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10 Thoughts from Giving Two Sermons

Nathan Aaberg —  October 31, 2021 — 2 Comments

Earlier this month I gave two sermons in joint services for two congregations on our Christian calling to be good shepherds of God’s Creation. What was that like? What did I learn? I share my thoughts below:

1. Sharing Whole Faith Ideas in Sermons and Discussions Was Great: I gave the first sermon in a hybrid service with some people present in the space North Suburban Mennonite Church rents out and with some people, including the Christ Community Mennonite Church of Schaumburg, attending by Zoom. I decided to speak in person. And I’m glad I did. Making eye contact as I spoke, I noticed that many people were engaged with the message. That did my heart good, especially in this time of covid. Those unspoken responses and the positive energy during the discussion that followed the service were immensely rewarding.

This blog has been an act of faith. The years of working on it, I realize, have enabled me to crystallize convictions and insights that I’ve hoped to be able to share. I am deeply grateful to both congregations for giving me the chance to do that. I’m especially grateful to North Suburban Mennonite Church, which has always warmly welcomed my family and me in the years that we have known them.

2. Importance of Rooting Principles and Ideas in the Bible: In the first sermon, which was the opening sermon for the Creation Care series, I shared a number of Scripture verses. In the second, I shared several more at the beginning and used an additional verse midway through. I did this to highlight one of my key points – if you are paying attention, you will find that the Bible makes clear that Creation matters to God.

That Creation matters is both very conservative and very radical. It is conservative because it takes the whole Bible seriously.

Believing that Creation matters and living out those convictions are, simultaneously, very radical. Most humans throughout history have taken Creation for granted and used it for their purposes without regard to Creation’s wellbeing. To live and advocate for a different worldview, a Biblical worldview, puts a Christian on a collision course with the human powers that be. Our economy and civilization are built on mining and extracting wealth from Creation without regard to Creation’s own prosperity. To live as if Creation matters to God also runs counter to centuries of Christian disregard for Creation in theology and church life. In short, the Christian advocate for Creation is a human monkey wrench in the secular economy and in traditional Christian culture.

Most radical of all, loving God and loving our neighbors by preserving Creation means a Christian approach to economic activity would involve restraint and limits. Our American culture celebrates freedom above all else. Calling for restraint and limits to protect and prosper the wellbeing of the whole Creation is, in our setting, supremely radical. It is radical even as it honors God and leads us on the path to true wealth.

Is God our treasure or is treasure our treasure? How we treat Creation answers that question.

3. Several Insights Seemed Especially to Resonate: I made a point to talk about what a Biblical perspective on human exceptionalism really is. I also called attention to the cross and the crucifixion. The cross, as I’ve written, was a tree. It now lives as a symbol for the Christian faith. And in its “symbolness” we no longer see that it was a tree. When we don’t see it as a tree, we don’t see the crucifixion as a pivotal moment involving God, Creation, and humanity. These insights seemed to resonate.

4. Speaking is Very Different from Writing: This is likely not news! While I certainly have developed ways of thinking and expressing the insights I’ve had (and been given), they have mostly been in written form. I did not want to just read a sermon so my brain and tongue needed to figure out how to articulate in spoken words what I had spent so much time writing in my blog posts. I need more practice doing this.

5. So Much More to Say: Two 25-minute sermons were not nearly enough (at least for me). There is so much to say about the Bible, Creation, and how we should be trying to live with it and prosper it. My major challenge in planning both was choosing what not to include in order to give a cohesive and focused talk. I’m ready to write a book and/or develop a podcast.

6. The Challenge of a Diverse Audience: I came to appreciate the challenge of speaking to a diverse group of people. From the discussions that followed the services, it was clear that members were at different places in their thinking about their lives and Creation. How does one introduce ideas and theology that are new to some and that are standard operating practice for others? I did not want to overwhelm the first group. Nor did I want to seem to be soft-pedaling the issues the second group is acutely aware of and has made significant life changes in response to.

