Living the Word

by Pastor Ken Miller Rieman

…let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Amos 5.24

Do you know your watershed?  Do you know the path which water takes toward the sea when it falls on the land around your home?  Prior to the advent of motorized vehicles, and before the installation of urban sewers and water supply lines, our forebears knew the waterways of their communities as we know our streets.  Some of humankind’s first maps were lines that marked the places where creeks joined rivers.  Maps have always marked points of navigation and interest, but few of the maps we use these days give us much information about our waterways.

Honestly, this is understandable.  We’ve learned to trust those who handle the supply and disposal of our water and they don’t require too much of us in return.  We just cut them a check every now and then and they deliver the single most important thing that we consume.  But that is beginning to change.  In the last half of the last century, water became a serious concern for the majority of the world’s population.  The majority of global deaths due to preventable disease occur for lack of safe and adequate water for drinking and sanitation.  Millions of people walk miles each day just to obtain their water.  Increasingly, concerns over access to water are fueling conflict and violence.

This last weekend, John Jones, co-manager of our district’s Camp Myrtlewood in Oregon’s coast range gave me a tour of the Myrtle Creek, which runs through the camp.  With a background in forest ecology, and 23 years of experience at the camp, John has come to some key understandings about the role water plays in our lives and about the way society’s attitudes about water and the land effect God’s creation.

This summer, our youth will have the opportunity to participate in a work camp at Myrtlewood which is restoring Myrtle Creek to its natural state.  I’ve always thought that the creek looked beautiful, but I had no idea that my ideal for beauty had been shaped by an ignorance of what a healthy creek system actually looks like.  It turns out that the very things I used to think of as ‘cleaning up’ a waterway can actually cause it deep damage.  And it also turns out that a damaged creek means a damaged forest.  One of the primary sources of nutrients in Northwest forests is salmon.  Salmon bring energy from oceans to wildlife and plants thousands of miles away.  Whole species of animals and plants depend utterly on salmon!  When humans clear log-jams and boulders out of streams, they destroy salmon habitat.  When we clear-cut trees, mud flowing into streams suffocates their eggs.  When we re-plant the clear-cuts, we lose the diversity of plant species which make the whole system stable.  When we lose our old-growth timber, the forests which grow in their place are very susceptible to drought and forest fire.

Fortunately, we’ve learned a whale of a lot in the last twenty years about the way forests and streams really work.  In the three years since Myrtlewood’s restoration work began, salmon have begun to spawn again at the camp.  Dozens of youth have learned to see the natural consequences of their personal lifestyle choices.  Most importantly, we are finding a better way to live on this earth.

Lent is the season of repentance.  It is the time when we look carefully within ourselves and at the ways we live to see whether we can find a better way.  In biblical terms, this means learning to be bringers of justice and righteousness to a dry and thirsty land.  It is no surprise that the ancient Hebrew prophet Amos offered a vision of God’s justice and righteousness rolling down the hills like waters and an ever-flowing stream.

Let’s use this time to learn about our watersheds.  Let’s learn about how we can bring the flow of God’s justice and righteousness, long polluted and paved over, back to the light of our day.  And in so doing, we will bear witness to the ever-flowing life of Christ in our midst.

- Pastor Ken