Friday was the third of a short string of sunny warm days which came to an end today:  our April showers have returned.  But I was able to get outside and experience some of the wonders of early spring in our neck of the woods.  One of the most dynamic of the spring things is the mating and nesting activity of the birds.  I have three nest boxes in our Juneberry tree, one of which is a gourd that has been claimed by a pair of chickadees.

Since the chickadee is my favorite backyard bird, I’m happy about their moving in.  I like their joie de vivre: their obvious zest for living.  They are so tiny and vulnerable that you’d think they’d live with a dread sense of jeopardy—always looking over their shoulder for danger.  Instead they are filled with a curiosity and boldness that amazes me.  It’s like they have said to themselves, “Ain’t nothing we can do about being small and easy targets; so there’s no sense in wasting life in a state of worry.  If we die, we die; so let’s live life with gusto.”

So Friday I was standing at my potting table getting things ready for spring and gently “pishing” to see if I could catch the attention of any and all nearby birds.  Pishing is a trick birders have used for years to call birds to them, but no one seems to know where the practice came from.  Its typical form is like hissing “Shhh” with a P in front of it.  A variation is the sound you make when you want to call someone to you to tell them a secret: “Pssst.”  It can be loud or soft.  Loud, it must sound like a bird in distress.  Soft, it seems to raise curiosity.  No one, of course, knows exactly why it works.  If you want to read about it and other forms of calling birds, pick up the book The Art of Pishing by Pete Dunne and published by Stackpole Books.  It highlights several ways of attracting birds by mimicking their calls.  On the cover are the photos of two birds: the chickadee and the tufted titmouse.  These two just can’t seem to ignore pishing.  One spring I did the call loudly in my old orchard—while concealed in a tall bush.  Within five minutes, ten different species of birds had come to check it out—including, to my delight, a brilliant yellow warbler.

As I was working and pishing softly, it was hardly a minute before my pair of chickadees came over for a visit.  One alighted on the corner of the potting table about three feet from my elbow.  The other perched on a branch about four feet above my head.  In response to the sound they tip their heads much like a dog does when it hears an unusual sound.

Later in the day, I decided to take a walk in the woods to check on the progress of spring.  Our church sits on a piece of land that was once a mature woodlot.  Much of the woodland remains, but since we are fairly new to this church, I had never walked the woods before.  My stroll was a joy, with new-life discoveries every few feet.  Trout lilies (adder’s tongue) were coming up in profusion, and patches of brilliant white bloodroot and the smaller Canada anemone could be spotted at a significant distance.  Spring beauties were everywhere.  And there were also some large patches of wild leek, the broad leaves of which provided the first swatches of green on the brown forest floor.

Birdlife was abundant and loud.  Above a vernal pool echoing with the sounds of spring peepers and chorus frogs, a large congregation of common grackles had found a number of nest holes, and the whole group was squeaking and crawking like a dozen garden gates in need of oiling.  Walking away from that cacophony, I was able to pick up the territorial call of a tufted titmouse.  It sounds like the typical whistle you make when calling a dog, only slower and with two or three notes instead of four.  It is an easy call to mimic.  And the titmouse does not like to be mimicked!  Within a few minutes, he was in a tree straight over my head.  Not only was he scolding me, he was fluttering his wings to let me, his supposed rival, know that I was encroaching on his territory.

These sorts of outdoor delights come only once a year, and I enjoyed them to the full.  The experience has energized my entire weekend.

See you outdoors,

Dean

Nearly every social institution has in some way made its voice heard on the world’s environmental degradation. One voice curiously quiet has been the voice of the church.  I think that should bother us.

Right along with the “delinquents” of the world, we followers of Christ have joined in the plunder of the creation [the word delinquent meaning "a person who neglects to do what obligation requires"]. Now as we gaze over the resulting degradation and the grief it is causing all living species, we are ever so slowly realizing that we may owe the world an apology—and God a humble confession.  We have failed both, and if we are not ashamed, I feel we should be.

