9-6-24 - Healing Our Earth

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.


This month my parishes are having a worship series on “Celebrating Creation,” following the “Season for Creation”resources developed for worship by the Episcopal church. How might we explore this story of how Jesus healed a man who could neither hear nor speak clearly through that lens?

First we have to discern – are we the man, who cannot hear and or make himself understood? We might add blindness to the list of ailments, if we’re talking about 21st century Western folk – for the evidence of damage is all around us, yet we seem not to see what’s right in front of us. We seem not to hear the cries of the poor upon whom the effects of climate change fall disproportionately, or the wildlife endangered, maimed and killed through our self-serving practices. (Straws! Plastic bags! Let’s give them up, people!) We cannot make ourselves understood to our fellow citizens who persist in destructive practices, refusing any change in lifestyle, any “inconvenience” to ensure a habitable planet for their grandchildren. If we’re the ones in need of healing, are we willing to let Jesus change our hearts?

Or, how does it alter our understanding of this story if we put the planet and its ecosystems in the place of the man? How might we stand in for Jesus, offering healing of waters and skies, forests and rivers, plants and animals? We see him draw near – very near. We see him use his own resources, and also use the earth, making a mud with his saliva. This offers us a model for environmental healing… to give of ourselves in partnership with the natural healing processes already operative in the natural.

I am reading a book on “Biomimicry,” the intentional imitation of processes we find in nature. This discipline is slowly revolutionizing the way people approach design, manufacturing, financial structures – there is no limit to how much we can learn from the organisms that have figured out how to survive, adapt and thrive. These organisms also know how to bring healing – to scorched earth, to denuded forests – but the pace of climate change is pushing many species past even their tremendous capacities. They need our help. And we need theirs. (Listen to this Krista Tippett "On Being" interview with biomimicry practitioners and get your mind blown! And this one…)

The earth is crying out to us. Can we bring the faith we’ve been given, join it to the perfect faith of Jesus, and begin to bring healing? It is likely we cannot heal our planet without inviting Jesus’ healing for ourselves. Let us pray, let us imagine, let us imitate, let us get to work.

© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.