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Roots and Wings:
Ministering with the Earth
A Sermon Given by
Katherine Jesch, Ministerial Intern
on February 25, 2001
at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church
Bethesda, Maryland
Sermon
It seems like just yesterday that I stood up here in front of you for the first time. These few months have passed so quickly!
You know, the hardest part of this experience . . . of getting acquainted and connecting with you, of sharing your lives, your dreams, your hard times . . . the hardest part of all of this comes now when it's time to say good bye. It still feels like I've only just arrived at Cedar Lane, but six months have flown by and my ministerial internship is now ending.
Hymn #123 that you sing every Sunday is my favorite in the whole hymnal. Several weeks ago as I sang it with you, a Truth - with a capital T - came to me. That beautiful image in the hymn became so vivid I could almost touch it. I saw myself being held and strengthened by my roots so that I could fly free on the wings of my dreams.
The roots were the arms of this congregation, embracing me, affirming me, teaching me how to be a minister. And the wings were my dream of ministering with the earth, caring for all of creation, receiving from its gifts, and joining with it in praise and healing. This image comes back to me now, every time I sing the song.
I knew I would learn a great deal during this internship - after all, the whole point is to take my "book learning" from school and see how it works in the real world. As you might assume, the internship is one of the most important experiences in the education of a new minister. It's the opportunity to integrate all of my academic preparation with the real work of ministry, to see how it fits. I took classes in worship and preaching, theology, pastoral care, ethics, all the subjects you'd expect, to guide me as a religious professional. But knowing it intellectually is not the same as doing it or being it.
At Cedar Lane I've been able to do a bit of almost everything, and a lot of a few things. And I've also learned much about being: being open spiritually as a way of grounding myself, being present when I need to listen, being real - or "authentic" as they say in California. . . being open about who I am and what I can, or cannot, do for people. As you have accepted and encouraged me, I have become more accepting of myself, recognizing and using my gifts, and honoring those places I still need to grow.
Sunday morning worship is one of my favorite parts of life in a congregation. I've only preached a few times, but I've had a small role in worship almost every Sunday. I've relished the opportunity to meet so many of you this way. At the same time, your comments and feedback have helped me learn what you look for, what's important to you in worship.
Religious education is one of the reasons many people look for a church home. But since I didn't find Unitarian Universalism when my son was a child, RE had not been part of my church life before I came here. Naturally, one of my objectives had to be to learn everything I could about what makes a great RE Program. And one reason to be at Cedar Lane was the chance to work with Bobbie Nelson. You all know that your Minister of Religious Education is an acknowledged master in this field. She's been a wonderful teacher not only for your kids, but for your intern minister. I was really fortunate that her retirement isn't until next
summer.
It has been a real privilege for me to participate with the pastoral visitors while I've been here. I visited a few people in the hospital, and helped Rev. Douglas Taylor facilitate the support group on aging. And I've been called on to lend an occasional ear - or a shoulder - when someone was looking for a safe haven. I've conducted several memorial services for your neighbors - for non-members who have no church home of their own and who look for a minister who can support and comfort them, even though they are strangers. In fact, these memorial services have been amazingly profound. People would look to me for help in their
darkest hour, and in this most universal of human experiences, we connected on a very deep and intimate level more quickly than in any other situation I can imagine. I have found it an honor to be allowed to hold them in their grief.
In many ways, I've come to understand that spiritual journey is very closely connected to social justice. For many of us, what draws us to Unitarian Universalism in the first place is a commitment to social justice, and while we're acting on that commitment, we somehow find ourselves deepening our spiritual lives in the process.
I've been privileged to join some of you on your spiritual journeys, revealing some parts of my own journey along the way. For example, it was such a joy to share my love of the labyrinth at the silent retreat last month.
While working with the social justice council, I chose to reinforce this connection between justice and spirituality by looking for a way to support your environmental task force. I introduced the Green Sanctuary program which hopefully you'll hear more about in the coming months. This program aims to develop a more comprehensive understanding of environmental issues and a deeper commitment to addressing them in all aspects of our lives. It is this last focus on a ministry with the Earth that I plan to make the center of my work as I move on from my internship.
In all of what I've been able to do here, you have encouraged and sustained me as a minister. I am so grateful for the support, and affirmation, and friendship you have shown me. These are the roots that hold me close.
A number of you have asked where I think I'll go next. But before I get to that, I should describe where I've come from and what I believe - in other words my theology - since it creates the foundation for what I'll do next.
Before I went to seminary in 1997, I worked for the US Forest Service in the strategic planning office here in Washington. After 20 years in the Forest Service, though, I was starting to re-evaluate my career options (the usual mid-life crisis exercise, you know). I was coming to question my place in the scheme of things and felt like I had somehow misplaced my purpose and meaning.
Fortunately, by this time I had discovered Unitarian Universalism in a big way at your sister church in Arlington. I took a class that explored goddess traditions around the world, and I found it very easy to embrace this ancient earth based spirituality. I also jumped headlong into the effort to bring the labyrinth to Arlington that spring. I found myself nourished by these activities, feeding a spiritual hunger I didn't even realize I had.
My integration into religious community at this particular time somehow reignited an interest in professional religious life that I had buried long ago from my Catholic upbringing. So I decided to take a class at Wesley Seminary to test how it might feel to consider ministry. The class I chose was "Christian Ecological Ethics". And much to my surprise, the connections I found between ecological ethics and earth based traditions helped me realize that my commitment to healing the Earth was indeed a spiritual call to ministry.
