Sounding Board

Episcopal bishop reflects on the sacred waters

 

Speaking at the Columbia River Transboundary Governance Symposium Nov. 23 and 24 at Gonzaga University, Bishop Gretchen Rehberg of the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane offered a call to bear witness to "our passion for sacred waters."

 I grew up outside of Pullman and spent long days along the rivers of our area. As a person of faith, and as one who grew up here and lives here now, I come here.

We thank you, God, for the gift of water. When we baptize someone in the Episcopal Church, we start by giving thanks for the gift of water. Over it, we say, the Holy Spirit moved in the beginning of creation, through it, God led the children of Israel out of slavery, in it, Jesus received the baptism of John and was anointed by the Holy Spirit. We continue to thank God for water, for what it means to us today as we are washed, healed and restored to life. Water is sacred from the beginning and is sacred to this day.

Our sacred stories tell us that not only is water sacred, but also all of creation is as well, and that we are all interconnected, part of each other. In the first story of creation in Genesis, we hear God act every day and call it good, and only after everything is created, only after all are named and put in relationship one to another, does God say it is very good. In my tradition, humans are not called to be separated from the rest of creation. We are part of creation and called to be stewards of creation.

The challenge is that for too long many of us—those who are Christians and of Western European origin, for I will only speak for my own people—too many of us thought humans were given the rest of creation as a gift to do with whatever we wanted, took for granted that water and fish, soil and air, plants and animals would always be there for us. Too slowly we have come to see the harm we did when we took the word "steward" and changed it to "owner."

A steward does not own, a steward only acts on behalf of another. We were invited to steward creation, to care for it and nurture it as God's own. Instead, we took it as ours. We lost the sacred connection we have to the land and waters, the fish, birds and animals, the soil and the plants. We lost that we are all one.

In the Episcopal Church and many others, we also have the means to change our ways. We confess our sins, lament our actions, repent and amend our life. At times, we have to do this over and over and over again.

We have as a church recognized our own complicity in the exploitation of our natural resources, and our need to work for justice, advocacy and education in areas of creation care, indigenous rights and climate change. The Episcopal Church repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery in 2009, the first to do so in the Christian world, rejecting that evil heresy that justified taking by violent means land that was already being stewarded. We have joined in the call for Indigenous peoples around the world to have the right of self-determination.

When I was a college student, from the Palouse going to college in Tennessee, I remember explaining that a big issue in local politics back home was water rights. It took me a long time to realize that the term "rights" with respect to water implied ownership and privatization. We took something freely given and sold it, offered it to corporations, fought over it and depleted it.

I don't want to romanticize a particular time or culture, humans have from the start fought over natural resources, especially when they seem scarce, but I wonder how life today would be different if we had used different language such as water stewardship, or as our scripture says, living water.

Living water, that which over, in and through carries life. Life such as salmon, a beautiful creature in and of itself, not just a means of food for us, and a means of life for other parts of creation. From the eagle and bear to the first peoples and to today, salmon provides sustenance that carries life. The salmon is connected to all of us in ways beyond simply being sustenance. The salmon represents a way of life that is deeply connected and life giving.

I was taught that to care for the earth and water was the right thing to do. Later I came to know that care also meant thinking about how to sustain soil and water. Later, I have come to hear the call to talk about the relationship and reciprocity we have with all creation, soil and water, plants and animals, sea and sky.

To simply think about sustainable agriculture is still a mindset of taking, making sure we work in such a way that we can always take. Relationship and reciprocity invite us to a mindset that asks what do we give? What are we called to give the rivers and lakes, the sea and sky? What are we called to give to the soil, plants and animals?

How does our relationship be relational, not just one taking but also one giving. How do we understand we are to give to the salmon as much as we would take from them. We are not the owners of salmon, but we are in community with them.

As a follower of Jesus, I am called to pattern my life after the life of Christ, and to live my life in alignment with the call of God from the beginning of time. This life is not one of ownership. It is one of stewardship, working for the creator on behalf of the good of creation.

Our current world makes this difficult. We are removed from the natural world in many ways. We can simply purchase meat and fish in a store and never think how they came to be there. We allow corporations to buy access to water and then purchase water in plastic bottles. We drive in cars that pollute the air over roads that don't allow the rain to replenish the earth. I am as guilty of this as anyone, for I live in this world, drive a car, shop at the market and at times buy a plastic bottle of water.

I also am committed to seeking the good of all—truly being in a relationship of reciprocity with all creation, I am committed in my faith to the life of a steward. As the bishop, part of my call is to invite my congregation, the members and the wider church to this vision of a kingdom of heaven which has springs of living waters, where justice flows like rivers and righteousness like an ever-flowing steam.

What can we do? The Episcopal Church invites members to active, intentional work to change this way of life, to care for all of creation, to be in partnership with our Indigenous siblings—not only to be in partnership but also to prioritize Indigenous voices in these matters.

The first peoples have cared for this land for generations and have much to teach us. Our call is to listen, learn, be humble in the face of our complicity in the harm we have done, repent and amend our life.

If at the end, U.S. and Canadian governments continue to perpetuate the idea that water is a commodity to be bought and sold, and have treaties that ignore the greater role of water, salmon,  eagles and bear, that does not recognize the sovereignty of tribes and their role, we will continue to be colonizers, not stewards.

The Supreme Court has said justice is a shibboleth, a word that has no meaning, It can mean anything. It is good that we say what it means and are clear there can be no justice unless we right historic wrongs, unless we protect those who cannot speak for themselves and unless we provide for future generations.

Bishop Gretchen Rehberg
Episcopal Diocese of Spokane