7. Is There Hope?: The question of what kind of hope there is for God’s Creation is a fraught one. It comes up, directly and indirectly, in almost every conversation.

The truth is that the scale of the problems for Creation is immense, and many trends are negative. Just one example – I shared information in my second sermon from the Environmental Working Group about the metastizing of factory farms across the Iowa landscape. In 1990 there were 789 factory farms (Confined Animal Feeding Operations in industry parlance), where at least 1,000 animals are kept. In 2019, the figure was 3,963. Animal waste from these factory farms is now estimated to be 68 billion pounds per year. Human waste from the 3.15 million human residents of the state is estimated to be 1 billion pounds. Unlike the animal waste, the human waste is treated. Every new factory farm means more animal suffering, more misery for neighbors, more overuse of antibiotics, more degradation of the streams and rivers of Iowa, and poorer quality food.

This is just a small example of the forces at work in our world. I haven’t even mentioned climate change and how populations of unique species of Creation are shrinking and even winking out at a growing rate.

In my second sermon, I noted that the declining condition of God’s earth is a symptom of system problems. So restoring health to God’s earth will not come about just from families recycling and making more God-honoring food choices, although those are important.  It will take changes to systems. And system change is challenging at a whole different level.

Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, a Christian climate scientist, is a wonderful voice of hope, as you can hear in this interview. Yet, as appealing her positivity is, I believe she underestimates how structural, cultural, and even theological our issues are.

Where am I? I have ultimate hope most days. I am committed to doing what I can here and now. Simultaneously, on many days, I perceive what has been lost and what is on the verge of being lost. My heart sinks into lament and despair. Yet, I know God is a creative, surprisng God. And God’s earth can surprise us with its resilience. I don’t know how to tie up all those threads I feel and think. The neatness and tidiness of “hope” doesn’t seem to capture them all.

8. Food and Farming – The 20% of the 80/20 Rule?: The Pareto principle says that in most human endeavors approximately 80% of the results come from 20% of the activities or factors involved. As an example, for many non-profit organizations, a large percentage of donation incomes will come from a relatively small number of donors. So when we think about where to focus Christian commitment to living out a whole faith that includes Creation, it makes sense to figure out what is the pivotal 20%.

While decisions about energy, landscaping, and simplifying are also important, I would ultimately choose food and farming. This was why I chose to focus the second sermon on food and farming and invited Bryce and Jen Riemer to be part of the discussion after that service.

One reason is impact-related – approximately 50% of the world’s terrestrial surface is used for growing food. We eat multiple times a day. And each time we eat we are choosing the kind of farm system our brothers and sisters experience and how God’s earth is treated. What’s more – choosing to eat with love and consciousness for God, God’s Creation, and our neighbors is good for our health and a spiritual discipline.

The challenge, of course, is that in a community of farmers making judgements about what kind of food is congruent with the God of the Bible and what isn’t gets personal and controversial very quick. And, oftentimes, more God-honoring ways of raising food are more complex and time-consuming and are not subsidized by the U.S. government. So the foods become more expensive.

How to reconcile all of that is one of the challenges we all will need to wrestle with. But who said doing anything the right way with one’s values is easy? it’s not easy being a good parent. It’s not easy being a devoted spouse. it’s not easy being a good friend. It’s not easy being good at a challenging job (like being a health care worker the last two years).

It’s the same with shepherding Creation. I am hoping that North Suburban Mennonite Church (and Jesus followers in other churches) will not content themselves with platitudes. I am hoping they will focus their personal change energies on their eating decisions and find help in making the best food choice decisions.

9. A Need for More Expressed Anger: Perhaps it’s legacy of my Midwest Lutheran background. Perhaps it’s a legacy of my introverted nature. But I found myself speaking in a largely reasonable and calm and sometimes even light-hearted way. In retrospect, I wonder if I would have been better served to have added in more anger and urgency. What works better? Did the fury and despair of the Old Testament prophets bring about change in their time? But do we call 911 in a calm and deliberate voice when our child is in mortal danger?

I believe I need to be both full of grace and love while also authentically open about the full range of emotions I feel around these topics.

