Updated July, 2024
The Albany Synod of the Reformed Church in America (RCA) presented a conference in October, 1994, entitled "The Earth Is the Lord's: A Creation Celebration." The conference began Friday evening with a worship service, and continued all day Saturday with an address by Loren Wilkinson, several workshops, and three worship times—morning, noon, and afternoon. Rev. John Paarlberg, who at that time, worked for the Office for Social Witness of the RCA, prepared the four worship services.
The Friday evening worship set the theme of the services. For the Saturday services, Paarlberg took the theme from the first line of Brian Wren's hymn: "Thank You, God, for Water, Soil, and Air."
CREATION CELEBRATION
Please be in prayerful silence in preparation for worship.
The First Account of Creation: A reading from Genesis 1:1-2:3
[The service began in darkness and silence. As the reading of Genesis 1 began, slides were projected on a screen to coordinate with the reading. The account from Genesis 1 was read by seven readers, one for each day of creation. Each day followed the same structure: the reading from Genesis 1 followed by Psalm 148: "Let them praise the name of the LORD, who commanded, and they were created." After each day, a soloist sang a short refrain of praise. An example of such a refrain could be the "Hallelujah" found on page 985 of Psalms for All Seasons.]
Reader 1: When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
All Readers: Let them praise the name of the LORD, who commanded, and they were created.
Sung Refrain of Praise
Reader 2: And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
All Readers: Let them praise the name of the LORD, who commanded, and they were created.
Sung Refrain of Praise
Reader 3: And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
All Readers: Let them praise the name of the LORD, who commanded, and they were created.
Sung Refrain of Praise
Reader 4: And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
All Readers: Let them praise the name of the LORD, who commanded, and they were created.
Sung Refrain of Praise
Reader 5: And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
All Readers: Let them praise the name of the LORD, who commanded, and they were created.
Sung Refrain of Praise
Reader 6: And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind and the cattle of every kind and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the wild animals of the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
So God created humans in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
All Readers: Let them praise the name of the LORD, who commanded, and they were created.
Sung Refrain of Praise
Reader 7: Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all their multitude. On the sixth day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.
All Readers: Let them praise the name of the LORD, who commanded, and they were created.
Sung Refrain of Praise
Singing of Psalm 148
Psalm Prayer
God Most High,
by your Word you created a
wondrous universe,
and through your Spirit
you breathed into it the breath of life.
Accept creation's hymn of praise from our lips,
and let the praise that is sung in heaven resound
in the heart of every creature on earth,
to the glory of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit, now and forever.
Amen.
Anthem: "In the Beginning" Lam, Wiersma (sung by children's choir)
Message
[The message was narrated with projected images and is not available.]
Anthem: "All Things Bright and Beautiful" Alexander (sung by children's choir)
A Litany for Creation with Sung Refrain
[Here there was a poetic reading of Brain Wren's hymn "Thank You, God, for Water, Soil and Air" Wren. Every stanza was read by two readers, each taking two lines, followed by everyone singing a refrain. One option is to use the line “Holy Spirit rest upon us, teach us how to tend to creation” from “Lord Have Mercy” Zach, Bluett, Alattas, from Porter’s Gate’s Album, Climate Vigil.]
Hymn: “Lord Have Mercy” Zach, Bluett, Alattas
or "God in His Love for Us Lent Us This Planet" Pratt Green
Charge and Blessing
Week Two: THANK YOU, GOD, FOR WATER
Prelude
[The prelude consisted of a recording of actual water sounds that continued during the Call to Worship.]
Call to Worship: Psalm 29
Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name;
worship the Lord in holy splendor.
The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the Lord, over mighty waters.
The voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes Lebanon skip like a calf
and Sirion like a young wild ox.
The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
The voice of the Lord causes the oaks to whirl
and strips the forest bare,
and in his temple all say, “Glory!”
The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;
the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.
May the Lord give strength to his people!
May the Lord bless his people with peace!
Hymn: "We Sing the Mighty Power of God" Watts
Prayer
Creator God,
whose Spirit moved over the faces of the waters,
who gathers the sea into their places,
and directs the courses of the rivers,
who sends rain upon the earth
that it should bring forth life:
we praise you for the gift of water.
Create in us
such a sense of wonder and delight
in this and all your gifts,
that we might receive them with gratitude,
care for them with love,
and generously share them
with all your creatures
to the honor and glory of your holy name.
Amen.
Scripture: Psalm 65
Sermon: "Water Music"
"If there is magic on this planet it is contained in water," writes Loren Eiseley in The Immense Journey. "Its least stir even, as now in a rain pond on a flat roof opposite my office, is enough to bring me searching to the window. A wind ripple may be translating itself into life."
