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| Image by Christian Kortum |
God's Hands in the World:
The Ocean Cleanup
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A Greeting
Bless the Lord, seas and rivers;
sing praise to him and highly exalt him forever.
(Prayer of Azariah 1:55)
A Reading
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.
My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep
at the thunder of your cataracts;
all your waves and your billows
have gone over me.
By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
(Psalm 42:5-8)
Music
Meditative Verse
God uncovers the deeps out of darkness,
and brings deep darkness to light.
(Job 12:22)
A Prayer
God, our Creator, as we reflect on the mysteries of the ocean
depths, we celebrate the wondrous design of the seas that
surround us. Help us to discern how we have polluted our oceans
and to empathize with the groaning of creation. Teach us to know
the presence of God in the tides and currents of the seven seas.
Teach us to care for the oceans and all our waterways. In the
name of the Wisdom of God, the creative force that designs
and governs all creation. Amen.
- "Prayer of the Day" from a liturg for Ocean Sunday
Web of Creation: : Ecology Resources Transforming Faith and Society
Verse for the Day
By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance,
O God of our salvation;
you are the hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas.
(Psalm 65:5)
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| Image by Peter Femto |
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The ‘deeps’ in the Old Testament is an image that often appears metaphorically as a symbol of the soul’s relationship to God. The Hebrew word ‘tehom’ appears most often in the book of Job, where it is associated with a darkness that is unfathomable, unsurvivable. Yesterday, we considered the stirring and calming of waters in the meaningful ways in which creation is used by God and by Jesus to show to demonstrate healing and strengthen a community. But what happens when the activity of humankind alters creation in such a profound way that it’s hard to imagine how God might help us restore it? The Ocean Cleanup is a non-profit organization that develops technologies for ridding the world’s oceans of its garbage patches. Founded and developed by an eighteen year old man named Boyan Slat in 2013, it is made up of more than seventy specialists whose research, engineering and science and tech experience combine to create innovative methods for the cleanup. The first test area in 2016 was in the North Sea. The model was redesigned and is currently being tested again in the North Sea before a planned 2018 expedition on the American Pacific, where one of the biggest garbage patches exists between California and Hawaii. Using a combination of both aerial and nautical approaches, the team first maps the extent of the crisis and then finds specific approaches for the region in question. Their vision is a hopeful one. How can we live into that place of hope with them? We can start by remembering the very first verses of Scripture in which “the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.” God’s creation lives in us and we in it. We are the only ones who can make change. How does this inspire you to action today?
LC† Being God's Hands is a project of
Lutherans Connect / Lutheran Campus Ministry Toronto
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