10. How Would My Message Go Over in a Different Kind of Church?: My wife was talking to a Christian friend recently and told her friend about my sermons. Her friend gave her a blank look. “What is Creation care?” she asked my wife.

That was a good reminder that there are many churches right now who would never dream of devoting a service, much less a month’s worth of services and discussions, to Creation.

So what would it be like to present the ideas behind this blog and my sermons to congregations where many of the members have not thought about the topic or might even see the topic as the intrusion of progressive politics into a spiritual setting? Would they be open at all? Would I even be the right person?

I don’t know. But I pray God will show me the path I should walk in the years that remain. I pray I will have opportunities to make a difference for how Christians walk in God’s world. Even if that brings challenges.

I pray, too, I pray will be able to bring together Christians who are doing their very best to creatively restore God’s earth for encouragement and community.

 

P.S. The sermons were recorded. I plan share them with people who are interested.

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The Fat of the Land is Real (and Good)

Nathan Aaberg —  March 31, 2021 — 2 Comments

There are several references to the “fat of the land” or “fatness of the land” in the Old Testament.

Genesis 27:28 Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine: (KJV)

Genesis 27:39: And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above. (KJV)

Genesis 45:18: And take your father and your households, and come unto me: and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land. (KJV)

I don’t know about you, but I had long assumed the term was only metaphorical. In fact, many translations now have changed the phrase to “earth’s richness” or “richness of the earth.”

And then I listened to an interview with John Kempf by the hosts of the Back to the Roots podcast.

John, a great podcaster himself, is one of the leading voice of regenerative agriculture in the United States.  You can find the interview here, and I’d encourage you to listen to it. John is brilliant, humble, and gifted in all that he discusses.

Around the 13:00 minute mark you can hear John bring up the Biblical phrase “fat of the land.” This is not unusual. John frequently brings up Biblical references and concepts in his podcasts and interviews. You can tell he has been steeped in the Bible.

John proceeds to explain the literal truth of that phrase.

Here’s one key quote: “Stable organic matter (in the soil), stable humic substances, are about 40 percent lipids. (In other words) 40 percent fats. So I believe that when we talk about the fat of the land, we’re really having a conversation about carbon storage, organic matter building in soil as a result of microbial activity and accumulating fats in organic matter.”

In other words, land can literally have fat. And healthy land does have fats.

I was driving as I listened to the interview and feel fortunate to not have had an accident.

First, how fascinating is it that something we take as a metaphor in the Bible has actual agronomic truth?

Along these lines, check out this link to a description of a scientiifc finding from University of Colorado Boulder researchers. They’ve found a fatty acid in a soil-based bacterium that appears to have anti-inflammatory properties.

Second, let’s unpack the larger meaning behind what John says.

A farmer only has stable organic matter in the soil if the farming being done mimics the workings of God’s earth in nature. Nature, for example, almost always covers its ground with diverse plants that, through their living roots, feed carbon that feeds life in the soil. Nature also integrates animals into any natural system, and they also add nutrients to the living soil system. Nature does not disturb these processes through plowing and tillage. Nor fungicides and herbicides and insecticides.

Farmers can imitate those same principles and approaches. And some are, as you can see in the video below. Applying those principles and approaches to the specific context of a specific place is called regenerative agriculture.

And much of the focus of regenerative ariculture is building the biological life of the soil. That rich life, including diverse bacteria and fungi, provides the plants with easy-to-absorb nutrients and phytonutrients to the plant. In other words, plants feed the soil, and the soil feeds the plants.

That rich soil life also builds stable humic substances where we find the real fat of the land that John mentioned.

We shouldn’t be surprised then that when we eat plants and animals from land that has that abundant soil life, we get healthier food which gives us healthier bodies.

A number of years back, Jim, a Christian friend of mine, and his wife Joelle had gotten married and were hoping to have children. That wasn’t happening. They turned to doctors for ideas and help. Nothing they heard made sense. They were frustrated and not sure what to do.