And who hasn't shared Eiseley's fascination with water? Splashing in a puddle as a child; standing with awe before some thundering Niagara; letting the gentle lapping of waves on a beach soothe the soul and calm the mind; peering, with bated breath, through the dappled and rippling reflections of a mountain stream, trying to discern a trout rising to a fly.
What would our world be like without water? It's a stupid question of course. There would be no one here to ask the question if there were no water.
Eiseley, who was a paleontologist, goes on to tell how, while doing scientific investigations along the Platte Paver in western Nebraska, he suddenly had the urge to wade into the river and float with the current. The Platte begins its journey high in the mountains of Colorado, crosses the plains of Nebraska, joins the Missouri and then the Mississippi, and eventually empties into the Gulf of Mexico. Eiseley tells of feeling the cold needles of the alpine springs at his fingertips and the warmth of the Gulf pulling him southward as he floated with the current.
"I was water", he writes, "and the unspeakable alchemies that gestate and take shape in water, the slimy jellies that under the enormous magnification of the sun writhe and whip upward as great barbeled fish mouths, or sink indistinctly back into the murk out of which they arose. Turtle and fish and the pinpoint chirpings of individual frogs are all watery projections, concentrations—as we ourselves are concentrations—of that indescribable and liquid brew which is compounded in varying proportions of salt and sun and time. It has appearances, but at its heart lies water, and as I was finally edged gently against a sand bar and dropped like any log, I tottered as I rose. I knew once more the body's revolt against the emergence into the harsh and unsupporting air, its reluctance to break contact with that mother element which still, at this late point in time, shelters and brings into being nine-tenths of everything alive."
The ancient Hebrews got it right long ago: "The Spirit of God moved over the face the waters." And the Spirit of God still moves over the waters—over, under, in, through, and amidst the waters—as the Spirit moves and enlivens all of creation. And the ancient Hebrews had it right again: "God said, 'Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures. . . .'" And you can almost see them come, bubbling out of that precious liquid, the home of so much incredible, diverse, wonderful life.
So the next time you
dip a canoe paddle into a lake,
or cast a fly to a rising trout,
or step into the shower,
or bend your head toward a drinking fountain,
or watch the rain fall softly on the grass,
or shed a tear,
or contemplate the incredible liquids
now coursing through your own body,
or abandon all dignity,
strip yourself naked,
wade into a river and go with the flow,
then by all means give thanks to God
for the gift of water.
Psalter: Psalm 104 (NRSV)
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
O Lord my God, you are very great.
You are clothed with honor and majesty,
wrapped in light as with a garment.
You stretch out the heavens like a tent;
you set the beams of your chambers on the waters;
you make the clouds your chariot;
you ride on the wings of the wind;
you make the winds your messengers,
fire and flame your ministers.
You set the earth on its foundations,
so that it shall never be shaken.
You cover it with the deep as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
At your rebuke they flee;
at the sound of your thunder they take to flight.
They rose up to the mountains, ran down to the valleys,
to the place that you appointed for them.
You set a boundary that they may not pass,
so that they might not again cover the earth.
You make springs gush forth in the valleys;
they flow between the hills,
giving drink to every wild animal;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
By the streams the birds of the air have their habitation;
they sing among the branches.
From your lofty abode you water the mountains;
the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
You cause the grass to grow for the cattle
and plants for people to cultivate,
to bring forth food from the earth
and wine to gladden the human heart,
oil to make the face shine
and bread to strengthen the human heart.
The trees of the field are watered abundantly,
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
In them the birds build their nests;
the stork has its home in the fir trees.
The high mountains are for the wild goats;
the rocks are a refuge for the coneys.
You have made the moon to mark the seasons;
the sun knows its time for setting.
You make darkness, and it is night,
when all the animals of the forest come creeping out.
The young lions roar for their prey,
seeking their food from God.
When the sun rises, they withdraw
and lie down in their dens.
People go out to their work
and to their labor until the evening.
O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
There is the sea, great and wide;
creeping things innumerable are there,
living things both small and great.
There go the ships
and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it.
These all look to you
to give them their food in due season;
when you give to them,
they gather it up;
when you open your hand,
they are filled with good things.
When you hide your face,
they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath,
they die and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit,
they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.
May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works—
who looks on the earth and it trembles,
who touches the mountains and they smoke.
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
May my meditation be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the Lord.
Let sinners be consumed from the earth,
and let the wicked be no more.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
Praise the Lord!
