Making the Most of Creation
Sermon series: Rich Living
Just before Memorial Day, a book on nature photography was published capturing moments at the cabin for this one local photographer. It received much press because of its stunning pictures and because it brilliantly came out right at the beginning of cabin season. This book prompted other news stories where individuals reflected on their sacred moments in nature growing up. Some of them were about times they had spent as a child at their cabin and others were simply about spending time outdoors.
I watched and listened to these stories both with fascination and with great sadness because almost all of my sacred moments in nature growing up involve the Gulf of Mexico. It was on the Gulf that my family vacationed every summer at a rented condo. It was there that I built my first sandcastle. It was there, north of Padre Island, where I learned how to fish off the pier and where I caught my first fish carrying it all the way back to my mother in my hands hoping she would clean it and cook it for dinner. It was there where we observed dolphins, coastal birds, and other wildlife in the nature reserves and it was there where we would simply float in the water for hours. Sometimes the waves would nearly rock us to sleep as we meditated on the cloud formations above only taking breaks to reapply sunscreen when my parents made us come inside. And just last summer Mark and I took our sons, Nathan and Jacob, to my aunt and uncle’s beach cabin on the Gulf where they caught their first redfish and flounder and where they built their first sandcastles with clean Gulf sand.
While holding on to such special memories, I have watched the news stories about the oil spill in the Gulf with pain and sadness…..not just because of the possible loss of a vacation destination and not just because of the harm to wildlife and not just because of the loss of livelihood of those in Louisiana again. I think we are all experiencing this loss, this sadness and grief in some way because we are beginning to understand how great this loss is--that the offense against God’s creation and its destruction is so immense. We all lament this tragedy—even with some encouraging words we received this morning--because it does and it will affect all of us. And with this realization, there is this deep emotion bubbling within us that we don’t quite know what to do with.
Some of the responses to this deep emotion are anger and blame. We have heard about anger and blame a lot recently. Who is the scapegoat for this one? Who is the one we can sacrifice to remove the sin from among us like they used to do in ancient biblical times? Or is there at least someone who will take responsibility? And if not a scapegoat is there someone upon whom we can release our anger? There is a long list that has been building: British Petroleum. Rig Owner Transocean. Contractors from Halliburton. All the companies for not having failsafe backup plans. And what about the petroleum engineering schools like Texas A&M and Stanford for not having better ethics and environmental protection core classes in their programs? And do we blame the White House for a slow response? What about those of us who use and depend on fossil fuels every day? Do we have a role in any of this?
The Bible has many of these human responses to tragedy as well. Certainly there is blame and anger. In response to the destruction of the sanctuary, the psalmist cries in anger:
How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever? Why do you hold back your hand; why do you keep your hand in your bosom?...Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild animals” (Psalm 74:10-11, 19)
But there is also the response of lament. After being taken into exile, and after the destruction he had seen, the psalmist writes:
By the rivers of Babylon—there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.” (Psalm 137:1)
Perhaps weeping is an appropriate first response. Today we lament for Zion, for how our relationship with creation was supposed to be. As we heard in our first reading from Genesis, humankind’s first purpose on earth was to make the most of what God had created: to be fruitful and to multiply what had been given and entrusted to us--to have dominion and care for it.
We lament and cry out today because of how others have failed in this relationship with God’s creation, but we also cry out and lament how we have failed as well. We grieve how we have misinterpreted God’s original plan for humanity. God intended for us to care for creation and make the most of it not only for today, but for the years and for the generations yet to come.
Today we are beginning a sermon series entitled “Rich Living.” One of the reasons for this title is because from the very beginning of creation we have been rich beyond measure. Humanity has been richly blessed as tenants on this earth. We have been rich because of God’s abundant blessings and gifts that were bestowed on all of us. We all stayed rich together until we started claiming things as though we owned them instead of God. When we started abusing that which was on loan to us, we began to think falsely that some was ours and that we could give a little back to God and others to appease God.
This false thinking, this lie, goes all the way back to the serpent at the fruit tree telling us that creation is ours to do with as we please. The truth is that the rich abundance of creation comes from God and God allows us to vacation in this awesome cabin called Earth. It is time for us to learn and begin to act like better guests.
There is another story that has been in the news quite a bit this week. It is a story about someone who was given responsibility and dominion and really messed up. I am speaking, of course, about Jim Joyce, the umpire at the baseball game on Wednesday night. He made a wrong call and prevented the Detroit Tiger’s pitcher, Armando Galarraga, from pitching a perfect game. In response, and in stark contrast with others deflecting responsibility and blame in the news today, Jim Joyce stood up courageously and, with tears, apologized saying that he had made a mistake. In the midst of anger and humiliation, his stance was one of repentance and confession. And the pitcher’s response was one of grace.
