To Abet Creation
Earth Day Sermon
Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church
May 5, 2019
by The Rev. Craig M. Nowak
“Who speaks for earth?”
It’s a good question; isn’t it? One I wish I could claim credit for, but cannot. It’s a question posed in an 1980 episode of the same name, the final episode, of the series “Cosmos”, presented by the late astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, and author, Carl Sagan. A man who, in his book, “Pale Blue Dot”, reflected on an image of the earth taken by Voyager from the edge of our solar system looking back toward the sun and encouraged us to…
“Look [again] at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there—on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”
“Who speaks for earth?”
I found myself wondering this very question this last week as I tuned into a radio program discussing, of all things, the American Chestnut tree. The guests were discussing the best approach to conserving, restoring and protecting this once plentiful, now decimated species of tree.
As is so common today, the discussion soon turned into a debate with, at times, a rather nasty tone. By the end, the tree under discussion had faded into the background having been replaced by the egoic concerns of two human beings. Each trying not only to advance their own theory, but also discredit the other’s.
“Who speaks for earth?”
The interesting…or disturbing… thing about the two guests on the radio was that here were two people who ultimately share the same goal of conserving, restoring and protecting the American chestnut tree. These were not self-serving political appointees of the unscrupulous Mr. Trump, confirmed by a cynical senate. People who make easy targets for the kind of moral outrage to which we can become so quickly and enthusiastically addicted.
And destroyed by.
Meanwhile, “Who speaks for earth?”
The Buddhist teacher Joan Halifax warns against what she calls, “recreational bitterness” that can emerge out of an unacknowledged need to be perceived as a “good” person.” “Our righteous indignation”, says Halifax, “can give us a lot of ego satisfaction and may relieve us of guilt about our own culpability: “We’re right, others are wrong; we are morally superior, others are morally corrupt.”
And never is the risk of addiction to recreational bitterness so great, as when the moral corruption of others, corruption that threatens the planet and its inhabitants, is so plainly visible as with the current administration. Clearly something must be done. Someone must do something. But who?
“Who speaks for earth?”
In the last episode of “Cosmos”, Carl Sagan observed, “(As) the ancient mythmakers knew, we are children equally of the earth and the sky. In our tenure on this planet we’ve accumulated dangerous evolutionary baggage: propensities for aggression and ritual, submission to leaders, hostility to outsiders, all of which puts our survival in some doubt. But we’ve also acquired passion for others, love for our children, desire to learn from history and experience, and a great, soaring, passionate intelligence, the clear tools for our continued survival and prosperity. Which aspects of our nature will prevail is uncertain.”
In other words, we are all heirs of human history and potential, both the admirable and the abominable.
Of course that doesn’t mean moral outrage is wrong or uncalled for. You don’t need me to tell you how serious climate change is or share stories of the plastic filled belly of whales and the destruction of rain forests to know things are out of whack. The planet is in trouble…and thus, so are we. And neither Sagan nor Halifax would encourage us to retreat to the privileged safety of denial or succumb to inaction born of despair. Silence will not do.
Still, “Who speaks for earth?”
Joan Halifax far from dissuading us from moral outrage, encourages us instead toward “principled moral outrage”, which she describes as “episodic and regulated” with the potential to “be a useful instigator of ethical action.” Noting, “When moral outrage is self-serving, chronic, or unregulated—when it becomes the very lens through which we view the world—it can be addictive and divisive.” Even amongst those whose hope and vision are aligned, who share common ground.
Recall for a moment our first reading, “The Oak and the Rose.”
I wonder which, the oak or the rose, you identified with? A cursory reading leaves one with the impression that it is the oak with whom we ought to be impressed and try to emulate. “Progress…onward and upward forever,” as the 19th century Unitarian minister James Freeman Clarke wrote in his “Five Points of the New Theology.”
