Waters of Rest

Our place...

2009-08-31T07:29:00.000-07:00

I have been spending time with the creation stories in Scripture, as well as the role of creation in scripture. They are wonderful, as they celebrate with awe and wonder God's creative ability. It is that sense of "awe" that the sabbatical has truly pushed me to recover. Recently, Jan and I were looking at the Milky Way, with shooting stars and satellites passing by, and the immensity of the universe and our small place within it overwhelmed me. Much like the psalmist, who as noted in an earlier post, sees the vastness of the universe and marvels at our place in it, I was struck by God's creative imagination and God's interest in little ol' me. The more I've spent out in nature, the more I realize that I, and maybe most of us, have been taught to "read" nature not with eyes of wonder and glory, but reason and understanding and thus have lost at times a sense of amazement at the intricacy and variety of life that surrounds us. I recently came across a few lines from Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass", that capture the idea:

When I hear the learn'd astronomer,

When the proofs, the figures were ranged in columns before me,

When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide and measure them;

When I sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured,

with much applause in the lecture room.

How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;

Til rising and gliding out, I wandered by myself.

In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,

look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

If anything, looking with nature, that is God's creative masterpiece, with eyes of wonder and awe, keeps life and who we are in perspective.

Pondering

2009-08-17T13:45:00.000-07:00

If you look closely, you can see a person sitting out on the rocks. It's me from our trip to the San Juan's. I've been doing a lot of similar kind of "pondering" during the sabbatical. I love being quiet out in the midst of nature - listening, paying attention to what's around and seeing what happens. Over the years what I have learned is that if you are quiet for awhile, nature will resume it's activity around you - otters, seals, gators, etc. will start moving around again. These ponderings have sent me to two verses. One is Psalm 8 in which the psalmist ponders creation and wonders that in the midst of the vastness of creation, God pays attention to human beings, yeah even to little ol' me. Sitting on the edge of Puget Sound and the power of the cold waters and their vastness brought the words of the psalmist back to me, especially at night where there was no background illumination to mute the stars. Then especially, I sensed the wonder of the universe, and the greater wonder of God's concern for me. The other verses come from Jeremiah 8 and Ecclesiastes 3, where the prophet looks at nature and notes that the animals know their seasons and their places while the teacher notes that there is a season for everything under the heavens. If anything the sabbatical has been about rediscovering the rhythm of life and paying attention to the rhythms inherit in nature. Once again, the first story of the Bible that introduces the sabbath idea, Genesis 1, speaks of sabbath as a rhythm inherit in nature, that even God can take time off to enjoy God's handiwork. If it is good enough for God, maybe it is a message that we all need in hectic and frantic times. I am grateful for all those who have made this season of sabbath a possibility!

Water Wars????

2009-08-12T10:03:00.000-07:00

One of the books that I read this summer in entitled, When the Rivers Run Dry: Water - The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-First Century. It is a fascinating look at rivers around the world and issues that are arising from over use of these rivers. Ever since I read the book and talked with some folks around Jacksonville, I have noticed as never before water issues in local papers wherever we have been. In Seattle, an editorial in the local paper mentioned the removing of old dams on rivers so that the salmon could run and fisheries (and therefore fisherman who depend on them for their livelihoods) could prosper. On the way home, the headline in the Atlanta paper after a red-eye flight was about the brewing water war between Georgia, Florida and Alabama over Lake Lanier. Then, this morning there's a report in the Times-Union about springs being tapped before they reach the St. Johns. The premise of the book is that even in water surplus areas (like our situation where we seem surrounded by water), water is going to become more of an issue each year. The issues range from water usage to water conservation, to water rights. The Bible talks about water as a gift from God as part of God's good created order and water even "co-operates" with God in creation (more on that interesting idea later). Thus, the question I think for us as Christians comes back to one of stewardship, that is, how to we care for and share this gift of God not as water "owners", but as "stewards" - that is, those entrusted by God to care for the world and its water. More later....

"Kritters" and more water thoughts

2009-07-26T10:13:00.000-07:00

These are a few of the "kritters" that we ran into while out in the Pacific Northwest. The first shot is of a hoary marmot. It is a groundhog type mammal that lives on the mountain slopes. We had not seen any until we saw a poster at lunch one day and then saw them every day thereafter. This actually is a picture of a mom with two young marmots. On the same day, we saw a fox with her kits (I believe they are called Cascade foxes). They were just playing around. Next is a picture of a male orca fin. It is hard to get pictures of these amazing creatures, because unlike Shamu they don't jump on cue. Finally, some harbor seals are visible in the last picture. The wildlife was abundant and amazing.