Canticle of Creation: "All Creatures of Our God and King" st. 1,3 Assisi
[Each of the remaining brief services included two stanzas from "All Creatures of Our God and King," the hymn based on the "Canticle of Creation" written so long ago by St. Francis of Assisi. The first stanza was followed in turn by the stanzas dealing with water, earth, and air.]
Prayer
Week Three: THANK YOU, GOD, FOR SOIL
Call to Worship: Psalm 95
Hymn: "Joy to the World!" Watts
Prayer:
Creator God,
who lifted up the mountains
and formed the dry land,
whose hands have shaped us
out of the dust of the earth,
who has formed the soils and made this earth
a place of beauty and abundance:
we give you thanks for the gift of soil.
Create in us
such a sense of wonder and delight
in this and all your gifts,
that we might receive them with gratitude,
care for them with love,
and generously share them
with all your creatures,
to the honor and glory of your holy name.
Amen.
Scripture: Leviticus 25:1-7, 18-24
Sermon: "Earth Tones"
We all know Charles Darwin as the nineteenth-century scientist who wrote The Origin of Species and proposed the theory of evolution. But do you also know that Darwin spent forty-four years of his life, on and off, studying earthworms? He was fascinated by them. He kept them in jars in his apartment. He and some of his contemporaries calculated that on average there were 53,767 earthworms in each acre of land. In many parts of England, he figured, the worm population swallowed and brought up 10 tons of earth each year on each acre of land. Earthworms were not only creating the planet's thin layer of fertile soil; they were constantly turning it inside out. They were burying old Roman ruins; they were causing the monuments of Stonehenge to tilt and topple. Darwin (in a marvelous understatement) concluded: "Worms have played a more important part in the history of the world than most persons would at first suppose."
And earthworms are by no means the only fascinating creatures beneath our feet.
Charles Kingsley once wrote to a friend whom he was planning to visit. "Don't be anxious to entertain me," he said. "Put me down under any hedgerow and in two square yards of mother earth I can find mystery enough to keep me occupied for all the time I stay with you." But we do not need even two square yards of earth; much less will do:
In the top inch of forest soil, biologists found an average of 1,356 living creatures ... including 865 mites, 265 springtails, 22 millipedes, 29 adult beetles and various numbers of twelve other forms. . . . Had an estimate also been made of the microscopic population, it might have ranged up to two billion bacteria and many millions of fungi, protozoa and algae—in a mere teaspoonful of soil.
—Elizabeth Achterneier, Nature, Cod and Pulpit
These creatures are not only fascinating, they are creatures whose lives sustain so many other lives on this planet, including our own. Harvard entomologist E. O. Wilson reminds us: "The very soils of the world are created by organisms. Plant roots shatter rocks to form much of the grit and pebbles of the basic substrate. But soils are much more than fragmented rock. They are complete ecosystems with vast arrays of plants, tiny animals, fungi, and microorganisms assembled in delicate balance, circulating nutrients in the form of solutions and tiny particles. A healthy soil literally breathes and moves (The Diversity of Life, p. 308).
"Let everything that breathes, praise the Lord," said the psalmist. Which means that the very soils beneath our feet are, in their own way, choirs of creatures singing their insect hymns, microbial chants, and fungal anthems in praise to the God who made them.
And how dependent, how absolutely dependent we are upon these creatures! They could live very well without us, but we would perish without them. Last spring I was digging in the garden with my son. I picked up a handful of soil and held it up and said, "Look, David, everything you are or ever will be; all the books that you will ever read, all the music and art in the world, your teachers, your family, your friends—it all depends on this.
Gary Paulsen said it even more vividly:
Everything we are, all that we can ever be, all the Einsteins and babies and love and hate, all the joy and sadness and sex and wanting and liking and disliking, all the soft summer breezes on cheeks and first snowflakes, all the Van Goghs and Rembrandts and Mozarts and Mahlers and Thomas Jeffersons and Lincolns and Ghandis ... , all the Cleopatras and lovemaking and riches and achievements and progress, all of that, every single... thing that we are or ever will be is dependent on six inches of topsoil and the fact that the rain comes when it's needed and does not come when it's not needed; everything, every ... single ... thing comes with that...
—Gary Paulsen, Clabbered Dirt, Sweet Grass
What a wonderful, precious gift is the soil beneath our feet! And how good it is to know that ours is a God who loves and cares for the soil. "The land that you are crossing over to occupy," says Deuteronomy, "is a land of hills and valleys, watered by rain from the sky, a land that the Lord your God looks after. The eyes of the Lord are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year."
