July 19 – Sacred Space: The Natural World

At some point, will I stop being surprised by how the Holy Spirit works? I think not. That’s the Holy Spirit’s job, to show up in ways we could never have imagined, to place us in awe and a state of incredulity, our jaws dropping to the floor.

What I’m talking about is how this Sunday is the second service in our series called “Sacred Space,” and how this Sunday we’re exploring the idea of the sacred space of the natural world, and how our text is about the sacredness of the tree of good and evil in the middle of the Garden of Eden, and how, here we are, as I write this, surrounded by the smoke of sacred trees, burning… 

I was in B.C. last week. There’s a lot of trees there – or were. I tried to find an old-growth forest (kind of a bucket-list thing) and I almost got to one – Eden Grove – (there’s the Holy Spirit again), but it was too far up the mountain on a dangerous logging road, too high, too remote, too scary, so my friends and I gave up, but not before taking in the messages left up there by those who had made it their business to save that small grove of old-growth trees. “Defend the Sacred” someone had written in spray paint on a bridge over the Gordon River, and “Mother, forgive me. Thank you. I love you.”  

What are we doing to Mother Earth?

What is sacred?  

How do we respond?

These are the kinds of things we’ll address on Sunday.

To prepare, read Genesis 2:4-9, 15-17 and ponder the following:

1.      How do you know if something is sacred?

2.      Have you ever encountered an old-growth forest? What was your response?