Hymn Suggestions:

ELW 879 For the Beauty of the Earth

ELW 837 Many and Great, O God

This Sunday Isaiah and Luke speak powerfully.  The poetry of Isaiah opens the horizon of this day by speaking about a “rebellious people.” It describes those who willfully walk in “ways that are not good;” people who don’t follow God but follow “their own devises.” They are far from God’s intent. Such a reference to a rebellious people could conjure up so many images from what we see around us in the news today.  International news about the invasion of Ukraine, terrorist attacks on Israel, devastation and genocide in Gaza, civil wars and ethnic brutalities constantly reveal humanity’s deep-rooted sin.  The image of the rebellious people also makes me think of the dangers we face in the climate crisis while many chant “drill baby drill” or “burn more coal” with a gleeful opposition to smart science and cleaner forms of energy.  It is a rebellious people that choose to destroy the very home they need for life in exchange for momentary profit.

At first look, the gospel story seems to narrow the horizon to an individual miracle.  While the story can be looked upon as an occasion to witness the compassion Jesus has for a tormented person and the miraculous healing that results, and that is true; there is more here to contemplate and learn.  The remarkable resemblance between the man possessed and living among the tombs  and the rebellious people Isaiah describes as living among the tombs broadens the scope again.  In the case of the man of Gerasa, we might say he is a passive victim of something demonic that has possessed him, destroying his life, and that is true.  In that light, the rescue by Jesus offers a hopeful answer to all our ‘dark night prayers’, as we hope and pray for our own deliverance from those things that plague us or torment our hope. In this man we may see parts of our own lives in need of release from sin that has gripped us and distorted the “better version” of ourselves we would rather be.  I have suggested that this man may have been the passive victim of that which possessed him.  But then we also know the subtle and not so subtle ways we participate in our own succumbing. We know of the addictive nature of so many sins.  We know we invite a legion of sins to take hold of us, and we become “captive to sin” and unable to free ourselves.  While we may participate in addictive processes, we know we must also struggle against them.  In this man, we can see the rescue which the pure love of Jesus can effect, the transformation that the Spirit can accomplish, returning us to our right spirit and restoring the joy of our healing.  And that provides the light of hope for all.

In Isaiah, the description is of people who have chosen their own destruction, who no longer call upon God, who no longer listen to God. Their demise is their own doing. There is nothing passive in this downfall.  This is also true in so much of human history. There is an addictive possessing power in so many of the societal choices.  We have made ourselves addicted to fossil fuels; we have chosen to become addicted to social media devices, we become addicted to influences and influencers even when we become aware of their maladaptive effect on our bodies and minds, and even our souls. Indeed, we participate in a rebellion from God’s goodness.  This is also true.  It makes me think of the self-serving misinterpretation of Genesis 1, where “dominion” has become “dominate” in the minds and practices of those who destroy the earth as they extract and leave behind toxic residue of many kinds, done so for their personal or corporate profit.  It makes me think how the Biblical concept became distorted into “domineering” over other peoples through exploitation and subjugation and repression.  In human history and in our lifetimes, we have seen how the domineering of the powerful wreaks havoc on vast areas of once healthy landscapes and waterways.  The Barkley mine pit in Montana, dead zones in the oceans, deadly algae blooms in Lake Erie, toxic air in cities, all are clear evidence of the sins against the planet home God has provided for us and all our non-human relatives. Cheap labor, unsafe workplaces, union busting, mistreatment of migrant workers, all are clear sins against our brothers and sisters.  Conflict and retaliation, punishment and occupation, leave scars that only fester and create worse infection of bitterness, strife.  Think of all the places of strife you hear about in the news reports every day.  All these result in a toxic climate, physical and societal, which then breeds worse and more to come. Sin is insidious and cancerous, and the root cause, our stubborn self-centeredness, has metastasized. We are way beyond stage four. Who can save us from this body of death? (You will recognize that Biblical question: the answer is in Romans 7.)

Another question: how does the Northeastern Minnesota’s Synod’s choice of this Sunday as Pollinator Sunday give us any perspective on these issues, or any incentive to action in these matters?  We could focus our attention not only on the plight of pollinators. However, we must also address the root cause of their distress.  It is well documented that there are fewer pollinators now than decades ago.  The dramatic decline in the Monarch butterfly is certainly the most popular and easily portrayed.  We should know, however. that many species of butterflies, less dramatic in their colors or migration, are also waning on the landscapes.  Not only butterflies are reduced in number.  Citizen scientists and researchers point to losses among bumblebees and so many other insects that need nectar and pollen, and who are therefore part of the original network of pollinators God put in place.  So on this Sunday, we could trace how these losses in pollinators can be connected to human decisions made with little regard for the systems of environmental health God established; and how each decision was made for maximized short-term profit over long-term health of the home we depend upon.  We could point out that 90% of our food supply is dependent upon pollination.  I suppose we could appeal to our selfish nature and say, “See! That is why we need to save the butterflies, so we can have fruits and vegetables.”  Very practical I suppose.  But ask any child why a butterfly is worth saving, and they’ll tell you – because they make us smile, because they are cute, because they are like little miracles.  And that is true; we should listen to the child in each of our hearts.  A child-like delight in things of nature is closer to the Biblical attitude of God toward the works of God’s creative love.  But the practical remains convincing; we should care about the loss of the beautiful and delightful diversity among butterflies, moths, and hundreds of species of pollinators, for they indeed feed us.  We should also care because, without them, we lose the beautiful diversity of songbirds that feed their young with the caterpillars of the butterflies.  Birders on every continent have documented the decline in songbird populations.  Call it collateral damage in humanity’s war on insects and the land. This is our doing.  That is not what God desires.  Why did God create such beauty and wonder in the first place? So that we can destroy it as we entertain ourselves with more power and wealth?

And that brings me back to Isaiah and Luke, for it is apparent to me that in the selfish desire of many individuals and in all peoples in general, we invite a legion of entrenched and addicting self-interests which are demonically terrorizing our world today, and we appear unable and even unwilling to extract ourselves from their grip.  Or even worse, we refuse to ask for deliverance.  We have built our agriculture, transportation, communication, and medical systems, our food production and preservation, our housing with heating and cooling, our clothing with synthetic easy care and disposable fashions, all in ways that create more toxic residue while reducing the natural systems that could renew and restore a more healthy balance.  It is a wicked web.  Untangling ourselves will require a savior. 

I am a hobby beekeeper, and entomology has always been my amateur passion. (Amateur comes from the Latin word of love.) Like many beekeepers, I have noticed and experienced the losses, and like many I have tried to be more pollinator friendly.  But planting more milkweeds for Monarchs, or spreading clover in our lawns for bees, are ineffectual Band-Aids that cannot cure the problem.  Indeed, it is like trying to use a Band-Aid to heal cancer.  What we need is deliverance, we need a savior; we need to be delivered from the grip of selfish sin and return to the wholesome appraisal with which the Bible says God esteemed creation: “it is good!”  We need God’s Spirit to restore our will and desire to be part of the restoring of the health and beauty of the garden home God put us in at the first.  We need to return to the love of God’s creation, including all God’s human children, together with our other earthling relatives and the very earthy home we all need.  The answer is simple. The solution will be difficult.  God’s love for the world is what we need in our own hearts.  Rebelliousness is the barrier we must tear down. 

So let us use all the Band-Aids we can, establish thousands of pollinator gardens, demand clean soils when we do, ban the pesticides, and watch God’s natural systems work.  It is time for every congregation to lift up ecology as just one more branch of the study of God, and teach our children why we care for creation.  (Or again, maybe let the children teach us, by reminding us why creation is so cool.)