But then there’s that ending in the Oak and the rose..where the rose charges…”[And] now you have no time for flower talk, Now that you've grown so tall.”…And the oak’s responds, ”It's not so much that I've grown, it's just that you've stayed so small.”
Ouch!
Now, “The Oak and the Rose” is not a poem about moral outrage, but it does offer us an opportunity to reflect on assumptions we make about ourselves, others and the perspectives we value. Assumptions that determine whether our moral outrage is principled or self-serving. And, when it comes to the planet, can help keep us mindful of the question,
“Who speaks for earth?”
When our response to allies and adversaries alike begins with and remains focused on the unexamined assumption that we’re more worldly, better informed, more committed, more enlightened and our intentions purer, is it any wonder causes falter, alliances fracture, hostility between peoples deepens and the planet suffers?
A pathway forward and some encouragement however is found in the words of Annie Dillard whose edited words were our call to worship. Here’s the full quote from which it came, “We are here to abet creation and to witness it, to notice each thing so each thing gets noticed. Together we notice not only each mountain shadow and each stone on the beach but we notice each other's beautiful face and complex nature so that creation need not play to an empty house.”
To abet creation. That is, to encourage, support, enable the life and wellbeing of this planet and its inhabitants.
How?
Well, think about it.
Parents, how do you encourage your children?
Spouses, significant others, friends, how do you support one another?
Teachers, counselors, doctors, nurses, helpers paid or unpaid, how do you enable the life and wellbeing of another?
You listen.
Sure you do other things too, but first, you listen.
Who then, “speaks for earth?”
The earth speaks for earth.
And it has been telling us for some time now that it is not well.
That we’re hurting it.
The earth speaks for earth.
But, “Who listens to earth?”
We know the Trump administration doesn’t listen to earth.
And what of the two scientists who turned a program about the American chestnut tree into a battle of wills. Are they listening to earth?
What does it even mean by listen to earth?
Again, Annie Dillard, “We are here to abet creation and to witness it, to notice each thing so each thing gets noticed.”
Witness. Notice. Look. Pay attention. In spiritual terms, love.
Love this planet. Love it like your life depends upon it. Because it does.
To abet creation, listen to earth…. love earth.
Love it like people who protest pipelines and people who plant trees….like the kids at Tantasqua Junior High who planted American chestnut trees as part of the Tantasqua Chestnut Tree Project just down the road from here on (Route) 148.
Love it like communities creating garden space and congregations going green…like the roughly 30% of UU congregations who have become accredited Green Sanctuaries…and yes we’re one of them.
Love it like…well…like the people here who brought a non-disposable plate and cup to use at our pizza luncheon.
Speaking of which, if you forgot a cup and plate or didn’t know, no one’s going to be like the oak tree here and look down at you for it. We’ve got one for you to use today.
Because if we’re going to love the planet, we need to love one another…oak and rose alike, for as Annie Dillard reminds us, “We are here to abet, witness and notice creation…and “not only each mountain shadow and each stone on the beach but…each other's beautiful face and complex nature so that creation need not play to an empty house.”
And indeed, that we in fact have a “complex nature” is all the more reason to heed Joan Halifax’s call for principled moral outrage… “episodic and regulated” with the potential to “be a useful instigator of ethical action.”
There is plenty to be angry and outraged about. Plenty of people to point fingers at and blame. But if we are to hold others and ourselves accountable AND abet creation, there is but one path the sages, seers and saints, religious and secular, past and present, tell us, ensures we rage not in vain, the path of love. Love embodied and expressed through listening, noticing and acting. Love which patient and kind, not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. Which does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; which does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. Which protects, keeps going when the going gets tough, expects the best of us, and never quits. (1 Cor. 13:1-8)
“Who speaks for earth?”
Earth speaks for earth.
Let us then, listen to earth.
Let us listen, notice and act.
Indeed, let us love and in so doing may we abet not our ego or addiction to “recreational bitterness”, but instead may we, in loving, abet creation.
