How many of you talk to your houseplants, or your garden, or the bushes and trees in your yard, or the forest that surrounds us? How many believe that it helps them become healthier and stronger, not just by expelling CO2 from our lungs? I have to admit that I am like the father whose son has seizures and tells Jesus, "Lord, I believe, help me believe." I believe it enough that I am glad other people are doing it, but I don't believe it enough to do it myself without feeling a little foolish.
Unfortunately, 'thoughts and prayers' have taken on a negative connotation over the past couple of years, because conservative legislatures, whenever there is a mass shooting, have offered their 'thoughts and prayers', but they have rarely taken any actions that would help reduce the number and scope of mass shootings by restricting some types of guns and who can or cannot own them. However, to love God with all we are, to love our neighbor, and to love ourselves, we should ground ourselves in prayer and work on sending out good thoughts.
In our scripture today in the Book of Acts, we are back at the beginning, before Stephen was chosen to help distribute the food, before Saul and then Paul came onto the scene, and right before Pentecost, which is next Sunday. As I said, the apostles and early followers of Christ in this time did not see themselves as separate from the rest of the Jews, they believed that Jesus was the Messiah of whom is spoken of in the prophets. They saw the resurrected Jesus, spent 40 days with him, according the this writer, and then saw him ascending into heaven. Afterwards an angel told them to stop looking up and start living. 'Don't be so heavenly minded that you are of no earthly good.' Anyone hear that before? In the story, they devoted themselves to prayer, the apostles, women as well, along with Jesus' brothers. That didn't mean they ignored what was happening, didn't also preach the gospel, or take care of those who were hungry or sick or in need of healing, but for them, that was their base line and foundation to follow Christ. Unfortunately, it doesn't tell us what they prayed, how they prayed, or how long they prayed, but it does tell us they prayed together for sure, and I will bet they also prayed individually as well as in contemplation and silence.
This Wednesday, we are beginning our Sing-a-long out on the lawn, and if the weather is not the best, we can sing inside as well. Was it John Wesley who said, "Those who sing, pray twice." We also continue our tai chi on Thursday mornings to move and strengthen our bodies in prayerful movements. On Friday mornings, we (hopefully we as now the temperature is warming up) sit down by the harbor to be still and know there is a God.
I believe this story has been repeated and proven to be accurate. A grade school teacher put two glasses of water on a table, one with a smiley face and one with an angry face. He told the kids to praise the smiley faced water and to insult the angry face water. At the end of the week he froze the two waters and they looked at them under the microscope, the smiley face water had the most beautiful patters and designs while the angry face water the designs were disjointed, uneven, and ugly. This story helps me believe a little more that talking to plants and the world, not just humans, can help strengthen and heal.
Whether this is of the Spirit or not, though I think it is, I would like to start on Tuesday's over the lunch hour a time of prayer for the healing of the planet. I don't have this fully formed, but I am thinking that we could gather in Compass Park just across from Java Moose for a time of twenty to thirty minutes that would have a couple songs, liturgy, poems, joyful protest, and even dance. This would be open to everyone, reaching out to the other churches and bodies of faith. To give it some time to formulate and grow, we would start this on June 20th, right before the Summer Solstice. This would give our church and community a chance to gather together 4 times a week in some type of prayer and devoting ourselves to growing, healing, and being a witness of love in this world that is broken. A new report came out that our world will hit the 1.5 degrees celsius increase in just 4 short years, which scientists say it our tipping point for greater floods, droughts, storms, and disasters.
To heal our planet is our greatest challenge, and as many have shown, we can't heal our planet without also healing how we treat each other and heal the systems of injustice in our society, our country, and the world. It is an all of the above, we need to ground ourselves for the struggle that is happening and for what is to come. Let us pray and let us love with our whole hearts, minds, souls, and strength. Let us love our neighbors, our plant neighbors, our animal neighbors, our rock, hill, and water neighbors, and our refugee and immigrant neighbors. Amen.
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