『“Stewardship Is Hope”』のカバーアート

“Stewardship Is Hope”

“Stewardship Is Hope”

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 October 26, 2025: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard. Amen. Today is our last Sunday of the Creation Season. While we include a prayer for creation every Sunday, over the past month, we have been creation centered – focusing all our intercessions on behalf of the earth, the animals, and the people suffering from environmental destruction. We have also changed the confession – naming our neglect of creation, our failure to care for the earth, and asking for forgiveness and a chance to amend our ways. This was our first year joining the larger church – Episcopal/Anglican, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and a host of protestant denominations, in this intentional reminder of what God has entrusted to our care, our failure to live into that call, and our renewed commitment to change for the sake of all creation. And today, on this final Sunday of this Creation Season, I cannot think of a better scripture for us to hear than something from the prophet Joel. Now, I don’t know if you remember what you heard in the first reading, but when it was being read, it likely…or perhaps I hope…sounded familiar to you. For those who attend one of the High Holy Days of the church, the Feast of Pentecost, part of what you heard today comes out of the mouth of St. Peter, which is written in the Acts of the Apostles, where we get the story of Pentecost. But the book of the prophet Joel tells a greater story in its short 3 chapters, and we got a bit more of it this morning. The part we get today is the response of God to verses earlier in this prophet’s work. The land had been ravaged by locusts, and all of creation was suffering. Joel called the people to true repentance – not showy piety, but a rendering of the heart. God then felt compassion for them, and pours down rain to produce abundant harvests from this locust plagued land, so that all will eat and be filled. And then the bit we hear on Pentecost: God said “I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit.” Note that prophesy bit – women included in the preaching of the word of God. Somehow the church forgot all about this for a very long time. Anyway, the problem with taking scripture literally and out of context, which those who use the bible to promote sexism, to deny LGBTQ+ people their rights, or even at one time, to support the existence of slavery, often do, is that you can miss the truth that God wants us to hear. This is true for this passage from Joel. On its surface, the text we heard today is very human centric. But, in the verses just prior to this, God first promises deliverance to the soil and the animals. Yup. Before having compassion on humanity, God says “Do not fear, O soil; be glad and rejoice, for the LORD has done great things! Do not fear, you animals of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears fruit, the fig tree and vine give their full yield.” So, God provides restoration to the first things God created and loved – the earth and all its non-human inhabitants. THEN God restores humanity. It is a mirroring of the creation story itself. As we tend to do, we place ourselves in the center of God’s beloved community – as the focus of God’s love – as the be all end all of God’s universe. God, on the other hand, does not. What does that say to us about what we have done to the earth and to the animals that dwell here with us? It is a question we must ask ourselves, because humanity throughout history have been the proverbial locusts who have ravaged the earth – killing vegetation, animals, and people along the way. We have polluted the sea, the sky, and the earth. We have destroyed animal habitats and pushed many species out of existence. We have prioritized our greed and insatiable desire for instant gratification at a low cost over our responsibility to God and to all of creation. And even when efforts are made to repent an do something about it, we whine and complain about the inconvenience of things like reuseable grocery bags and having to recycle. And that is why we need to hear from the book of Joel, because this prophet offers a gift to us in these troubling times – a way forward in our repentance from what we have done, or failed to do, to care for creation. First, Joel calls humanity to true repentance of our sins against God in our acts against God’s creation. This is why Creation Season is a good start, but cannot be all that we do. Yes, we must pray and ask God to forgive us. But take a moment now and pull out that prayer book in the pews. Open it to page 447. There you will find the liturgy for the confession, which is called Reconciliation of a Penitent – meaning of one who confesses. ...
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