UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST in SIMI VALLEY

UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST in SIMI VALLEY
Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost - September 28, 2003
Anne G. Cohen
Genesis 2:4b-17, 3:6-7. 22-24
Revelation 22:1-5

For Our Reflection:
A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides
and becomes four branches... The name of the third river is Tigris,
which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

- Genesis 2:10,14 (NRSV)

Not many of us remain. What you see was once green and beautiful and
now is like a dream that has vanished.

- Hassan Naslob, Ma'dan (Marsh Arab), Iraq, N.Y. Times 4/28/03

Eden Again

8 And God planted a garden in Eden...
9 Out of the ground... God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to
the sight and good for food, the tree of life... and the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil.
10 A river flows out of Eden to water the Garden, and from there it
divides... [two of the rivers are named] Tigris... and... Euphrates.

It has been said that the garden in which Mary Magdalene encountered the
resurrected Christ was the new Eden. Out of the Garden of Life/Eden -
humans were expelled and condemned to die. Out of the Garden of
Death/the cemetery - humans were welcomed and given Eternal Life. It is
an interpretation with symmetry and beauty; it is conclusive and
comforting.

However, my experience of the world tells me that we have yet to see
Eden again. We are still in an interim time between gardens. The final
chapter in this book we call The Bible describes a new Heaven and Earth,
a time of ultimate redemption / reclamation / restoration.

On either side of the river [of life] is the tree of life with its
twelve kinds of fruit producing... each month; and the leaves of the
tree are for the healing of the Nations.

It is in the Garden of Revelation that we find the tree of life, the
river of life, the healing of all nations. It is my belief that the New
Eden is at the end of the book... in a time that has not happened yet.

Our primordial history - when we crawled out of the primordial soup and
stood on the ground - this beginning of human history opens in Genesis,
in the lush area where the Tigris and Euphrates are joined - in an area
now called Southern Iraq. On either side of this fertile belt are vast
areas of wilderness - Arabian deserts to the west, Iranian / Afghan
mountains to the east.

Two rivers come together and in the fertile marshlands of this garden
our species began.

Our conclusion is in the FUTURE.

In between is our collective book of life - each of us a story in the
history of Humans Being. We embody the text of our own stories, each
year a chapter, each turning of the page - a clean page. In Judaism,
Rosh Hashana is the New Year, the time of turning - T'shuvah - that
offers the opportunity (one again) to make amends, repair relationships,
heal nations, repent of wrongs, turn toward God, start over as a partner
WITH God in living for the good - in the interest of cosmic moral
justice. A common greeting during Rosh Hashanah is "May you be
inscribed in the Book of Life - for good."

And the Book of Life is THIS LIFE - this one wild and precious life that
we've been given on this Earth. the word LIFE - MAH-AH-SEH - in Hebrew
also means STORY. Rabbi Lawrence Kushner notes that:

Elie Wiesel once suggested that not everything that happened is true,

nor did everything that is true necessarily happen. Sometimes stories
can be true without ever having happened.
The story of the garden of Eden, for instance, obviously never happened
the way it is told. Snakes don't talk, fruit doesn't contain the secret
of life, and people don't wear clothing made from fig leaves. But the
story is true. In metaphoric language, to be sure, the legend describes
a drama that occurs in the lifetime of every human being. We are not
guilty because Adam and Eve were; but we are guilty in precisely the
same way. The story is true not because it happened, but because it
happens generation after generation. That's why we keep reading it.

The stories which describe the events of our lives are true insofar as
they resemble the great archetypic myths... This is what we mean when
we say that all scripture is holy: It speaks the truth beneath the surface.

Indeed, the literal text is only a mechanism. As
the rabbis used to say, the Bible could not merely be the stories it
tells, for we could easily tell better stories!

All the great moments of our lives transcend our lives. We cease to be
autonomous actors and find ourselves "taken over" by some ancient
script... We give ourselves over to the Great Story, allow ourselves to
be carried along by its universal truth. We taste eternity.

(pp.67-69 The Book of Words)

During these Days of Awe we are called to see our own lives as stories
to be inscribed in the Book of Life. And we are asked to examine the
TRUTH of our lives, the integrity of our contribution. Questions we
might ask ourselves: What ancient myths have I given myself over to?
What aspect of cosmic moral justice might I embody? What archetype do I
choose to shape my life for the coming year?

