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A home for All?

                             “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it”   Psalm 24:1

In two months the leaders of our planet gather to discuss one of the most important topics of our time – climate change – in effect the future life of our world as we know it.  Christians and other faiths alike are called to re-examine our understanding of scripture and our response to God’s commandments to care for the earth and all that is in it.   

The Psalmist proclaims, “the Earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.”  There are two statements of faith at the heart of this song. The first is that every creature belongs to the earth community.  The second is that the entire community belongs to the Creator.  A Greek word for earth community is oikos, and oikos is the root of the word oikoumene, or ecumenical.  Our common home, the earth belongs to God, and each beloved creature belongs to this common oikos.

In the months ahead as we pray for healing of the earth, wisdom in our leaders, and a turn of our collective hearts towards speaking out for creation; pray for all faith communities to respond to God’s call; and as Christians follow in the footsteps of Jesus’ redeeming all of creation, may we root ourselves in God’s home, God’s oikos – where all creation is seen as an integral web of relationships that sustain the wellbeing of the earth.  In God’s home everything plays a vital role in maintaining the balance of this beloved community.  Each creature is important and contributes to the health and the resilience of the biodiverse ecosystem in which it lives.  Humans belong in the right relationship within this Earth community.  We are made from the same stuff of the Earth.  We are cared for by our co-creatures and the land as we care for God’s and our beloved community.

Please keep Climate Change in your prayers.  Pray for Jesus’ guidance in caring for  God’s home, our home,  so that in the breaking of bread we include all of God’s beloved community.

A prayer for this week:

Creator of All, 

We are grateful that from your communion of love you created our planet to be a home for all. By your Holy Wisdom you made the Earth to bring forth a diversity of living beings that filled the soil, water and air. Each part of creation praises you in their being, and cares for one another from our place in the web of life. 
With the Psalmist, we sing your praise that in your house “even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young.” We remember that you call human beings to keep your garden in ways that honor the dignity of each creature and conserve their place in the abundance of life on Earth. 
But we know that our will to power pushes the planet beyond her limits. Our consumption is out of harmony and rhythm with Earth’s capacity to heal herself. Habitats are left barren or lost. Species are lost and systems fail. Where reefs and burrows, mountaintops and ocean deeps once teemed with life and relationships, wet and dry deserts lie empty, as if uncreated. Human families are displaced by insecurity and conflict, migrating in search of peace. Animals flee fires, deforestation and famine, wandering in search of a new place to find a home to lay their young and live. 
We pray that the breath of your creative Word would move our hearts, as in the waters of our birth and baptism. Give us faith to follow Christ to our just place in the beloved community. Enlighten us with the grace to respond to your covenant and call to care for our common home. In our tilling and keeping, gladden our hearts to know that we participate with your Holy Spirit to renew the face of your Earth, and safeguard a home for all. 
In the name of the One who came to proclaim good news to all creation, Jesus Christ. 
Amen.

Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash