Joel 2:21-26 Contemporary English Version (CEV)
21 So tell the soil to celebrate
22 and wild animals
to stop being afraid.
Grasslands are green again;
fruit trees and fig trees
are loaded with fruit.
Grapevines are covered
with grapes.
23 My people,
celebrate in honor
of the Lord your God!
God is generous and has sent
the autumn and spring rains
in the proper seasons.[b]
24 Grain will cover
your threshing places;
jars will overflow
with wine and olive oil.
25 I, the Lord your God,
will make up for the losses
caused by those swarms
and swarms of locusts[c]
I sent to attack you.
26 My people, you will eat
until you are satisfied.
Then you will praise me
for the wonderful things
I have done.
Never again will you
be put to shame.
Reflection: “Tell the Soil to Celebrate!”
Have you ever thought of saying thank you for dirt?
What are some of the wonderful things about dirt?
- Mud pies
- Good smell of freshly plowed dirt
- All the worms, snails, etc that live in dirt and help enrich it
- It turns seeds into flowers, trees, and food
- Clay that makes jars, mugs, even bricks with which to build houses
- Minerals we use for medicines
Our scripture passage calls it soil, and most people think dirt and soil are the same thing. But my Dad, who was a farmer and a scientist, always told us that they weren’t the same thing and he really didn’t like it if we called the stuff in the garden “dirt”. I used to wonder “what’s the difference”? Here are a couple of takes on that question.
Dirt is what you find under your fingernails. Soil is what you find under your feet. Think of soil as a thin living skin that covers the land. Soil is more than rock particles. It includes all the living things and the materials they make or change.
Another scientist says that soil is a living community and dirt is what is left when we separate soil from that community, or when the soil doesn’t receive the rain and other things it needs and the living organisms die. Earth’s skin is alive and is also the source of most of the things that keep us alive.
Let’s pray:
Creator God, we thank you for the earth and her living skin the soil. We thank you for everything that soil produces: food, flowers and trees, clay and minerals. Help us care for the soil like the living community that it is, and help us care for all earth’s creatures in the same way that you care for us. Amen.
Silent Reflection
You are invited to hold a handful of soil and reflect on its gifts to us and our world.
Matthew 6:24-34
24 You cannot be the slave of two masters! You will like one more than the other or be more loyal to one than the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
25 I tell you not to worry about your life. Don’t worry about having something to eat, drink, or wear. Isn’t life more than food or clothing? 26 Look at the birds in the sky! They don’t plant or harvest. They don’t even store grain in barns. Yet your Father in heaven takes care of them. Aren’t you worth more than birds?
27 Can worry make you live longer?[a] 28 Why worry about clothes? Look how the wild flowers grow. They don’t work hard to make their clothes. 29 But I tell you that Solomon with all his wealth[b] wasn’t as well clothed as one of them. 30 God gives such beauty to everything that grows in the fields, even though it is here today and thrown into a fire tomorrow. He will surely do even more for you! Why do you have such little faith?
31 Don’t worry and ask yourselves, “Will we have anything to eat? Will we have anything to drink? Will we have any clothes to wear?” 32 Only people who don’t know God are always worrying about such things. Your Father in heaven knows that you need all of these. 33 But more than anything else, put God’s work first and do what God wants. Then the other things will be yours as well.
Reflection: “The Peace of Wild Things”
I think it’s pretty safe to say that we all worry. It is a common human condition, whether we are old or young, rich or poor, believer or non-believer.
So how can Jesus tell us “Don’t worry?’ Isn’t that a bit like saying “Don’t think about elephants?’ It seems to be another fact of the human condition that whenever we are told not to do something, or not to think about something, that is exactly where our minds will take us.
But Jesus says “Don’t worry about having something to eat, or drink, or wear”. And the commandment “Don’t worry” or “Fear not” is one of the most frequent commandments throughout the Bible.
How could Jesus say “Don’t worry” to the people listening to him on that mountaintop in Palestine? How could he say that to people who were in constant danger of not having enough food or clothes or even shelter? Because the people listening to this sermon were not the Romans who were in power, or the many local authorities who lived comfortable lives by cooperating with them. They were the impoverished and powerless followers of an impoverished leader, a homeless man couch-surfing between the homes of his friends.
How can that man say “Don’t worry” to today’s homeless people, the nineteen year olds who have aged out of government care, the desperate refugees fleeing violence and starvation in their home countries? How can he say it to the millions around the world whose lives are a constant fight for survival? To the people of Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Ukraine, the Sudan: bombed, displaced and starving?
How can Jesus tell us “Don’t worry”? Even if we don’t have daily worries about having enough food and clothes and a roof over our heads, we worry about our families, our health, about the math test tomorrow or the bully at school. We worry about who will win the election, we worry about the future of our church and the future of our planet. The list is endless!
When Jesus tells us not to worry in this passage, he doesn’t expect us to mentally wipe the blackboard clean of all our worries without giving us new pictures to replace them. And what does he offer as those new images? Images from God’s good creation: the birds in the sky and the wildflowers in the fields, creations of unnecessary and extravagant beauty unconcerned about their purpose or their future.
Wendell Barry is an American farmer, environmentalist and writer. In his familiar poem “The Peace of Wild Things”, he echoes Jesus’ prescription for replacing worries with the wonders of creation. He says:
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
No matter where we live, we can find some little piece of creation that can teach us to let go of our worries and learn to trust the One who made them and made us. If you can’t go for a walk in the wilderness, maybe you can tend your houseplants or just look out the window at the sky and clouds.
I don’t spend as much time as I would like to in wild places, but I do spend a lot of time with our pets. Our old dog Blackberry was one of my best teachers for fourteen years on the art of living in the present and living in the presence of our Creator. When he was young, he reminded me of the simple joy of living and savouring every sight, sound and smell. In his old age, he taught me patience and trust that all will be well. He did not “tax his life with forethought of grief” even as he neared the end of his life.
Jesus shares our humanity, and Jesus knows that it is only human to worry. What he did and what he asks us to do is to keep our priorities straight: God before money, God before worry. He does not promise us happiness, but he does promise us that God knows our needs and he tells us that no amount of worrying will make things better.
What will make things better is to do God’s work, to cooperate with God’s divine project of creation.
From the United Church Song of Faith:
In grateful response to God’s abundant love,
we bear in mind our integral connection
to the earth and one another;
we participate in God’s work of healing and mending creation.
Grateful for God’s loving action,
we cannot keep from singing.
Amen.
