Text: Ezekiel 47:1-12

Ezekiel is a book of visions. It’s categorized as prophetic, but really it’s more like Revelation in genre – a series of visions that the prophet experienced and shared for warning or encouragement. And because it’s a vision, it’s a little weird and the reader is left to wonder: huh? What’s with the directions? Why the measurements? What? 

Here’s what I will say about that: don’t worry about it. At least in the specifics.

Ezekiel is maybe best known for the vision of the dry bones – that cool and creepy image of human skeletons returning to life through the intervention of the Spirit.  This is another vision of renewed life. But instead of for humanity, for for a people, this is new life for creation. Here the things that are dead and cannot support life are the land and water. 

And very importantly, that renewal of Creation emerges from the dwelling place of God. It literally flows out from the temple. What those measurements say is that there is a trickle of life that grows and gushes and it becomes a torrent of water too deep to cross and so full of life that even what is dead is revived and lands that surround it flourish with plants and trees every kind of living thing – images that harken back to some of the first stories of Creation. 

This is the last in our Creation Care series and I really thought that at some point during this series I would be able to share more about my own particular environmental passion project, which is mending and upcycling and re-making or re-using. (Pictured left, my much darned and patched tote bag)  As an 80’s kid I think I may have grown up in peak “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” era and I very much internalized that and like so many of us, sorting my recycling and carting around a reusable mug and water bottle have become a habit. 

What I think we pay way less attention to in that little litany is the reduce piece. How do we buy, consume and use less stuff? For me the way to do that is to fix and be creative with the stuff – especially but not exclusively – the clothes that I already have and to source materials from places that operate with those same kinds of values – my favorite being ReCreative (I know Darie is also a fan).

I was a More-with-less kid. I think I’ve talked about this before. I was literally pictured in Living More with Less as a toddler along with a toy-box made with upcycled denim and doo-dads that my mom had made for me and my foster brother.  I didn’t realize it for a long time, but that mind-set that I learned from my parents of limiting consumption, growing food, living simply, fixing what was broken, have embedded themselves deeply in me and were connected to the way they lived out their faith.

Now, many years into her retirement, my mother now works in the MCC Thrift Shop in Rosthern SK and carts home clothes and other unusable fabric for upcycled projects like rag rugs or stuffed dog beds. She complains about (but still finishes, along with her church quilting group) several ‘ugly quilts’ each year using up fabric others don’t want to use and sending them on as MCC comforters. And every time I’m home I go with her to the thrift store to cut up stained Tshirts and towels for rags that are sold by the pound to local mechanics and construction workers and cleaners.

I’m sharing this because 1) I love mending, thrifting and Seattle Re-Creative and I will share the gospel of those things all day 2) because even though I know that buying my craft supplies from a second use store instead of Amazon isn’t really doing much for Amazon’s bottom line, even though I’m just a little drop in the bucket, a trickle in the stream, those drops and trickles add up.

So I’m going to offer a couple of other folks who inspire me and give me hope as we move toward a mighty river of new life.

Pete is a beloved elder and lover of trees. If Pete has a gospel that he preaches – other than the good news of Jesus Christ – it is the Gospel of trees. Is there a community event? Use the opportunity to plant a tree! Is there a neighborhood block party? Plant some trees on the block. His daughter’s wedding: plant a tree to commemorate. Birth of his first grandchild? You guessed it: tree.

From Pete I learned about the Trees for Neighborhoods program in Seattle? Did you know that you can get free trees from the city of Seattle to plant on your property? If you live in Seattle, of course. In this program you can have up to 3 free trees delivered to your property along with a watering bag and mulch; have help choosing the right tree and planting location, training on tree care; assistance applying for street tree planting permits and if physical limitations prevent you from doing the plant, there could be physical assistance as well. 

I don’t have room on my property for more trees otherwise I would 100% have looked into this. 

From Pete, who is one person passionate about trees, who loves planting and caring for and defending trees, I have learned about a systems-level solution to the disappearing tree canopy and a way to make tree-coverage accessible to so many people. 

So, I’m one person. Pete is one person. But there are organizational/community level efforts to renew and restore the earth and water. I’m sure you have examples and ideas. In my neighborhood I can point to Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetland. This project came together because of a group of community residents – people who cared about their neighbors and the land and the water – wanted to make food and environmental education accessible.

They have camps to educate kids about worms and birds and beavers and native plants. They host school groups and cooking classes. They have a community garden and a u-pick and a farm-stand and every year I go there to buy plants for my own garden. These neighbors and activists have literally brought life – in the form of growing things and living creatures – back to the 8-acre site on the south end of Lake Washington.

And speaking of trees and restoration and community coming together, our very own Camp Camrec has also been doing some pretty incredible work in its stewardship of the land. Working with neighbors to do preventive burns, restoring the creek that runs through the property, selectively logging to ensure trees are healthy, and that native species aren’t out-competed. 

That work done with neighbors is meaningful. One camp joins with property owners around it, with community members and land-stewardship organizations and it becomes more powerful. 

Sometimes a rising river is a symbol for overwhelm and devastation. We’ve seen plenty of examples of that in recent years. But for Ezekiel, the River that flows from the temple is full of the goodness of God’s love and restorative care. As the river rises and grows even the barren lifelessness of the Dead Sea is transformed into a thriving ecosystem.

I have been to (and in) the Dead Sea. It is indeed very very Dead. Your toes will not be tickled by sea weed or creeped on by little critters. It’s so salty it feels oily. So salty anyone can float like your on an inflatable raft. And the surrounding landscape is desert. It’s stony and dusty and dry. To imagine that environment crowded with fish and waterlife and the banks shaded by tall trees. It is indeed a miracle. 

It’s the kind of miracle that the prophets call us to inhabit. Each one of us a little drop in the river of life, using our voices, our trowels, our sewing machines. And whatever your particular gift or passion is. I know mine but I can’t necessarily imagine yours. Together we make the River of God that gives new life to the world. 

My final word is a Netflix recommendation. A silly and beautiful and funny and inspiring series call “This is a Gardening Show” hosted by comedian Zach Galafianakis, who is better known for being snarky to politicians and actors between two ferns and being gross on the Bachelor movies. He is in fact an avid gardener who wants to preach that particular gospel and in an interview for the magazine Imagine5 he has this to say:

Is there a possibility of thinking of the future as an Eden and not a technocratic… shithole? I don’t know. But that’s not my job. My job, I think, is to entertain and get a conversation going. You just got to get a thing going! You’ve got to get people interested first, and then come together with all these hard, hard questions. 

And he goes on:

Listen, if this gets a really great conversation going about gardening and greening up spaces… man, that would be a fantasy. My ego is not big enough for that kind of thought. I’m gonna go with, ‘Oh well, this will probably get canceled, it was a nice little run.’ But I do think there are quiet people that agree with this – and a lot more than you think. I think there might be an underground swelling that might happen. I hope.

That underground swelling is also something I believe in. It’s something that Ezekiel envisioned and it’s something that we can continue to be a part of. May our discipleship of Jesus, the first-born of Creation and of God our Creator empower us by the Holy Spirit to be re-creators and part of the river of new life.

And because I have to end with a poem, here is “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

 

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

 

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

 

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

 

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

 

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.