Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
April 19, 2020
Psalm 95:3-7 (NRVS)
3 For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down,
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
7 For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
Happy Earth Sunday to all of you joining us from the comfort of your own homes. Since this week is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, I thought it would be most appropriate to record this message from our Meditational Woods.
I so wish you could join me in this beautiful setting to share worship with the birds, squirrels and amidst the Creator-God’s handiwork. Maybe sometime this week, you can get out of your home and swing by the Meetinghouse and take a walk in these woods.
Someone who loved taking walks in the woods, was John Muir. He was the Scottish-born American naturalist, writer, and advocate of U.S. forest conservation, who was largely responsible for the establishment of Sequoia National Park and Yosemite National Park.
He once wrote…
God's love is manifest in the landscape as in a face. (Cruise of the Corwin, P50)
During this pandemic and isolation these words have had much deeper meaning to me. With people’s faces covered with masks when I am out taking my socially-distanced walks, I have found myself focusing more and more on my surrounding landscapes and what is going on in nature.
I am observing more of life bursting forth from the trees as they bud and bloom, the friendship of the ducks that frolic and play in our ponds, and even the way the sun as it sets in the evening changes the ambiance just enough to calm my heart.
The fields across from our neighborhood have been blanketed in a beautiful purple clover, which I’ve not seen bloom since moving to Fishers almost three years ago.
I even stopped on a recent walk to take notice of the water in a small creek heavily flowing under a bridge on Marilyn Road after a recent rainstorm.
I never noticed the bridge when driving down Marilyn Road, or how picturesque it was from the walking path.
Speaking of rainstorms, we’ve had a couple crazy storms since the pandemic began, haven’t we? Even from looking out my window or watching from my front porch or patio, the landscape of the sky has been changing.
During our last major storm, I experienced the sky lit up with lightening and cloud forms like I have never seen before. The deep rolling of thunder and the gusty winds all have had a different feel to me.
Just maybe I am experiencing more of my landscape because I have more time to appreciate and encounter God’s handiwork – or maybe better yet – I have actually made the time to appreciate and encounter it.
I sense, like John Muir, I am allowing God’s love for me to be manifest in the landscapes of my life – just like it does through the faces of friends, neighbors and relatives - something sadly, I have taken for granted for way too long.
The pandemic, in a good way, has forced me to see more of God’s love for us in the landscapes and nature in general. I no longer take it for granted but see it as a part of my daily experience – as an important participant in this thing we call “Life.”
Now, obviously this pandemic is affecting us each in different ways. Even as I considered Earth Sunday and what I would share with you today, I found myself thinking, how hard it is to celebrate the Earth and creation amidst so much sickness, death, and pain.
Yet, I began to see this from a fresh perspective after reading an article from The Atlantic by Marina Koren titled, The Pandemic Is Turning the Natural World Upside Down.
Sometimes in the midst of life’s difficulties and struggles, we find it hard to see the good or the positive effects taking place.
In the article Koren points out some of the good and positive effects taking place…like…
There is less rumbling (movement) on the surface of the planet.
There is less air pollution.
The city soundscapes are changing.
And even the oceans and waterways are quieter.
Seismologist, Paula Koelemeijer says,
“It’s very literally reflecting a slowdown of our lives.”
It has changed so much in the last couple of months that seismologist, Thomas Lecocq, from the Royal Observatory in Belgium said that with the immediate drop in activity, a normal daytime in Brussels resembles Christmas Day.
Even the observing satellites that are orbiting the Earth have detected a significant decrease in the concentration of a common air pollutant, nitrogen dioxide, which enters the atmosphere through emissions from cars, trucks, buses, and power plants.
What is crazy is that just this respite in air pollution over two months of isolation could save over 4000 young children and up to 73,000 elderly adults in China, alone.
That is something to consider.
One thing that I have noticed on my socially distanced walks, is how much quieter the world is around me.
Erica Walker, a public health researcher in Boston, has been taking decibel measurements on her walks through the Boston neighborhoods, and she has found that the noise level has declined significantly.
Before the pandemic and during rush hour her measurements were at 90 decibels, now they are under 68.
All of a sudden, people are hearing the ordinary noises of life, again.
Sylcia Poggioli, an NPR correspondent in Italy, reported that the streets of Rome are so empty, “you can actually hear the squeak of rusty door hinges, and the “chirping of birds, an early sign of spring, is almost too loud.”
Koren in the article points out something we as Quakers have been saying for quite some time and trying hard to help other people understand…
Quieter conditions, perhaps for several months, might seem like a good thing, it’s well established that noise pollution can negatively effect our health, contributing to stress-related ailments, high blood pressure, sleep disruption, and other problems.
Yet, since people have been conditioned for much higher noise levels and have ignored the importance or need of times for silence, or at least quieter conditions, this seems to be causing what some are now labeling “pandemic-related stress.”
Again, this is where I believe we, Quakers, have some wisdom to share with our struggling world. Our Friend Brent Bill wrote an entire book called, “Holy Silence” and in it he says,
“…the soul’s silence brings us to God and God to us. Silence takes us beyond the limits of consciousness and into the heart and mind of God.”
So, if you are tracking with me…just maybe the reason that so many people have issues with God or have difficulty connecting with the Divine is their perspective.
It is possible that we have limited God’s ability to communicate with and through us. It seems to be our nature to try and box up God, talk over God, and even at times replace God.
For some God has been limited by a holy text, or to a set of rules.
For some, God has been limited by a specific religious structure.
For some, God has been limited by a human relationship.
For some, God has been limited by a particular religious experience.
And for some, God has been limited by our busy, noisy, and unperceptive lives.
Just maybe during this pandemic and on this Earth Sunday, we should take a moment to take a deeper look for God’s love within and around us.
To help us seek that deeper connection this week – I have a couple queries to ponder:
Looking at the landscapes of my life, what have I been missing?
As I center down and quiet my life, what life-noise do I recognize interrupting my experience of the Divine?