Seminary Journal 2008 (August) - Virginia Theological Seminary

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St. Francis’ perspective on water can be instructive for us today as we look at our topic. As a result of his intense and intimate companionship with Christ, Francis saw all things and all persons including those most marginalized – and in his day these were the lepers – as revelatory of Christ. Everything spoke of and bore witness to God’s goodness and mercy. The tiniest insect to the highest mountain participated in the mystery of God’s self-disclosure most fully expressed in the Incarnation. The Word made fl esh in Jesus means that the world around us is Christic to its very core. The second person of the Trinity, according to Scripture and the Great Tradition, is intimately involved in the unfolding mystery of creation. For Francis water creation in fulfi lling its purpose – which in the case of water is being useful and precious in its lifegivingness – is an act of praise: “Glorify the Lord, O springs of water, seas and streams…praise him and highly exalt him forever,” we sing in the course of Morning Prayer. Water glorifi es the Lord by being what God intended water to be, a sacrament – an outward and visible sign of God’s desire revealed in Christ to impart and sustain life. In an early account of Francis’s life with his brother friars there is a passage in which we are told: “Next to fi re he had a singular love for 38 VIRGINIA SEMINARY JOURNAL AUGUST 2007
water through which holy penance and tribulation is symbolized and by which the fi lth of the soul is washed clean and because of which the fi rst cleansing of the soul takes place through the waters of Baptism. Because of this, when he washed his hands, he chose a place where the water that fell to the ground would not be trampled underfoot.” To withhold or contaminate water; to be unconscious or deliberately unaware of brothers and sisters who lack water and all else that upholds their wellbeing and dignity, is to stand against the very One under whom this nation of ours has placed itself: the one whom we invoke so freely with the self-assured confi dence of those who feel that they are specially privileged and are largely unburdened by the weight of responsibility to attend to the cry of the thirsty and the poor. I speak here of those who thirst not simply for water to drink, but for an equitable sharing of resources. Such a sharing will demand on the part of many of us a transformation of consciousness such that we regard the world around us as gift rather than possession. This gift has been given not just to the rich and technologically advanced nations. It is intended for the fl ourishing of the whole human family and all living things. Unfortunately, however, according to one estimate, approximately 80 percent of all diseases and one-third of the deaths in the developing world are the result of contaminated water. This statistic leaves aside the whole question of sustained drought, which plagues vast portions of the globe that are least able to address the problem. Designer water at $100 a bottle in an upscale Philadelphia restaurant is a cruel and bitterly ironic contrast to a battered VIRGINIA SEMINARY JOURNAL AUGUST 2007 tank truck lurching along dusty roads in Malawi carrying water to a droughtstricken village where people and fi elds lie prostrate in the unrelenting heat of the midday sun. “Sister water who is so very useful and humble and precious and chaste” is nowhere to be seen. Not only are many of the world’s people groaning under the burden of extreme poverty and disease but, as Paul tells us in the letter to the Romans “the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now,” waiting for its own redemption. And I might say here parenthetically that the devastation of our planet, “this fragile earth, our island home,” occasioned by our greed, self-interest and uncaring, is the external manifestation of our own interior barrenness and poverty of soul. In the groaning of abused creation we hear external expression of our own interior disorder and selfi shness. The great fl ood described in Genesis which covered the face of the earth was brought about because “the Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth.” The exact nature of that wickedness is never defi ned. Can we not therefore ask if our own wickedness with regard to the environment is just as much a cause of violent changes in weather patterns with their attendant natural disasters, as was the wickedness and evil, the inclinations of the human heart that provoked the fl ood in Noah’s day? Global warming attended by severe changes in weather patterns is a reality, as is the fact that we, along with other nations, must acknowledge responsibility for these warming trends owning to our profl igate and undisciplined use of the earth’s resources. Does God, once again, regret that he made humankind? This time “Does God, once again, regret that he made humankind? This time around God does not need to devastate the earth. We are quite capable of doing it ourselves.” 39
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Page 5 and 6: VTS as our next Dean and President.
