Lesson Goals/Hopes
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Participants will examine their attitudes toward nature and compare and contrast
them with the ideas presented in the essay.
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Participants will broaden their understanding of community to include the
community of creation.
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Participants will learn from each other about parts of the natural world that class
members value. They will identify actions that could help sustain these aspects of
nature.
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Participants will be inspired to work on the spiritual practices or household
practices suggested.
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ReplyDelete1. How do you most often experience the natural world? Is it:
ReplyDelete• a place of wonder or a bug‐infested wilderness that is usually too cold, hot, wet or dry?
• a green blur or an enticing invitation to discovery?
• a warehouse of natural resources or a gallery of old friends and happy memories?
• a backdrop for human activity or a revelation of God’s love?
How do you balance or shape these competing perspectives?
2. What parts of the natural world do you connect with at a deep level? This could be a place,
a plant, an animal, a view or something else.
3. In what ways has creation taught you about God? Are you open to learning from this
source? What nature metaphors for God or Christ are meaningful to you?
4. How might the idea that the Earth ultimately belongs to God guide us in our relationship to
the natural world today?
5. How do you respond to the idea of nature as a broader community that we are a part of? Do
you agree with Woodley that “community of creation” is an appropriate contemporary translation of the phrase, “kingdom of God?” How might this idea guide us in our
relationship to the natural world today? (In his book, Shalom and the Community of Creation: An Indigenous Vision, Cherokee theologian
Randy Woodley suggests that the phrase, “community of creation” would be an appropriate
contemporary translation of the Kingdom of God that Jesus preached. Today, most of us have no
connection to kings and associate them with an archaic and hierarchical form of government.
“Community of creation” emphasizes Jesus’ continuity with the shalom traditions of the Hebrew
Bible and hopefully leaves behind the unfortunate military directions that “kingdom” inspired at
some points in Christian history. It also alludes to Christ’s role as creator as well as redeemer. For Woodley, the “community of creation” is an important conceptual bridge between Christianity and the emphasis on harmony that is part of Native American traditions. Randy Woodley, Shalom and the Community of Creation: An Indigenous Vision.)
These are some other questions that we might talk about on Sunday:
ReplyDeleteCircle Questions
1. What biome is your community in? Biomes are defined as large geographical areas of distinctive plant and animal groups, such as grasslands, deciduous forests, deserts, etc. Where else in the world is this biome found? To what extent are the plants and animals characteristic of this biome present in your community
and healthy?
2. What natural areas are present within your 25‐mile circle? What do you know about them?
What do you wish you knew? Which of these do you and your class members make use of?
3. What plant and animal species inhabit your church property? Learn their names and a little
bit about them.