What better way to end our series on water than to welcome the rainy season? The other day some dramatic thunderstorms rolled through the area, bringing wind and rain. And there is a chance of some more rain tomorrow. Let us pray that we have just witnessed the beginning of a beneficial rainy season here in Southern California.
In our worship at the Garden Church recently we have been acknowledging that we are gathering on homeland of the Tongva people and in the Dominguez Channel Watershed. If you drive South from Los Angeles on the 110 Freeway, you can still see it if you look with awareness. The Palos Verdes Hills lie in front of you and to your right. And closer to the freeway you can see the trees growing in the Dominguez channel, our local watershed, where the rain flows to the sea.
It is a highly industrialized scene, to be sure, with roads, freeways, oil wells, refineries, an industrial maga-port, and concrete channels dominating the view from the bus. Yet the water still flows and brings life amidst the concrete, asphalt and steel. In Ezekiel 47:9 we read:
Wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish, once these waters reach there. It will become fresh; and everything will live where the river goes.
With the arrival of the Spanish and then the Americans, this land has endured an escalating and ultimately unsustainable extractive economy, covering and deadening the streams and the soils. And by correspondence there is much in our world that deadens our own spirits and our communal ties.
Let us celebrate the Dominguez Watershed this Sunday! Let us bring renewed life to the streams, to the land, and to our ability to enjoy all the blessings of life together in community.
Sunday Rhythm
3pm Work Together
4pm Worship
5pm Eat together grab and go style format
All Are Welcome
Come as you are, stay as you are able.
Let the waters flow!
Rev. Jonathan
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