Black River 'Bog'

At the end of June I got to join other members of the Nova Scotia Wild Flora Society for a full day of fun at a special place in Cape Breton. Called the 'Black River Bog,' it is a wetland that is more of a fen and a marsh than a bog, in the technical sense. It is home to some uncommon and very rare plants, such as yellow lady's slippers.

The main trail is an old railbed, easily traveled, but we had to bushwhack into the wet bushes and trees, of course. I'd been here once before, and found an amazing colony of showy lady's slippers. 

This protected area is at the north end of Lake Ainsley, and I can tell there is a lot to see in this area of NS.

We were pleasantly surprised to see some yellow lady's slippers, just finishing their brief blooming season. It was quite an arduous romp through the woods, with no trail, especially for the 86 year old member of the group! We survived, and she did not implement any punishment upon me, after leading them all 'astray.' ;)

There were many beautiful sights, amid the plants and birds and scenery. I liked this scene upon a wooden bridge, like a bonsai arrangement of mountain ash, mountain holly and black crowberry...

One very rare species in this protected area is hoary willow / sage-leaf willow. I think this is the only NS location for it. 

In the same location, along the trail, are some other uncommon plants, including this unobtrusive, green orchid: northern wind bog orchid. I have seen this in other locations.

Some more common orchids were also seen, such as this dragon's mouth, one of three pink species seen in succession in the bogs at this time of year.

Oh, and the showy lady's slipper? The plants were not yet blooming in Cape Breton that day. They were arising and unfurling leaves, but the flower buds were not visible yet. Back on the mainland they would be out. Below is a photo from Cape Breton, alongside one little plant I have in my garden at home, in Amherst. 

 This one day in Cape Breton whetted my appetite. I need to get back this summer for more hiking and exploring. You should enjoy it too!

SERMON: Abundant Rain (Earth Days 5/6)

 10:30 am, Sun, May 21, 2023 - JGWhite/FBCA

(Psalm 68:3-10; 32-35; Acts 1:6-14)

It’s raining.

Ain’t it grand? We could use some, I think. It has been a dry spring. Not only here: across Canada, in places, as we well know. The fires, and their smoke, cover a huge area.

Water is ‘an element’ for our attention today. Our bodies are made up of about 60% water – more if you are a child – and every other living thing has its portion.

Coming out of a drier land than Nova Scotia, our holy scriptures treat H2O a bit more preciously than we usually do. Their wildernesses were deserts, their community wells were very important meeting places, their food and livelihood were truly at the mercy of the elements.

Ours too, though we often can go on without noticing. Hot and cold running water – even at our cottages – is a luxury every single one of us may well have.

We turned back to the first stories of Luke’s second volume today, the book of Acts. Jesus, alive and well again, is giving final instructions to his closest followers, before He disappears for good. One of His promises is that God will arrive in a new way, to make the Spirit of Jesus present for all. “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (A 1:5)

It is no wonder that cultures around the world have used water in their rituals. Judaism has had washings of hands and so forth. And baptisms. Jesus followed the example, and as with Jewish Passover, He gave baptism a new impact.  

Just think about baptism – full immersion, as we call it – and how it takes quite a bit of water. No challenge for Nova Scotians, but more significant in the Middle East. There was no taking for granted of water in scripture.

Whenever we read of the promise of ‘abundant rain’ in the Bible, it is part of a beautiful picture. It means a lot! Our modern translation of Psalm 68 celebrates with such imagery. God rides upon the clouds and sends showers upon a thirsty land.  Rain poured down.  

Let your people be happy & celebrate because of you!

God is a God of abundance. Perhaps this is the lesson of the rains today. Our Creator and Saviour is not a God of scarcity, but of abundance. God is more abundant than the massive enemies that threaten, whatever they may be. Evil, injustice, apathy, disease, hunger, thirst.

The Biblical way often starts with help for the faithful.

There shall be showers of blessing –

Precious reviving again;

Over the hills and the valleys,

Sound of abundance of rain.

                 Mercy drops ‘round us are falling,

                 But for the showers we plead.

Sometimes, sometimes we plead as if ours is a sorry lot. As if we need so much help and encouragement from our Dear God. We forget how good we’ve got it.

This past week Sharon and I took in the Integrate church leaders conference in Saint Andrews. One theme that came from Dr. Amy Sherman, and others, was the abundance of God. Dr. Amy recommended we embrace an asset-based perspective. In other words, in our churches, we set out sights on all the human resources we have, not what we lack. Not to mention all the valuable things we have at hand. Here, we have a great location, an amazing building, incredible finances, some great ways of doing things, and on and on. We church people can too easily fall into thinking about what is scarce, instead of what is plentiful.

