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Environmental Stewardship Commission
(MEESC)
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Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota
Creation Season 1: Animals
Sermon originally presented October 7, 2001
Copyright 2001 by Thomas
D. Harries
The Creation Story
20 And God said, Let the waters
bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the
earth
across the dome of the sky.
21 So God created the great sea
monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with
which
the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that
it was good.
22 God blessed them, saying, Be
fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds
multiply
on the earth.
23 And there was evening and there
was morning, the fifth day.
24 And God said, Let the earth
bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things
and wild animals of the earth of every kind. And it was so.
25 God made the wild animals of
the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything
that
creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, Let us make
humankind
..."
And it all went downhill from there.
We interrupt your regularly scheduled season of
Pentecost
for a four-week celebration of Creation.
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This morning we celebrate the animal kingdom.
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In the weeks to come well be celebrating the gifts of plants, water,
and
finally light. If you notice, were kind of going backwards. Thats
because
this Sunday is the one nearest to St. Francis Day, and Francis was know
for his love of the animals and birds.
I am just the right age to have grown up watching
Mutual
of Omahas Wild Kingdom. I still have one of my favorite
childhood
books, Marvels and Mysteries of our Animal Kingdom, which is a
coffee
table book filled with beautiful pictures. Between the two, I was
exposed
to awe inspiring creatures from all over the world.
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Elephants, Giraffes, Leopards and Lions, Birds and sea creatures too
colorful
to believe.
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At the Duluth Zoo, I watched with fascination as the polar bear swam
round
and round its pond.
Many of the largest animals are in danger of
extinction,
primarily because people appropriate huge chunks of their habitat.
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Never, before the 20th Century, did humans have enough population or
technical
capability to modify large portions of the globe. For most of our
existence
we needed protection from the larger animals. But now the
situation
is reversed. One of the great challenges of our age is to pass on to
our
grandchildren a world where these amazing creatures still live.
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Back when the book of Genesis was written, the idea that people could
have
control the future course of the world, could have dominion over it,
was
largely a pipe dream. Now suddenly we find ourselves with the power to
reshape the natural environment in massive and long lasting ways. Will
we use it responsibly, refraining from changing things whose workings
weve
barely begun to understand?
Gods creatures are so much more marvelous than
anything
human beings can make. Their variety is almost beyond imagination.
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One year in the boundary waters we paddled around a corner just in time
to see a moose and her calf swim across a narrow neck of the lake and
climb
out onto the shore. It was one of the highlights of the whole trip.
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Then there are the Eagles that soar above our lakes and rivers and make
me stand riveted, watching them ride the thermals.
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The animals bless us merely by their presence, their beauty, and their
sheer interesting-ness.
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Dolphins surfing the bow waves or the bright cardinal in our yard can
bring
us more joy than 100 bars of gold.
But they bless us in many other ways as well.
They bless us as pets with a love that is independent of our
beauty
or our worldly success.
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Pepper and Cary are always delighted to see me come home. In fact were
glad that Peppers tail is cropped. Otherwise nothing would be left
standing
after one of her welcomes.
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Because of the undemanding joy they bring, pets improve our health in
measurable
ways.
-
They can turn a care facility from dreary to pleasant all by themselves.
Domestic animals blessed us with a leg up in our evolution.
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They provided a concentrated source of food that left us time for
painting,
music, play, thinking, and planning.
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We still depend upon the Chickens, Pigs, Ducks and cows of the
traditional
farmstead for a lot of our food, although we no longer raise them in
such
idyllic settings.
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Until quite recently horses and oxen provided the muscle that made
intensive
agriculture possible. These Great Plains could never have been
broken
into farmland without teams of willing horses pulling the plows.
Nor could the western ranges have been ranched without the highly
trained
horses carrying their cowboys.
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To this day a versatile machine that can do a lot of heavy work is
called
a workhorse.
Therapy animals
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My sister does animal assisted therapy in Rochester. She tells about
one
young man from a very troubled family who would barely talk to her at
all
about his feelings. Then she brought in her little brown spaniel, and
round
and gentle as any dog you could meet. She started asking him how he
thought
Cyan felt about this stranger, and how he interpreted her attempts to
check
him out. Before long he was talking much more freely about what it was
like to live in his family.
Search and Rescue
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St. Bernards: Cask of liquor is a myth, but they really did search for
lost travelers in the high mountains
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Dogs were all over the pile at the world trade center, searching for
any
survivors.
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Seizure dogs: So tuned into their humans that they can often detect an
approaching seizure as much as 30 minutes before it strikes. The dogs
are
then trained to alert their human, so he or she can get to a safe place
and prepare.
Helping Children Learn
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The other night we happened catch a TV segment on a school in Israel
were
they decided to experiment with having pets for all the children in the
classroom.
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There were the most amazing pictures of children working at their tasks
with rabbits in their laps and pet rats crawling around the table.
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Contrary to what you might expect, the childrens attention spans and
academic
performance both improved dramatically.
Its time that we give up the notion of dominating.
Perhaps
in those early days, in the Garden of Eden it made sense, but no longer.
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Let us begin to understand ourselves as partners with all Gods
creatures
in Gods ongoing creation.
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Its true we occupy a special niche and have unusual capabilities.
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But let us use those capabilities in the service of an ever richer and
more diverse creation.
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The animals of this earth give us many blessings.
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Let us be a blessing to them in return.
Amen
To Tom Harries' other Creation Season
Sermon Outlines:
This sermon was part of a four-week Creation
Season service first presented in October 2001 at St.
Nicholas' Episcopal Church, Richfield, MN. For additional
information
on the service, contact the Rev
Thomas Harries.
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