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Scripture Sunday: Psalm 90 and Mountaintop Removal

10/29/2023

by Joe Meinholz

Psalm 90 (NRSVUE)
A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.
Lord, you have been our dwelling place
in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God. You turn us back to dust
and say, “Turn back, you mortals.” For a thousand years in your sight
are like yesterday when it is past
or like a watch in the night. You sweep them away; they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning;
in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers. For we are consumed by your anger;
by your wrath we are overwhelmed. You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your countenance. For all our days pass away under your wrath;
our years come to an end like a sigh. The days of our life are seventy years
or perhaps eighty, if we are strong;
even then their span is only toil and trouble;
they are soon gone, and we fly away. Who considers the power of your anger?
Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you. So teach us to count our days
that we may gain a wise heart. Turn, O Lord! How long?
Have compassion on your servants! Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us
and as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be manifest to your servants
and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us
and prosper for us the work of our hands--
O prosper the work of our hands!

Last Sunday I observed morning worship by my car on a roadside in the place that once was the town of Monson, West Virginia. Today it is the crater of a hollowed out mountaintop, the site of strip-mining for coal. The mountain is blasted away, the town evicted and buried, and only a barren landscape remains, criss-crossed with access roads to active strip-mining further down the horizon. I read Psalms 90 from the crater’s edge, and was both comforted and disturbed. I hope this poetic reflection on the psalm invites you as well into this ambiguous precipice of encounter and pleading.

….
Oh desolation, look at the work of human hands
this blasting, this blasphemy

Before the mountains, you are God
After the mountains, we plead, be our God again
though we quake at what that could mean

Oh dread these human hands have wrought
this machine, this greed, this gnawing hunger devouring hills
this churning and spitting, these boil water advisories
this sucking the delicate thread of life into a shop vac, this “project”

How long, oh God?

….
Not long, children of wrath

A thousand years like a sigh, like a slip off the cliff
these mountains will see your demise and rejoice

Not long, children of toil

Binding lie that the continued humming of the machine keeps us safe
yet from the hollows flows a trickle of doubt, a stream, a slow rusting of chains
in just a few short years, sweet rainfall can rust to vapor every death-machine
and fill our cups to overflowing

Not long, children of trouble.

Old man Moses looked on the promise land
settling into the dust he breathed out blessings, saying,

“May the Lord bless his land
    with the precious dew from heaven above
    and with the deep waters that lie below;
with the best the sun brings forth
    and the finest the moon can yield;
with the choicest gifts of the ancient mountains
    and the fruitfulness of the everlasting hills;”

Not long, children of dust.

….
Oh LORD
the way You use your hands
even here, years after the desolation
Midwife hands, Dancer hands
whirling, writhing,
shaping, squeezing,
swirling, birthing
fashioning, forming
adorning

After the mountains, we plead, with hands lifting up
be our God again

Resources
Photo by Duke Ecotoxicology- https://sites.nicholas.duke.edu/ecotoxicologylab/research/mountaintop-mining/
More information on resistance to mountaintop removal: https://grist.org/article/reece/
Words inspired by the People’s Pastoral Letter Catholic committee of Appalachia: https://www.ccappal.org/pastoral-letters

Joe Meinholz is currently a seminarian at Duke Divinity School. He grew up farming in Ho Chunk land (Southern Wisconsin) and is an aspiring community organizer, pastor, water protector, and lover of Jesus.

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Scripture Sunday: Climate Justice Amid Caesar

10/20/2023

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by Ashtyn Adams

Matthew 22:15-22 (NRSV)
15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. 16 So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one, for you do not regard people with partiality. 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. 20 Then he said to them, “Whose head is this and whose title?” 21 They answered, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” 22 When they heard this, they were amazed, and they left him and went away.