Page 7 and 8: ing this commemoration on the day o
Page 9 and 10: “I am convinced that the moral ar
Page 11 and 12: “If you continue in my Word you a
Page 13 and 14: speak—that silence was complicit.
Page 15 and 16: while Gandhi gave us the method.”
Page 17 and 18: and said, “Where is Burundi?” [
Page 19: A Refl ection on the VTS Racial and
Page 22 and 23: Isaiah 40:6-8, 21-24, 28-31 Psalm 7
Page 24 and 25: The prophet Isaiah acknowledges tha
Page 26 and 27: I met Martha Horne in front of Aspi
Page 28 and 29: This has been a very wonderful fami
Page 30 and 31: “There should be something in the
Page 32 and 33: A Celebration in Thanksgiving for t
Page 34 and 35: Julia and Malina Cochran, daughters
Page 36 and 37: The Water of Life 34 VIRGINIA SEMIN
Page 38 and 39: “Designer water at $100 a bottle
Page 42 and 43: around God does not need to devasta
Page 44 and 45: The Need for a Theology of Water: T
Page 46 and 47: “Who gets the water is a matter o
Page 48 and 49: federal government could prepare an
Page 50 and 51: deal with than surface water, after
Page 52 and 53: “The change in vision that we nee
Page 54 and 55: Preaching is a privilege. I thank y
Page 56 and 57: changing of direction. I went back
Page 58 and 59: device ever invented—and it is th
Page 60 and 61: When the Rivers Run Dry: Water, the
Page 62 and 63: else of water and to empty rivers a
Page 64 and 65: serves. I am old enough to remember
Page 66 and 67: purposes, such as fi lling the taps
Page 68 and 69: Commencement Address to the Class o
Page 70 and 71: daughter on the eve of All Saints
Page 72 and 73: even, it is okay. It means that you
Page 74 and 75: Newland F. Smith 3rd Librarian Seab
Page 76 and 77: COMMENCEMENT 2007 continued The Rev
Page 78 and 79: Isaiah 25:6-9 Psalm 121 Romans 8:14
Page 80 and 81: and I know that even now God will g
Page 82 and 83: A Sermon for Maxine Shelly Turner (
Page 84 and 85: Michael Battle and Stephen Edmondso
Page 86 and 87: Betty M Glover Priest-In-Charge Tri
Page 88 and 89: Dr. Chris McConnachie, who is an or
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Good morning. Separation of church
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when I heard him tell the chaplain
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media’s fault? Yes, to some exten
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Virginia Seminary Welcomes Its New
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Seminary, sharing their life storie
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ANNUAL GIVING Annual Giving is a co
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Your generosity also helped the Sem
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Help provide for the financial futu
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The Rev. Ronald G. Abrams The Rev.
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Dr. and Mrs. William G. Thomas III
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The Henry St. George Tucker Society
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Mr. and Mrs. Richard G. Abbott, ‘
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The Rev. S. F. James Abbott, ‘66
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The Rev. Catherine M. Thompson, ‘
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The Rev. John R. Frizzell, Jr., ‘
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Anita Wheatcroft The Rev. G. Richar
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The Rev. A. Moody Burt The Rev. Dr.
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The Rev. William H. Burk The Rev. J
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The 14th anniversary of my ordinati
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Kreitler Environmental Fund The Kre
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St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Ne
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The Rev. and Mrs. Gary L. Abbott, S
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Mr. and Mrs. James C. Hamilton, Jr.
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Mr. Emil M. Sunley The Rev. and Mrs
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volume weave together the familiar,
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and in “Throwing the things away,
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and American Evangelicals: Friends
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The Center for Lifetime Theological
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Seminary Journal 2008 (August) - Virginia Theological Seminary

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