I remember talking once to a colleague, a minister from another church in my town, who had quit coming to the monthly ministerial meetings. He had two reasons, he said, one being the negative conversations every meeting. The other pastors were always bemoaning the non participation of younger people, the competing events people took part in, and so on. This pastor wanted to get together with other ministers who would talk about possibilities, and work together on good things: Outreach and successes.

Is the Spirit of Jesus in our midst like a fountain of living water, or not? Has God dried up? I realize I have been hearing for years about what Amy Sherman called an Asset-based perspective: not a scarcity mindset, an abundance attitude. One way of thinking about it has been spiritual gift focus. We each learn what we are here for in life, and what we can do well, thanks to our Maker.

A big part of how God and Church make the most of us, the people, came to light at last week’s leader’s conference. It was all about integrating people’s faith and their work. What any person does for their work is a place for serving the world in Jesus’ name. Your workplace is a key place to be a disciple of Christ. One of a teacher’s main places to be with God in their life is when they are doing a teacher’s work. So too with a truck driver, or a store clerk, or a lawyer. So too with a retired person, or a work-at-home person. So too in all our volunteer work, in the fire department, the Lions club, the curling club, or the 50+ Club. So too in our time off, our relaxing, our sports, our reading, our relaxing, our cottaging, our travels.

These are the places and the activities we Christians get to do with the Spirit of God. In all our vocations and our vacations we get to make a difference in the world. We are each giving. We are creating. We are cooperating. We are blessing.

Our abundant God can pour out the Spirit upon all the things we do. The flow never dries up. God bless our business deals, buying and selling. Our taking care of grandchildren. Our gardening. Our bass fishing and picking fiddleheads. Our kite flying and our golfing. Our shopping and throwing parties. Our studying and learning, our time around the campfire with loved ones, or attending a Mooseheads game in Halifax or Moncton.

So, what is going on, from a Church, is abundant, even when it is not abundantly clear. Remember, where is First Baptist on Monday afternoon? Where are you going to be? Not here. You and I will be all over the place. And wherever our places, we are the Church there.

God is an abundant God. Each one of us a little raindrop, in the refreshing, deep showers, that water this earthly society. At our better moments, we remember the difference we are making. And when we do do projects together, they are us cooperating to make a difference, to give blessing.

Like our warming centre project. With other churches in town, we met the other day to review the whole thing, which was blessed and is still blessing us by teaching us things. Ashley Legere, of Cumberland Homelessness and Housing Support Association, met with us the other day. Amid a bit of laryngitis she had, she energetically and enthusiastically commended us for the work we did, and how we did it so well together, as a big team. She praised our volunteer teams Big Time! [By the way, CHHSA has just now been able to open the shelter back up during the day, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, seven days a week, now until mid-August.]

The next new things of First Baptist do not need to be inventing new programs that we have to find workers for. It can be finding what we are already doing, and bank on that. Pay attention to God blessing that. Count those human resources, our assets. Showers of blessing are already coming down.

What the Spirit of God will do next with us, together, is an abundant thing. There are quite a few of us. And our other resources are plentiful, as we’ve noticed.

Together… we can even make a difference to the actual, real water of our world. How we use paper makes a difference. Right? How much water gets used in the manufacture of paper? Can be up to five litres for one sheet of paper! So much water becomes wastewater, it is rather nasty, a terrible problem. We can care; we can learn to do some things differently.

And when a congregation learns to do things differently in the organization, that sends a message to all of us. We get prompted to try learning new things at home. And we become a good influence in the wider community.

Jesus sent the fire of the Holy Spirit to His people to make a difference to hungry people. To make a difference to the lakes and rivers. To make a difference to the way people do their jobs, or lack thereof. Can you see it?

It’s raining.

Ain’t it grand?

SERMON: Life & Breath & All Things (Earth Days 4/6)

 10:30 am, Sun, May 14, 2023 - JGWhite/FBCA   (Acts 17:22-31; John 14:15-21)

For the prayer before the preaching, let us quiet ourselves for a breath prayer…

About twenty-five years ago, one of my faithful few people of the Port Greville Baptist Church was in hospital, here in Amherst. Dear Jessie was a delightful woman, with energy and a sense of fun, in the midst of the quiet life she led, of a widowed senior in a quiet village. I remember some fun little stories she told me. She had a lung problem – I forget now if it was emphysema, or COPD, or what – and so she landed in hospital, periodically. I never shall forget, as she paced herself, talking to me, in her hospital bed, with oxygen from a tube, as she said, “When you can’t breathe, nothing else matters.”

You can’t deny that!

Today, another ‘earth day’ Sunday for us, this time with the theme of AIR. It is said of fish they don’t know what water is; but they must. We know what air is. We know it when we need to breathe deeply, or hold our breath. We know it when it blows strongly in north Cumberland County. We know it when we smell smoke, or mayflowers, or a skunk, or supper burning in the kitchen, or any other common stink. I recently gave a staff member a birthday gift, a book titled: Jesus Farted and Other Uncomfortable Thoughts.

