Week of May 14, 2001
Pastor Dan

"O Lord, how manifold are your works!"
Psalm 104:24

An unknown philosopher once said, "The great person is one who sees already what others do not see as yet." The late Lutheran theologian Joseph Sittler (1904-1987) voiced concerns about a proper Christian care of the environment before it was even fashionable (it's never been popular!).

As we go about tending our gardens in the splendor of springtime, it would be right and salutary to reflect upon a few of Joseph Sittler's statements regarding our Christian responsibility to tend the larger garden called earth:

For the earth is not merely a negative illustration of the desirability of heaven (1954).

When the world is received as a gift, a grace, an ever astounding wonder, it can be rightly enjoyed and justly used (1964).

It is of the heart of sin that we use what we ought to enjoy (1964).

I am no-thing apart from everything (1972).

The only salvatory God must be a God who has the whole world in his hands (1975).

Suppose that in private reflection, private behavior, familial practice as regards basic public issues we really believed that the rape of the earth is not only irrational, impractical, and stupid, but blasphemous (1975)!

Most merciful Creator, you have fashioned us to be stewards of the earth. You call on us to care for humankind and otherkind. You punctuated your love for creation by sending your only begotten Son into the depths of creaturely existence. Help us day by day to pause before your manifold works and to care for the delicate balances of nature for present and future generations. Amen.

Contributed by Pastor Dan
Published Monday May 14, 2001
Week 25 of Liturgical Year C