LaurenRELarkin.comReforging Our Divine Identity in Creation Care
On Saturday, the deacon of Nativity and I had the opportunity to lead two animal blessings at Grand Valley Horse Rescue . The first blessing (11-12) was our Episcopal Eucharist celebration in honor of St. Francis; the second (12-1) was our “sacred secular” blessing that we offer monthly on the first Sunday of the month. The homily below was offered during the Episcopal Eucharist celebration and blessing.
“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[i]
Our passage this morning is a distillation of the whole first chapter of Genesis (from the First Testament) where Abba God creates the cosmos and everything in it. The story begins with Abba God sending wind (God’s Spirit) to hover and sweep over a formless void covered by darkness and celestial waters. And then Abba God speaks, and suddenly the oppressive darkness was pulled apart from itself and light illuminated. And Abba God said it was good. From here, Abba God continues to pull things apart to form and create something out of nothing. Day from night, the waters above (sky) and the waters below (seas and oceans), dry land (Pangea) from the waters below, vegetation from the dry land, then the light was pulled apart into two: the sun to rule the day and the moon to rule the night (these would further split human time into seasons, months, weeks, days, and hours), then the waters—both above and below—are pulled apart from themselves and down came the winged creatures from beyond the bright blue of the sky and up came all the creatures from the deep dark blue of the oceans and seas, and then Abba God let the earth, the dry land, Pangea, pull apart and release all the animals from the greatest of beasts to the least of the creepiest crawlies. Finally, Abba God, needing help to care for all that God created, God made space in God’s own image and created humanity to participate in God’s image in the world to bring God glory. This humanity—the great fluid spectrum of human expression in the world, no two substitutable and replaceable with each other—bears and shares in God’s own image and pulls apart to make space and create community so that there would never be loneliness, isolation, or alienation. And humanity was commanded, by God, to care for all this good creation.
Even though this is such a remarkable mythology, an ancient story of creation, we find ourselves confronted with an existential question: what does any of this have to do with me? A far away, ancient story might be entertaining, but what do I do with it in 2026? Well, this story in Genesis 1 is about God pulling apart that from this, this from that, waters from waters, land from waters, light from darkness, humanity from God. But in this narrative of pulling a part there is a “merism”—a Hebrew narrative technique speaking of the biggest and the littlest, or the furthest edges of things, to center a single point. In all this divine pulling apart, the ones found in the middle are the apple of God’s eye. What’s in the middle? Humanity, not small enough to live under a rock like ants and not big enough to be able to brave windstorms in the prairies of Africa like Giraffes. Human beings find themselves in the center of the story being able to look about at all this biggest big and this smallest small and see that if God so cares about these, then maybe God really does care for us, too!
That’s not the end of the story. If it stops there, then humanity has no responsibility to care for creation. But God makes this caring essential. So, God takes the center of the story and makes them co-stars with God and with all creation so that humanity lives into their divine image and human identity through care for and dominion with this varied creation—from the smallest of small to the biggest of big, from the darkest depths to the brightest heights, from the creepiest of crawlies to the most majestic of beasts. This co-participation is so important, that when humanity lets and causes everything to go cattywampus, God will step in and save humanity from their destructive and harming ways; God will send God’s child, Jesus of Nazareth the Christ, to be born as we are born, to live a life that shows us what it is to live in concord with God and all creation, to die as we do, and to be raised to allow divine life, love, and liberation its rightful victory over death, to redeem and restore the hearts and minds of humanity, and by faith, to unite humanity with God, with each other, and with all of creation (remedying the fractures that come in Gen. 3!).
So, in this service today we bless these animals not because we are somehow better than they are but because it is part of our divine image—given to us in creation and reaffirmed by faith in Christ—to bless that which God blesses, to call good that which Abba God calls good, to proclaim to the world that it is still good, even with its scars and wounds (ones we’ve left). This animal blessing reminds us we’re not to do whatever we want with God’s good creation. We are to be stewards, to care for, to tend to, to heal creation and not make it sicker, harm or hurt it, or dominate it.
So, let us celebrate this beautiful creation and all the creatures in it, especially our beloved four toed/hooved partners!
[i] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.
#AnimalBlessing #Creation #CreationCare #DivineIdentity #Genesis #Genesis1 #GrandValleyHorseRescue #ImageOfGod
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