On the other hand, do we know when the wind of God the Holy Spirit is blowing in the midst?

Breathe on me, Breath of God,

Fill me with life anew,

That I may love as Thou dost love

And do as Thou wouldst do.

I am, in these earth day weeks, treading a fine line. The line between preaching a Bible study about religious ideas, using the images of earth, air, water, and so forth. Or, preaching about creation, the environment, and things like the climate crisis or the big extinction that is happening now.

Today, from the four scriptures for this Sunday of the year, I took two: Acts 17 and John 14. Sometimes I feel that I am performing eisegesis, which is not a swear word. E I S E G E S I S, eisegesis, is taking Bible verses and putting your meaning into them, instead of being influenced by the holy text itself. (That’s called exegesis – the meaning coming out of it.)

 The words of Paul, preaching one day in Athens, Greece, sound wonderful for a sermon about the air we breathe. God “gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.” This was common ground for Paul and his audience, in general: there is a Creator, and our life, including our breathing, is a gift. But the points of Paul’s sermon were about God, who God is, how to worship and relate to this God. And it happens through a Human who was raised back to life: started breathing again.

At the basis of Christian thinking and living are facts like: physical life is a gift, including the oxygen we breathe in, and the carbon dioxide we breathe out, along with a lot of nitrogen, other gasses, and material of all sorts. ‘Life and breath and all things’ does pretty much cover everything. With everything we have, getting along well with the Source is a great thing to have going for us.

So much of our talk – and music – in Church just uses things like ‘breath’ as a metaphor for spiritual stuff. This is a biblical thing to do. It can be poignant and beautiful.

                 Spirit, Spirit of gentleness,

                 Blow through the wilderness

                 Calling and free…

But if we have no breath in our lungs, our living here is done, & we won’t have the Breath of the Spirit in us here either.

On Mother’s Day quite a few people (of course not all) think with fondness of the good things they got from their mothers. Air, breath, is one of them. Most of us spent about nine months on the inside, and where did the oxygen we needed come from then? The body that was our home, our mother.

All together, we realize for earth the lungs are the plants (mainly) on land and in the waters. They take in CO2, and turn that gas into two things: wood and other solid material, as well as O2 gas, which they release in great amounts. These plants are solar powered: there’s the energy they use to do this. ‘Mother Earth,’ or ‘Gaia,’ the whole environment, is something we are part of, and don’t live without. Remember that canticle Francis of Assisi composed, saying to God:

Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Mother Earth.

who sustains us and governs us and who produces

varied fruits with coloured flowers and herbs.

These days, eight hundred years after St. Francis, we see a climate crisis. Praise be God through brother wind, and through the air, cloudy and serene, which warns us of many things. All that surrounds us sustains and governs us. This is part of how God sustains and governs us. We know it is not just the supernatural that proves God or intervenes in our lives. It is the natural, every day, that keeps us living and shows us the way.

So, the Spirit of God points us toward creation care. You may well know that in the Hebrew Bible and the Greek Bible the words for ‘spirit’ are the same words for ‘wind’ and for ‘breath.’ Both the immaterial Spirit of God and the physical atmosphere govern us.

I think climate change is to bring about a spiritual change in Christianity. And physical changes. (Such as how we use paper, perhaps?) Change is beginning. Like several other important challenges of our age, the environment is calling for it’s own health and salvation. Practical projects are popping up.

An old friend in Annapolis County was telling me about things in her congregation, including little crocheted animals they are making and selling. Lots going on in our church, wrote Janet. We are working on a project to raise funds for our solar panels that are going on the church roof.  It involves making 480 "Worry Worms" that we are calling "Earth Worms" to tie the sale of the worms to our efforts to improve the environment.  We are aiming to sell 480 because the panels cost $480 each and we want to symbolically sell enough to cover the cost of one solar panel.  A couple other women have agreed to learn how to make them, and they went to my friend’s house for a crochet lesson.

Let us be grateful for the messages we are hearing from the air we breathe, from fellow humans: our siblings in Christ, and the inner voice we call the Breath of God. A worship song says:

This is the air I breathe,

This is the air I breathe,

Your holy presence living in me.

May we be aware of the presence of God, who can turn the page of a new chapter for us. A chapter of touching the earth lightly, using the earth gently. We do this for everyone’s breath.

“When you can’t breathe, nothing else matters.” This is true for the atmosphere going in and out of our lungs, and the leaves of each plant; and it is true for the values and the spirituality we share – for our spirit. So, we do not take for granted the life, and breath, and all things we and our world have been given. Thanks be to the Breath of God!