Amen and Blessed Be
Earth Day Sermon
Brookfield Unitarian Universalist Church
May 5, 2019
by The Rev. Craig M. Nowak
“Who speaks for earth?”
It’s a good question; isn’t it? One I wish I could claim credit for, but cannot. It’s a question posed in an 1980 episode of the same name, the final episode, of the series “Cosmos”, presented by the late astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, and author, Carl Sagan. A man who, in his book, “Pale Blue Dot”, reflected on an image of the earth taken by Voyager from the edge of our solar system looking back toward the sun and encouraged us to…
“Look [again] at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there—on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”
“Who speaks for earth?”
I found myself wondering this very question this last week as I tuned into a radio program discussing, of all things, the American Chestnut tree. The guests were discussing the best approach to conserving, restoring and protecting this once plentiful, now decimated species of tree.
As is so common today, the discussion soon turned into a debate with, at times, a rather nasty tone. By the end, the tree under discussion had faded into the background having been replaced by the egoic concerns of two human beings. Each trying not only to advance their own theory, but also discredit the other’s.
“Who speaks for earth?”
The interesting…or disturbing… thing about the two guests on the radio was that here were two people who ultimately share the same goal of conserving, restoring and protecting the American chestnut tree. These were not self-serving political appointees of the unscrupulous Mr. Trump, confirmed by a cynical senate. People who make easy targets for the kind of moral outrage to which we can become so quickly and enthusiastically addicted.
And destroyed by.
Meanwhile, “Who speaks for earth?”
The Buddhist teacher Joan Halifax warns against what she calls, “recreational bitterness” that can emerge out of an unacknowledged need to be perceived as a “good” person.” “Our righteous indignation”, says Halifax, “can give us a lot of ego satisfaction and may relieve us of guilt about our own culpability: “We’re right, others are wrong; we are morally superior, others are morally corrupt.”
And never is the risk of addiction to recreational bitterness so great, as when the moral corruption of others, corruption that threatens the planet and its inhabitants, is so plainly visible as with the current administration. Clearly something must be done. Someone must do something. But who?
“Who speaks for earth?”
In the last episode of “Cosmos”, Carl Sagan observed, “(As) the ancient mythmakers knew, we are children equally of the earth and the sky. In our tenure on this planet we’ve accumulated dangerous evolutionary baggage: propensities for aggression and ritual, submission to leaders, hostility to outsiders, all of which puts our survival in some doubt. But we’ve also acquired passion for others, love for our children, desire to learn from history and experience, and a great, soaring, passionate intelligence, the clear tools for our continued survival and prosperity. Which aspects of our nature will prevail is uncertain.”
In other words, we are all heirs of human history and potential, both the admirable and the abominable.
Of course that doesn’t mean moral outrage is wrong or uncalled for. You don’t need me to tell you how serious climate change is or share stories of the plastic filled belly of whales and the destruction of rain forests to know things are out of whack. The planet is in trouble…and thus, so are we. And neither Sagan nor Halifax would encourage us to retreat to the privileged safety of denial or succumb to inaction born of despair. Silence will not do.
Still, “Who speaks for earth?”
Joan Halifax far from dissuading us from moral outrage, encourages us instead toward “principled moral outrage”, which she describes as “episodic and regulated” with the potential to “be a useful instigator of ethical action.” Noting, “When moral outrage is self-serving, chronic, or unregulated—when it becomes the very lens through which we view the world—it can be addictive and divisive.” Even amongst those whose hope and vision are aligned, who share common ground.
Recall for a moment our first reading, “The Oak and the Rose.”
I wonder which, the oak or the rose, you identified with? A cursory reading leaves one with the impression that it is the oak with whom we ought to be impressed and try to emulate. “Progress…onward and upward forever,” as the 19th century Unitarian minister James Freeman Clarke wrote in his “Five Points of the New Theology.”