There are many things we must confess:  First, we have neglected our responsibility before God. Knowing the “creation care mandate” in Genesis that clearly declares that we are stewards of our Master’s property, we have nonetheless accepted the falsehood that we are the absolute lords of the earth.  Some blame the Genesis passage that tells us we are to have “dominion” over the earth as the cause of all the damage, but the Bible is clear from cover to cover that our dominion is under God’s dominion—in God’s domain.  He expects us to be wise users and investors of the earth’s bounty, but somewhere along the line we stopped merely using and started consuming the earth.

Second, we have forgotten our position before God. It was not an arrogant psalmist who said that mankind is positioned only a little lower than angels yet above the remainder of creation (Psalm 8).  It was a humble acknowledgment that while there is power in such a position, it carries with it great responsibility toward God and toward His creation gifts.

Christian farmer-philosopher Wendell Berry tells us that “one cannot escape the human condition except sinfully, by pride or by degradation.”  In other words, to put our heads in the clouds and think ourselves to be divine is sinful pride; to grovel in the dirt and think ourselves to be no more than animals results in sinful degradation.  One is an error common to the New Age Movement, which considers everything divine; the other is an error common to neo-Darwinism, which thinks of nothing as divine.  While most Christians are not likely to fall into the error of such extremes, to neglect the responsibilities inherent to our “in-between” position is to bid Godspeed to people who erroneously consider themselves to be either gods or animals.  There is a theology of nature found in Scripture, but it is typically unknown or misunderstood by followers of Christ today.

Next, we have readily accepted the economists’ folly that nature is only for the direct benefit of mankind. We seem to have forgotten what the apostle John declared in the last book of the Bible: “You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for you created all things, and it is for your pleasure they exist and were created” (Revelation 4:11 KJV).  Unless we are arrogant enough to believe that only what pleases man pleases God, we should think again about how we tread upon the earth.  Dare we see all forests as timber, all prairies as crop land, all tundra as caps on oil deposits, all Appalachian mountains as mounds of coal, and all lesser creatures as food or subjects for sport?

Fourth, we must confess that, like most of mankind, we have confused our needs with our wants. In His ever-practical “sermon on the mount,” Jesus pointed to the sparrows and lilies and declared that just as their physical needs are met each day by the natural systems God created, so will our needs be met.  That this affirmation of Jesus can be construed to promise everything found in our garages, closets, and cupboards today demonstrates how far we have strayed from the plan of God.   Since we seem to be blind to it, perhaps only God knows how far we have collectively gone beyond our needs and how much our chasing after frivolous wants has both damaged the earth and diminished us as a church.

No confession is sincere, however, unless it involves a change of behavior.  To admit that one has been wrong and then refuse to replace wrong behavior with correct behavior only increases the wrongdoing.  I feel it is time for the church to heed what, according to John, the Spirit said to the church in Sardis: “Be watchful, and strengthen the things that remain, that are ready to die; for I have not found thy works perfect before God” (Revelation 3:2).

Indeed, He has not. I believe He awaits our sincere repentance and our taking up again our responsibility to be godly stewards of His creation.  This coming Earth Day and beyond, let’s be demonstrating that we have had a change of heart.

See you outdoors,

Dean

Please pardon the lack of activity on the WOC site for the past few days.  Marge and I were back in Canada over the Easter weekend to assist my sister-in-law Shirley, who recently lost her husband, Don, to cancer.  Those who have been reading the posts will likely recall the circumstances.  [You can read about it in these posts:  http://www.wonderofcreation.org/2009/03/11/ http://www.wonderofcreation.org/2009/03/17/ ]

High Falls in mid-March

I took the opportunity also to experiment with the new camcorder that we hope to use to perk up the WOC site when we make the change over to a “resource center.”  [You can read about the plans for a resource center here: http://www.wonderofcreation.org/2009/03/26/ ]

So in a few days I hope to be able to place video clips on the site.  The clip I am preparing will include the “sugarbush” activities from the maple syrup festival held on the Wikwemikong First Nation’s Reserve on Manitoulin Island at the top of Lake Huron.

High Falls in mid-April

There will be a few gaps in activity on the site as we make preparations for the switch-over that we are planning for the first of June.  Daily posts will be fewer for a while as I concentrate my work on the new format and begin to add more material to the other pages.  So please keep checking in to see what’s new.  I will post blurbs calling attention to new features and new material.