On the water front, I have been thinking about our time on Orcas Island. Posted in every room with a faucet at our cabin were signs about conserving water. Here we were surrounded by water on an island (sound familiar????) and there were genuine concerns about running out of fresh water. Especially in the summer, there is little to no rain on Orcas and little freshwater except a lake in the state park. It seemed like a water rich environment - water everywhere (ocean water), lush trees (evergreens with waxy leaves that reduce evaporation), and abundant wildlife - yet in reality we were in a water poor situation for fresh water.

Glacier follow-up

2009-07-20T11:19:00.000-07:00

A couple of posts ago, I talked about the power of the frozen water at Mt. Rainier. We were told that Mt. Rainier has the more glaciers than any other mountain in the U.S. I promised some pictures about the glaciers and have finally had a chance to download them. The first picture is of Mt. Rainier. It is hard to get a perspective on this 14,000+ peak, but on a clear day it dominates the southwestern skyline of Seattle some 60+ miles away. The second picture is of the Nisqually glacier. They call it a dirty glacier and you have to look closely to see the ice underneath the dirt. You can see water flowing out underneath the edge of the glacier. This is the beginning of the Nisqually river, which can be seen in the third picture. This particular glacier has been retreating for decades. In fact, in the middle of the third picture you can make out a bridge crossing the river. 150 years ago the glacier actually was below the bridge and has been steadily retreating. The final picture is from the river bed and the rocks are what are left over after the glacier retreats. The power of water, here in frozen form, to shape the land is amazing. More pictures soon.

Garden of Eden - Redux

2009-07-16T17:43:00.000-07:00

One of themes that keeps coming to mind as we spend time around water in the Pacific Northwest is an interpretation of the Genesis 3 story of the Garden of Eden about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The interpretation begins with the idea of wondering, why would God not want humans to know the difference between good and evil? As a matter of fact, this question has been pondered by interpreters and many different answers have been given. Anyway, this particular interpretation suggests that the problem is that without the view of eternity, the other tree in the garden of everlasting life, the knowledge of good and evil is not useful. That is, we are unable to see the consequences of our actions beyond a very short sphere and thus don't know what those consequences could be days later, much less decades later. For instance, while we were watching orca, killer whales, the other day, our guide mentioned that seven had died from starvation as they only eat king salmon. He, and another naturalist, then went on to say how all the rivers of Washington, but two, had human impacts from farming to dams to drinking water. What caught my mind was the enigma of the garden again. Apparent goods (farming, flood protection, clean drinking water) were now impacting the environment in such a way that salmon were unable to reproduce which is bad not only for orcas, but for humans who love to eat salmon and those who fish for it. Most of the action on the rivers is now decades old and they are just beginning to see the long-term effects on the local environment. In response to this connundrum, one of the interesting factoids that I read in editorial out here is that Washington is one of the states leading the way in tearing down dams and restoring rivers to their natural state. As we face some interesting issues around the St. Johns' River in the years to come, what has happened in Washington at least worth pondering, because no matter how hard we try we don't have an ultimate knowlege of good and evil.

Frozen Water

2009-07-11T07:10:00.000-07:00

Last week, the Walkers spent time with a form of water that you will not find around the beaches area, glaciers. We spent five days at Mt. Rainier National Park, hiking, climbing, playing in the snow (yes, playing in the snow - one place where we were averages 680 inches of snow a year). Mt. Rainier has 25 glaciers which makes it the largest glacier system in the contiguous United States. All the creeks and rivers that we saw were in the valleys created by glaciers. When I can download pictures, I will post a couple. What I found particularly amazing was the amount of rocks, of all sizes and trees, that have been pushed down the mountain by the glacier and then left as it receded. The shear power of frozen water to grind down, move and basically destroy solid rock is awe inspiring. The landscape of Mt. Rainier has been etched over the centuries by water, frozen and unfrozen.

P.S. - An interesting factoid that I have discovered during my reading on water is that the largest source of fresh water in the world are glaciers. More water is frozen in the water of glaciers than in all the lakes, rivers, etc. combined.

2009-07-02T14:15:00.000-07:00

Just finished The Natural History of the Bible. As I noted in the previous blog, this is an interesting book about the impact of geography and topography on Israel as depicted in the scriptures. One of the most interesting arguments that the writer makes is that the Israelites were exposed to a variety of different "water" regions and this exposure prepared them for their theological confession of one god, Yahweh (the hebrew name for God most often translated, the Lord). At one time in their history, the Israelites were nomadic (Abraham, et. al.), at another they were slaves in Egypt and exposed to the the regularity of the Nile river, at yet another they lived in the highlands of Galilee with it's regular, but irregular, rainfall. Each of these regions developed polytheistic religions that helped them account for and explain the presence or lack of water. It is fascinating that in most of these religions creation's beginnings are somehow related to water. Anyway, the writer suggests that the exposure to these different water environs and different religions helped the Israelites refine their understanding of the God who made promises to Abraham and Sarah, delivered the slaves from Egypt and delighted in King David. This particular book makes a convincing case that faith is influenced by geography, and in particular, the availability of water in that region. Thus, the conviction that we at Palms are surrounded by water and this truth impacts our faith has some precendent in understanding the faith of our Israelite ancestors. For instance, the fact that we take for granted the availability of adequate and clean drinking water impacts our faith, either conciously or subconciously. As the Walkers are about to head to another watery environ, the Pacific NW, I look forward to further reflection on this thesis and exploration of the biblical images of water. More later...

