Theologian's Almanac for Week of April 21, 2024
Welcome to SALT’s “Theologian’s Almanac,” a weekly selection of important birthdays, holidays, and other upcoming milestones worth marking — specially created for a) writing sermons and prayers, b) creating content for social media channels, and c) enriching your devotional life.
For the week of Sunday, April 21:
April 21 is the birthday of naturalist John Muir, born in Dunbar, Scotland, in 1838 — though he grew up on a farm in Wisconsin. By age 11, he could recite nearly all of the Bible by heart, and his writings later in life are shot through with theological ideas. An avid inventor and fascinated with God’s creation, he was nearly struck blind by a sawmill accident, and realized how important the beautiful world was to him: “I bade adieu to all my mechanical inventions, determined to devote the rest of my life to the study of the inventions of God.” He embarked on a 1,000-mile walk from Indiana to the Gulf of Mexico, and then another from San Francisco to the Sierra Nevada mountain range. He eventually helped found the Sierra Club and tirelessly fought to protect wilderness areas, especially around the Yosemite Valley — and his fateful camping trip with President Theodore Roosevelt resulted in the establishment of the United States National Parks.
While his early journal writings include evidence of racial bigotry against both African Americans and Native Americans, over the course of his life he gained maturity and sensitivity; as an older man, for example, he wrote with passion about how much may be learned from Native American people and ways of life. For a collection of his spiritual writings, check out this anthology.
April 22 is this year’s beginning of Passover, the Jewish commemoration of the Israelites’ exodus out of Egypt, from slavery to freedom. The holiday is marked in many Jewish homes by a Passover seder, a festive meal dramatizing the exodus through stories, song, and ritual foods, such as matzah (unleavened bread) and maror (bitter herbs).
April 22 is also Earth Day, first observed in 1970 — which makes this year the 54th anniversary. Inspired in part by Rachel Carson’s work, among many others, the original Earth Day was a widespread, nonpartisan response to the negative impacts of industrial development — and President Nixon, along with Congress, responded quickly to the popular pressure, establishing the Environmental Protection Agency that same year, and landmark environmental legislation followed close behind. With something like one billion people now participating annually, Earth Day is considered the largest civic-focused day of action in the world.
Jews and Christians, among other religious people, have been involved all the way along in Earth Day’s history — and no wonder, since Genesis so vividly casts humanity as creation’s steward in the first creation story; as Eden’s gardener in the second creation story; as custodian of creation’s biodiversity in the Noah story; as custodian of one another, and especially of the most vulnerable people, in the Prophets and in Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 25; and so on. And this year’s Earth Day theme — “Planet vs. Plastics” — is both timely and pressing. If the original Earth Day spurred unprecedented environmental action and coordination, the 54th must do the same!
Check out SALT’s “Strange New World” podcast episode on “The Bible and Climate Change - Part One.”
And here’s SALT’s brief essay, “Earth Day, Climate Action, and the Bible.”
April 23 is the (observed) birthday of William Shakespeare, born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, in 1564. It’s also his death day, in 1616, at the age of 52. Theology is woven through his many works, including these gems worth remembering:
“God shall be my hope, my stay, my guide and lantern to my feet” (Henry V).
“The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose” (The Merchant of Venice).
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy” (Hamlet).
“The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice” (The Merchant of Venice).
April 25 is the birthday of Ella Fitzgerald, the First Lady of Jazz, who once said, “It’s not easy for me to get up in front of a crowd of people. It used to bother me a lot, but now I’ve got it figured out that God gave me this talent to use, so I just stand there and sing!” Here she is, um, just standing there and singing :)