We need Creation

While, traditionally, we have been taught to view ourselves as separate from and superior to the created world, in reality we are just one part of it. We are one with and dependent on the Cosmos and our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health all require us to commune and stay connected with the natural world.  

Our concrete jungles and obsession with technology and controlling Nature have left us with empty souls and a sick planet.

While many of us are drawn to spend time in nature, we often do so not as beloved companions of the natural world and its inhabitants, but as tourists in search of novel experiences, after which we return to our human-centric routines and rhythms. These excursions into Nature may soothe and calm us for a time, but we soon forget our kinship with Creation and are once again carried along by the careless currents of our culture.

This is why we need to be more deliberate in setting aside time for rituals and reflections that remind us of our need both to care for the Earth and to draw comfort and nourishment from her. We need to be awakened again to our interdependence with Creation and called back to ways that are kinder and more sustainable for us and our world. This is the work of healthy spiritual practice.

It is good for our souls to give ourselves time and space to remember that we belong to the Earth and that we are both recipients of her gifts and stewards called to protect and preserve her and all of her human and non-human creatures. And so, with this in mind, I am excited to share this new Liturgical and Devotional Guide from Sacredise:

Better Than We Thought!
A Reflection on Faith and Science for a Season of Creation  

It was Carl Sagan who challenged the world’s religions when he said,
How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, “This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant!”? Instead they say, “No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.” A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.

With this as the springboard, Better Than We Thought! seeks to explore the relationship with faith and science, and how these two windows on the world can teach us to:  

● Fall in love with the mystery of our Cosmos,
● Learn the life-giving vocabulary of Creation,
● Find our home in the Earth,
● And experience Cosmic salvation and our oneness with the universe. 

Better Than We Thought!
is available in three options:

BETTER THAN WE THOUGHT!
Liturgical Guide includes:
● Purpose written prayers and liturgies for every Sunday of the series;
● Reflections to inspire your sermons;
● Gathering, Responding, and Integrating liturgies to make your worship inspiring, participative, and transforming;
● A theme-based Table Liturgy that can be used at any service;
● Theme-based graphics for your projection software, including welcome screens and backgrounds for song lyrics, liturgies, and sermon notes;
● Décor suggestions both to create a visual focus in your sanctuary, and as an aid for reflection in the services (see Chapter One);
● A short meditation video (designed for use in week one, but that can be used in any service of the series).

BETTER THAN WE THOUGHT!
Devotional Guide includes:
● Preparing, Responding, and Integrating practices for every day of the series to ensure that you can easily apply the message of the Scriptures to your own life; 
● Copies of the reflections for each service for quick reference in daily devotional practice;
● Daily reflection questions to enable you to listen more deeply to the message of the Scriptures and apply it to tour life and relationships;
● Guidelines for creating a personal altar or visual focus to aid you in your meditations (see Chapter One).
BETTER THAN WE THOUGHT!
Bundle includes:
Designed for communities that want to journey together, while also providing a meaningful personal journey for congregation members, the Bundle includes both the Liturgical and the Devotional Guides. It also includes a license to share the Devotional Guide through any or all of the following channels: 
● Printed handouts to distribute to congregation members; 
● Digital copies sent to members via email; 
● Posted on your church's social media channels; 
● Posted on your church's website.

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Better Than We Thought!
includes the following chapters:

Chapter 1 - Two Windows on the World
As we spend time meditating on creation and how it reveals God to us, we need science to join us in the journey. Because without it, we miss so much that God seeks to offer.

Chapter 2 - Falling in Love with Mystery
The invitation to be people of faith is an invitation into the wonderful, vibrant mystery of life at play in every corner of the universe. It is to the childlike wonder of curiosity, questioning, experimentation, and evolving knowledge. And it is to the deep and inescapable awareness of our kinship and belonging with the whole of creation.

Chapter 3 - Letting Creation Speak
When we allow science to teach us the vocabulary of creation—that evidence is divine communication (Michael Dowd)—our experience of God, our world, other people, and even ourselves becomes so much richer, more nuanced, and more complex, in a good way.

Chapter 4 - At Home in the Earth
All lovers know that one of the most profoundly loving things that one person can do for another is to enter into their world, learn how it works and what makes it sacred, and share the wonder of another’s experience of being. The same is true of our relationship with the earth. If we truly love nature, we must enter into the world of nature on its own terms and allow it to teach us its secrets.

Chapter 5 - Cosmic Salvation
When we become participants in the priceless gift of cosmic salvation, we become participants with Christ in bringing God’s design to fulfilment. We become, in the power of the Spirit, those who contribute—in the small daily decisions and actions of our lives—to moving the universe a little closer to becoming one and whole in Christ.

Chapter 6 - One with the Universe
No matter what grief, despair, or destruction we may face, the trajectory of the universe—and of our lives—is always toward unity and wholeness. And so all that is required is for us to embrace salvation with our whole selves and allow it to be the guiding energy of our lives and relationships. And when we do that, the time of creation’s waiting for God’s final liberation is reduced just that little bit more.