Celebrating the Gift of Sacred Earth, with Rev. Sharon Edwards.

Celebrating the Gift of Sacred Earth, with Rev. Sharon Edwards. Series: This Sweet Earth A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: Genesis 2:1-3, Romans 12:1-2.

Feeling disconnected? Discover how you’re deeply woven into the fabric of creation this Sunday. Join us in-person or online as Sharon explores our profound connection to earth, each other, and the divine. Come curious, leave inspired.

Join us each Sunday, 10AM at bendfp.org, or 11AM KTVZ-CW Channel 612/12 in Bend.  Subscribe/Follow, and click the bell for alerts.

At First Presbyterian, you will meet people at many different places theologically and spiritually. And we love it that way. We want to be a place where our diversity brings us together and where conversation takes us all deeper in our understanding of God.

We call this kind of faith “Spacious Christianity.” We don’t ask anyone to sign creeds or statements of belief. The life of faith is about a way of being in the world and a faith that shows itself in love.

Thank you for your support of the mission of the First Presbyterian Church of Bend. Visit https://bendfp.org/giving/ for more information.

Keywords:

Celtic spirituality, interfaith dialogue, climate crisis, spiritual transformation, third eye, creation, interconnectedness, environmental science, Richard Rohr, contemplation, sacredness, natural world, mental health, spiritual worship, ecological sciences., presbyterian, church, online worship, bend, oregon

Featuring:

