Rev. George
Miller
Dec 13, 2020
Isaiah
61:1-11
Eggshells, coffee grounds,
and orange peels- put them together and you get butterflies and honeybees.
Since September we’ve explored
our faith through various lenses- the female perspective, the mercy
perspective, and the land.
As mentioned before,
scripture refers to the land as God’s nahalah- a beautiful inheritance that the
Lord bestows upon the people.
We’ve witnessed that when
the people of God do right by the Lord, the nahalah flourishes. When the people forget and choose not to
honor their covenant with God, the nahalah suffers.
Millenia before talks of
climate change, the disappearance of honeybees and Michigan’s water crisis,
our spiritual ancestors showed
us how God, humans, animals, and soil are all interconnected.
It makes sense. The people of the Bible were intrinsically
tied to the land as farmers, herders, nomads, travelers.
So much of scriptures refers
to the land; so much of Jesus’ teachings use the land to teach us about God’s
kingdom- mustard seeds that turn into mighty shrubs, sowers who toss seeds extravagantly,
precious jewels found in fields of green.
So it makes sense that
Isaiah would take his turn in talking about the land.
He talks about oaks of
righteousness, tilling soil, dressing vines, shoots, and gardens.
Isaiah was attached to the
land. The Israelites were attached to
the land. Jesus was attached to the
land.
Even today, the Creator has
blessed us with nahalah of every kind.
For some it is the property we
live on. For some it’s the flowers,
vegetables and fruits we grow in flowerpots.
For some it’s the kitty
cats, the dogs, the fish in tanks we care for.
Each of us have some kind of
nahalah we have been entrusted with.
Yet, we are not as attached
to the land the way our grandparents were.
We’re more often purchasing
carrots than pulling them from the ground.
We’re more often buying orange
juice fortified with calcium and vitamin C then going into our backyard and
squeezing the juice ourselves.
I’m guilty of this. When living on Dinner Lake there was every
kind of citrus tree, but because the lemons, oranges, grapefruits did not look
like the ones in the store, I did not eat them.
Now, I’ve been a homeowner
for the past five years, and if there’s one thing COVID did was get me out of
the house and into the soil.
It’s hypocritical to preach
about God’s nahalah while not tending to your own.
Over the months I noticed
that with less traffic there’s more butterflies and bees.
One day I answered the call
to do my part and create for them a place to fly.
The west side of my house
had been a sorry state of scraggly weeds.
Setting vanity aside, I got down in the dirt and tore up what was barely
there.
I laid down a mixture of cow
manure, topsoil, and compost made from eggshells, coffee grounds, and orange rinds.
Sprinkled a bag of
wildflower seeds; watered each day.
Within just a few days,
seedlings. Some grew into stalks. Some
stalks sprouted blooms.
Soon the pollinators came-
butterflies, bees.
Not much longer after a
spider set up shop, followed by 2, 3, 4, 5 spiders all weaving webs.
Where there had been nothing
but straw-like weeds that pricked the bottom of the feet, were flowers the
color of orange, maroon, pink, and purple.
Where once there were only lizards
and frogs were now flitting wings, intricate webs, and life on all levels from
soil to sky.
What’s amazed me is the
science of it all. In school they taught
us how things grow, how waste creates life.
But to this day I still can’t
wrap my head around how manure, coffee grounds, eggshells, dirt, water, and sun
can create such vibrant life.
But it does, especially if
we do our part, especially if we reuse, recycle, if we know when to step aside,
when to tend, when to pluck, when to plant, when to weed, when to sow.
Isaiah so beautifully talks
about all of this, and places it into the story of faith.
Faith that involves things
that come to end; faith that involves things coming to a new beginning.
Faith that binds so that
faith can release.
Faith that can take what’s
been ruined and use it to restore.
So often we in America worry
about things that end, or that which has been destroyed.
So we need to be reminded
again and again that our faith is often, and nearly always, about how God can
take what seems chaotic and broken and turn it into extravagance and healthy
healing.
Think about it- God takes
the dark nothing of an empty void and brings forth sun, moon, stars, woman,
man.
God hears the cries of a
broken people and leads them across Red Sea waters into honey flowing land.
God takes the empty wombs of
our mothers and brings forth dynasties, priests, and prophets.
God takes fathers from
bellies of fish and dens of lions and uses them to preach the Good News and
bring salvation.
God takes an unmarried woman
in a compromising position and gives her a child that will bless the world.
God takes a cross and a body
full of nail wounds and turns it into resurrection and healing hands.
Just as the land requires
breaking down to be built up, just as from compost and coffee grounds comes
butterflies and spider webs,
The Lord takes whatever we
are going through, whatever we are facing,
And bring forth purpose,
bring forth life, and bring forth light…
Hold on, oh people of
Emmanuel.
Though we mourn now, though
are lives seem to be nothing but ash,
Once again the Lod will
raise us up. Once more the ruins will be
repaired.
Once more we will become
mighty oaks of righteousness grown in the soil of our tribulations, watered by
our tears.
Tended to by the Living
Hands of Christ and refreshed by the Holy Spirit.
Of this we have faith. In
this we have hope. In this we find peace
and love.
Amen and amen.
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