecting with God, the creator of the universe. Such an awareness of distance, speed and order creates a sense of awe and wonder.
Astronauts and cosmonauts who have had the privilege of seeing the earth from space were always moved by its beauty and majesty. This is what astronaut Edgar Mitchell said as he gazed down on the home planet: On the return trip home, gazing 240,000 miles of space towards the stars and the planet from which I had come, I suddenly experienced the universe as intelligent, loving and harmonious. My view of the planet was a glimpse of divinity.
Perhaps what we need is a trip to outer space, to have our eyes and hearts opened to see the sacredness behind the appearances and to reawaken that inner light buried beneath our limited ways of thinking.
But, wait a minute. We are traveling in space; we don't have to lift our bodies from the earth to see the beauty and the splendor of God's creation; we only need to lift our minds...and open our eyes. But, that is the problem...our minds are small and our eyes are closed..
It is worthy of note that Mitchell uses the word 'divinity' but not 'God'. God is a divisive term for many. Religions people fight over their own definitions of God and make declarations like, “My God is bigger than your God.” But, if we can speak of divinity it has an all embracing quality to it. When we use 'divinity' instead of “God' what is at work here is 'spirituality' not 'religion.' And our goal is to evolve more each day as spiritual beings not merely as religious people.
When we see the earth as a whole, from outer space, we can clearly see the connectedness and interdependence of all of us who live upon this planet. We have created imaginary boundaries, dividing ourselves into countries and states. We forget that in reality we are all living together, breathing the same air, drinking from the same water, eating food grown from the same earth.
We share everything on this planet, whether we are conscious of it or not, with other people, and those people are our brothers and sisters. For example, the air that is in your lungs today was circulated through the lungs of somebody living in China yesterday. You don't have to go as far as China, but think of someone, may be a person or a group of persons you don't particularly like. You and that person partake of the same air.
The air in that person's lungs is in yours a few hours later, thus establishing an invisible, but real bond between you and that person. Celebrating earth day reminds us that we are not strangers to each other, but members of the same human family. Seeing earth as a whole brings new meaning into Christian concepts like “Communion of Saints” and “Body of Christ.”
Jesus had a special appreciation for the earth. He didn't live in high rise condos or work in board rooms. He taught on the mountain top, and the sea side; he prayed in the garden, and died on a hill. He talked about the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, because Jesus knew that the earth proclaims the glory of God.
That is why this son of God came on the earth. Jesus could have sat somewhere up in the heavens and given us his teachings. But he chose to be part of this world. That is the meaning of incarnation. God becoming flesh in the world. If God found this earth to be worthy of his attention and care and embraced it and transformed it, we too should do the same.
Don't just live on the earth as aliens and strangers, plundering and taking advantage of its resources, but be respectful and grateful for everything that the earth offers, which is our life itself. The earth can survive without us, but we cannot survive without the earth. We came out of the earth and we will return to it. That should be a humbling thought.
So celebrating earth day is about seeing the big picture; it is about feeling the connection with the earth, with everything and everyone on it; it is about thinking about the welfare of all people beyond the boundaries our nation; it is about relinquishing narrow nationalism and embracing a wider humanity; Earth day is about looking at all the people on this earth as members of the one body of Christ. It is about feeling the love of Jesus in our heart and walking on holy ground as opposed to holding a gun in our hand and “stand our ground.” We know what that did to Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida.
If George Zimmerman had considered his neighborhood “holy ground” a great tragedy could have been averted. Instead, he saw the little swath of real estate he occupied, as his ground that needs to be protected by him from “others.” Earth day should remind us that there is no ground that needs protecting or barricading but we are on the ground only for a short period of time.
“Divine revelation comes in two volumes: Scripture and Nature.” On this earth day, I encourage you to focus on the second volume! And as you leave the holy ground of this church, I pray that you consider every ground as holy and every person you meet as a manifestation of the Holy One.
