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Environmental Stewardship Commission
(MEESC)
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Episcopal Diocese of
Minnesota
Creation Season 2: Plants
Sermon originally presented October 14, 2001
Copyright 2001 by Thomas
D. Harries
How the world blesses us
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Theme for Sermon series
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Blessing of the animals, we bless them
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But animals and plants are blessing us all the time!
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God gives to Adam and Eve the plants for food
Psalm 104:
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14 You cause the grass
to grow
for the cattle, and plants for people to use,
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to bring forth food from the earth,
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15 and wine to gladden
the human
heart, oil to make the face shine,
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and bread to strengthen the human heart.
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16 The trees of the LORD
are watered
abundantly,
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the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
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17 In them the birds
build their
nests;
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the stork has its home in the fir trees.
Trees
Trees are my favorite
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Cedars, Symbol of the glory of the promised land
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Also a symbol of pride
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Not that a plant is capable of pride, as far as we know, but in their
height
and strength they look proud to us.
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Their destruction is an image of a land laid waste by an enemy
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No outsider is laying waste to the last old growth forests in the
Unites
States.
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Our own lumber companies are seeking permission to do it for us.
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We are not treating the rain forests and the old growth forests as if
they
were treasured companions on our journey through space.
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We are not returning their many blessings with kindness and blessings
of
our own.
Trees bless us in many ways
Beauty, No real reason for that
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Maple across the street: Shades from light green through yellow to an
almost
fluorescent reddish orange
Shade
Construction material,
Paper (maybe not a blessing?)
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Actually made possible the explosion of knowledge and technical skill
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Could pass on know how over generations, and over distance
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Founding fathers were students of Aristotle, Plato, and Holy Scripture
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Inspired by all three as they crafted our republic
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Of course the first papers were made from linen, but that is a plant
product
too.
Jesus used the behavior of plants as teaching analogies
Matthew 13:
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26 So when the plants came up
and bore
grain, then the weeds appeared as well.
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27 And the slaves of the
householder
came and said to him, Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?
Where, then, did these weeds come from?
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28 He answered, An enemy has
done this.
The slaves said to him, Then do you want us to go and gather them?
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29 But he replied, No; for in
gathering
the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them.
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30 Let both of them grow
together until
the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the
weeds
first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into
my barn.
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31 The kingdom of
heaven is like
a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field;
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32 it is the smallest of all
the seeds,
but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree,
so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.
Psalm 1 portrays Gods faithful servants this way:
1 Happy are those
Whose delight is in the law of the LORD,
...
3 They are like trees
planted
by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season,
and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.
And in Leviticus, Part of Celebrating Gods blessings:
39 Now, the fifteenth day of the
seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you
shall
keep the festival of the LORD, lasting seven days; a complete rest on
the
first day, and a complete rest on the eighth day.
40 On the first day you shall take
the fruit of majestic trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy
trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD
your God for seven days.
Those of you who read Guns, Germs, and Steel learned
about
the various obstacles and time frames for the domestication of plants
and
the beginning of agriculture.
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For our purposes today, its enough to say that the Cultivation of
plants
revolutionized human life.
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Relatively few plants were worth cultivating: Grains with large heads;
The lowly grasses provide about 50% of the calories consumed in the
world
today.
Food
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Fruits
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Blueberries
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Vegetables
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Grains
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Food for meat and dairy animals
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Creators of virtually all food value on the planet
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They alone can capture the suns energy in a chemical form that every
higher
creature uses.
Oxygen
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A time when there was no oxygen
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Removing Carbon Dioxide
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No machine can do this for us on the scale required
Power and persistence of life
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Trees clinging high on the mountain
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Crabgrass growing in the cracks in the pavement, ever so slowly
breaking
it up.
Variety: Cactus to seaweed.
Beauty: Flowers, leaves
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Finding the moccasin flowers in the woods at the cabin.
Praise God for the many gifts plants give to us.
May we be wise caretakers of this bounty
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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