April 23,2023
“Seven Generation Thinking”
Sermon by Rev. Trip Porch
April 23, 2023
Back when I was in college and was considering things I could possibly do post college, I checked out a program of the presbyterian church called the Young Adult Volunteer program. It’s part of the Global missions of the presbyterian church and it sends young adults around the world to spend a year in service, kind of like the peace corps but rooted in the church and its partner churches around the world.
I had been on several short-term mission trips before, going for a week or so to do work with our global mission partners, work that I think helped transform me and my worldview likely more than I helped to transform the communities we were serving.
Recognizing that more time might enable me to do more good, I was interested in what it might look like to do this longer term by joining this program and volunteering my time to support the churches’ work globally. But I remember at that time in college, a year felt like an eternity, I couldn’t imagine spending that long of a time away from my family and friends. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to make that much of a commitment to something.
It was around this time that I learned something really interesting. The Presbyterian church Mission offices actually considers the year-long young adult volunteer program “Short-term mission.” In fact, they consider any mission work up to two years in the field, short-term. I remember learning that and asking them… “Two years?! That’s short term?!”
But the mission offices responded, “Yes, for our purposes, it is. Our mission work is focused on partnership with local people and local agencies. And that sort of partnering work takes time. Building relationships is a long-term game and you can’t even begin to touch the work we hope to accomplish with our partners in under two years.”
While this was a shocking revelation to a young me, now, I can’t help but think about how wise and faithful this thinking was.
On a global scale, things take time and sustained investment, and when you zoom out to that scale of things you have to think long-term.
But, we live in a short term world. For much of our day-to-day and for much of our society, short-term successes are rewarded over long-term wellness. We buy things because they are cheap and have short-term benefit on our wallets, even if they are disposable, and fill our landfills and our oceans with trash that won’t go away for millennia. We buy cars for ourselves and fill them with gas because it is cheap and convenient, even though prioritizing our comfort and ease in the short term has negative impacts on all of us in the long term.
However, it’s not just our direct individual short-term thinking. Representatives in the state house and in congress are elected to serve two-year terms and therefore make plans on that two-year short timeline. Thinking about what quick wins they can get to hold on to power, rather than making decisions for everyone’s long term benefit. Businesses try to be nimble by making plans looking to the next quarter of the year, they project their earnings and form strategies. They think about short-term benefit for their bottom line and their shareholders and rarely do they consider the long term or global impact of their decisions.
It seems we as a species have suffered from our short-term thinking and caused much of our planet to suffer as well with this mindset. So much of our life, the priorities we have, the decisions we make, all operate in this short-term time scale. I consider what will ensure my success and my flourishing now, and let tomorrow’s challenges wait for tomorrow. But this short-term perspective not only limits us, it can also be detrimental to us, to our neighbors, and to our world.
We are capable of thinking differently. I learned this week of a concept that comes from indigenous cultures. It is an ancient concept that traces its origins to the Iroquois people. It is something that has apparently been taught to chiefs and tribal councils for many many years and is a concept taken very seriously. It’s called Seven Generation thinking.
It's the idea that when making decisions we should not just consider the impact of our actions on ourselves and not even our children, but also on our grandchildren, and their grandchildren, and so on, up to seven generations into the future. That we should take into account our decision’s impact not just on ourselves and the people around us now, but on those who are to come, those who we will actually never get to meet. It’s a concept that has regained popularity because, as you might imagine, actions that take into account the welfare of people seven generations from now are going to be some of the most sustainable decisions possible.
Our scriptures today are brief little snippets of incredibly important moments between God and humanity where God meets with a person, and makes a lasting covenant with them, a mutual promise, or a contract.
It strikes me though, that God, in each of these scriptures, in each of these covenants, isn’t just covenanting with Noah, or Abraham, or Moses, but with their children, and their children’s children, all of their descendants. In other words, God isn’t just focused on the present and thinking about what best serves immediate needs. When God acts, God is taking into account people in every generation to come. God is the ultimate seven generation thinker, and then some because when God acts it is not just for the benefit of a certain group of people, but for the benefit of all of creation.
As children of God we are called to think like this as well. To consider how our actions impact our neighbor, and those around us in the present, but also consider how our actions impact those well into the future.
But I’ll be honest, that’s a hard place to begin.
I rarely know how to plan for my weekend let alone think about what might benefit people seven generations away. That’s something like 360 years. That’s the year 2383.
If it helps you to start thinking long-term, there is another interpretation of the Iroquois seven generation concept. It places us in the center of the seven generations with 180 years to either side of us. Where we are the recipients of the repercussions made three generations ago and two generations ago and one generation ago while also remembering that our actions now, will impact those who will come.
We are all linked together.
As I was considering this concept it occurred to me that our church stands just about right there, started roughly three generations ago. We stand on their shoulders, their actions have led us to where we are now, both in great ways and difficult ways. We still live with their decisions. In the same way that how we live now will impact the church that will still be here in generations to come. How will we live now to seek the welfare and thriving of the community that will be here 180 years from now?
As children of God, let us faithfully covenant to live in a way that reflects God. That avoids short term short-lived success and instead emphasizes long term global impact.
May it be so, for our sake, for the sake of our children, for the sake of our children’s children, and for the sake of all of god’s creation. Amen.
