SERMON: Reverence for Life April 18, 2010

April 18, 2010
SERMON: Reverence for Life

TEXTS:
Old Testament Reading: Numbers 22:22-35
New Testament Reading: Matthew 10:24-31

Who Was Albert Schweitzer? (1875 – 1965)
• Minister
• New Testament Theologian
• Medical Doctor
• Author
• Scholar of Bach – a mystical sense of the eternal
• Respected Organ Builder – organ revival movement
• Noble Peace Prize 1952 – for his Reverence for Life, ideals, and his work on nuclear non-proliferation


BEYOND THE POLITICIZING OF THE EARTH
The Environmentalism argument can sometimes be put forth in contention with progress and development pitted against the preservation of the Earth and the non-human life it sustains.

The debate of energy sources and how our technologies and resources can best be used to raise standards of living and secure a stable economy – and to what degree we should weigh our concerns for other life on the Earth and our intentions to co-inhabit this planet for millennia to come.

But none of these things prevent us from asking the question, “What does it mean to embrace a “Reverence for Life?” We cannot use a politicized debate about our relationship to the environment and the ethical questions of respecting life. In certain contexts our actions in relations to the life surrounding us supercedes political positions, and is a question about our image of the divine and our respect for the very source that sustains our own human life – Schweitzer’s pursuit if understanding the Jesus of History led him to an ethic about respecting life in its broadest sense. Reverence of life, Schweitzer said, was the fundamental human ethic to follow when attempting to live with moral integrity.

Three qualities capture Schweitzer’s “Reverence for Life.”

 AWE
 CURIOSITY
 RESPECT

• To be in AWE of the magnificence of life
When we lose our awe for this life, even for a day, we are in need of renewal – and it is easy to do so that the Reverence of life tells us to remember each day the awe-inspiring life we wake up to that can be realized or captured in that bee buzzing outside the window, the opening of the tulips, a leaf tumbling across the grass, and the respectful greeting of a pet.

Reflect on the words in Job (select verses from chapter 39)
1"Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the does? 4Their young ones become strong; they grow up in the open 5"Who has let the wild donkey go free? Who has loosed the bonds of the swift donkey, 6to whom I have given the arid plain for his home and the salt land for his dwelling place? 8He ranges the mountains as his pasture, and he searches after every green thing. 9"Is the wild ox willing to serve you? 11Will you depend on him because his strength is great, 19 "Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with a mane? 20Do you make him leap like the locust? He laughs at fear and is not dismayed; he does not turn back from the sword in battle. 24With fierceness he swallows the ground; he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet. 26 "Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars and spreads his wings toward the south? 27Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up and makes his nest on high? 28 On the rock he dwells and makes his home 29 From there he spies out the prey; his eyes behold it from far away.

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• CURIOUS about the wonderment of life
(Wisdom of life, It is our teacher)

SCHWEITZER SAYS ONE MUST TAKE TIME TO LEARN FROM LIFE EXPRESSIONS AROUND US – AS JESUS TEACHES IN THE PARABLE OF THE VINE & THE BRANCHES, SO WE TOO ARE BRANCHES THAT ARE SUSTAINED BY OUR INVESTMENT – OUR AWE AND CURIOSITY OF LIFE – LIFE AS A FORCE, AS SPIRITUALITY, AS THE ESSENCE OF GOD’S NATURE. IF WE ARE NOT SEEKING TO BE CONNECTED TO LIFE, TO DRAW FROM IT LIKE A BRANCH DOES ALL ITS NOURISHMENT FROM A VINE – WE BEGIN TO WITHER…

SCHWEITZER:
"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats."


• RESPECT the will to live in its multifarious expressions (Embracing the will to live in present in all of life’s biodiversity)

"We are truly ethical when we obey the compulsion to help all life which we are able to assist, and shrink from injuring that which lives around us." Schweitzer

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Reverence for Life says that the only thing we are really sure of is that we live and we “will-to-live,” according to Schweitzer.

This is something that we share with everything else that lives, from elephants to blades of grass – and, of course, every human being.

We are brothers and sisters to all living things, and owe to all of them the same care and respect, that we wish for ourselves.”


Schweitzer’s ethic of Reverence for life grew out of his quest for a deep and meaningful understanding Jesus. Schweitzer’s years of medical service among the poor, his fascination and love for music, including the time spent in mastering the art of organ building and the understanding and playing of Bach, all led to his personal epiphany…. that when he possessed, in all humility, a Reverence for life, it did not provide every answer for life, but it established a principle for living that was reflective of the gentle way in which Jesus lived in the midst of death and destruction, a principle which serves as a guide for us - to strive for the best expression we can put forward of revering the life god has given us, the life God has placed around us, and the spirit of life that gives us joy, enthusiasm, and purpose.

We walk upon this earth with deep respect Schweitzer says because the goodness of life is all around us and that spirit which enlivens it we sense within ourselves when we are listening

"Therefore search and see if there is not some place where you may invest your humanity…. Do something wonderful for life, and people may imitate it."