Mother Earth, Mother's Day: A Call to Sustainable Action

Mother Earth, Mother's Day: A Call to Sustainable Action, with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski. Series: This Sweet Earth A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: Matthew 19.13-15.

Join us this Sunday at First Presbyterian, either online or in-person at 8:30 or 10am. We’re exploring how our choices today shape tomorrow’s possibilities. All are welcome, doubts and questions included.

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:

Spacious Christianity, faith journey, diversity, sacred stories, radical love, memorial service, legacy, seventh generation principle, Mother’s Day, sustainable future, God’s creation, children’s welfare, environmental impact, community support, worship service., presbyterian, church, online worship, bend, oregon

Featuring:

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

Transcript

Whitney Higdon: 0:40

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.

Narrator: 3:02

We listen to how everything sings, the streams and stones, leaves and branches, fish and fur covered once birds leading the chorus. See how your desire to praise is echoed in every living thing. How in quiet moments, the heart is moved to gratitude for all of creation, for the lavish abundance of it all, how nothing is earned, no achievements are needed. May you simply show up with breath, blood and bones and your loving attention to hymns erupting everywhere until you can no longer tell where yours begin and nature's ends. You

Steven: 6:55

imagine beginning every day with the end in mind. Imagine for a moment you're attending your own memorial service. Say you're 105 years old, and you're listening to people talk about the impact of your life, the impact of your life to those you love, the impact of your life to to your children, grandchildren, maybe great grandchildren, the impact of your life, to the community, to the most vulnerable and marginalized in the world. Imagine people talking about the impact of the way you lived your life on the planet, on God's holy earth, deep down. What would you most like to hear people say? I mean, not necessarily what they'd say today, but ideally, what would you love to hear people say about the the impact of of your life and the way you cared for others, the way you care for the earth. Now ask yourself, are you living your life today and the way you want to be remembered tomorrow? What do you want your legacy to be? How will the decisions you make today help the children of tomorrow flourish? There's a beautiful story in the Bible where where Jesus is teaching about a different way of being in the world. Mothers were sneaking their children through the crowd, hoping that Jesus would heal and bless their children. Now that the disciples the children were were a nuisance, and they tried to shoo the children away so that Jesus could continue talking about the serious business of building God's kingdom here on earth. And Jesus says, and let the children come to Me. Don't prevent the children from coming to me. Don't allow anything to stand in the way of the children coming to me. God's kingdom belongs to children such as these, and then Jesus places his hands on the children, blessing them, letting them know their lives are are sacred and holy friends. That's our job. That's our calling, that's that's our holy work as Christ's hands, feet and and heart in the world, to heal and bless the children to not allow anything to get in the way of of God's children everywhere having a chance to grow and flourish. Will we be remembered for living our lives in such a way that. Giving the children of today and the children of tomorrow a chance to flourish. You know, whether we know it or not, the choices we make today have consequences that that ripple out for generations to come. The Iroquois are an indigenous tribe that have gifted us with the seventh generation principle. A seventh generation thinking urges us to consider how, how the decisions we make today will impact future generations, particularly those seven generations from now. The Iroquois believe that we should not simply make decisions for ourselves, but every decision, every action, should benefit the children who will inherit the earth after us, our land should be how will this decision create a sustainable world and help the children seven generations into the future flourish? Chief Seattle said, we don't inherit the earth from our ancestors. We are borrowing the Earth from our children. I was pretty stressed recently, and I went for a walk with my dogs on the river trail, and I sat on a rock listening to the rhythms of the rushing water. It really steadied my heartbeat. There was this just beautiful stillness that calmed my my anxious mind. I was actually reminded of the of the words of John O'Donoghue, who wrote, When the mind is festering with trouble or the heart torn, we can find healing among the silence of mountains or fields or listen to the simple, steady rhythm of waves. The slowness and stillness gradually takes us over our breathing deepens our hearts call our hungers relent when serenity is restored, he wrote new perspectives open to us and difficulty can Begin to seem like an invitation to new growth. Indeed, he said, the beauty of nature is often the wisest healing balm, for it gently relieves and releases the caged mind sitting on that rock by the river I was filled with such immense, immense gratitude for the gift of that sacred place, For the grace of God's holy earth. And then I began to think about extreme weather, about warmer than average temperatures, earlier springs, record breaking heat in the