Meditation on James 1:17–27
Pastor Karen Crawford
First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown
Aug. 27, 2024
I have begun my interviews for my doctoral project! It is so fun to hear your stories and see your gardens. I am learning a great deal from my fellow gardeners!
The conversation invariably turns to some of our challenges with gardening—and the complicated relationships we have with the wildlife in our communities.
Take the rabbits for example. They are SO cute! Except when they are eating all the new green shoots from the seeds that we have sown in hope. Gardeners are always people of hope.
Other creatures can present challenges to gardeners. Bugs, insects, mold, and fungus! Voles and moles and groundhogs. Rats and chipmunks, squirrels and raccoons, to name a few! One of our gardeners has relocated a couple of hundred squirrels and a couple of raccoons in humane traps. You have to drive them at least 6 miles away, she says, or they will come back.
Some of the gardeners have complained about deer eating their plants, shrubs, and trees. Fences and wire cages are the norm in my neighborhood if you don’t want them to devour just about everything growing in your yard. But one says she has never seen a deer where she lives, and she has lived there more than 50 years. She knows they are in the community, however, because one deer visited a beauty salon not far from her home.
Sure enough, the owner posted a video of the 2019 visit on Youtube:
Journalist Nick Caloway of CBS News shared the story:
“Walk-ins are welcome at the BeYouTiful salon in Lake Ronkonkoma,” the story begins, “but this isn’t what owner Jenisse Heredia had in mind.
“‘At first, I thought it was a car coming in the window, and when I turned around, I realized it was a deer,’ she said. Heredia can be seen on security camera video giving a customer a haircut Saturday afternoon when the deer crashed through the front window of her shop, sending shards of glass flying. It was a very close call for a woman waiting on the couch. She was kicked by the buck as it jumped over her. The deer spent less than 30 seconds inside, but like a bull in a china shop, a buck can do a number on a hair salon. ‘It was crazy. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life,’ witness Edward Preuss said. He was getting a haircut as the wild animal came crashing in.”
The owner said she had never seen a deer in the area before. She guesses it “came from some nearby woods and lost its way before plowing into her salon. Most of the mess had already been cleaned up by Sunday afternoon, with a boarded-up window the only sign something went terribly wrong. As it careened out the front door, a hair straightener was tangled around its antlers. ‘Right now it’s on the house,’ the beauty salon owner joked. ‘Actually, my assistant found it, and it’s totaled.’ As for the deer, it was long gone by the time police showed up.”
This day that we mark an ecumenical World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation is a good day to consider our relationships—with God and one another, and the nonhuman creatures that live as our neighbors, too!
The World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation was started by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in the Orthodox Church in 1989. It signals the beginning of the Season of Creation, which also has its roots in the Orthodox Church, and will conclude on the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi on October 4.
The Anglican Communion, which includes the Episcopal Church, joined the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation in 2012. The Roman Catholic Church adopted it as a day of prayer in 2015. Today, the list of those participating in this Day of Prayer and Season of Creation has expanded to include numerous denominations and organizations, such as Lutheran World Federation, World Methodist Council, World Council of Churches, and the World Communion of Reformed Churches, of which the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is a member.
An Associate for Sustainable Living and Earth Care Concerns in the Presbyterian Hunger Program, Jessica Maudlin, writes at the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s website, “It is a special season where we celebrate God as Creator and acknowledge Creation as the divine continuing act that summons us as collaborators to love and care for the gift of all that is created. As followers of Christ from around the globe, we share a common call to care for Creation. We are co-creatures and part of all that God has made. Our well-being is interwoven with the well-being of the Earth. We rejoice in this opportunity to safeguard our common home and all beings who share it…As people of faith, we are called to lift the hope inspired by our faith, the hope of the resurrection. This is not a hope without action but one embodied in concrete actions of prayer and preaching, service and solidarity.”
The theme for 2024 is “Hope and Act with Creation,” drawn from Paul’s Letter to the Romans (8:19-25) where he explains what it means to live according to the Spirit,
“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God,for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hopethat the creation itself will be set free from its enslavement to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor, and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For inhope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what one already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
Our reading in James echoes this theme of hope that leads to faithful action, which includes life-giving speech. One of my favorite verses is at the beginning of this passage—that every good and generous act of giving comes from God, is a gift from God. This means that when we are generous with one another and our church, we reveal the generosity of God, who is the Giver. This God is “the Father of Lights,” hinting at the Creation story in Genesis 1:3 and 4, when the Lord said, “Let there be Light, and there was light. And God saw that the light was good.”
James doesn’t have a high opinion of people who say they are religious, but their lives fail to reveal their faith. James says, “Be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.”
It’s easy to say we love God, we love our neighbors, and we love Creation. We all would agree with that statement. None of us ever wants to hurt anyone or anything or disappoint the Lord. But it’s a lot harder to have our words and actions reveal the love of God for our families, neighbors, friends, and the natural world around us.
The love of God is revealed when we are kind to all creatures, not just when it is convenient for us. We must be intentional with our kindness, and not just have it be random acts when opportunities present themselves. We must pursue kindness and reconciliation, which is a difficult work and a radical thought, in this world. Think about it in our context, in an election year, that kindness, generosity, and life-giving speech are to be pursued, and that this is the true calling of Christ’s followers. We are going against the example of the world, since the garden of Eden, really, when we don’t pursue power or control over the land, and all the people and animals who live in it.
Where does our power come from, that is, the power to pursue our calling, to pursue kindness, generosity, and life-giving speech? It comes from prayer—and the sacrament of Communion, gathering with the people of God at the Lord’s Table.
In a few moments, I will invite you to come to the Table to celebrate our Communion with one another and our Savior, the Son, through whom all things were made. When we partake of the elements, I urge you to remember that they came from the earth, and all started from seeds. Imagine the bread as grains of wheat, the juice as grapes on the vine. Our sacrament had its beginnings with the soil—the same soil from which God formed the first human being and breathed into him life.
Knowing that the sacrament had its beginnings with the soil, and that we had our beginnings with the soil, how can we not see that every step we take on earth, we are walking on holy ground? In Luke, the risen Lord revealed himself to two of his disciples in the breaking of the bread at their table, after walking with them on the dusty road to Emmaus.
Dear friends, may we see and experience the love and grace of God as we partake of the bread and cup together.
May we see one another as the Lord sees us—as precious children of God. Forgiven, freed, loved, indeed! May the Body (all of us) be refreshed, renewed, reconciled, and re-membered. Healed. May we be reminded that we never walk alone. The Lord who feeds us at his Table goes with us as we leave His church.
May we be strengthened in our faith to nourish all we meet on Bread for the world.
Let us pray!
Lord God of Creation, thank you for caring for us. Thank you for your call to care for your Creation that is groaning in labor pains—all the peoples, animals and plants, land, water, and air. We pray for the healing of the Earth. Help us to love others and your Creation, dear God, as you love us. Empower us, especially in this Season of Creation, to pray daily, and hope and act with Creation, for our well-being is interwoven with the well-being of the Earth. Lead us to pursue kindness, generosity, and life-giving speech and to share the hope inspired by our faith, the hope of the resurrection. Let us be doers and not just merely hearers, deceiving ourselves. In Christ we pray. Amen.
Sharing God's Love and Grace 