I have been contemplating the Eden myth - or, more generally, the
Creation myth - for a number of reasons. Eden as a metaphor for the
paradise of planetary ecological balance has been the driving myth of my
father's life. He has been working for most of his 76 years to make
humankind aware of our environmental disaster - this HomoSapian suicide
heading for omnicide - the ultimate expulsion from Eden, from Earth. I
grew up with full knowledge of the fragility of Life and the necessity
for relentless vigilance in environmental concerns. "Always leave the
campsite cleaner than you found it!" is the family motto. It runs deep.

In addition, I've been given the gift of chemical sensitivity - also
known as toxin clairvoyance. I have massive allergies to perfumes,
paint fumes, gas fumes, car exhaust, smog, cigarette smoke, newspaper
and magazine ink, new building materials, most detergents, soaps,
shampoos and conditioners, msg, tsp, nbc - to name a few. As the canary
in the coalmine, I've been watching my own demise and longing to see
Eden again. And it is understandable that reports on NPR this week
about the breaking apart of polar ice shelves, the disappearance of
permafrost in Alaska and the loss overnight of a Scandinavian fresh
water lake and all of its life forms - cause some amount of alarm here
in my “golden” cage.

One report did make my heart beat faster with hope. There is a project,
new this year, sponsored by The Iraq Foundation. It is called Eden
Again. The goal is restoration of - at least a portion of - the
Southern Marshes of Iraq - where the Tigris and Euphrates come together.

The Washington Post - April 28, 2003:

The marshlands of Mesopotamia, at the confluence of the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers, have long been revered both for their unusual wetland
ecology and for the 5,000-year-old culture of the Ma'dan, or "Marsh
Arabs."
The marshlands may have been the inspiration for the biblical Garden of
Eden, and the Ma'dan are thought to descend from the Sumerians, who
established humankind's first civilization.
As recently as the 1990's, the Ma'dan were still using marsh reeds to
construct delicately arched dwellings on artificial islands and
waterways. They lived on fish and water buffalo that lived in the
marshes and exported the surplus to other parts of Iraq.
The marshes began to decline in the 1950's as dam-building in Syria and
Turkey attenuated the river flows, the process accelerated
dramatically in the 1990's after the Persian Gulf War, when Hussein
built giant canals and drains nearby. Most believe Hussein drained the
marshes to punish the Shi'ite Muslims who lived there for opposing his
minority Sunni Muslim government....
[Other articles referred to the marshlands as the Iraqi "Sherwood
Forest" - where the rebel forces hid out and conducted raids.]
During that time, about 95 percent of the marshland itself became a
crusty wasteland...

The UNEP reported in 2001 the following list of losses:

. destruction of a 5,000 year old cultural heritage that represents the
modern world's link to the roots of its civilization;
. extinction of several endemic animal and botanical species that
depended on the habitat of the marshes;
. disappearance of the way-station for migratory birds, with adverse
effects potentially spanning the continents of Eurasia and Africa;
. saltwater intrusion into the Shatt al-Arab, causing disruption of
fisheries in the Persian gulf;
. higher soil salinity in the marshes and adjacent areas, depriving Iraq
of much needed agricultural land;
. considerable disruption to the agricultural and food supply of the
whole of southern Iraq, especially the loss of dairy products, fish, and
rice cultivation;
. desertification of more than 20,000 square kilometers, and adverse
indirect climatic impacts to adjacent land; and
. displacement of the Ma'dan population of over 300,000 forced to flee
the marshes and become refugees in Iran or internally displaced in Iraq.

But there is hope! The Iraq Foundation with funding from the U.S. State
Department is in the process of researching ways to restore at least a
portion of the Mesopotamian Marshlands. "Initial result suggest that
enough water is present ...to partially restore [them]... if the water
diversion structures constructed by the regime of Saddam Hussein are
removed.... A stakeholders meeting with expatriate Ma'dan...is planned
to assess the needs of indigenous people...so that these needs can be
incorporated in the plan."

Tom Crisman, director of the University of Florida's center for
wetlands, says that he and fellow scientists are hopeful that much of
the important area can be rehabilitated. "The marshlands act as a
kidney for the Golf," he says, "filtering out material and contributing
organic matter."
However, it will not be possible to replicate completely what was there
before. "It's a rehabilitation," Crisman explains. "You can't put back
something exactly the way it was, but we obviously believe in this. It
is a potential world heritage site."

(The Guardian - Washington DC, March 12, 2003)

The even bigger challenge... will be rehabilitating the Marsh Arab
culture. {Experts] expect many refugees and even some westernized Iraqi
exiles to return to the marshes, but...the know-how to build reed houses
or catch seafood in the marshes can evaporate in less than a
generation. "Never before have I been in a situation where the task
involves restoring a culture at the same time as an ecosystem," Crisman
said. "The scale of this is potentially mind-boggling."

