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Green Blades Preaching Roundtable

4th Sunday after Epiphany

Year A
January 29, 2023
Luke Pederson

Micah 6:1-8
Psalm15
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Matthew 5:1-12

 

Although we are in the midst of the winter season, our text from Matthew, the Beatitudes, brings to mind for me Easter Sunday, and the special sunrise service the parish I serve holds every year on top of a hill. Following a narrow and twisting road takes you to the hilltop and a natural amphitheater formed from the construction of the road, trees all around and a white wooden cross overlooking the clearing. Modes of transportation vary for the sunrise worship-from cars and trucks to tractors and horses-as the early risers gather in the growing light of Easter morning in God’s good creation to proclaim Christ risen and share in the Lord’s Supper. Depending on when Easter falls on the calendar, it can either be wintery with snow on the ground, or pleasant and mild with the first signs of green grass and buds on the trees. Wild Turkeys may be heard gobbling and Ruffed Grouse drumming, ushering in the new day along with the songbirds, the land waking up after a winter’s rest. Whatever the weather, we gather in the first light of a new day to worship on the hilltop surrounded by the beauty of the natural world.

 

This special hilltop is located in the special and unique Driftless Region. Comprising southwestern Wisconsin and portions of southeastern Minnesota, northeast Iowa, and northwest Illinois, this region is named for the lack of glacial drift, indicating that this region was missed by the glaciers that once covered most of the Upper Midwest. This distinctive landscape is known for its steep hills, ridges, bluffs, and spring-fed streams that are home to native Brook Trout. It is also home to some rare and unique ecosystems-like the “goat prairies” on the bluffs near the Mississippi River-and relic populations of plants and animals more commonly found north or south of this region.

 

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus proclaims a message of transformation, a message that turns our notions of being successful and blessed upside down. From the mountaintop, Jesus brings us the vision of the Kingdom of God that has come to Earth, the kingdom that continues to be revealed to us. Jesus speaks to a crowd that has lived under the rule of the Roman Empire-an empire of conquest colonization, and expansion, an empire that subjugates and enslaves, that keeps the peace by the point of the sword. An empire that saw the world as something to be conquered, controlled, and shaped to serve human needs and desires.


In its expansion, Rome left in its wake lands damaged and degraded through deforestation, overgrazing, and intensive agriculture. Are we still stuck on that same road today? Topsoil continues to wash off the fields, reducing fertility and damaging streams, rivers, and lakes. Aquifers are depleting faster than they can recharge, wildlife habitats continue to diminish, and the ever-growing demands for fossil fuels degrade land in extracting them and alter the global climate as they are consumed. In his book “A Sand County Almanac”, Aldo Leopold wrote, We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see the land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. [i]  Could a radical reversal for us in the 21st century be to see the land, the Earth, not in monetary value, in productive vs. unproductive, but in the value as the beloved creation of God to which we belong? A precious world, a precious gift, in which we have been commissioned as caretakers. May we see the Kingdom of God in the uniqueness of the landscapes on which we live; may we approach the land in humility and respect, not as conquerors but as co-creators with God.

May prophetic voices continue to ring out, calling on us to be healers bringing about restoration and reconciliation in God’s good Earth.

http://theecoexperts.co.uk/blog/roman-empire-impact.

http://sustainabledriftless.org


[i] A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold, 1948.

Luke Pederson
Luke Pederson
SAM Trinity of Norden and Good Shepherd
Northwest Synod of Wisconsin
TEEM Journey Together Wartburg Seminary

Luke Pederson is a Synodically Authorized Minister serving the congregations of Trinity of Norden and Good Shepherd in Mondovi, WI, located on the ancestral homelands of the Dakota people. He is a student at Wartburg Seminary in the TEEM Journey Together program and is the chair for the Northwest Synod of Wisconsin’s Creation Care Team.

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