Ancient Wisdom and The Soul

The theme of Ancient Wisdom has captured my attention and my imagination. For many summer vacations, I have found the greatest sense of the sacred and the peace of God when I out in nature and especially in the mountains amongst the trees. I am thankful that the wisdom of nature is being recognized in a bigger way presently as there is still much more to learn. I am also thankful to those people who made it a priority to set aside preserved land for future generations.

John Muir, the Sierra Club, and the U.S. National Park System share a deeply intertwined history that shaped modern American environmentalism. Their combined legacy reflects the shift from raw exploitation of public lands to permanent preservation, as well as an evolving understanding of environmental justice. John Muir, Scottish-born naturalist, author, and philosopher(1838–1914) spent decades wandering the American West, particularly California’s Sierra Nevada range and has been given the unofficial title of "Father of the National Parks”.

One thing I appreciate about John Muir is his ability to find the sacred within the natural as this quote summarizes it nicely: "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” (My First Summer in the Sierra, 1911)

I will be giving a sermon this Sunday that draws upon the ancient wisdom given in the parable of the landowner who pays laborers to work in the vineyard found in Matthew 20:1-16. Join us as you are able!