On this first Sunday, we look to part of Psalm 104 as we remember the oceans and seas that cover large portions of the Earth (see Psalm 104:1-9, 24-26). This Psalm summarizes parts of Genesis in regards to creation and the seas and serves as a good place to start this season together.
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Now some of us may be familiar with the more traditional seasons of the church year. We know something about Advent and Lent, our seasons of preparation for the big celebrations of Christmas and Easter. And of course, Christmas and Easter exist as seasons in the church as well, extending beyond the single day celebrations our culture might suggest. And then we can't forget Ordinary time, a season split in two that covers over half of the calendar year. Technically it is one big broken up season though it is sometimes treated as a season of Epiphany and a season of Pentecost.
Some of you may also know that the word ordinary originally meant ordered or numbered (think ordinal). Ordinary time gets its name from the way the Sundays are numbered sequentially through the year. Ironically, our current understanding of the word ordinary as commonplace or even uninteresting grows out of people’s experience of ordinary time in the church.
But I digress just a little. You may have noticed that the Season of Creation is not one of the traditional seasons of the church year. That is because it is a relatively recent optional addition to the church year.
In the calendar of the saints in the Western Christian traditions, the feast day of St. Francis of Assissi falls on October 4 each year. Among other things, St. Francis is the patron saint of animals and ecology. Due to his love for animals and nature, his feast day has been used as a time for the blessing of animals and to remember our call to care for creation.
In the Eastern Christian tradition, the church year begins on September 1 with a commemoration of God’s creation of the world. During the heightened awareness of our need to care for the environment in the late-80s, September 1 was also declared a day of prayer for the environment by the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople, the head of the Orthodox tradition.
Then in 2008, the World Council of Churches began to encourage all denominations to celebrate the period from September 1 to October 4 as a “Time for Creation.” During this season we focus on God as creator and on this wonderful world that God has created and made us a part of. We also consider our place in this world and our call to be stewards of all that God has created.
We open this season with a celebration of the oceans and seas. Over 70% of the Earth is covered in water, most of that in the world’s oceans. When we stand on the beach, we can feel the presence of the ocean. It encompasses all we see. We can hear and see and feel the power of it.
The sheer immensity of the ocean is difficult to comprehend. Some of us may have driven across the country. We can gauge to a certain degree how vast the land is based on how many hours or days even that it takes to drive across it. Then to consider that the oceans are greater still than that. Add to that the knowledge that the oceans can be many miles deep. There are depths to the ocean we have a difficult time comprehending today. When we consider that the deepest point in the Pacific Ocean is deeper than the typical cruising altitude of a commercial jet it can be difficult to understand that much water.
Not that the people of ancient times knew anything about the deepest depths of the oceans or knew what airplanes are for that matter. They only knew how small and insignificant they felt next to the sea. They could stand on the shore and feel that same sense of power and insignificance we might feel today. They could stand on a hill and see how small the ship full of many people looks out on the water, a ship they know to be as big as a house or bigger.
This is why in the early days, the waters of the oceans and seas were seen by many as the primordial chaos that was tamed by God to create the world as we know it now. Before anything was created, nothing existed but this chaos. We see this in the opening lines of Genesis - “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:1-2, NRSV).
The Psalm that we read today draws on this creation story from the first chapter of Genesis. We read about the wind of God, the establishment of the earth, the designation of a place for the waters, and God filling the earth with creatures.
Looking back to Genesis, we see these details fleshed out as God first separates the waters to create the sky on the second day of creation (Genesis 1:6-8). Then on the third day of creation, God takes further control of that primordial chaos and designates a particular place for the waters of the earth so that there can be dry land (Genesis 1:9-10). On the fifth day of creation, God filled the oceans with all manner of creatures that swim, from the smallest to the largest (Genesis 1:20-22).
As God calls forth the creatures of the sea, the story of creation makes reference to great sea monsters. We see this reflected again in the Psalm we read today as it ends with a mention of Leviathan. In the various descriptions of Leviathan found in the Bible, the name could simply be a general term used to describe any particularly large sea creature. In some places, the description sounds like a particularly large, though now extinct, saltwater crocodile that was 2-3 times bigger than the largest ones known to exist today. In other descriptions, Leviathan is seen as a sea serpent or even what we might call a dragon. And in yet other depictions, Leviathan is seen as a whale or mighty fish. Ultimately, it seems to be a word used to describe any sea creature that dwarfs humans and makes us aware of just how small we are in the scope of the world. The mighty Leviathan, a creature that God has made, that is at times described as playful and destructive.