Jesus was a poor Jew. I must remind myself of this essential, historical fact when seeking an interpretive framework for Matthew 22:15-22. It is difficult to cast aside the moral nugget I have heard extracted from this chapter again and again: spanning from a “neutral” position of separation of church and state to a loyal, unquestioned support of the government. Yet, as the Psalm of this week’s lectionary text says, “Sing to the Lord a new song” (Ps 96:1). Jesus’ world was not mine, there was no protection or privilege as a white, middle-class American citizen. He could not have compartmentalized so easily. Nor would it be in his character to placate the powerful. Jesus was part of a minority group under Roman control, with a loss of status and freedom. As Howard Thurman (leading Black American theologian, mystic, and activist of the 20th century) in Jesus and the Disinherited has pointed out, it is “utterly fantastic to assume that Jesus grew to manhood untouched by the surging currents of common life that made up the climate of Palestine.” Here, one of those key currents is on display, the question of Roman taxation. It is ultimately a question of the disinherited, “under what terms is survival possible?” Survival not just in physical terms, but culturally, how to exist as an isolated, faithful unit amid the Hellenized world. Rome was everywhere, and the urgent question of Jewish attitude towards Rome fell into the general categories of resistance or assimilation.

Within chapter 15 of Matthew, the Herodians represent the position of assimilation. They were followers of King Herod, who forfeited signs of Jewishness to the dominant Roman group, and sought to restore a Herod to the throne in Judea. The Pharisees are also present in the text, who, in contrast, strictly maintained their Jewish identity and customs and sought to restore the kingdom of David. Yet, they took no stance of active resistance against Rome, merely held them in contempt. Aware of the lively debate, the Herodians and Pharisees try to entrap Jesus with the question, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” The coinage brought out in the story would not only bear the emperor's face but also the title of divinity. Jesus’ response to give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God’s brings to the surface the question of lordship. I think Jesus’ response was one which held up a mirror to both groups, whom he calls “hypocrites,” and can hold one up to us as well in the Anthropocene.

What belongs to Tiberius Caesar, an emperor divinizing himself, is supposed to be a claim on everything. Yet, as this week’s Psalm reminds us, God is “above all gods,” and to be revered among “all the earth.” Jesus does not deny the reality of human institutions and our involvement in them, for even the Pharisees who regarded the Roman empire as unjust and idolatrous still used Roman coins. We too are caught up in systems we often wish we weren’t. Despite decrying environmental degradation, I am not innocent and contribute to it daily. Yet, there remains the question of giving to God what is God’s. And what is God’s except everything: our praise, speech, songs, actions, and advocacy among the nations (Ps 96:10).

Jesus’ response to give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God’s brings to the surface the question of lordship. I think Jesus’ response was one which held up a mirror to both groups, whom he calls “hypocrites,” and can hold one up to us as well in the Anthropocene.

How we engage and work for justice in the affairs of the world will undoubtedly bring us into conflict with the powers and structures of Empire. Jesus never established a sense of well-being based on civil guarantees though. Living in the system while trying to challenge the system required the Gospel message, that “the Kingdom of God is within,” that Jesus came to preach the good news to the poor, to proclaim the release of captives, to recover the site of the blind, to set the oppressed free (Luke 4:18). Today, if we believe that we follow a living God, there is no good news to the poor that does not include climate justice, since the poor are the first to face the consequences of extreme weather patterns, unclean air and harmful food. The land can also be categorized as one among the oppressed, facing violent agricultural and living practices. These transgressions are of Caesar. Our American gods lure us into more consumption, more greed, more hostility, more colonizing attitudes. They demand we pay tribute to them, and we often do. Yet, I believe the dualism of church and state and religion and politics, which is often read into this text, is mute. Jesus challenges us to see God as all in all, to see the futility of Caesar and how caught up we are in the logic of Empire. As Thurman so poignantly concluded in his chapter Jesus–An Interpretation, “The basic principles of his way of life cut straight to the despair of his fellows and found it groundless. By inference, he says, ‘You must abandon your fear of each other and fear only God. You must not indulge in any deception and dishonesty, even to save your lives. Your words must be Yea-Nay; anything else is evil. Hatred is destructive to hated and hater alike. Love your enemy, that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven.”

Ashtyn Adams is a Seminary Intern at Creation Justice Ministries. Ashtyn earned her B.A. in Religion from Pepperdine University and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Divinity at Duke University.

