The Earth is Whose?

July 16, 2006, 6^thSunday after Pentecost

Psalm 24

Rev. Dr James E. Roghair

Psalm 24

1The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it,

the world, and those who live in it;

2for he has founded it on the seas,

and established it on the rivers.

Introduction

These are my favorite verses in the Bible – maybe they sum up away of looking at life – these verses that begin the 24^th Psalm. I first learned this Psalm in the King James Version, and I always remember it that way first:

The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof;

the world and they that dwell therein.

For he hath founded it upon the seas,

and established it upon the floods.

I believe this is a creationist view of the world – not ‘creationist’ in the modern political incarnation of creationism, but in a deeply reverent sense. They speak of how the human being relates to the rest of the creation. This sparse poetry reminds us that everything we know of belongs to God. God made it.

No arguments here about how God made anything. No complaint here about evolution or any science being an enemy of religion. Nor is there any argument here that they have to agree. Rather in a deeply reverent mood the Psalmist looks at everything that is, everything that he can see or imagine seeing, and declares, in faith, that it is of God.

A Basis for Stewardship

For me this Psalm is the basis of the belief in stewardship of the earth and all of life. Because everything belongs to God, and we are given opportunity to use and to care for things. We have air to breathe, we have water to drink, we have food to eat – they are all a gift of God’s grace. We have hours and days and a life to live, we have families, we have friends, we have work – they are all a gift of God’s grace. We have money in the bank or perhaps we live in grinding poverty – all the resources we have, whether great or small, are the gift of God’s grace. We are a part of God’s earth and a part of God’s care for the earth. This is a traditional Judeo-Christian view of everything.

Earth to Earth and Dust to Dust

Perhaps this uncluttered view of our human relationship to the earth is something we should ponder, especially now. It is clear to see the number of persons from this congregation who have died in the last few months. And in the my first two weeks we have scheduled three interments in this church’s Memorial Garden. One was yesterday, and two will be next weekend. And at each interment we say words like this: “earth to earth, dust to dust, and ashes to ashes in the sure and certain hope of resurrection to eternal life.”

I don’t know if in this church you use ashes on Ash Wednesday to begin Lent, or not. But if you do, you will certainly remember the words as the ashes are put on “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

We are dust. And yet we are most blessed dust! We are dust and yet God has inspired, that is he has breathed into, us. The holy wind of God’s Spirit makes us living souls. Still a part of the earth, still dust, but we are most glorious dust.

Adam, Dirt Creature

Adam is the generic name that the Hebrew Scripture gives us for man – for humanity. Adam is probably not so much a proper name in the Hebrew as it is a description of who the human is. Adamah is dirt, so Adam is the dirt-creature – we are human by God’s grace.

It is in the Hebrew Scripture’s second attempt to make sense of creation (i.e. the telling of the story in Genesis 2), that we read that God formed the human from the dust of the ground, and that God breathed into him and he became a living being. Here again is no attempt at a scientific version of how things came about, but rather a deep sense of reverence.

A Joke

At our family reunion this summer, one of my cousins told a joke in relation to this story. Perhaps you have heard it, it was new to me:

It seems that this rather certain-of-himself scientist was proclaiming to God that he could make a human being. And so God accepted the challenge and told the scientist to go ahead. But when the human reached down to grab some earth to begin to make his person, God said, “O no. Make your own dirt first!”

Privileged Dirt

We are privileged to be God’s dirt-creatures. Dust, dirt and ashes we are, and yet alive and able to write poetry, to love and to be loyal, to sing and to dance. Like all the rest of the earth and all of those who dwell in it, we are still the Lord’s. We should be grateful for all the gifts of God, but we cannot think too highly of ourselves. We must not be arrogant. For like all the rivers and rocks and mountains, like all the fish and birds and beasts, we still belong to the God who made us. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the World and they that dwell therein.”

As creatures of God’s own creating, I believe this relationship we have gives us a unique sense of responsibility and wonder over the things of God’s creating. When we understand that the earth and everything on it are God’s and not ours, then we can sense our human stewardship – as one of gratitude for our place in the earth. What we do in our own lifestyle, the decisions we make about our impact on the rest of creation, is a spiritual matter. We are dealing with the things of God, and not something we have title to. Rather we are a part of the earth that God creates.

Mission in Cameroon

This past Sunday I was privileged to be in the presence of a Mission co-worker, who is working with the poor in Cameroon. Exxon-Mobil has built a big oil pipeline from Chad through Cameroon and to the ocean. It goes through land where for generations African natives have grown a few crops and raised their families. They did not have title to any land – it was never in their understanding that they own land, they just used it, enjoyed it, and took care of it.

