Mark 4:35-41
There's a great Star Trek Movie, filled with great quotables I might add, that involves the crew travelling back in time to save Humpback whales. Great story. The Earth is besieged by an Alien vessel whose inhabitants are wreaking havoc on the earth in search of Humpback whales (which, in the story, had apparently become extinct) Humans had no way to respond to the 'foreign' tongue of the aliens or what they wanted. Spock cleverly states that 'only human arrogance assumes the message is meant for man'.
I have been ruminating about something I heard in last Sunday's sermon and the passage today brings it to the fore once again. On Sunday our homilist noted that scripture states "that God so loved the world....". I have noted already that it doesn't say ' God so loves humanity' or 'God so loved man'. It says God so loved the world, as in, it's entirely. All of creation. It is not surprising then that Jesus could command the wind and sea that he had a hand in at creation. I said it before and I shall say it again that God's cannot help but love all of his creations. That would include rabbits and rhinoceri, humans and Humpbacks (whales that is).
Perhaps part of our journey to wholeness is not simply about ourselves and our relationship to God and our relationship to each other but also our relationship to the entirety of God's creation. We can ask ourselves if we are good stewards of ourselves (our personal temple of God's creation). Are we the best gay person we can be? The best artist, or whatever. We can ask if we are good stewards of those to whom we have been entrusted (spouse and family) but do we ponder how well we are stewards of God's creation that is all around us?
When I see a deer standing by the side of the road on my (incredibly) early morning drive to work, I often slow my Prius down, turn the radio off, power down my window and exhort the deer to be careful. I drive slowly in those wee hours because I see far too many of my brother deer 'sleeping' on the side of the road. I drive a Prius in an attempt to save some precious resources and saving us from yet more greenhouse gasses. I know arguments can be made that I might be more harmful to the environment but that is not really my point. My point is that I actually consider creation in my decisions. I try to respect and love my husband, my family, my cat and the entirety of God's creation as best I can. We are one on this giant blue orb. God has created us all and I am absolutely sure God loves every molecule he created.
I mention all this as a possible source of thought, mediation and part of our journey to wholeness during this Lenten season as humans and citizens of this planet that God created.
On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’
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