Our Island Home

"OUR ISLAND HOME"

a message by Rev. Dr. Bruce Havens

Coral Isles Church, U.C.C.

April 27, 2025

Psalm 24:1-6 NRSV

The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it, 2 for God has founded it on the seas and established it on the rivers. 3 Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in God’s holy place? 4 Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false    and do not swear deceitfully. 5 They will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from the God of their salvation. 6 Such is the company of those who seek the Lord, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.

The Episcopal Church has a prayer in which it speaks of “this earth, our island home.”  I always liked the sound of that, and I use it often.  This morning I want to think with you about what it means to be faithful to our island home, not only here on these rocks we call “the Keys,” but of course, our wider world, as we celebrate Earth Day Sunday.   

Most of you have lived here on this island, this rock, much longer than I have.  I know most of you care deeply about the environment here – our environment.  We know it is at risk from many different threats, mostly human-caused.  As we celebrate this Earth Day Sunday, I want to share what I think about as I pray for our island home. 

I’ve been thinking about what the future holds.  I read a thing on Facebook recently that said something like, you can’t convince anyone under 40 that anything in the future will be better.  Wow!  That is a frightening thing, if it is true.  I haven’t done my own poll, so I won’t claim to know how true it is.  As people of a resurrection faith, I want to challenge us all not to give in to the hopelessness or helplessness because that will simply weaken us in our efforts to be faithful to bringing creation justice for all.

I took hope in the words of Derrick Weston, Director of Theological Education and Formation for Creation Justice Ministries [ April 21, 2025 ].  He wrote, “Easter is about resurrection, yes. But it’s also about transformation—about the places in our lives, our communities, and in God’s Creation where deep pain is turned into something new.”

He added, “I’ve been reflecting on a powerful insight from Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows, shared [ recently ]. She reminded us that in the book of Acts, Peter describes Jesus’ crucifixion as being ‘hung on a tree.’

Derrick Weston commented, “It’s a striking phrase—one that invites us to see how even Creation itself bore witness to Christ’s suffering.”  He went on to say, “And yet, Easter is not the end of the story. Easter is where pain is transformed.  Transformed into new life. Transformed into new hope. Transformed into new ways of being—with one another, with the planet, and with the sacred.

He adds, “I invite you to consider: Where do you see pain in your life, in your community, or in the world? Where is Creation crying out for transformation? And what role might you play in helping bring about new life?  This is the heart of resurrection. It’s not just a celebration—it’s a call. A call to join God in the holy work of healing, restoring, and renewing all things.”

So, to me that means, we have God’s call to us from the story of Christ’s resurrection.  Resurrection isn’t just a human thing, it is a creation thing.  All of creation cries out in need of renewal, restoration, and resurrection – new life.  So much of life is overwhelming now - politically, socially, religiously, and virtually every other way.  Our temptation is to give in to the fear of everything including the destruction of this earth our island home.  But this Psalm affirms that everything in Creation is in God’s hands.  It speaks of those who ascend the “holy hill” meaning to the Temple of Jerusalem that stood as a holy place.  The Psalm assures us that those who are welcome are -

4 Those who … do not lift up their souls to what is false and do not swear [oaths] deceitfully. [ that is make deals, commitments, or claims deceitfully ]. 5 They will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from the God of their salvation.

It is a falsehood that Creation is ours to destroy as we see fit for corporate profits or anything else.  It is false to swear allegiance to polities and politics that are destructive to Creation.  It is false that God wants to destroy the earth to take us to some other sphere.  Genesis reminds us that God created it all and called it good.  We must hear God’s call to focus on and worship and serve the truth – the earth is the Lord’s and all therein!

Salvation and resurrection are connected, and God is the God of both that and all that is.  Our greatest challenge in wanting to restore, protect, resurrect and save our earth is fear.  Fear of failure, fear of the future, fear of the power of those who do make deals deceitfully that harm the creation, all that ignores the mighty power of the Creator God.  Instead of fearing the future let us know that we can take courage knowing this God is not finished yet.

Listen to the words of a UCC pastor, [ Vicki Kemper, “Take Courage,”  dailydevotionals@ucc.org, April 9, 2025 ], who wrote:

You who fear your best days are behind you, take courage, for the Holy One is not finished with you.

 You who fear what is yet to come, take courage, for the God of Glory is yet with you.

 You who fear that the generations before you have left your generation with nothing but demise and disaster, take courage; the Creator is yet at work.

 You who fear that the church is dying, take courage and consider what the Spirit is doing even now.

You who refuse to change, take courage—and commit to trying one new thing this week.

 You who are prone to catastrophizing, take courage and get to work. God can make a way out of no way.

You who are prone to denial, consider the facts and take courage anyway, trusting that the truth will set you free.

 Whoever you are, wherever life finds you, whatever you fear, name it and carry on. Face it, and lean in. Take courage, and live with the boldness of a love that death cannot contain.

Easter proclaims resurrection, the powers of death defeated, transformed by the power of love and life.  The church proclaims Easter not as a day, but for fifty days after it begins.  Let us make it even more.  For in truth, if we want to be faithful to this our Island Home and to God, we must never give up the work to transform destruction and death into life for everything and everyone – for all Creation.

And, listen: do you hear it?  God has promised God’s love for Creation and all that is in it will never fail.  So we have reason to praise and give thanks, to shout “Hosanna,” and praise the God who has given us and called us to resurrection power.  “Hosanna, praise is rising,” still!  AMEN.