Rev. Dr. Steven Koski, Rev. Sharon Edwards, Becca Ellis, Brave of Heart, Guests

Transcript

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Welcome to worship At First Presbyterian we, at First Presbyterian, practice a spacious Christianity, which means no matter where you are in your faith journey, you belong and there is space for you at the table, there is space for your doubts and questions. We believe doubts and questions are a gift that invite us into deeper conversations and a more authentic faith. We believe diversity is a strength. Every story is sacred and everybody matters. We do our best to live the spacious and radical love of Jesus so that all might have a chance to flourish in this world. We are so glad to connect with you in this way. We would also love to worship with you in person if you're ever in the neighborhood on Sunday mornings at 830, or 10am and never hesitate to reach out to us to learn more about us or how we might support You. I hope you enjoy This worship service. Welcome. in the first chapter of the book of Genesis, it says that on the sixth day of creation. Man. God looked over all that God had created. God examined the skies, the oceans, the mountains, the forests, the streams, the high deserts, The Rolling Plains. God laughed at the centipede, the tumbleweed, the scampering puppy in the platypus. God rejoiced in the apple blossoms, the tadpole, the glacier and the glorious configuration of wrinkles and neurons that make up the human brain. The Bible says that God saw all that God had created, and God saw that it was good. So very good. The original Hebrew we translate as very good is Tov my old? A better translation of Tov my old is that God looked upon all creation and saw that it was Wow. An even more accurate translation is that when God took in the majesty, beauty, wonder and sacredness of all of creation, God was so overcome with awe that God was speechless. The Bible says on the seventh day, God rested, delighted and celebrated, cherished all that God had created. May we recover a sense of awe and reverence for the beauty of the earth? May we remember that God has entrusted us with the gift of this holy earth to cherish, share and protect. God looked at all that God had created and declared it all Tov meal. So very good May we remember our first and holiest calling from God is to live as an expression of God's love for all of creation, so that God might once again be moved to exclaim with joy and delight told from kneel and Amen, thy presence, I, wisdom And thou, my True word. I, I Hello. My name is Sharon, and I have just recently joined the pastoral team at First Presbyterian Church in Bend, and I'm so grateful to be here. I grew up hearing nuggets of truth from my parents. One God loves everyone, even if we don't, cleanliness is next to godliness. You cannot hide liver and onions in your napkin. And from my mother, the Ocean Salt water is good for anything that ails you. And. The human body is made up of 50 to 79% of water. Water plays crucial roles for all of our physiological processes, removing waste, regulating temperature, cellular function, joint lubrication, organ protection and even brain functioning. We can only survive a few days without water. We are ocean. Trees have trunks and roots and veins transport nutrients and water throughout the entire body of a tree. Trees transform through seasons. A tree breathes. We have trunks and veins and arteries and branching airway systems. There is a love affair between our lungs and plants. They release and we breathe in, and we breathe out and they breathe in our breath. We are trees. Our bodies are made up of the most common elements found in earth, hydrogen, neutral, oxygen, iron, 97% of our atoms we share in common with the earth, and we are also told with the galaxies, we are Earth, soil, humus, Stardust, in Genesis two Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all Their multitude and God saw that it was good. And on the seventh day, God finished the work that God had done, and God rested on the seventh day. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it. And from Romans, 12, I appeal to you, Therefore, brothers and sisters, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable and perfect, often translated as whole, the climax or pinnacle of creation is not the creation of humankind day six, but rather the creation of The Sabbath day seven, when God pauses to savor, to delight in all that God has made, and breathes in the goodness of that creation. John Philip Newell is a very famous and leading teacher of Celtic spirituality and an advocate for more interfaith dialog and relationships. He is writes and lectures about an ancient form of Christianity that evolved far away from the rigidness of Rome and is finding renewed resonance today, especially as we face the climate crisis. Newell writes Celtic Christianity views all of creation equally, all of Earth is formed from the substance of God. God's own Son walked on the earth. So sacred is the soil and how we live and work in our own bodies, and the body of the earth reflects our care for God and. And it seems there needs to be more care. Many of us humans have viewed the natural world as a resource, which it is, it does provide for our living. Of course, we have also come to view it as a commodity. Its value is only in what it gives us. There are many of us who live in beautiful places, who appreciate the beauty and experience the natural world as something that contributes to our mental and physical health, yes, but there is something more we may be missing, and in our missing, we are doing harm as we Experience the climate crisis, it is the view of many scientists, and in particular an expert in the environmental science field, Gus Speth, who says this, the top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy. And to deal with these we need a spiritual and cultural transformation, and we scientists don't know how to do that. Perhaps one of the ways we do that is to rediscover an ancient way of seeing. Richard Rohr is a prolific spiritual writer and the founder of the Center for contemplation and action, and in his book The naked now learning to see as the mystic See, he offers a way for us to not only practice the truth of our relatedness to creation, but also to deepen our experience of it, and therefore be transformed. He writes about three people standing at the ocean watching a sunset, one person sees the absolute beauty of it, like 80% of the world. Roar suggests this person likes dealing with what they can see and feel and touch and move and fix this is the first eye seeing flesh. This is good a second person enjoys the beauty, but also enjoys the power to make sense out of why the sunset is a lover of coherent and rational thought, technology and science. This is the second eye explanation and reason. This, too is good. The third person sees the sunset, knowing and enjoying all that the other two did, but this person is able to move through, seeing through, explaining to tasting, dwelling in awe before an underlying mystery, spaciousness and connectedness where, though, is no separation. This is the third I understanding or contemplation. Rohr falls behind a long line of spiritual teachers from many traditions when he says, the third eye is best. This is the eye that creates poetry and music and lights the fire under people who transform the world. This way of seeing is reinforced by ecological and biological and Biological Sciences, we are absolutely connected and deeply dependent with every part of the planet and even beyond without the third eye. Way of seeing everything divides into oppositions, or dualistic thinking, there is only this or this missing the beautiful, wise gray space in between. Seeing with the Third Eye brings us to the truth of our interconnected. Ness and all creation sacredness. It is a way of being a presence that dwells in humility and compassion, and it is a source of creativity and effective problem solving that honors the sacredness of all and opens new wisdom, or some would say old wisdom. You see friends creation was not just a one off event or just a long evolution of eons. Creation is not yet finished. Creation continues today. We continue to form the earth and the world. Creation continues to happen. We are co participants with the Creator and all of creation. We continue to create in the way we inhabit our bodies and the body of creation. We do this by how we live, how we breathe, the conversations we have, the choices we make, how we walk and how we walk our talk, what we eat or don't eat, and how we eat, to how we move about in the world, to how we do laundry, how we spend our money, our time, how we live Day in and day out. All of us together. It's going to take a whole lot of us presenting our bodies, our lives, seeing with this third eye, way to transform this world. I have an invitation for you for this week and perhaps beyond, take a moment to use your third eye, perhaps go outside barefoot or look outside your window at something that is in the natural world, a plant, the sky, a creature. Take a deep breath. Feel your feet. Feel your breath. See, move to knowing, move to tasting fully present, fully alive, your deep connection with creation, quieting your mind and being held by the beauty or perhaps take a pause in the midst of your day and notice what you are creating by The decisions you are making. Transformed people transform the world, and science even tells us what happens in the micro affects the macro. Your little can affect the big. But that's a whole nother sermon for a whole nother time pause for a moment. What are you hearing? What is stirring within you? What perhaps Are you being invited to do? Oh, dear human, you are ocean, you tree, you river, you Earth, you soil, you stars, you created you, creating you. May it be so Amen, Friends receive this ancient Gallic blessing, deep peace of the quiet Earth to you, deep peace of the shining stars to you, deep peace of the calming waters to you, may the moon and stars shine their light upon you, and may Christ's light shine on you, in you and through you. Amen. Thank you so much for joining us, and we hope you enjoyed this worship service. If you would like to make a donation helping make these podcasts possible or support the many ways. First, Presbyterian seeks to serve our community, you can make a financial gift online at bend fp.org, every week, we hear from someone thanking us for the gift of these broadcasts and what a difference they make. Your support makes that possible. Our church is committed to reach beyond our walls, bringing hope where there is despair and love where it is needed the most. Your generous support helps us to be generous in love. Go to our website, bend fp.org, and click on the link. Give online. Your support is really appreciated and makes a difference in people's lives. Thanks again. I hope to see you next week. You.