You and I are not able to keep our eyes always on the soil—but I hope we can hold it close to our hearts. May we learn to love and to care for the land, as our Creator loves and cares for it. And may we never forget to give thanks for this very precious gift.
Psalter: Psalm 104
[See the litany from week 2.]
Canticle of Creation: "All Creatures of Our God and King" st. 1,4 Assisi
Prayer
Week Four: THANK YOU, GOD, FOR AIR
Call to Worship: Psalm 19, arranged for three voices
The heavens are telling the glory of God,
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours forth speech,
and night to night declares knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words;
their voice is not heard;
yet their voice goes out through all the earth
and their words to the end of the world.
In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun,
which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy,
and like a strong man runs its course with joy.
Its rising is from the end of the heavens
and its circuit to the end of them,
and nothing is hid from its heat.
The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the decrees of the Lord are sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is clear,
enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever;
the ordinances of the Lord are true
and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
But who can detect one’s own errors?
Clear me from hidden faults.
Keep back your servant also from the insolent;
do not let them have dominion over me.
Then I shall be blameless
and innocent of great transgression.
All Voices: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable to you,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
Canticle of Creation: "All Creatures of Our God and King" st. 1,2 Assisi
Psalter: Psalm 104
[See the litany in week 2.]
Prayer
Creator God,
who sets the stars in their places
and directs the courses of the planets,
who has robed this earth
with a thin garment of air,
making it a haven of beauty and life,
who has breathed into each of us
the breath of life:
we thank you for the gift of air.
Create in us
such a sense of wonder and delight
in this and in all your gifts,
that we might
receive them with gratitude,
care for them with love,
and generously share them
with all your creatures,
to the honor and glory of your holy name.
Amen.
Scripture: Job 38:1-13, 19-21, 31-36
Sermon: "Air for a Planet"
"Wild air, world-mothering air
Nestling me everywhere
That each eyelash or hair
Girdles; goes home betwixt
the fleeciest, frailest-flixed
Snowflake; that's fairly mixed
With, riddles, and is rife
In every least thing's life;
This needful, never spent,
And nursing element;
My more than meat and drink,
My meal at every wink;...
I say that we are wound
With mercy round and round
as if with air...."
—Gerard Manley Hopkins, "The Blessed Virgin Compared to the Air We Breathe"
Air is one of the gifts of God we most easily and most readily take for granted. You and I have taken a breath hundreds of times today. Yet few, if any of us, have given it a thought. In the Old Testament creation story it is the breath of God breathed into the nostrils of man that gave him life. But humankind is not unique on that score. According to the Old Testament everything that breathes, breathes by the Spirit of God. "When you send forth your Spirit (your breath), they are created" (Ps. 104). Job speaks of having the Spirit of God in his nostrils (Job 27:3). Elizabeth Achtemeier reminds us "As you [hear] these words your lungs are being sustained in their regular pumping by God's breath which keeps you alive" {Nature, God and Pulpit). That is a pretty awesome and wonderful way of thinking about breathing. And that kind of thinking prompted Joseph Sittler to write: "Reason says that destroying clean air is impractical; faith ought to say it is blasphemous."
Think for a few moments about the gift of air. High in the atmosphere is a thin layer of ozone. So thin that if one were to collect all this gas and place at sea level pressure and at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, it would be only enough to form a one-eighth-inch-thick envelope around the earth (Calvin DeWitt, Earth-Wise, p. 15). This thin layer of ozone allows the warmth of the sun to reach the earth but filters out much of the sun's harmful ultra-violet radiation— radiation which otherwise would break chemical bonds, break molecules apart, cause living tissue to be destroyed, and cause changes in DNA, the "language of life," as someone has called it. Without that thin layer of ozone the earth would likely be a burned and lifeless piece of rock.
Not quite so high in the atmosphere, up to six or seven miles above the earth, are the gases of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide and others. Those gases, especially carbon dioxide, allow light and heat from the sun to reach the earth, but trap some of that heat which would otherwise be radiated out into space. Without that six miles of atmosphere, the earth would be a cold and lifeless piece of rock.
Bill McKibben reminds us that six or seven miles is not a great distance. If you took that six miles of atmosphere and laid it on its side, you could walk the distance in an hour and a half. It's a twenty-five-minute bicycle ride. "Into that tight space and the layer of ozone just above it is all that is life and all that maintains life" (The End of Nature).
Does that give us a sense of how precious and how wonderful is the gift of air?
A Litany for Creation
[See week one.]
Hymn: "God Who Stretched the Spangled Heavens" Cameron
Charge and Blessing