Kindred in Christ,

I hope you are enjoying the welcome of the autumn season as much as I am. The changing of the leaves and the brilliant fall colors filling our Seattle landscapes invite us to pause and remember the beauty and sacredness of creation. Fall always feels like a season of homecoming. Our children return to school, our summer travels come to an end, our church attendance increases, and we fall back into the rhythms that give us grounding and a sense stability. And as we gather the harvest of the season, we are also re-invited into a sense of grounded-ness in our mother earth.

As a follower of Jesus, I find it significant that in some beautiful and mysterious way, Christ became human, and shared something in common with all creation. With the plant, Christ shares life, with the animals, Christ shares sensation, with the stone Christ shares substance, and on and on. Christ reveals our own human interconnection and interdependence with all the earth, if we have eyes to see it, and hearts to embrace it.

As we continue in our autumn series, For the Beauty of the Earth, may we make time for connecting with our sibling creation and remember that we cannot ignore the world and still try to love God. Rather, we must love God through, in, with, and, even because of this world. For this is how God’s love comes to us through the incarnate Christ.

And to help open our hearts fuller to the beauty and mystery of the season, I invite you to meditate on the prayer below by Mirabai Starr, from her book St. Francis: Brother of Creation (Contemplations & Living Wisdom):

Dear God,


You created the world


to serve our needs


and to lead us to you. 

Through our own unconsciousness


we have lost the beautiful relationship


we once had with the rest of creation. 

Help us to see


that by restoring our relationship with you


we will also renew our connection
with all your creation. 

Give us the grace to see


all animals as gifts from you


and to treat them with respect,


for they are your creation. 

We pray for all animals


who are suffering


as a result of our neglect. 

May the order you originally established


be once again restored


to the whole world. . .

Amen.

 

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz