Lord of creation, whose glory is around and within us: open our eyes to your wonders, that we may serve you with reverence and know your peace in our hearts, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Over the last three weeks, Chris and I have been a very long way away from home visiting various parts of Colombia in South America – some 5,300 miles across the Atlantic Ocean.
Colombia is an amazing country, its people warm and friendly, helpful and welcoming, and we have been very privileged to see many wonderful places – from vibrant Bogota, Colombia’s capital, to the mountainous regions with stunning views and coffee farms, to the colourful colonial city of Cartegena on the Caribbean Coast, to ancient burial sites where the indigenous peoples of pre-hispanic times lived and died and lived on in amazing statues carved out of volcanic rock.
All that we have seen and experienced will stay with us for ever – and of course to share this together as a family has been very special indeed.
During this time the Church has moved into Creationtide and we are thinking about what this means for us as Christians. Colombia has the greatest bio-diversity of any nation on earth and we were blessed to see so much of this over the last three weeks. Today, I want to help us think differently about creation and see how we are one with everything that God has made – all part of one family and intricately woven together. One image that encapsulates this interdependence is the majestic river that flows through all of Colombia – the Rio Magdalena, and I’ll say a bit more about that later.
Family life is a wonderful thing and has its ups and downs – and family holidays of course are no exception! There are high points and low points – times of deep joy and connection and times of tension and difficulty, the frustrations of travel itself and the wonders and challenges of all that is new. The signing up, as it were, to share this experience together, is in itself, really important. Supporting each other and helping one another along the way and talking together about what we’ve seen deepens and extends our own experience and understanding.
But, away from home, we can each feel vulnerable and out of our comfort zones – and so its easy for us to be upset when things don’t go so well or when people say something that wounds us. We become more aware of the need to speak kindly and with care.
In the reading from the letter of James today he describes so succinctly what damage our tongues can do – and in ways that resonate for us in this time in the Church’s year too of focussing on creation –
‘How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire!’ he writes.
On our final night, high up in the mountains, there was a fire on the ridge across the other side of the valley – luckily it was not a wildfire – but it was easy to see how quickly it could have spread through the forest, dry in the heat, and potentially taking the cabin where we were staying up with it.
Our words are so important – with them we can wound, even kill, or heal and give life. Like the wildfire that suddenly blazes out of control, if we do not curb our tongues, whole areas of our shared lives can be laid waste, burnt up in bitterness.
James writes his letter to people who are not taking enough care with their words – they profess words of faith but don’t take them to heart, they say horrible things about and to each other, and think they can still call themselves Christians. James is saying that our words damage others but also rebound on us – words have a way of defining us – like when we used to be told as children to stop frowning because if the wind changed our faces might stay that way! Well, if we keep using harsh, horrible words about each other, then we will become harsh, horrible people ourselves.
We of all people should know the creative possibilities of words – ‘Word that formed creation, earth and sky and sea’ – as we shall sing in the communion hymn later – and the Word became life in Jesus. But words themselves cause death too.
In Colombia this was so terribly true 30 or so years ago, when whole communities were caught up in the appalling horrors of the drug-wars – a word in the wrong place was certain torture and death. Thankfully things have changed and many words of peace and reconciliation have replaced those of threat and intimidation.
In these weeks of September, the Church’s Season of Creationtide reminds us of our particular call as Christians to care for God’s gift of creation and Bill has spoken about this over the last two Sundays. We know that we are now facing such a great challenge environmentally that it can seem beyond us to change. Anything we can do to make a small difference is surely pointless given the rate of global-warming and so much power in the hands of multi-national conglomerates with too much vested interests and too many heads firmly planted in the sand. And yet as Bill reminded us last week – we are actually part of one of the biggest multi-national conglomerates on earth and with its headquarters in heaven – the one catholic apostolic church!
We saw how this is true across the towns and cities we visited in Colombia – seeing churches and evidence of the importance of the Christian faith to people wherever we went.
We were also reminded though, how the first inhabitants of these lands lived lives more at one with their maker and with creation than those who came to conquer them. The indigenous tribes of South America valued and treasured all that was around them, honouring the gifts that gave life – water, sun, food, shelter – and taking no more than they needed to live.
The God who has blessed us all with such gifts in creation has made us all to be inter-connected and interdependent. Sadly, something that those who came later to conquer these lands in the name of Christ, didn’t seem to recognise.
Perhaps for many it was pursuit of gold rather than the cross of Christ that was the driving force. I was so struck by hearing that those who lived in the fabled golden city of El Dorado – the tribes of the Muisca peoples high up in the southern mountains of Columbia – didn’t consider that gold had any value in and of itself – for them gold was the reflection of the life-force of the sun – something to be celebrated and used extravagantly because it spoke of the Creator – the One who created everything that was.
Of equal value and significance to those ancient peoples of Colombia and still today to modern day Colombians is the Magdalena River. Rising out of the southern mountains near where we finished our trip it flows north for 1000 miles to the Caribbean Sea, it’s the longest river in Colombia, running through the heart of the nation, enabling navigation in areas unreachable by foot and is quite simply the life-blood and essence of the nation. All history has flowed through its waters one way or the other, and the well-being of the country depends upon it.
The water of life has been one of the themes of our Creation-based Prayer Trail and it both reminds us of our responsibility to ensure there is safe water for the earth for all life to flourish – and of Christ, who we follow and whose name we bear.
In today’s Gospel, Peter, the reckless passionate one, dares to give Jesus a name – ‘you are the Messiah’ he says – even before he fully knows what that will mean for Jesus, and for himself.
Jesus asks the question about who he is to his disciples at a site near the town of Caesarea Philippi – a place of great significance for all the different religions and belief-systems of the people of his day – a place where the largest of the springs flowing into the River Jordan is found.
Jesus, the Messiah, is also the living water, into whose life-force we are baptised.
So family life, the power of words and living water – three things to reflect on in this season of Creationtide.
How can we live well together as the family of the church – to use words with care for one another, and with passion and intent as we profess and live out our faith, caring for creation as central to our call? And to allow the water of life, the life-force of Jesus, to flow through every stage of our lives, as the Magdalena River flows through the hearts of the people of Colombia, its history and its future like gold, reflecting the glory of the life-giver, and flowing out into all the world.
Lord we thank you for the gifts and blessings
we each abundantly receive.
For the beauty of creation,
the wonder of the life that you breathe into us.
For minds to think, hearts to love, and hands to serve.
For our families and friends, for all who we love and who love us,
for your image revealed through those around us
and for all we learn from one another, from different lands and different peoples.
For the life of your church, its vibrancy and diversity,
for the mission we share, the skills which are nurtured and grow,
for our ministries in all walks of life.
For our gathering together today
to hear your Word,
sing your praises,
eat at your table
and share your peace,
we give you thanks and praise,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Service: Reverend Michelle Dalliston 15th September 2024. (St John The Baptist Church Peterborough UK)
Readings: Isaiah 50:4-9a, Psalm 116:1-8, James 3:1-12, Mark 8:27-end