God's word on our Earth

A few years ago my brother and I walked across the north of England, just for a change. From the Lakes District to the high moors and then down to the Swaledale, deep in Yorkshire, where all those tales of “it shouldn’t happen to a vet’ occurred. After a village called Keld, just before we got to the dales, we walked through a moonscape. It was awful. No trees, no grass, just the debris left behind when the lead mines were closed in 1948. David and I tramped silently through this example of how not to treat our earth for two hours before descending again to the Garden of Eden at Reith. 

The effect of that mornings walk has never left me. 

God has given us this earth, and in Isaiah’s words, he has watered it, making it yield and giving growth to provide seed for the sower and bread for the eating. It the word cannot achieve its purpose without the collaboration of God’s most magnificent creation, which of course, is humankind. The responsibility we hold is enormous, as is the opportunity for destruction and preservation. 

The Kukatja have a wonderful word kaninyirninpa, meaning holding.  Just as we a mother holds her child in the womb, and god holds his people, we hold what is entrusted to us until it is time to pass it on to others. Christians do not own anything, even our own lives. We hold all that we have been given in trust for god and for future generations. Whoever financed, allowed and profited from those lead mines in Yorkshire did not live this, for if they had they would not have been able to wreak such permanent destruction on God’s wonderful creation, denying it to future generations.

St Paul reminds us that creation ‘has been groaning in one great act of giving birth’.  We are part of that birth, and we care called to hold this creation, to nurture this baby.   I our hands we hold the seed, and we can spread this seed on rocky ground, where it will not take deep root; among thorns, where it will be strangled, or in deep rich soil where it will be nurtured. The choice is ours.

 We all have a role to play in ensuring that God’s earth is protected and nurtured. None of our voices are raised in vain.  Listen anyone who has ears.

Homily 10th July 2011 OLQP Broome.