As I've pursued my education to respond to that call, my theology has deepened and clarified. What I know about Reality is that everything is connected to everything else. For me, God is a reflection of this Reality. I don't see God as a person, a character, an individual "out there somewhere". God didn't make creation; God IS creation. God is not about separation, transcendence, hierarchy. If God is relational, then God must change as creation changes. Evolution is as much in the nature of God as it is in the nature of Nature.
Coming from this understanding of Reality, my core theology is eco-feminism. I saw this initially from a secular perspective, but when I eventually discovered its connection with religion and spirituality, I understood it in my heart, not just in my mind. Eco-feminism starts with the notion that oppression of women, certain ethnic groups, and other marginalized people is related to -- and synergistic with -- the destruction of nature.
Its fundamental insight, that all of nature is connected in a complex and beautiful dance of interdependence, speaks to me on a mystical, as well as a concrete level. It has been expressed poetically by saints, poets, and philosophers, as well as by indigenous peoples in earth-based traditions around the world.
The spiritual basis for eco-feminism recognizes our connection to something larger, outside ourselves and not related to the economic implications of our destructive relationship with the earth. I agree with Carol Christ who believes that the ecological crisis is not only social, political, economic, and technological. It is, at its root, a spiritual crisis.
In this theology, roots and wings are more than just pretty metaphors. Images from nature illustrate for us fundamental truths about the world and our place in it. To me, the image of a tree is a religious icon. Whether it's a single tree with roots below ground and leafy branches reaching for the sky, or a whole forest carpeting the landscape as far as your eye can see, a tree shows us about connections, about the interdependence of all existence, about the essence of our seventh principle. You can see it in this description:
A forest exists in relation to its mountain. The individual trees germinate from tiny seeds, grow to great height, develop and drop their leaves, produce and release seeds to be scattered across the mountain, and finally die and decay on the forest floor. Together as the forest, they share in the task of nurturing and sheltering the plants and creatures of the mountain, including each other.
Throughout this cycle, soil develops from the material produced by the trees, and other plants and creatures participate in the life of the mountain side. In turn, this soil becomes part of the mountain that supports and nurtures the forest, even as it remains part of the forest that birthed it. Residual from the other plants and creatures is integrated - related - into this rich, dark, pregnant matter. A new generation of trees, of forest, is nurtured here.
Without the mountain, the forest would have no place to stand, no food to nurture its growth. Without the forest, the soil would dry up and wash down the face of the mountain in a rainstorm, or blow away in the wind.
The forest and the mountain need each other, and are changed by each other.
How can we not see this as theology?
So where does this lead me? What's next on my program, after I finish this internship at Cedar Lane next Wednesday? A major focus of this next year will be my preparations for ordination. First, of course, I'll graduate from Starr King School for the Ministry in May (yay!).
I am also preparing for "Fellowship" with the Unitarian Universalist Association. This is the process in which the denomination certifies new ministers prior to their ordination. I hope to be accepted into fellowship next winter, so of course I'll keep you posted on my plans for ordination in the spring of 2002.
"But what about your ministry?" you ask. "What is an earth ministry?"
"A good question," I respond. "I'm still working to invent it."
Ministering with the earth is, I believe, a sacred vocation. Long before I felt a call to ministry, I knew that I had such a purpose. I always considered my work in public natural resource management to be a vocation.
Sometimes I think I know too much about the world - about the conditions of the earth and of society. Environmental issues often seem overwhelming, especially when I add them to the rest of the list of social problems - poverty, racism, violence, various oppressions, and on and on . . . But at the heart of this work is the recognition that all of life is interrelated.
Healing the earth is not separate or different from other social problems. I truly believe there can be no ecological integrity apart from social justice; there can be no social justice without ecological justice. There can be no peace among nations in the absence of peace with nature.
It's just that the magnitude and complexities of the problems make me cynical. I know I can't change the whole of society...it's just not possible.
So what is a realistic way of responding to this call? The way I envision it, a Unitarian Universalist earth ministry would make explicit the ecological dimensions of our UU values: in our personal lives, our congregational life, our denominational life, and in the wider community with other faith traditions.
Eco-theology and spirituality would be the foundation of an earth ministry, the roots, if you will. And eco-justice would be the goal, the wings.
There would be three components to this ministry: The first would be developing our theological and spiritual basis and proclaiming it to the world. Next would be helping congregations become more "green." This means highlighting the connections between our spiritual lives and our environmental consciousness, and seeking ways to address environmental injustices. Finally, the third component would involve representing Unitarian Universalism in inter-faith dialogue about caring for the earth.
With this internship, I've gained a level of confidence that comes only with practice and feedback. I've also become more comfortable in my theology and spiritual practice by sharing my experiences and perspectives and hearing of some of yours. And I've discovered new capacities within myself for empathy and compassion through working with people in their pain and grief.
What more could I have asked for?
But you have given me more. You've encouraged and sustained me as a minister. You've given me support, and affirmation, and friendship as I have developed and grown. Without these, I could never have learned so much, and I know I would not feel at all ready for the next step of my journey. Those roots surely are holding me close.
I've been able to articulate my dream of an environmental ministry as you have responded to my notions of a spirituality, a theology, and an ethic of the earth. As I've described what this means to me, to many of you over these last few months, I've been able to clarify my vision of what it will look like. I feel I have truly grown toward this dream as I've grown into my role as a minister. And you have listened enthusiastically, affirmed my commitment, and encouraged me to follow my dream. Surely these wings will set me free!
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
May all the blessings of the Earth be upon you.
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