Creation Time and Contemplation

 

                                     Illustration by James Lee Chiahan

This is the first Sunday of Creation Time for 2021, the period between September 1st and October 4th (the Feast of St. Francis) in the liturgical year. This is a relatively recent development in churches which observe the Christian year and for the final decade or more of my ministry (I retired in 2017) I was intentional about including themes which celebrated God's gift of Creation, along with inviting those in my congregations to "live with respect in Creation." 

I have appreciated the efforts of the United Church to raise up the Creation Time focus. At the same time I have been concerned that we take an activist approach without enough emphasis on contemplation. At time I wish we would reverse the earnest maxim "don't just sit there, do something" so that we hear "don't just do something, sit there." Actually, we need to walk there, paddle there, pray there, so that we fall in love with the world that God loves enough to send his Beloved, Jesus, to be among us. 

One of the Christian authors and thinkers I admire in this regard is Fred Bahnson, who continues to challenge me in my earthy, Groundling faith. In a Spirituality & Health interview he reflects: 

Among certain progressive Christian circles in the U.S., I think we have leapt too quickly into a kind of shrill activism that’s devoid of self-reflection. We need political action. We need fossil fuel divestment. Clearly, we have to keep the remaining carbon in the ground, and divestment is a powerful strategy that forces fossil fuel companies to stand down. But such activist work can too easily replace the need to deal with ourselves, to confront that line between good and evil that, as the Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said, runs down the center of every human heart. That’s why we need contemplative practice. 

Here are some links to Fred Bahnson pieces which have certainly spoken to me .

https://emergencemagazine.org/film/on-the-road-with-thomas-merton/

https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/keeping-the-world-in-being/

/https://orionmagazine.org/article/the-ecology-of-prayer/