A woman called her husband and told him to pick up some organic vegetables for that nite's dinner. The husband stops at the store, starts searching allover the place couldn't find. Asked the produce guy. The produce guy didn't know what he was asking about. So the husband said: “These vegetables are for my wife. Heave they been sprayed with poisonous chemicals?
And the produce guy replied: “No sir, you will have to do that yourself.”
Last Wednesday was earth day. There was lot of talk about eating organic vegetables, eco-friendly living, climate change, etc. Usually, you don't hear much about earth day in churches because, it is considered a “worldly” topic. Last year, after I preached a sermon on earth day. A nice lady chided me for talking about earth in church instead of the Bible. How an earthly topic could belong in a heavenly place, she thought.
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.
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. You have heard the song “I am standing on holy ground” sung in churches. It is referring specifically to the church as holy ground. I invite you expand your mind to include every ground as holy, the whole earth as holy, because, it is created by God.
That is why the psalmist proclaims (24:1) “the earth is the Lord's and everything in it.” “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.”
Theologian Thomas Berry elaborates it: “The natural world is our primary scripture, our primary awakening to the mysteries of existence. We might well put all our written scriptures on the shelf for twenty years until we learn what we are being told by unmediated experience of the world about us.”
We usually focus our attention on the Bible and look for God in the book. But today, I like you to focus on the earth beneath your feet and around your eyes to experience God.
I have lived on this earth 23,468 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 its 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—with no oil change or tire rotation. Think about that...
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 a mind boggling mystery.
Back to earth; It weighs a gazillion tons, a normal calculator doesn't have digits for 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 fish 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 one of 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 superficial.
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.” “My God can beat up our God.” “The Christian god is a man, the Hindu god is a cow and the Muslim God is a terrrorist,”
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 with other people, whether we are conscious of it or not. For example, the air that is in your lungs today was circulated yesterday through the lungs of somebody living in China. The air in the lungs of the person next to you, enters your lungs in a few minutes. It is like two people eating from the same plate.
Imagine you walk into a restaurant and notice two people sharing a plate of food. It shows a level of intimacy, closeness and love.
Few months ago, I had lunch with one of my former supervisors who is also a friend. She ordered dessert and I didn't. A generous portion of ice cream souffle was placed in front of her. “I can't finish it alone Paul, have some” she said. There were two spoons on the plate. The waiter must have thought we were a couple. Initially, I was reluctant to share ice cream with a woman who was not my wife. But ice cream? Forget the wife for a second. (just kidding).
While eating the ice cream from the same plate with a person who was not my blood family, I felt a special connection and affection for that person. She was from Jamaica, I was from India, we come from totally different worlds, experiences and backgrounds. But when we sat in that Benigans in Fort Lauderdale, and shared ice cream from the same plate, it felt like a divine connection.
Try that some day with somebody who is not a family member. It is an amazing experience of closeness, intimacy, love, freedom and unity. (and don't let your partner find out...just kidding).
If you really think about it, sharing food with others, from the same plate is happening every day everywhere. You are doing it right now. You are not sharing ice cream; in fact you are sharing something more important; you are sharing the air—food for your brain. Living on the earth and sharing the same air with everybody else is, in fact like sharing food from the same plate—an abundant cosmic plate.
Everyday, 7 billion people eat from that cosmic plate prepared and provided by mother earth—and the food never runs out.
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.
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. We should erase from our minds the mistaken idea that we are living “on” the earth and replace it with the notion that we are living “with” the earth, because we are part of it. We came out of the earth and we will return to it. We should always remember that the earth can survive without us, but we cannot survive without the earth. 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 transcending our tribal mentality and having a planetary consciousness.
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 and that we are on the ground only for a short period of time.
“Divine revelation comes in two volumes: Scripture and Nature.” I encourage you to focus on the second volume!
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.