(The Washington Post - April 28, 2003)

Eden Again has become an international concern and project. We can
participate at any level we choose, here and in Iraq. This restoration
project is a story of mythological proportions and aptly named. And it
has the potential for contributing to one of our deepest hopes - A
Healing of the Nations.

On either side of the river [of life] is the tree of life with its
twelve kinds of fruit producing... each month; and the leaves of the
tree are for the healing of the Nations.

(Revelation 22:2-5)

In these Days of Awe I pray that it may be so. And may the Book of Life
record that our stories are worthy of that Title.

**************************************************************

SUNDAY BULLETIN

WE GATHER FOR PRAYER AND CELEBRATION

Music for Gathering
Welcome and Perspective on the Day
Musical Preparation for Worship - A Time for Centering

+ Call to Worship   by Li Po, Chinese, 8th c. (One Voice)
You ask me, "Why dwell among green mountains?"
I laugh in silence; my soul is quiet.
Peach blossom follows the moving water;
Here is a heaven and earth, beyond the world of [humans].

+ Hymn of Praise    God of this Great Creation      CSB # 52

+ Opening Prayer    by Rabi'a, Iraqi, 8th c. (unison)
O God, whenever I listen to the voice of anything you have made -
The rustling of the trees,
The trickling of water,
The cries of birds,
The flickering of shadow,
The roar of the wind,
The song of the thunder,
I hear it saying: God is One!
Nothing can be compared with God!

+ Our Common Prayer (unison)
Creator God who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,
on Earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our debts
As we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil,
For Thine is the kingdom and the power
And the glory forever. Amen.

Time for Silent Reflection
            One: My soul waits in silence.
            All:   God is my rock and my fortress. I will be at peace.
            Silent Reflection
            The Assurance of Good News (unison)
God is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose
circumference is nowhere. God is One!
            Sung Response                     (CSB #5 Refrain)
                     "Hallelujah. God be praised!"

WE TEACH, REFLECT AND PROCLAIM

Conversation with Our Children
       Deconstructing Miss Rumphias - Diane Tan

Reading from the Torah Genesis 2:4b-17, 3:6-7, 22-24

Reading from the Christian Scripture   Revelation 22:1-5

Sermon            Eden Again

WE RESPOND TO GOD'S INVITATION
Intercessions, Celebrations and Encouragements
Call to Prayer   Be still and know that I am God Hymnal # 743
            Time for Silence
            Our Joys and Concerns and an Offering of Prayer
Sung Response   In Solitude     Hymnal #521 vv. 1 & 2

We Offer Our Gifts So That Our Lives May Be Our Prayer
Offertory       Simple Song, from Mass    by Leonard Bernstein
Joan Newton, soprano & Joan Thompson, pianist

Prayer of Dedication (unison)
We give-away our thanks to the earth which gives us our home.
All beings on earth: the trees, the animals, the wind and the rivers
give-away to one another so all is in balance.
We give-away our promise to begin to learn
how to stay in balance with all the earth. Amen.

+ Commissioning Hymn     A Song Must Rise    CSB # 76

+ Commissioning by Charlotte Mew, English, 20th c. postwar (One Voice)
Let us remember Spring will come again
To the scorched, blackened woods, where the wounded trees
Wait, with their old wise patience for the heavenly rain,
Sure of the sky: sure of the sea to send its healing breeze,
Sure of the sun. And even as to these
Surely the Spring, when God shall please,
Will come again like a divine surprise
To those who sit today with their great Dead,
hands in their hands, eyes in their eyes,
At one with love, at one with Grief: blind to the scattered things
and changing skies.
[Let us remember Spring will come again - and do our part in the work of
returning.]

+ Sung Response (we gather in some semblance of a circle)
CSB #42 Refrain
Draw the circle wide. Draw it wider still.
Let this be our song, no one stands alone, standing side by side.
Draw the circle wide.

+ Postlude

WORSHIP NOTES
Call to Worship is by Li Po, Chinese, 701-62 c.e., translated by Ivo Mosley, found in Earth Poems Ed. by Ivo Mosley (p.25) adapted
Opening Prayer is by Rabi'a, Iraqi, 8th c., trans. by Charles Upton, Ibid. (pp.78-79)
Prayer of Dedication is by Dolores La Chapelle, found in Earth Prayers Ed. by. Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon (p.239)
Commissioning "May 1915" is by Charlotte Mew, English, 1869-1928, found in Earth Poems Ed. by Ivo Mosley (p.133) adapted