In the meanwhile, be sure take a look at all the present features—some of which could be helpful for your church, Sunday School class, or small group as we approach Earth Day 2009.

Other materials for Earth Day can be accessed via this post: http://www.wonderofcreation.org/2009/03/06/

Let me also recommend that you check out the Bible-based creation care articles and materials available on the Sustainlane site:

http://www.sustainlane.com/creation-care

There is a great deal of material there and good cross-section of articles from several colleagues of mine in the creation care community.

See you outdoors!

Dean

Looking ahead:

Ojibwa (Anishnabik) word for sugar shack

Sugar shack

John Muir’s background was clearly Christian, but because of his father’s harsh, mean and unloving display of Christianity, John pretty much gave up on any formal Christian practice—indeed making him sound, at times, like a pantheist.  Certainly in many of his writings he continued to speak biblical truth, and because he recovered for us a due respect for the Creator and the creation that was rapidly being degraded by the Industrial Revolution, he can still act as a prophet for us.

Someday I would love to do an in-depth study comparing the life of Muir with the life of George MacDonald, who was his contemporary—but in Great Britain.  MacDonald, unlike Muir, had a Calvinist father who was wise and kind, who demonstrated great love for the Creator, and consequently great love for his own son.  MacDonald, like Muir, was fully captivated by the creation.  In fact, MacDonald remained a scientist all his life—even when he was becoming famous for his books.  He lectured for many years in chemistry and physics.  I wonder how much greater would have been the influence of Muir had he maintained clear allegiance to the transcendent, risen Savior as much as to an earthbound Creator.

MacDonald wrote a novel in 1886 that could have pointed Muir in the right direction.  The book’s title was What’s Mine Is Mine with a major theme being the true meaning of the earth and of money.  The Americanized version of it was republished on its 100th anniversary by Bethany House with the title The Highlander’s Last Song.  My reading of it became a profoundly spiritual experience—actually leading me to my avocation as writer and speaker on creation care.

The two main characters are brothers who are at different stages in their faith.  Ian, the younger, understands better the transcendent side of faith and seeks to wean Alister away from the love of possessing property.  While this pertained in part to Scottish clan property, Ian’s concern also included the wild moors and highlands.  I could almost imagine this discussion going on between George MacDonald and John Muir.

Ian speaks:

“Did you ever think of the origin of the word ‘avarice’?  I think it comes from the same root as the verb ‘have.’  It is the desire to call THINGS ours—the desire of company which is not of our kind.  We call the holding in the hand, or house, or pocket, or purse, or the power ‘having.’  But things can never be ‘had.’ ‘Having’ is but an illusion with regard to things.  It is only what we can ‘be with’ that we really possess.  A love can never be lost; it is a true possession.  But who can take his diamond ring, or his piece of land, into the life beyond?  These are not possessions.  Thus, only love and only God can be ours perfectly.  Nothing called property can be ours at all.”

“I know all that—with my head, at least,” said Alister; “but I am not sure how you apply that to me.”

“Do you not see that the love of our mother earth is meant to be but a beginning; and that such love as yours for the land belongs to that love of things which must perish? I say there is a better way of loving the ground on which we were born than to love it so that the loss of it would cause us torture.”

Alister listened as to a prophecy of evil. . . .  “Don’t be upset with me!” cried Alister, “I want to think and do what is right.  But you cannot know how I feel or you would spare me.  I love the very stones and clods of the land!  The place is to me as Jerusalem to the Jews.

“They loved the land as THEIRS,” said Ian; “and have lost it!  I am only afraid that your love for the soil will get all the way into your soul.  We are here but pilgrims and strangers.  God did not make the world to be dwelt in, but journeyed through.  We must not love it as He did not mean we should.  If we do, He may have great trouble and we must hurt before we are set free from that misplaced love. . . .  If He had to take from you everything in order to give you what He had for you, He would take everything from you. . . .  All is man’s only because it is God’s.  The true possession of anything is to see and feel in it what God made it for, and the uplifting of the soul by that knowledge is the joy of true having. . . .  We must never fear the will of God, Alister.  We are not right with Him until we can pray heartily ‘Thy will be done’!—heartily, not in sad submission.  When we wish what He does not wish, we are not only against Him, but against our real selves.  Only the will of God is desirable.  Nothing else will satisfy us, no matter how it seems that other things can.”

