Roots

This is a devotion that wast sent to me. . . enjoy!
~your sister in Christ, ~Erin

Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;
righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
Faithfulness will spring up from the ground,
and righteousness will look down from the sky.
The LORD will give what is good,
and our land will yield its increase.
(Ps. 85:10-12, NRSV)

Christians have too often forgotten that our faith has roots. Period. The roots of our tradition are in the ground, the dirt of the land. The ancient Hebrews, like the ancient Native Americans, lived and prayed with the profound awareness that their livelihood depended on the earth beneath
their feet. Thankfully, the Christian calendar continues to reflect that awareness. The coming of the longer sunlight days beginning with the winter solstice (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) closely coincides with the Feast of the Nativity of the Son of God. The tradition of dipping the Pascal Candle in the font at the Easter Vigil surely must also have agricultural
significance-our prayers to share in Christ's Resurrection resonate with prayers for the renewed fecundity of the earth. It is fun to note how the feast of the nativity of John the Baptist closely coincides with the shortening of the days of summer-echoing in cosmological signs
John's statement, "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30).
The psalm for today reminds us that a right relationship with God does not have merely interpersonal, inter-denominational, and international benefits. Signs of a continually converting and humble relationship with God will produce harmony between humanity and nature. In fact, the word humble comes from the same root from which we get humus, that rich black soil that comes out of the compost heap.

We would do well to consider in prayer today the ways in which our broken relationship with God has resulted in a broken bond with the earth, its soils, its air, and oceans, and vice versa. There is little glory in a tired land filled with toxins and acid rain, scorched from below by radioactivity from bomb testing. What looks down from the sky devoid of ozone but the threat of cancer and global warming? And all this in the name of economic development and progress.

You may e-mail this meditation (in its entirety) to anyone you wish.
Published by the Higher Education Ministries Arena.
The Higher Education Ministries Arena is a program function of the American Baptist Churches USA, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (USA), United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church.
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