Show Commentary Spring reminds us to treat Earth with care of was a It other the day spring I taw the first welcome sign steam thoveL 1 do not usually wax lyrical over steam shovels as harbingers of spring Maybe ov er the willow by the brook “slipping into her ycliow dress Maybe over robins that “stand as thick today as flakes of snow stood yesterday" But not over steam shovel This steam shovel however was different It was tearing up the Astroturf at the gigantic Ohio State University football stadium and helping to prepare the good Earth for a new planting of real grass It was not only a sign of spring but a sign (if only symbolic) of a return to sanity For the last few decades we have been hard at work building an Astroturf world As Bill McfCibben the former New Yorker writer says in his new book “The End of Nature" an Astroturf world may have a God but “he can’t speak through the grass or even be silent through it and let us hear" We have become worshipers of the great god Dacron “Our hope for years to come" is now placed in chemicals that will grow our food provide our clothing and cure us of our ailments and keep us alive and Goorgo Plagcnz Sctipps Howard Hews Service healthy to age 100 and beyond But if it hasn’t already all this will change our thinking about God We may go on living as we are now but “there will be no one by our side and nobody above us" God may be acting in many other ways but he will not be controlling the Earth We will We will live in a world of our own making that will resemble nothing so much as one big O’Hare airport where the air will be stifling and every nerve raw and where the rain outside will no longer fall of its own accord but only “when the particular mix of chemicals we have injected into the air adds up to rain" The family of raccoons says McKJbbcn will be gone from around the garbage can (“loud shout huzzah” will chorus the clods in our midst) and the sound of frogs will no longer be heard in the land “1 will feel a whole lot better when I hear the frogs" EB While once wrote after he bad come back to his garden patch when the cold of one winter was Calvin We have been on a binge and knew that the Earth couldn’t support it past “We have taken a hammer to the most perfectly proportioned We have built a of sculptures where once there greenhouse bloomed a sweet and wild gar- den" That is McKibben searching for metaphors to explain what we have done to nature — not unthinkingly but thinkingly This is the scandal and this the tragedy — that we have been on a binge as McKibben says and knew that the Earth couldn’t support it His word for this willful destruction is “sad infinitely sad" Can one steam shovel tearing up one small acre of Astroturf so that we might again scatter the good seed on the ground — can this bring back all we have lost? GrondaltfStandard-Exaininn- r No but just perhaps it can recall us to our senses At this time the opening words of the old hymn “Turn Back O Man Forswear Thy Foolish Ways" are particularly appropriate for us Springtime’s renewal of life in nature becomes for us a celebration of all life — including the Earth’s And the concluding verse of the old hymn becomes both hope and promise: “Earth shall be fair nor till that day shall God’s own will be done" Many answers to dilemmas lie within ourselves An elderly gentleman was walking with his young grandson He asked "How Car are we from home?" The boy answered “Grandpa 1 don’t know" The grandfather asked “Well where are you?" Again the boy answered “I don’t know" Then the grandfather said with a smile" “Sounds to me as if you are lost" The young boy looked up at his grandfather and said “Nope 1 can’t be lost I’m with you" No matter what we experience in our life there is no time when we arc truly alone though we may feel that we arc To under- stand that helps us to function in love rather than fear We began life accepting that we were the center of our universe We came into this experience on the love beam That is how we were conceived That essence of God which is the spark behind the physical is our very life It is that essence which makes us more than a physical body — that which is the thinker behind that which is thought We began our experience as April 28 1890 From tho ' a? Puipity1$ Shirley Jones Pastor Ctudi ef JP rkfgtomScwKe Qqfcn most babies do yelling for attention Everybody came when we asked for attention Everybody thought we were cute ' Then some things began to change As we grew we started finding out that we were not the center of the universe Sometimes we were neglected and “they" even dared to yell at us As a matter of fact we began to believe that we weren’t even wanted or worse we were a true disappointment Our world manipulated us into believing we were unworthy we were a disappointment How can we get back to where we felt accepted for who we are? All of us desire that sense of oneness again that we knew as children We can experience that feeling of oneness again and we can do it from right where we are How? When Jesus asked his disciples who did men say he was he was giving us the key to who we are and our relationship to the oneness with God we knew as children Each of us have had placed within us the very essence of God It is that which was recog- nized in Jesus by Peter That is the recognition for which each of us cry — asking that each person recognize that essence of God in us The gods were talking together about the secret of man’s power They were perplexed as to where they could put it so that man would not discover it One said that it should be put on the highest mountain peak Man would never find it there They pondcrcj it for a while then decided that man would eventually climb the mountain and find it One suggested it be placed in the deepest part of the sea They thought of this a while and decided that man would some day travel there They grew silent Then one replied that the best place to put the secret is within man He would not think to look there Each of us ask each other in every moment "Whom do you say that I am?" I am pretending to be the prodigal son (daughter) I am pretending to be unworthy I am pretending to be out of touch with God and the condition known as illness is the cloak that I wear I feel insecure so I tell you that you are not okay I am afraid of lots of things so I pretend that I fear nothing We can choose to set new rules by which we can operate The key to peace of mind — the key to who we are — cannot be found by searching outside ourselves It is found in the peace of knowing that the father and I are one right where I am It is found in the acceptance that God cared so much for each of us that he placed the essence of himself within each of us That is the recognition of the father within How to recognize that presence within? By giving up the belief that: God is outside of )ou that you are your body that you are unworthy and a disappointment by giving up the fear you will be abandoned someday that you can never earn love that someday you will be good enough that there is something — that “right" thing that you must do and when you find out what that is you will be OK This is the truth about you and me: We have all been told that God is love God is love expressing as you and me: we arc more than just a body Start caring for your body as if it is the temple which houses the presence of God give up fear We cannot be abandoned God secs you and me as the spiritual beings that we arc There is no place he is not Life cannot end it can only change form we can never earn love we are love Each of us can return to that state of we had as children when we arc willing to accept that we are loved of God Standard-Examin- er Church Newt 5 A |