But then there’s that ending in the Oak and the rose..where the rose charges…”[And] now you have no time for flower talk, Now that you've grown so tall.”…And the oak’s responds, ”It's not so much that I've grown, it's just that you've stayed so small.”
Ouch!
Now, “The Oak and the Rose” is not a poem about moral outrage, but it does offer us an opportunity to reflect on assumptions we make about ourselves, others and the perspectives we value. Assumptions that determine whether our moral outrage is principled or self-serving. And, when it comes to the planet, can help keep us mindful of the question,
“Who speaks for earth?”
When our response to allies and adversaries alike begins with and remains focused on the unexamined assumption that we’re more worldly, better informed, more committed, more enlightened and our intentions purer, is it any wonder causes falter, alliances fracture, hostility between peoples deepens and the planet suffers?
A pathway forward and some encouragement however is found in the words of Annie Dillard whose edited words were our call to worship. Here’s the full quote from which it came, “We are here to abet creation and to witness it, to notice each thing so each thing gets noticed. Together we notice not only each mountain shadow and each stone on the beach but we notice each other's beautiful face and complex nature so that creation need not play to an empty house.”
To abet creation. That is, to encourage, support, enable the life and wellbeing of this planet and its inhabitants.
How?
Well, think about it.
Parents, how do you encourage your children?
Spouses, significant others, friends, how do you support one another?
Teachers, counselors, doctors, nurses, helpers paid or unpaid, how do you enable the life and wellbeing of another?
You listen.
Sure you do other things too, but first, you listen.
Who then, “speaks for earth?”
The earth speaks for earth.
And it has been telling us for some time now that it is not well.
That we’re hurting it.
The earth speaks for earth.
But, “Who listens to earth?”
We know the Trump administration doesn’t listen to earth.
And what of the two scientists who turned a program about the American chestnut tree into a battle of wills. Are they listening to earth?
What does it even mean by listen to earth?
Again, Annie Dillard, “We are here to abet creation and to witness it, to notice each thing so each thing gets noticed.”
Witness. Notice. Look. Pay attention. In spiritual terms, love.
Love this planet. Love it like your life depends upon it. Because it does.
To abet creation, listen to earth…. love earth.
Love it like people who protest pipelines and people who plant trees….like the kids at Tantasqua Junior High who planted American chestnut trees as part of the Tantasqua Chestnut Tree Project just down the road from here on (Route) 148.
Love it like communities creating garden space and congregations going green…like the roughly 30% of UU congregations who have become accredited Green Sanctuaries…and yes we’re one of them.
Love it like…well…like the people here who brought a non-disposable plate and cup to use at our pizza luncheon.
Speaking of which, if you forgot a cup and plate or didn’t know, no one’s going to be like the oak tree here and look down at you for it. We’ve got one for you to use today.
Because if we’re going to love the planet, we need to love one another…oak and rose alike, for as Annie Dillard reminds us, “We are here to abet, witness and notice creation…and “not only each mountain shadow and each stone on the beach but…each other's beautiful face and complex nature so that creation need not play to an empty house.”
And indeed, that we in fact have a “complex nature” is all the more reason to heed Joan Halifax’s call for principled moral outrage… “episodic and regulated” with the potential to “be a useful instigator of ethical action.”
There is plenty to be angry and outraged about. Plenty of people to point fingers at and blame. But if we are to hold others and ourselves accountable AND abet creation, there is but one path the sages, seers and saints, religious and secular, past and present, tell us, ensures we rage not in vain, the path of love. Love embodied and expressed through listening, noticing and acting. Love which patient and kind, not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. Which does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; which does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. Which protects, keeps going when the going gets tough, expects the best of us, and never quits. (1 Cor. 13:1-8)
“Who speaks for earth?”
Earth speaks for earth.
Let us then, listen to earth.
Let us listen, notice and act.
Indeed, let us love and in so doing may we abet not our ego or addiction to “recreational bitterness”, but instead may we, in loving, abet creation.
Amen and Blessed Be
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