By Elaine Ramshaw
RCL Reflection for Proper 10, Year
A
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for the readings
July 16, 2023
One path into stewardship through today’s readings would develop the nature imagery in Isaiah and the Psalm to talk about the natural world of which we are a part and focus on our stewardship of the earth. If it feels important to address the Gospel reading also in the sermon, the link could be briefly made through connecting an image from the parable, either being “good soil” (cf. ELW 512) or bearing a hundredfold yield. As there are relatively few opportunities in the Lectionary to focus on the natural environment, though, it could make sense to lift up the imagery in Isaiah and the Psalm to that purpose.
The nature imagery initially in Isaiah is a metaphor for the way God’s word accomplishes its purpose. Isaiah presents the image of rain watering the earth and making plants grow, and thereby feeding us all. While Isaiah probably wasn’t thinking of earth’s water-cycle in verse 11, when God says that the Word “shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,” our knowledge of the water-cycle makes that phrase also appropriate for a sermon on the environment. Rain falls, waters the ground, enters rivers and flows to the seas, and then is evaporated back into the sky. Yet on that journey water brings life to the land and waterways. It doesn’t return to the sky without first doing God’s creative work and enlivening the land.
Then verses 12-13 envision the goal of God’s Word. It does not focus on peace and joy for humans alone. There is joy for all the natural world, as the mountains burst into song and the trees clap their hands. What does that imply for our part in living out God’s purpose in the world? It says something about our interdependence with the environment, that our joy could not exist without the mountains and the trees being able to join in it. This means that our loving response to God’s love must encompass the land and the plants and animals, not just the human community.
Christians have traditionally expressed this idea in the context of stewardship: in creating humans God made us stewards of creation, with power to shape it for good and for ill, and thus with responsibility to care for it well. Too often we talk about stewardship as duty with a lot of “should” language. Addressing stewardship of creation in the light of this passage provides the advantage that is all about joy! The joy God wants us to share with the trees and the mountains and hills.
These images and themes are echoed in Psalm 65:9-13. God’s ongoing creative work is seen in rain, softening the land and making it fertile. Then the hills are clothed with joy and the valleys, cloaked with grain, shout for joy and sing. Here again, God’s care is for feeding humans, but it is not just bringing plenty for our sake. The hills and valleys themselves rejoice. Again, our interdependence with the natural surroundings is clear, and thus our responsibility to care as God cares for the land. And again, the result is not just duty achieved but shared joy. This is the deep motivation for all our stewardship: we get to be part of a society and a planet that rejoices together in the living out of God’s dream.
In worship:
To focus on stewardship as care for creation, find hymns and write prayers that pick up imagery from Isaiah and the psalm. The song “The Trees of the Fields Will Clap Their Hands” by Steffi Karen Rubin (look on GodSongs.net) could be sung by everyone during the service or by the reader of the Isaiah passage in the middle of the reading, as verse 12. The LBW version of “Earth and All Stars” (#558) has the flowers and trees joining the new song. Verse 3 only of “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” LBW 566 could be sung as a refrain to the psalm. Other urge our stewardship of the earth: ELW 739 “Touch the Earth Lightly”; ACS 1064 “Earth is Full of Wit and Wisdom” includes the line “trees rejoice as they join the ringing chorus”; ACS 1065 “Can You Feel the Seasons Turning” calls us to address climate change; ACS 1071 “In Sacred Manner” may we walk upon the earth. Both ACS 1064 and 1065 use the word “stewards” to describe our relationship to the earth.
For children:
Focus on stewardship as care for creation with children by lifting up Isaiah and the Psalm. The song “The Trees of the Fields Will Clap Their Hands” is lively and easy to join in on. If it has been sung in the service, you can reprise it with the kids during the children’s sermon time or in Sunday school. Alternatively, you can teach it to them on the spot, and they will at least be able to join in on the clapping in the chorus. Talk with the children about the trees’ applause. When are the trees and plants happy? What does God do that makes the trees happy? (In Isaiah and in the Psalm, the main answer is rain!) Does rain make you happy? (Yes and no!) Why does it make the trees happy? What do people do that makes the trees happy or sad? Do you think God wants us to make the trees and plants happy?
For youth:
Ask the teens if they think we talk enough in church about the non-human parts of creation. Do they think we sometimes talk as if God only cares about humans? Why do they think that is? How do we know that God does care about all of the natural world, and wants us to care for the whole of the planet? Look together at Psalm 65:9-14. How does God relate to the non-human world here, and how does the earth respond? Does the earth respond to our treatment of it with joy and song? How would we need to change how we live on the planet for the earth to start singing for joy? You could bring in the word “stewardship” as encompassing not just how we use our money (the context in which they might most often hear the word in church) but also how we care for and protect the natural world.
Elaine Ramshaw is an author, spiritual director and seminary instructor who teaches pastoral care online from her home in Connecticut.
Here are previous reflections for Proper 10, Year A:
2020 – Mindset Matters
2017 – A rock, a hard place, and good soil
2014 – Word
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