But now a big outside power, Exxon-Mobil, has bought the land with the right to build the pipeline directly through the land of the farmers. They were given a little money as a stipend for what was taken away from them, but they are now desperate to know what to do. Mission workers are helping them organize to speak for themselves. American Christians – especially from the Chicago and Twin Cities areas are standing with them.

Exxon-Mobil’s View of the Earth

Exxon-Mobil, and all of multinational culture, believe, not that the earth is the Lord’s and the dwellers therein, but that the earth belongs to the one who has the money to pay for it. In the understanding of most of Western Culture – now the globalized culture – the earth is a commodity to be used up and it is definitely for sale.

IZupiaq and Land

I had experience with Alaskan Eskimoes, IZupiaq, who were trying to wrap their minds around the idea that real estate could be owned, could be bought or sold. It was a totally new concept for them. And when I tried to get the villagers in one tiny village to consider getting insurance on their little chapel, it was impossible at first. We had to first established the ownership of the land on which the chapel was placed. Then we had to get a certificate of ownership for the church, etc. It took months!

They had always lived in a world in which the land was there to be enjoyed and used but it didn’t belong to anyone. But to prevent outside speculators from taking possession and control of all the land, and driving them off, they agreed to certain provisions which were passed into law in 1971. They would hold title to much of the land, and withdraw their claim for much more.

But even after agreeing legally and politically to the provisions of the law, there was something inherent in the way they looked at the land that agreed: “The earth is the Lords, and all the animals that live on it are the gifts of that God.” And so the land and its game were not commodities, but gifts.

Learning the Psalmist’s Lessons

How can we learn the lesson of the Psalmist? Can Eskimoes or Cameroonians teach us anything about the evils of commodifying everything – turning it into a commodity – putting a price on everything – so that everything is for sale to the highest bidder?

We are so used to thinking that we can have what we want. We can go to K-mart or almost any store, now, and buy clothing or anything else put together by workers in a global market. The workers may not even have the right to organize a strike against their working conditions, because there are no laws protecting them.

Or we can go to our local Dominick’s or Jewel and buy food that is being mass produced for our consumption on land that a few years ago was the subsistence farm of a family in India or Mexico. And maybe they can’t even get enough to eat today. Has this phenomenon anything to say about the current debate on immigration?

And so when we think of the earth and all of its inhabitants belonging to God, we might, also, think of our brothers and sisters whose lives are intertwined with ours in the global reality. It might be much easier for us, if we didn’t know how these things work. But we do know at least some of it.

Fair Trade and Global Warming

I am glad to see that this church has chosen to use Fair Trade Coffee – and that is an important sign. Coffee is the number two import-export commodity in the world – coming just after petroleum. So if you and I can make an impact by what our church does – and even more, by what we do as individuals– it will matter. The coffee growers are brothers and sisters who belong to our God as we do.

And we have been warned for a number of years about the issue of global warming, but what have we done? The issue has been so politicized that we haven’t had strong leadership to change the carbon dioxide output of the human population. And now it is an “Uncomfortable Truth.” I hope you go see the movie. I hope we all do some thinking about it in this congregation. What kind of world leadership does a congregation with the history, the faith and practice of First Congregational of Evanston give? It might be significant.

Are we clear in our own minds and hearts about who the theology of whose the earth is? If it is a statement of faith – held deeply enough to affect other areas of our own lives – that belief that ‘the earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof,’ then indeed God might have a job for us in leading the world.

Global warming didn’t just happen because no one was paying attention. It happened while people were busy buying and selling the earth as if it belongs to us and not to God.

Everything

I believe deeply that the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. Some of that which is the Lord’s is in your checking account, and some of it is in your wallet. Some of it is in the grocery store and some of it is in the parking lot. Some of is what you hold dearly as your own body, and the days of life you have to live. What we do with all of those things that belong to God is our stewardship.

I told the interim search committee that I will preach often about stewardship. And I will. I do not think that the question of Christian stewardship is related to a struggle to get you to sign a pledge card and make a weekly gift to the church. Those things are important.

But the question of stewardship is first about the kind of caretakers we are of all that which is God’s. And so, if someone says that this church doesn’t have enough money to do our local or our worldwide mission. I will question that. It is never that the church doesn’t have money, but the moneyis still in the pockets of individuals. They haven’t been challenged yet to see the good that it will do in another part of God’s great world.

I am always excited about the opportunity God gives us for doing good. And I look forward to this year of working with this gifted church to understand how the gifts of God here, become your gifts to God’s needy world.

For all of the earth is the Lord’s and all of the fullness thereof – even the fullness that we know as ours. Thanks be to God.

Amen.