Then Joelle’s sister asked about their diet. They described a standard diet of processed foods from conventionally-farmed plants and animals. Joelle’s sister urged them to look into more natural and organic options. They were desperate. So they went all in. They competely changed to a diet of natural and organic foods, largely home cooked.

And before long they became pregnant. In fact, they just had their third child earlier this year. This experience completely changed the direction of their lives (they are now homesteading, among other things). It’s even given them new insights into their Christian faith and what it means for us to be stewards of God’s earth.

Jim and Joelle shifted to a natural diet from a processed, conventional diet when they had trouble having children. They now have three children, including Eloise and Abram (Gus was just born recently) – abundant life from abundantly alive farms and foods.

We now know that we have stripped away that life-giving richness of the land with an industrial, extractive approach to farming. But people like John Kempf, many of whom are Christian, are showing how it is possible to restore and rejuvenate God’s good earth.

By having loving hearts, creative and dynamic minds, and attentiveness to the beautiful systems of God’s earth, we can honor God and provide life-giving food to our neighbors.

Maybe we’re supposed to take Jesus’ words in John 10:10 – “..I came that they have life and have it abundantly” – literally as well?

By making God’s life abundant on God’s earth and in God’s soil, we give others and ourselves abundant life.

Here and now.

 

P.S. Here’s a blog post by a regenerative farmer – Will Harris – about the fat of the land concept and artificial meats.

P.P.S. Here’s a blog post by Rabbi Daniel Lapin about the two different Hebrew words interpreted as “fat of the land” by English translators. While the rabbi explains both words can be translated as “fat” in a general way, one has the meaning of milk included in it, and the other can mean fat or oil. In his blog post, you can read Rabbi Lapin’s idea of what he believes the deeper difference is between the words and what larger message that has for us. It occurs to me, however, that he may be missing a more obvious difference betweent the two words – one word refers to animal-generated fat and the other refers to fat coming from plants. Both animals and plant life are needed for living soil. But I realize it’s more than a little presumptuous of me to question a rabbi about a Hebrew question! So I’ve sent a message to him asking for his feedback on my perspective.

 

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Illuminating Message on What Comes Next

Nathan Aaberg —  December 31, 2020 — Leave a comment

I urge you to watch this video of a presentation by N.T. Wright. The YouTube description for this talk at Fuller Seminary in 2014 reads as follows:

In his lecture “What is God’s Future for the World?” delivered at the 2014 Fuller Forum, N. T. Wright, New Testament scholar and former bishop of Durham, delved into Pauline eschatology—a vision not of people leaving the world but of God making the world right.

N.T. Wright is brilliant and one of the best people I have ever heard explain the Christian faith. I believe you will find this invaluable in understanding the Bible, Paul and the future of Creation and our role in it. There really is Good News for us and for all of Creation. This resonates with the message of John Phelan in his book Essential Eschatology: Our Present and Future Hope.

God bless you and your service to God and our Savior in 2021. May your energies for caring and renewing the life of God’s earth as part of your whole faith be renewed and strengthened.

 

 

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Why Didn’t Balaam’s Donkey Just Stop?

Nathan Aaberg —  April 26, 2020 — 2 Comments

“Balaam smites his ass” by Philip De Vere

The story of Balaam’s donkey in Numbers 22:21-39 has fascinated me for some time. This and the story of the serpent in Genesis are the only places in the Bible where an animal speaks.

There are many Christians who don’t know the story at all. And some Christian thinkers are quick to dismiss the idea that the donkey actually spoke with its own volition. They write that God put words into the donkey’s mouth. Which is, of course, not what the Bible says.

I plan to write a future post that explores a number of overlooked nuances in this story further, like I did about the story of Jesus and the possessed pigs here and here. Today, however, I wanted to share one question my mind has been ruminating over.

Why didn’t the donkey just stop?