This week as we continue to carry deep emotions of sadness, anger and grief, let us take a different stance. Let us take the stance of repentance and confession: for things we ourselves have done and things we have failed to do in our role of having dominion on earth. Repentance and confession are the first steps toward reconciliation and healing in our relationships with others and with God. And then, after receiving God’s grace and forgiveness, let us continue our next steps in the words of our confession for today “So that we may live and serve God in newness of life.”
So as you renew your baptismal identity as a forgiven and renewed child of God, what is one thing you can do to live and serve God in newness of life beginning today? What is one thing you can change in your daily life to reduce the harm to earth and reclaim your original and first purpose of having dominion over and caring for creation?
Not all of us will create engineering solutions to clean up the oil spill. Not all of us can find ways to develop new technologies that depend more on renewable energy. But most of us can find ways to reduce our ecological footprint. (For ways, click here.) And most of us can find ways to enjoy and make the most of the abundant creation we have been giving. Start by doing things in your own homes and lives that you would like to see being done on a larger scale in the world. As Ghandi so beautifully restated Matthew 7:1-3: “First be the change you want to see in the world.”
And then with God, let us believe and trust that all things are possible--even the healing of our wars and even the healing of our planet. And let us pray with hope and trust, the words of the psalmists:
By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance, O God of our salvation; you are the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas.—Psalm 65:5-7
When you send forth your spirit, you renew the face of the earth. –Psalm104
God, you are, our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.--Psalm 46
For this, let us give thanks to God. Amen.
To reduce your ecological footprint, click here: http://www.myfootprint.org/en/take_action/reduce_your_footprint/
For discussion guides on the movie “Earth” click on the following links:
http://earth.differentdrummer.com/downloads/earth_discussions_greenfaith.pdf
http://earth.differentdrummer.com/downloads/earth_discussions.pdf
More Resources:
Read Serve God, Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action, J.Matthew Sleeth, MD
Connect
In 2004, Glenn Albrecht, a professor of sustainability at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia coined a new term. Solastalgia, a combination of the Latin word solacium (comfort) and the Greek root –algia (pain), is “the pain experienced when there is recognition that the place where one resides and that one loves is under immediate assault . . . a form of homesickness one gets when one is still at ‘home.’
Albrecht used the term to describe the distress, dismay, and despair of people in his home country who couldn’t do anything to stop open pit coal mining from destroying a prized, lush valley. Probably all of us have felt this, like a constant low-grade fever, as we notice and worry about the effects of climate change in our own backyards. Today we feel it acutely as we watch, helplessly, as miles and miles of ocean and beaches are coated in black from the British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Consider:
- What places in the natural world are “home” to you?
- What do you feel about their destruction?
- What have you felt about the recent oil spill?
Grow
And It Was Very Good
It has taken all of our human history to get to the point where we understand that our natural resources are finite. Because of humans, some natural species are extinct and never coming back. Many more have been at the brink, only to be saved by careful intervention. As Pastor Beth says, we have always acted as if the earth belonged to us, instead of as richly blessed tenants, who, as those with dominion over it, are charged with its care and protection.
Read:
- Genesis 1:26-31
Consider:
- What images come to mind from this text?
Strive First for the Kingdom of God
In the Gospel reading for today, and indeed even in Genesis, there seems to be a casual taking for granted of all the many riches of the earth. Not in the negative way that phrase is usually meant, but in an acknowledgement of the great eye-popping abundance that God has provided. We can hear in the words of Jesus the inability to conceive of how the earth would ever be depleted, ravaged, or polluted by humans. Humans, after all, were the earth’s direct beneficiaries. We know the stories of how we got here – the Enlightenment, the Pilgrims, the Industrial Revolution. But somehow along the way we have lost the thread of what we were supposed to be striving for. Counter to what Jesus said, we have focused all our energies not on the Kingdom of God, but on the striving after material things.
Read:
- Matthew 6:25-33
- sermon
Consider:
- What changes would you like to see in the world?
- What changes toward that vision have you made?
Close
Creator God, we give you praise for the beauty of your creation. Grant us your grace that we may be good stewards of all that you have made. Bless us with wisdom and reverence to use the resources of nature so that no one may suffer from our abuse of them and that generations to come may continue to praise you for your goodness, through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
