Week 2: Care for Creation & Confession - Day 8

We've entered the Sabbath Experiment with gratitude and letting go. Continuing on in the process leads us to another aspect of sabbath, Care for Creation & Confession. In my life, I've found it's difficult to truly care for another (person, place, thing...) without also facing the ways in which we have failed it. However, as humans, we are fallible. We mess up. Sometimes those mess ups feed into bigger consequences than we ever want to admit or recognize. Consider our oceans, farming practices, and over all use of our resources... The interest of money and quick turn around has led us to make choices that may not be the best in the long run. So, while we give gratitude for the beautiful gifts that surround us, we also need to take steps to care for these gifts. We also need to take steps to confess the ways we have not honored these gifts.


In this week, we will focus on what it means to care for creation, all of creation. What are the systems in place that keep us from fully living out this sabbath practice? What are the ways we individually choose ourselves over everything else? What does this "care for creation" look like in our daily lives and communities? How can we properly confess and move on in the freedom of sabbath?

A closing thought from Norman Wirzba eloquently ties up our movement from week 1's theme of "Gratitude and Letting Go" to Week 2's theme, "Care for Creation & Confession":

In light of the Sabbath's practical and far-reaching significance, an obvious question is, How are we doing? Does our culture reflect a Sabbath sensibility that has made gratitude and praise to God its foremost concern? Are our church communities - not merely our church services - daily marked by forms of celebration that mirror God's own delight in the works of creation? To answer these questions with t he greatest honesty and precision possible, we will need to consider carefully the condition and health of all members of creation - friends and family members, but also the disenfranchised, the sick and feeble, the soil on which we walk, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the natural organisms that make up our biological neighborhood, and the geophysical processes that sustain us all - within our control or influence. Does our engagement with them indicate that we are grateful to God for them and appreciate them as a blessing to us? Do we honor God in our treatment of them, acknowledging that without them our lives would be impoverished or severely impaired? If we are truly thankful for the gifts of God, these same gifts will be cherished and cared for. If they are not well cared for, we will have to assume that gratitude and praise have been overcome by our anxieties, fears, obsessions, insensitivities, and arrogance.

"Daily Order" Path

DAY 1: When you think of creation, what do you think of first? As you think about what it means to care for all of creation, make a list of the things that pop up in your head. Try to put them in order based on what you "care about" more, and what takes up more of your attention. For instance, someone may care a lot about world hunger issues, so that would be at the top of the list; while for another person, they may care more about fair-trade practices or the many forms of human trafficking, so those would be higher on the list. Or, maybe you may find your list starting closer to home, with family or your backyard garden being at the top of your list. All of these things are different ways of caring for creation. This exercise is meant to provide you with an opportunity to see where your passions and priorities lie, but also give you an opportunity to pay attention to the breadth of creation and the many ways we do, or don't, care for it. Don't forget, you are a part of that creation too! So care for creation includes self care too.

WANT MORE?

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's social statement on Caring for Creation 

Check out a copy of The Green Bible. Taking a cue from the old red-letter Bibles, you will read the Bible with a new awareness of the ways scripture speaks of creation and creation care, with green-letter text. This edition also includes study tracks and thoughtful essays by an impressive list of spiritual leaders.







Surfrider Foundation "Our mission is the protection and enjoyment of oceans, waves and beaches through a powerful activist network." Sounds like sabbath to me!

Take a 7 minute 29 second sabbath...
Visit: http://youtu.be/7woVTuN8k3c or watch the embedded video on the blog.



Please share your favorite creation care organizations and resources in the comments...