What the Donkey Was Trying to Do

If you aren’t familiar with the story, please do take a minute to read it now. The first thing that will surprise you is that the main character Balaam is not an Israelite and yet God speaks to him. You’ll also find that, even before it speaks, Balaam’s long-time donkey can see the angel standing on the road, but Balaam can’t. And the donkey takes evasive action in three different ways to avoid bringing Balaam into contact with the angel.

But the donkey never just stops.

My starting assumption about this story is that it has depth to it. So I’ve been reading books about donkeys and becoming more and more fascinated by them. Pertinent to my question, however, is this section from the book The Wisdom of Donkeys by Andy Merrifield in which Merrifield compares horses to donkeys:

Horses are faster, yet have much less endurance than donkeys, and are nowhere near as agile. They’re edgier, too, especially in tight situations. They bolt whereas a donkey freezes. You can usually cajole an anxious horse to do things against its better interests, frighten them into gallopig along hazardous, unsafe routes. Not so with donkeys who have a highly developed sense of self-preservation. Thus a donkey’s perceived stubbornness.

This theme of donkeys’ stop-in-their-tracks stubbornness is a common theme in what I’ve read. Yet, Balaam’s donkey doesn’t just stop in its tracks. In three different instances, it does something odd. It moves off of the road the first time. It squeezes along the wall to avoid the angel the second time. And it finally lays down.

If a donkey’s default in a dangerous situation is to stop, what do the donkey’s unusual actions tell us?

I believe the donkey was trying to get across to Balaam that there was something unusual going on.

This fits with what I’ve read about donkeys. They have excellent observation skills. They can hear exceptionally well.

And they are intelligent.

If the donkey had just stopped, we could easily assume the donkey was just being stubborn for some odd reason. One of the donkeys I read about, for example, was initially afraid of running water and would just stop dead when the donkey was led near to a stream.

Instead the donkey did three three unusual things in a row. And readers of the time, when agriculture was something almost everyone was involved in, would have understood those to be unusual behaviors.

In other words, the donkey was communicating to Balaam. It was doing so even before the angel revealed itself to Balaam and enabled the donkey to speak.

If Balaam had been someone who paid attention to the life of God’s earth and to his own donkey’s character, he would have quickly picked up that something strange was going on. But that’s not who Balaam was. For some reason, God has chosen to use and communicate with Balaam. The story of his interaction with his own loyal donkey makes clear he’s not been chosen because he is a wise, good, or spiritually perceptive man.

Deeper Meaning

And I believe we can take this situation a step further and say this – God was, in a way, testing both Balaam and the donkey.

Balaam failed his test. He didn’t pay attention to the signals his donkey was sending through its behavior. When asked by the donkey why he had beaten it three times, Balaam responds, “You have made a fool of me! If only I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.” He clearly cares most about how he is perceived by the Moabite officials and perhaps even by his own two servants. And the reader would guess that wealth was a close second.

The donkey, on the other hand, passed his test. But at a cost.

The donkey had to choose what it would do, especially after it was clear that Balaam didn’t see the angel. And not only did Balaam not see the angel, he was going to beat the donkey for not walking straight ahead into danger. Being beaten by Balaam was probably not something new.

In the end, Balaam beat his donkey three times for the sacrificial choices the donkey made to protect Balaam. From the donkey’s plaintive words, we also understand the donkey’s heart suffered as much as its body did.

There is much more to explore in this story. But I will stop here for now and encourage you and I to meditate on these questions going forward:

Are we, like Balaam, ignoring what the living things of God’s earth are telling us about ourselves and God?

If we, for example, have land and water under our care and they are sick and ailing, are we paying attention?

Are we, like Balaam, most concerned about our wealth and how we are regarded in the culture around us?

Do those concerns matter more to us than how closely our hearts are aligned with Jesus?

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Learning Humility from Job

Nathan Aaberg —  October 14, 2019 — Leave a comment
Job and Friends by Illya Repin

Job and HIs Friends by Illya Repin (1844-1930)

The Au Sable Institute launched a Facebook group recently for people like you and me who believe God’s earth matters. Corinne Hoffman shared some thoughts about Job there that caught my attention. When I asked her if she’d expand her comments for this blog, she kindly agreed. Her sincerity and devoutness shine through her words. Her faith, as you’ll see by the end, naturally leads her to cherish God’s Creation out of humility. It is this kind of humility, I believe, that should shape our hearts and minds when we think of our unique position in Creation. Over time, I’d like to share the voices of others here as well.