As we approach our oceans today, we still have a sense of this playful and also destructive nature. We walk along the sands of the beach, enjoying the feel of it under our feet. We build sandcastles and play games in the sand. And yet that sand is also a sign of the destructive nature of the oceans. The sand is really just rocks and shells that have been ground down by the action of the waves over time.
We can see the destruction caused by particularly high tides as regions close to the waters flood. We see the effects of storms or undersea earthquakes as they cause the seas to cover land that was once dry.
It is this chaotic nature of oceans that caused our ancestors to stand in awe before the seas. Oceans that can provide us with food in the form of fish and aquatic plants. Oceans that can provide us with enjoyment or allow us to travel great distances. Oceans that can rise up and overwhelm us with waves higher than the tallest ships.
The seas represent life and destruction in chaotic balance. It is impossible for us to tame or control the oceans. We've tried. We may hold it back for a time, but the water will always find a way. This was especially true in earlier times.
In the face of this chaos, God calls forth life and order. It is God that tames the waters. It is God that sets the boundaries of the deep. God is more powerful than the chaos. God is stronger than the power of the oceans.
As we see in this Psalm, this is a foundational aspect of our faith tradition. God is stronger than the strongest things we can comprehend in the world around us. God is mightier than the greatest creature. God is able to tame even the most chaotic aspects of creation.
Without God, how have the seas not completely taken over the lands? We know from the story of Noah that God did once allow the waters to reclaim the earth for a time. As our Psalm today notes, God “covered [the earth] with the watery deep like a piece of clothing; the waters were higher than the mountains!” (Psalm 104:6, CEB) But God forced the waters to flow back down the mountains to the place that had been established for them (Psalm 104:7-8). And then, as we know from the story of Noah, a rainbow was placed in the heavens as a sign of God’s promise to never again destroy the earth by covering it with water.
Today we know that not only are the oceans and seas powerful, but the system of life that lives within them is also fragile. Overfishing and rising sea temperatures affect entire ecosystems as food sources disappear or die off. Because all the waters of the world are connected and eventually lead to the oceans, our seas are full of trash and chemicals, microplastics and drugs. Smaller organisms die off as ocean temperatures rise. Larger creatures become trapped in fishing nets and other trash or mistake our trash for the food they normally eat. If we look on God’s creation as a work of art, it is as if we walked into a museum with a can of spray paint and obliterated the beauty we found.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. One of the ways in which we honor God is by caring for this creation that God has placed us in. God has surrounded us with beauty and wonder and placed us here as stewards of this creation. What are ways we can honor God through this creation we have been given?
I think back to my youth when there was a resurgence of concern for the environment. The depletion of the ozone layer was a huge deal at the time. And then of course there was the cartoon Captain Planet and the Planeteers. Through entertainment, this cartoon sought to encourage care for the earth and to protect it from destructive policies and practices. Of course, this was not out of any sort of religious concern. You might say this was more out of a concern for survival. Why wouldn’t we want to protect and care for the place where we live? For some this is certainly enough reason to care about what happens to the world around us. But for those of us that see the world as God’s creation, we have even more of a reason to care for this earth.
And so we seek ways to honor God as we care for this world that God has created for us. We can name the beauty of this world in our times of praise and worship. We can pray for the waters that support life. We can support policies that protect the environment and all of those that live on this earth. We can adopt personal practices that diminish our contribution to the destruction being caused.
As we continue through this season in which we intentionally honor God for creating this earth and all the creatures that are a part of it, we will also be challenged to think about our place in this world.
We all live on this earth together. What harms this world ultimately harms us all. Not only that, but as Christians we are called to honor this world because it is God’s creation.
And so we each have a role to play in the protection of this world from our own destructive practices and the destruction caused by others.
As one small step, I would encourage you to go out today and find some water. Go find a pond, a lake, a stream, any body of water. All lakes, streams, and rivers eventually lead to the ocean. Go listen to the water and listen for God’s voice speaking to you through this creation that surrounds us.
Even today, with all of our knowledge about how the world works, we can still stand in awe on the shores of the sea and wonder at God’s power and majesty.