Two
Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday September 6, 2026 – Feast of Creation
Scripture Readings: Psalm 104:10-25 and
Revelation 21:1-5
Dr. Seuss Connection: The Lorax
This year, we are having a Seussian Summer – each week during the Story for
All Ages, we will be reading a different Dr. Seuss book, then paring it with
scripture to see what wisdom we might find within its pages.
This summer, there have been some weeks when I have acknowledged that the Dr.
Seuss book we were reading was new to me – that it hadn’t been part of my
childhood repertoire. But that’s not the
case with The Lorax. This book
was very much a part of my growing up.
In fact, this book was one of the major influences in my youngest sister
choosing to become an environmental engineer – she now spends her professional
life speaking for the trees, and for the animals, and for the birds, as she
coordinates the clean-ups that are required when corporations make a mess.
When I messaged her earlier this week to confirm that my memory was correct,
and that The Lorax had been one of her major influences, she replied
with a quote that has followed her through the decades:
“UNLESS someone like you
cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better.
It’s not.”
In planning out the summer, I chose to read The Lorax today, on the
first Sunday in September, because earlier this year the Consultation on the
Common Text, the international and ecumenical body that is in charge of the
lectionary readings that we follow through most of the year, they named the Sunday on or following September 1 as the Feast of Creation, sometimes called
the Festival of Creation in Christ.
This didn’t happen overnight. The Feast
of Creation is a day that has been recognized by the Eastern Orthodox church
since the 8th Century, and the Orthodox leaders have been advocating
for other churches and denominations to recognize the day since 1989. The first Sunday in September, 2026, comes at
the end of decades of advocacy.
When we celebrate creation, we are worshipping the God who created everything
that we can see and everything we cannot see.
We celebrate the ways that creation can reveal the image of the Creator. The diversity of the Truffula trees and
Bar-ba-loots and Swomee-Swans, and Humming Fish reveal to us a Creator who is
endlessly creative and imaginative, and who celebrates diversity. The immensity of mountains reveals a Creator
who is bigger than we can imagine. The
fury of a thunderstorm or a good nor’easter reveals a Creator who is more
powerful than we sometimes like to think about.
The hardness of rocks reveals strength; the busyness of an ant colony
reveals continual activity; the flow of the river reveals cleansing; the
abundance of trees and plants reveals a living God, who lives again after every
winter.
There is so much that creation can reveal to us about the Creator of All, and
yet the message of the bible and the message of the Lorax doesn’t end
there. Both the bible and the Lorax call
all of us to tend to creation and care for creation. If we lose the riotous diversity of Creation,
then our image of the Creator will lessen.
But more than that, if we harm creation, then we are harming our relationship
with the Creator. If we say that we can
cut down all the trees and build a factory to make Thneeds (because why else
were the trees placed there if not to make Thneeds) then what are we saying
about the Creator of those trees?
It is a difficult conundrum to be in, because we know that we are not able to
tread the earth so lightly so as not to cause any harm at all to other parts of
creation. We are trapped in systems that
exploit creation for human benefit, and we can see how the earth is groaning
under the pressure. We humans – and I’m
speaking about humans on a global scale – we urgently need to find our place
within the interconnected community of creation, and find a way to be in true
community with the rest of creation.
Because I honestly don’t know how much longer our planet will tolerate
the current stress.
But we aren’t left without hope. There
is always hope. Both the Lorax and the
bible offer us hope.
We heard part of Psalm 104 this morning – a psalm that celebrates the goodness
of God’s creation and the goodness of God the Creator of All. But we also read from almost the very end of
the bible, from the end of the book of Revelation. And God promises to renew the earth and the
heavens. Even when we humans mess up so
badly that it seems beyond repair, nothing is beyond God’s ability to restore. The resurrection of Jesus at Easter is just a
foreshadowing of the resurrection that is part of God’s very nature.
And The Lorax also holds the promise of resurrection. Even when all of the trees are gone and the
animals and birds and fish have abandoned the place, and the landscape looks
more like a wasteland than anything else, there is still hope. A Truffula seed remains, and with people
willing to tend and care for it, a Truffula forest can return, and provide a
home for all of the creatures.
For God is Creator
Creator of all!
God’s heart will be broken
to hear a tree fall.
But we are God’s people,
who care for the earth,
we will tend and keep it
and nurture re-birth.
For we can be people
who care a whole lot,
and things WILL get better,
it’s NOT a long shot!
God’s Spirit will guide us,
and show us the way,
to be God’s good stewards.
All this, we do pray.
Amen.
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