summer, raging wildfires, polluted rivers, rising sea levels, wildlife migrating because they can't find food, bees, Salmon, threatened trees and fields replaced by housing developments and urban sprawl, and I began to wonder if the children seven generations from now will get a chance to sit On this rock by the river and be healed. What will we tell those children seven generations from now? Will we tell them that, that we knew things were changing, but we did not think of you? Do we tell them how beautiful and healing the sacred place was, and we're sorry it's no longer there for you. Or do we tell them? We stood up, we cried out, we protested, we wrote laws, we passed laws, we prayed. We changed our behavior. We started making decisions, not just for ourselves and today, but for you. We did all we could to care for, preserve, protect these God given resources for you and. We did all we could to help God's holy earth flourish so that you might have a chance to flourish. Jesus said, Let the children be blessed and be healed. Do not let anything get in the way of children having a chance to grow up and flourish. A pastor friend shared a story of how she got water from the river next to her church for more baptism, and just that week, the local newspaper talked about how the river was contaminated from toxins from a nearby plant. So when she said she was going to use water from the river and pour it on the child's head for baptism, I mean, everybody was horrified. Concern for the well being of the child was was justified. What's interesting is not one person expressed any concern for the rivers. Need for healing. The baptism of the child celebrates the gift of God's love for the child. No one recognized it was from God's heart, God's love, God's abundance, that they were graced with the gift of that river, and the life of the river was threatened. The actions today of putting toxins in that river not only threaten the river but jeopardize the health and flourishing of children today and seven generations from now. This weekend, we celebrating Mother's Day. Mother's Day actually started nearly 150 years ago when Anna Jarvis, an Appalachian mother, she organized a day to raise raise awareness of children who were suffering from poor health conditions in her community. She noticed that children in her community, they weren't flourishing, and she believed, rightly so, that mothers would get things done. So she called the day mothers service day, and it became a yearly event promoting the health and flourishing of children. Anna Jarvis daughter launched a campaign asking politicians to create a special day to honor the selflessness, courage, service of mothers. In 1914 Woodrow Wilson signed a bill recognizing Mother's Day as a national holiday. What a perfect weekend to honor women devoted to the flourishing of children. What a perfect weekend to recommit ourselves to the flourishing of Mother Earth. What a perfect weekend to think about how our choices today have consequences that ripple out, impacting the lives of children for for generations to come. What a perfect weekend to adopt the spiritual practice of seventh generation thinking, asking, How will my decisions today create a sustainable future for the children seven generations from now? You know, the common greeting of the Maasai tribe in Africa is casserian, cast casserian, I think that's how it is. Casserian, angry, or something like that, which can be translated. And how are the children? The Messiah? Before talking about the weather, their health, wealth, or any other topic, they first ask one another about the welfare of the children. They understand that we as a society are only well if our children are well, how can our children possibly flourish when the environment they live in is in peril? I mean, imagine what might change if we greeted one other, if we greeted one another and before we talked about the weather sport. Or offered our opinion on politics, we actually asked one another, how are the children? I mean, what might change if every decision that was made by leaders was made through the lens will this decision heal our children's troubled spirits and anxious minds? Will this decision move us closer to a sustainable world, not just now, but seven generations from now where our children and God's holy earth flourish together. You know, the most hopeful words in the Bible are actually the very first words in Genesis. One we were taught that it says, In the beginning, God created my professor who did a PhD in Hebrew verbs, verbs, if you can imagine that, she said the Hebrew, the original language, actually says something very different. The original Hebrew says In the beginning, God began to create, and God continues to create. God's not finished with us or the world, yet God continues to create, restore, renew, heal, creating a world where God's children and God's holy earth might flourish together, and we flourish when we join God as partners in that holy Amen, Friends, how do you want to be remembered? What is the impact you desire your life to make on others? The impact you desire your life to make on God's holy earth? Do you want to be remembered as one who lived in a way that helped the children of today and the children seven generations from now flourish. Are you living your life today in the way you want to be remembered tomorrow? Go in the peace and the love of Christ as God's partners in continuing to create a world where God's children and God's holy earth might flourish together. Amen.

Whitney Higdon: 28:16

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 broadcasts possible or support them 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