I find that it is all too easy, as an advocate of creation stewardship, to make Alister’s—and John Muir’s—mistake of loving the creation perhaps more than the Creator.  MacDonald is a great mentor on this for me because he fought the same tendency.  I especially appreciate this statement: “The true possession of anything is to see and feel in it what God made it for, and the uplifting of the soul by that knowledge is the joy of true having.”

If those complaining to the government for denying them their “private property rights” actually were about seeing and feeling in their property what God made it for, I would be far more sympathetic with them.  I wonder if even one Christian property owner in a thousand understands that property responsibilities come before property rights.  Nor do most live as though they really believe that God is the owner of all property anyway.  If all property owners recognized their role as stewards of God’s land, they could not help but place their responsibilities before their rights. [See the article "Principles of Land Ownership and Development for Christians.]

As to Ian’s comment on our being pilgrims and stranger just journeying through, I don’t believe he was demeaning the value of earthly property, but pointing out that until the coming again of Jesus, all land passes from one landholder to the next.  You can’t keep land; you can only bequeath it.  It will perpetually pass from one steward to another until it is transformed in the end into a Garden greater than Eden.

In the meanwhile, the earth suffers under the “ownership” of those who really do not know the meaning of nor experience the joy of true ownership.

See you outdoors,

Dean

About four years ago I was invited to be a part of a “caring for creation” conference at the Boise Vineyard Church in Idaho.  Though I’ve spoken to small groups at colleges and churches for several years on the theology of nature and care of creation, the numbers have always been small and the institutions primarily in a discovery mode about these issues.   Boise Vineyard, however, was different.  Here was a church already committed to “good earthkeeping,” and I’m sure I learned more from the church than the conference attendees learned from me.  Within the church were several recycling locations—including stations for recycling cell phones and printer cartridges.  The church bookstore had all the latest publications on the biblical rationale to care for creation.  Outside the church at the edge of the parking lot was a large set of dumpsters for separated trash collection—with steps to permit youngsters to get high enough to assist in the recycling.  The church, in fact, challenged the people in the congregation to “bring your trash to church.”

Most impressive to me, however, was the garden.  With a significant amount of property (which used to be the old Boise airport) the church had room for parking, playing fields, a charity center for the neighborhood, and gardening.  On a plot less than an acre, the people of the church had developed an extremely productive garden with much of the produce growing in raised beds and tended by volunteers.  Along the fence that kept out four-footed creatures drawn by the abundance, a natural buffer of red-raspberry vines was growing.  This “garden of feedin’” yields over 20,000 pounds of produce annually, helping to feed more than 1300 local families.

All of this came about after the pastor and his wife, Tri and Nancy Robinson, felt a clear call from God (with assistance from their two children who demanded to know why the church seemed to have time for everything else but caring for creation!) to challenge the church to earth stewardship.

Coming to know Tri and Nancy has been a wonderful privilege for me.  To go on with the amazing story of what has happened at the church would make this post far too long.  But let me include here a part of what Boise Vineyard Church has challenged itself to accomplish:

We will advance in humility, not pretending to have all the answers for the complexity of the issues we will face. We will continually seek God’s face in prayer so that we might grasp His heart in these difficult matters.

We will repent of our wrong ways, bad attitudes and habits that have caused us to be poor examples of environmental stewardship. We will believe that God will honor us as we change our ways and in the end, He will “heal our land.”

Environmental stewardship will become an important ministry within our church. Much like our missions, benevolence or outreach ministries, environmental stewardship will become a regular part of the life of our church. We will teach these values to our children, youth, and adults with the expectation of true-life changes.

Any type of stewardship requires servant-hood. As Christians, we will serve our community and the State of Idaho through volunteer work. We will clean up state campgrounds, reconstruct and maintain backcountry trails, clean up rivers, participate in wildlife inventories, and join other activities where service is needed to improve our environment.

As the days tick away toward Earth Day on April 22, you might want to pass on information from these websites to leaders in your own church.  Tri and Nancy could spend hours telling you about how the Lord has worked to empower their church and give them opportunities to present the “whole Gospel” that they never dreamed of.

See you outdoors!

Dean