2009-06-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since my last post. I will put up a couple of pictures soon, but have been spending the time reading, travelling with Worth and meeting local people with connections to water in the Jacksonville area. I've also had the opportunity to be in e-mail conversation with a couple of Old Testament scholars and they have recommended to me a book on the physical geography in the Bible. It is called the "Natural History of the Bible" and it is fascinating. The writer takes a look at each of the "areas" of the world that the biblical story includes from the point of view of their natural history and environment. For instance, the stories of Abraham, Issac and Jacob are examined in light of archaeological and sociological evidence for pastoral nomads living four thousand years ago. As one might imagine, having fresh water available would be a primary concern. Thus, it is interesting in looking at the stories in Genesis again, how much of the stories revolve around wells and water. From Abraham and Abimelech having a oath around a well (Beersheba, which actually means something like "well of an oath") to Jacob meeting Rachel at a well, water plays an interesting role in these narratives. It made me think, just a little, about how water plays a role in our narratives: from our own baptism to baptisms of our children, to how and when we learned to swim, to favorite moments on oceans, lakes and rivers. More later.

2009-06-04T10:06:00.000-07:00

I've been reading a fascinating book entitled, When the Rivers Run Dry: Water - The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-First Century. The writer looks at rivers around the world and notes that many of the world's river systems are in danger from overuse and pollution. One consistent theme is that rivers, which contain much of the available fresh water for the world, are very complex systems. Changing one part of the system has effects that can not be anticipated in other parts of the river system.
His writing reminded me of a speech I heard recently by the writer of the book, The Swamp, about the Everglades and how they have been acted upon in so many ways, with consequences that have been unanticipated. Like the rivers, the Everglades are a complex hydrological system that changes of one part have unanticipated, and usually desultory effects on others. The writer began his presentation by quoting Genesis 1 and the mandate given human beings to "subdue and rule" over creation. He argued that mandate was the philosophical underpinning of all the work that had been done that almost destroyed the Everglades.
What I found interesting is that while it is a common reading of Genesis 1 that ruling and subduing allows humans to do whatever we want to creation, it is a misreading. The text actually follows the creation of human beings in the "image" of God. As those created in God's image, we are to "subdue and rule". The key to understanding the text is in figuring out what it means to be created in "God's image". Here, the word used for image is helpful. It means a statue that a ruler would make and place in cities throughout his or her rule to represent that rule in places they could not be. Thus, to be created in God's image means to be God's representatives on the earth, to show forth God's rule on earth. Thus, we are to "subdue and rule" in ways that are in line with how God "subdues and rules", which we see most clearly in Jesus Christ.
Of course, this does not solve all the issues that arise around rivers, and the Everglades, nor suggest any simple solutions that take care of people who need water and the sources of that water. It does, however, suggest a different starting point for our actions that reflect the will of our Creator and the rivers' Creator.

2009-05-25T16:03:00.000-07:00

A couple of new friends in the Guana. With all the rain recently the Guana is as full as I have ever seen it. I was fishing (no luck) and the gator popped up right next to me. Now, I know why the fish were not around.

2009-05-19T11:14:00.000-07:00

I'm brand new at this blog thing. As I begin the sabbatical, I am still trying to figure out what I will post on the blog. I don't have a set understanding, but think it may be bits and pieces, a quote, a picture and will just trust that this will work out. As I begin the sabbatical, I keep running across this verse:

As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? (Psalm 42:1-2)

God is clearly compared here to water: water that renews, refreshes, quenches thirst. Like St. Augustine who said that we are restless until we rest in God, the psalmist imagines that we are thirsty and only God can quench our thirst. Here, at the beginning, the psalmist laments that thirst and the dryness that comes from being away from God. Yet, later in the psalm the psalmist remembers the crashing cataracts of God's steadfast presence (42:8). This psalm provokes all sorts of images in my mind: thirst, God's quenching presence, God's overflowing steadfastness, the way that life makes us thirsty, etc. It speaks I think so well to the movements of life, from thirst to flood, from anxiety to renewal, etc.

2009-04-29T15:51:00.000-07:00

Welcome!
This will be an opportunity to share insights gained through a sabbatical focused on "waters of rest". I llook forward to sharing the journey with you.
Tom