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Scripture Sunday: Creation's Proclamation

10/8/2023

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by Ashtyn Adams

Psalm 19 (NRSV)
1 The heavens are telling the glory of God,
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours forth speech,
and night to night declares knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words;
their voice is not heard;
4 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,
5 which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy,
and like a strong man runs its course with joy.
6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens
and its circuit to the end of them,
and nothing is hid from its heat.
7 The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the decrees of the Lord are sure,
making wise the simple;
8 the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is clear,
enlightening the eyes;
9 the fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever;
the ordinances of the Lord are true
and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
12 But who can detect one’s own errors?
Clear me from hidden faults.
13 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.
14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable to you,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

On matters of race and sex, James Cone (father of black liberation theology) says that the dominant, western, male theological tradition, represented by thinkers like Karl Barth, is much too limiting to speak about God and serves as a grossly inadequate resource for discerning who God is or what God is doing in the world. While Barth has some worthwhile insights, I believe Cone’s critique should be endorsed and extended to matters of creation. Barth has a commentary on Psalm 19, taking issue with what is called “natural theology.” Natural theology makes philosophical arguments about God independent of divine revelation, from the natural or purely intellectual order of the world. Saint Thomas Aquinas, for example, argues that the existence of God can be deduced from self-evident principles, my favorite being his section on motion and God as the primary mover. When examining Psalm 19, Barth interprets the second stanza as a supersession of the first stanza in the poem, meaning that Torah, or revelatory knowledge, is the only legitimate and reliable way to know God. Barth’s resolute “Nein!” (No!) to natural knowledge is an error I see echoed throughout protestant thought, which has championed an apathy towards creation, something we cannot afford in the Anthropocene. Benjamin D. Sommer at Harvard Divinity School has argued for a reading of Psalm 19 supported by medieval Jewish thinkers, like Nahmanides and Bahya ben Asher, as well as by the Catholic, particularly Toman tradition, which argues that revelation and grace deepen what reason knows. I find Sommer’s observations a more faithful and honest reading of the text, compelling me to, with equal force, push back against Barth’s commentary. If we resist the urge to clip Scripture’s wings, it always has a way of confronting us sharply and unexpectedly, nuancing and enlarging our perspective on the divine.

If we resist the urge to clip Scripture’s wings, it always has a way of confronting us sharply and unexpectedly, nuancing and enlarging our perspective on the divine.

Psalm 19 demonstrates a radical integrity within the created world. It begins with the declaration that creation has something to say, the heavens tell the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims Her handiwork. This speech is no mere drizzle, but a mighty pour (v. 2). Yet, as soon as this earthly intelligence is affirmed, the Psalmist says: “their voice is not heard, yet their voice goes out through all the Earth, and their words to the end of the world” (v. 4). While literal verbal phrases may not be uttered, the communicative power of the Earth has no limits and cannot be contained. Whether we acknowledge it or not, the voice goes out. Our dismissal of the message-bearing value of creation is a tragedy. The point is underscored in the Book of Job: “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you” (Job 12:7-8). There is a dialogical potential inherent in creation if we approach it with wonder and curiosity, awe and amazement. God is described in the psalm as preparing a tent for the sun, bestowing it with the dignity of a bridegroom. In the words of Colin Guton, “God remains in close relations of interaction with the creation, but in such a way that he makes it free to be itself.” We do not treasure creation in this divine way nor give it such freedom but are quick to use, abuse, and discard it as though it existed for our consumption.

The second stanza of Psalm 19 moves to talk about the law of Yahweh. We hear the beautiful lines that the ordinances of the Lord are more desirable than gold, “sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb” (v. 10). God not only makes Herself known through the glory proclaimed by the Earth but through the specific liberating and self-disclosing acts in history. In the first stanza, the Hebrew word El is used, which means “god.” However, in the second stanza, Yahweh, God’s personal name is used. The psalm moves from distance to relationship, from the universal to the particular, from God as object to God as subject. Sommer writes, “from observing nature, then, one knows about God. From observing the terms of God’s covenant, one begins not just to know about God but to know God.” Knowledge that comes from nature is valid and to be respected, but it is also limited. The Torah supplements this knowledge, without superseding it. It is a double movement of us turning to creation and God turning to humanity, in which we are called to ethical action. This second stanza adds something new and valuable to the first, what is called “intensification” in poetry. The world ought to be viewed as sacramental, with a God who acts in history as the loving and liberative power known through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jesus. The life of faith becomes complete when these two forms of knowing are held together. God is both “rock” and “redeemer” (v. 14).

Psalm 19 reminds us that creation is worthy of our attention and study. It is a gift not only in what it provides, but in what it communicates and teaches. The Psalmist closes with the petition to God, “But who can detect one’s own errors? Clear me from hidden faults” (v. 12). Our hidden faults are visible in our violence towards the Earth. Let the meditations of our hearts be ones that mimic the divine respect, pleasure, and delight in the creation.

