September 19, 2021

Our Season of Creation theme today is Peacemaking as Home-Building. It’s so easy to take our comfortable, safe & secure homes for granted. We know that in recent years, however, so many people around the world have had to flee from their homes because of warfare, violence, extreme poverty, destitution, etc. They set out on dangerous journeys by land and sea, and many of them die along the way. Current estimates suggest that there are about 272 million international migrants in the world, including millions of children. Our ecological focus in this Season of Creation includes the realization that human homes and habitats are increasingly threatened by human violence, greed and warfare. “Peace is at the heart of the Christian gospel,” say our Creation notes, “We live in a fractured world, where relationships between people, nature and God are deeply broken.”

Our first reading from Proverbs has often been entitled ‘the perfect wife’ and has raised impossibly high standards for what such a wife would be like. I mean who can keep up with all that she is doing? Makes me dizzy just thinking about it. I don’t think there’s a biblical passage describing the perfect husband … perhaps they couldn’t find one? I saw a cartoon with two women having coffee, and one says to the other: “I want a man who’s loyal, faithful, patient, attentive, forgiving, unselfish, even-tempered & a good listener.” Her friend looks at her and maybe sighs and says: “You want a dog.”

Notice that this Proverbs wife is a businesswoman, and has female servants, buys real estate on her own etc. She could be insufferably ambitious and proud of all she accomplishes, but she also “opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy” (v.20). Our Season of Creation notes point out that “she ensures everyone and everything can flourish: her family, the poor, the land, the economy! This is a lovely example of being a peacemaker/home-builder/shalom-spreader in very practical terms.” These notes describe the Hebrew concept of Shalom as meaning not simply ‘peace’ but also “restored relationships in every direction: with God, self, neighbors near and far, and with the earth and its creatures.” When you wish someone shalom, you are wishing them overall wellbeing in many facets of life – a lovely greeting.

Speaking of Hebrew concepts of peace, it was Yom Kippur a few days ago – the holiest day of the Jewish year, with themes of atonement and repentance. Hopefully we can be inspired towards greater repentance for human harm to the earth and find more ways to atone or make amends. It was also the feast day of Hildegard of Bingen who died in 1179. I love her theme of veriditas – of the verdancy or greening power of God. Hildegard saw this as the vital force that embraces creation. As Gabriele Uhlein puts it: “Without [veriditas] creation would wither and become arid. This greening power is the pattern for all good. It has its source in God, pouring all fruitfulness, freshness and novelty into creation.” (p.17 of Meditations with Hildegard of Bingen). Her writings are so prophetic – to think that over 800 years ago, she could write these lines:

"Now in the people that were meant to be green, there is no more life of any kind. There is only shriveled barrenness. The winds are burdened by the utterly awful stink of evil, selfish goings-on. Thunderstorms menace. The air belches out the filthy uncleanness of the peoples. There pours forth an unnatural, a loathsome darkness, that withers the green, and wizens the fruit that was to serve as food for the people. Sometimes this layer of air is full, full of a fog that is the source of many destructive and barren creatures, that destroy and damage the earth, rendering it incapable of sustaining humanity.” (Uhlein p.77)

Talk about amazing prescience … or is it rather that human greed has always harmed the earth, but nowadays we have more powerful ways of bringing much greater harm.

Then our Creation notes go on to the epistle pointing out that James builds on last week’s theme of Wisdom “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.” BTW I’m not sure which version of the Bible they’re using since it’s somewhat different than the NRSV version we use. The epistle notes conclude with this excellent question: “How can we as the Christian community, be peacemakers both globally and locally, particularly in a context of inequality and unsustainable life choices?” That question is at the heart of the diocesan Wednesday night book study. An important early step is for us to learn to SEE the inequality and unsustainable life choices – choices that on the surface seem quite ordinary and innocent but are rooted in much human suffering to bring us the comforts and amenities we enjoy.

As the Creation notes for today’s gospel point out: “Jesus tells us that in welcoming children we welcome God … Today, many children and young people suffer from climate anxiety and despair about the future.” How can we listen more effectively to the voices of young people, and change our attitudes and behaviour in response? Do you, like me, feel quite sorry for children these days – besides a future with unaffordable housing and monstrous student debt, and a disintegrating earth, they’ve now dealt with 18 months of Covid restrictions – that’s at least a quarter of a five-year-old’s life! And then those poor American children having to also practice active shooter drills in school! Plus there are huge numbers of children in warzones or other such dangerous situations. Jesus clearly understood the vulnerability of children and his message to welcome and care for them resonates to this day. May we Christians work for greater peace and safer homelands and healthy environmental futures for all God’s children around the world, Amen.