WE GATHER IN AWE AND PRAISE
PRELUDE
CONGREGATION GATHERING SONG # 21
WELCOME Rev. Trip Porch
*CALL TO WORSHIP from Iona Abbey Creation Liturgy
One: God above us – trees, birds and sunshine, stars and moonlight –
All: God above us.
One: God beneath us – earth, rocks and rivers, roots and caverns
All: God beneath us.
One: God around us – seas, winds and cities, animals and people
All: God around us.
One: God within us – hope, tears and laughter, love and wonder –
All: God within us.
One: God above us, God beneath us, God around us, God within us,
All we celebrate that you made us, you love us and you call us to work and rest with you.
*HYMN NO. 714 “God of the Fertile Fields” Jackson Crane - Trumpet
*PRAYER OF CONFESSION Adapted from John Birch Peter Maurath
You have given us a world of beauty, and we have spoiled it.
A world to feed us, and so many go hungry.
A world of riches, and we are unwilling to share.
You have come again and again to this world
reaching out your hand in restorative relationship with us,
and yet we live only for ourselves, only for today.
Forgive us, gracious God,
every time your heart is saddened by our selfishness,
every time we have no thought for others, no cares but ours.
Enable us to see this world as a gift from you
To be cherished, preserved, and allowed to flourish.
We ask this that your name may be glorified,
through the beauty of this world,
and the service of our lives…
*ASSURANCE OF PARDON
*RESPONSE OF PRAISE 591 “Halle, Halle, Hallelujah!” HALLE, HALLE
*PASSING OF THE PEACE
One: The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all,
All: And also with you.
WE LISTEN FOR GOD’S WORD
ANTHEM Morning Has Broken arr. Harry Simeone
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
SCRIPTURE
Genesis 9:8-10 Noahic Covenant
God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “I am now setting up my covenant with you, with your descendants, and with every living being with you—with the birds, with the large animals, and with all the animals of the earth, leaving the ark with you.
Genesis 17:7-9 Abrahamic Covenant
“I will set up my covenant with you and your descendants after you in every generation as an enduring covenant. I will be your God and your descendants’ God after you. I will give you and your descendants the land in which you are immigrants, the whole land of Canaan, as an enduring possession. And I will be their God.”
Deuteronomy 11:18-21 Mosaic Covenant
Place these words I’m speaking on your heart and in your very being. Tie them on your hand as a sign. They should be on your forehead as a symbol. Teach them to your children, by talking about them when you are sitting around your house and when you are out and about, when you are lying down and when you are getting up. Write them on your house’s doorframes and on your city’s gates. Do all that so your days and your children’s days on the fertile land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors are many—indeed, as many as the number of days that the sky’s been over the earth!
One: Holy Wisdom, Holy Word All: Thanks be to God
CHILDREN’S MESSAGE Dorothy Kyle
SERMON
*HYMN NO. 713 “Touch the Earth Lightly”
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH from a speech by Chief Seattle in 1854:
One: This we know, the earth does not belong to us:
All: we belong to the earth.
One: This we know, all things are connected:
All: like the blood which unites one family.
One: For we did not weave the web of life:
All: we are merely a strand of it.
One: Whatever we do to the web,
All: we do to ourselves.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE followed by the Lord’s Prayer by Dominican nuns in Kansas
Pulpit Side: Our Father
Font Side: Our Mother
Pulpit: Who art in heaven
Font: Who are in all the earth
Pulpit: Hallowed be thy name
Font: Holy is your truth
Pulpit: Thy kingdom come
Font: May your wisdom come
Pulpit: Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven
Font: Your circle be one uniting heaven and earth
Pulpit: Give us this day our daily bread
Font: Give us today a nurturing spirit
Pulpit: And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
Font: Heal through us as we ourselves are healed
Pulpit: Lead us not into temptation
Font: Lead us into Fullness of life
Pulpit: But deliver us from evil
Font: And liberate all that is good
Pulpit: For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory
Font: For the Wisdom, Presence and the Goodness are Yours
All: Now and forever Amen.
TIME OF OFFERING
*OFFERTORY RESPONSE Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow LASST UNS ERFREUEN
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise God, all creatures high and low.
Alleluia, alleluia
Praise God in Jesus fully known:
Creator, Word, and Spirit one.
Alleluia, alleluia!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
Text: Brian Wren, 1989
*PRAYER OF DEDICATION
Gracious God, May every gift you’ve entrusted to our care be used to ensure the abundant future you’ve envisioned for everything now living, and everything to come. Thank you for the beauty and wonder of your creation, and for the privilege of being called to care for it. Guide us in our efforts to protect and preserve it for generation after generation.
*HYMN NO. 37 “Let All Things Now Living” Jackson Crane - Trumpet
TIME OF COMMUNITY SAHRING
Moment for Mission Nehemiah Action – B.R.E.A.D. Susan Shockey
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION
CHORAL RESPONSE #23 “God, You Spin the Whirling Planets” vs 3 PLEADING SAVIOR
God, your word is still creating,
Calling us to life made new.
Now reveal to us fresh vistas
Where there’s work to dare and do.
Keep us clear of all distortion.
Polish us with loving care.
Thus, new creatures in your image,
We’ll proclaim Christ everywhere.
Text: Jane Parker Huber
POSTLUDE