Our hidden faults are visible in our violence towards the Earth. Let the meditations of our hearts be ones that mimic the divine respect, pleasure, and delight in the creation.

Resources
Articles:
Sommer, B. (2015). Nature, Revelation, and Grace in Psalm 19: Towards a Theological Reading of Scripture. Harvard Theological Review, 108(3), 376-401.

Ashtyn Adams is a Seminary Intern at Creation Justice Ministries. Ashtyn earned her B.A. in Religion from Pepperdine University and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Divinity at Duke University.

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Scripture Sunday

10/1/2023

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by Ashtyn Adams

Philippians 2:1-13 (NRSV)
If, then, there is any comfort in Christ, any consolation from love, any partnership in the Spirit, any tender affection and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others. 5 Let the same mind be in you that was[a] in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, assuming human likeness. And being found in appearance as a human, 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God exalted him even more highly and gave him the name that is above every other name, 10 so that at the name given to Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 12 Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence but much more now in my absence, work on your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

We live in a world seemingly governed by competition and scarcity. Competition among individuals rather than cooperation among groups is our norm, perhaps we would even use the word “natural.” Part of this inheritance comes to us from Darwin, who formed a picture of ecology based on the key concepts of fitness and survival of the fittest. While his contribution in the field is unquestionably valuable, it is nevertheless an interpretive framework, which has seeped its way into other educational disciplines. For example, Adam Smith’s vision of economy is remarkably similar, presupposing that individuals operate to maximize self-interest. Darwin could have shifted focus in his observations and presuppositions though. Indigenous peoples, whose survival depends on detailed observation and analysis of the world around them, have understood the drive to “survive” as one to “thrive,” each individual deeply embedded in a world governed by and dependent on kinship and generosity.

Marilynne Robinson has noted that Darwinian thought as a worldview is “too small and rigid to accommodate anything remotely like the world,” since it makes no room for the soul or the virtue of charity. Our inability to escape this mode of thinking has led to imperial conquest, indigenous genocide, pollution, and the disastrous, slow violence of environmental degradation.

Euro-Western Christians have historically lost sight of a theology of creation when talking about Jesus, despite Scripture and the early Church creeds affirming the Son as “of one substance with the Father, through Whom all things came into existence.” The Christian doctrine of creation ex nihilo, creation out of nothing, is essentially a statement that the material world is a freely donated, loving gift of the Triune God. We are never separated from the whole because each living and nonliving thing, whether stationary or in motion, exists and has its being precisely because God’s spirit animates it; God loves every person and tree into existence. All things are logoi which participate, according to their appropriate manner, in the divine Logos. When Jesus, that Logos, the creative Word becomes flesh, the line between divine and human is transgressed and the chasm between Creator and creature is bridged. To abide in Christ, to be of one mind with Christ in the words of Paul, is ultimately to take on his way of being in the world, which is one of radical intimacy, reconciliation, and liberation for the entire whole.

To abide in Christ, to be of one mind with Christ in the words of Paul, is ultimately to take on his way of being in the world, which is one of radical intimacy, reconciliation, and liberation for the entire whole.

Norman Wirzba has noted, as have many other theologians, the high calling of Christians to become agents of the Spirit’s work of healing and celebration. This partnership with the Spirit is the cosmic movement of us creatures, along with the rest of creation, moving in and with the divine Logos. Paul’s words are as daring as ever to our modern ears, requiring us to abandon our current cultural lens to see every creature and part of creation in a new unified way. Will we not look to our own interests but those of the climate refugee? How might we empty ourselves so the more than human world can thrive? These are the questions of salvation and deliverance that we must work out in fear and trembling; however, we do so with the hope and assurance that we are not alone in the endeavor, but enabled by the Creator God who herself goes before us.

Will we not look to our own interests but those of the climate refugee? How might we empty ourselves so the more than human world can thrive?

Resources
Articles:
Wirzba, N. (2016), Christian Theoria Physike: On Learning to See Creation. Modern Theology, 32: 211-230.

Ashtyn Adams is a Seminary Intern at Creation Justice Ministries. Ashtyn earned her B.A. in Religion from Pepperdine University and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Divinity at Duke University.

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Scripture Sunday: Psalm 90 and Mountaintop Removal

Scripture Sunday: Climate Justice Amid Caesar

Scripture Sunday: Creation's Proclamation

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