CELEBRATING THE EARTH

In the Bible, the earth is in partnership with God. It doesn’t just lie there while people trample on it in search of salvation; nor is it is a commodity for people to exploit for their own ends.

In the Bible, the earth is sometimes a choir, praising God along with angels and human beings. At other times, the earth is an awe-struck witness to the mighty acts of God, as when the Psalmist asks

“What ailed you, O sea, that you fled? * O Jordan, that you were driven back? You mountains, that you skipped like rams? * you little hills like young sheep?”

In Ecclesiastes 12:7, our identity is some sort of compound of earth and spirit, for “dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath to God who gave it.” The earth and its creatures can also be a teacher, as in Job 12:7…

“Ask the animals, and they will teach you;

the birds of the air, and they  will tell you;

ask the plants of the earth, and  they will teach you;

and the fish of the sea will declare to you.

Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18, WILL BE OBSERVED AS EARTH SUNDAY AT CCC. The altar will be decorated with symbols of the earth’s goodness and generosity. Music, prayers, and preaching will seek to join “with all the trees of the wood [as they] shout for joy before the Lord.” (Psalm 96:11)