(One quick note about Job. I’d enourage you to check out The Bible Project’s three podcasts about the book. They’re very insightful. The last podcast of the three highlights something I had not noticed before. God does not restore Job’s health and fortunes until after he has prayed for his three friends and their errors. The podcast insightfully explores the significance of that.)

The book of Job has a crazy story to share.

Not only does this book of the Bible give us clues on how to deal with suffering, but it demonstrates who is at the center of it all. And it’s not you and me.

Humility as a Christian has been hard for me to truly grasp and demonstrate.

The opposite of humility is being boastful. But you could, in an effort to be humble, tell yourself that you’re no good or be overly worried about being portrayed as being better than those around you. At a certain point, it can become unhealthy by continually speaking death into your life. Satan thrives on that.

There is this fine line, which has been hard for me to walk. It’s where you do not say that you’re the greatest thing that ever walked on earth, but you still recognize that God did give each of us special gifts which should be special to us. It’s finding a balance of embracing what God has gifted us with while not being boastful.

In Steven Bouma-Prediger’s book For the Beauty of the Earth I found a definition that does this word justice. He writes: “Humility is a proper estimation of one’s abilities or capacities. It implies self-knowledge and especially knowledge of the limits of one’s knowledge. It also implies genuine awareness of one’s own strengths and weaknesses. “

So, the question I ask to keep myself in line is – did that thought or deed represent humility? It’s a question I come back to daily.

When I think of that fine line of humility, Job comes to mind.

Job, we are told, is blameless and upright in God’s eyes. But he loses his farm, family, and physical well-being. His wife tells Job to curse God and die. Job, however, doesn’t adhere to that harsh advice. Instead, he tells God he’s blameless.

God responds in a strange way and not really to the point.

God responds with cosmology, meteorology, hydrology, animal husbandry, and ornithology. God demands an answer, and Job responds, “I am small.” This shows he recognizes the limits of his knowledge. He engages in an act of self-humiliation. Here Job realizes that God can do all things. God has no limits.

Job desires to see God and receives a vision of God. And God does something cool. God stoops down to answer Job face-to-face. This vision transforms how Job understands himself and the world and his place in it.

So, how does this relate to Creation?

It shows we are not at the center of things. God’s whirlwind speech forcibly reminds Job and us not only of God’s power but also the expanse and mystery of the created world, a world not of human making. Job powerfully shows us how God interacts with us as created beings in a created world.

But God went further.

Jesus came to us on earth to lead by example on how humility can be embodied and lived. Through Philippians 2:3-8, we see Jesus as our greatest example of what humility really is. We are to do nothing from selfish ambition but in humility count others as more significant than ourselves. We should use what God has given us not for our own benefit but rather for others. God’s gifts are given not to bless us but to bless others. We receive His intended blessing when we use what was given for others.

I’ll end with these two questions for you:

In what ways can you think of others and Creation as being more significant than yourself?

How will doing so change the way you live and the decisions you make every day?

 

Picture of Corinne Hoffman

Corinne Hoffman lives in Ohio. Here is what she wrote about herself:

“I love being outdoors and all the activities that come with it. If you can’t find me, I’m probably outside somewhere. Whether its hiking, biking, running, tennis, to cross country skiing, I enjoy it all. And when I’m not outdoors, I’m probably reading a book.

I graduated with an Environmental Science degree at Taylor University. Through outdoor experiences as a child to my time at Taylor, I have come to realize the joy I receive through God’s Creation.

This past semester I have been in the Environmental Leadership Intensive (ELI) program at Au Sable Institute where God has led me to environmental education and working with youth to empower them through God’s creation.

His fingerprints are all over Creation, and I love discovering them! I also have found that Creation has redemptive power.”

 

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