April 25 - May 1, 2005
April 25 - May 1, 2005
SOLI/Update
One day a year our nation leaves its climate-controlled houses and SUVs long enough to stroll through some woods, pluck a beer can from the roadside, plant a tree or two, watch a scampering squirrel and nod sagely while listening to a talk about energy conservation.
And if a congregation is lucky, at least one Sunday a year its minister will climb into the pulpit to reflect on our sacred duty as stewards of the earth.
But the fact that we make such a big deal of the environment only once a year shows what the real problem is: We are self-absorbed and fail to think of the natural environment as a part of us. We can get away with it because most of us live most of our lives in totally unnatural environments, and that is because of our affluence.
Central heating and air conditioning mean that our living rooms can stay 68 degrees year-round, regardless of whether there is a blizzard raging outdoors or it’s 100 degrees in the shade.
Refrigeration and fast shipping bring the world’s produce to our supermarkets, ensuring our supply of food regardless of regional droughts or floods. So it’s easy for us not to see how climate change is affecting agriculture.
Since wildlife is something we see primarily on The Animal Planet, we think of disappearing wildlife, forests in crisis, melting ice caps, receding glaciers and sick oceans as something distant and abstract.
And until recently, the low cost of fossil fuels meant we could forego the kind of no-brainer energy saving that Europe and Japan have taken for granted for decades.
These factors and others have helped insulate us from the reality of environmental degradation -- and the fact that it stems from our collective choices as human beings.
As Christian theologians over the centuries have noted, our chief sin as people is we are selfish -- curved in on ourselves -- and tend to act in our own self-interest despite the consequences to the world around us.
In fact, we are so inwardly directed, we fail even to see it. Our sinfulness keeps us from seeing our sinfulness. Instead, like the Pharisees of Jesus’s day, we think of sin only as the laws we break and the things we do, not what we are – pathologically self-worshiping and self-interested.
That’s why pastors can look at every sermon as an Earth Sunday sermon – to call God’s people to repent from our sin of self-absorbtion and to understand ourselves in relationship to everyone and everything else on the planet.
As people of God, we can look at every day as Earth Day – an opportunity to repent from our sin, to look beyond ourselves and see our relationship to the rest of God’s creation.
Link:
Earth Ministry
In
this sermon, the noted author of Earth Community, Earth Ethics and
other books on ecology says that by allowing environmental degradation, humans
are breaking a covenant with the creator that Isaiah describes. Rasmussen
says, "The everlasting covenant Isaiah speaks of is the first one, and
breaking it banishes the gladness of the earth." The author is Reinhold
Neibuhr Professor of Social Ethics Emeritus at Union Theological Seminary and
a lay theologian for the ELCA.
Click here for Rasmussen's homily.
An evangelical declaration
on the care of
creation
Clear thinking, biblical theology and a progressive attitude mark this
statement of the Evangelical Environmental Network. It is both a description
of the current state of the environment globally and a call to action.
Inspiring statement, signed by scores of notables, including Tony Compolo and
Ron Sider.
Click here for the declaration.
And while you're there, check out the other great resources on their website.
Evangelism?
We have so much to give!
"Some people have that problem with things other than food. They shop just to shop. They watch shopping shows or even just commercials so that they can find things to want. Things they know they don't need and wonder what to do with when they get them home." Click here for the Rev. Dana Reardon's weekly column on stewardship.
One of the most prophetic voices in American
Christian thought, Sojourners magazine devotes its entire March 2004 issue to
the environment. Every article is rich, provocative, passionate and faithful.
Free access requires registration. Highlights:
Consider the Turtles of the Field - Many
evangelicals find themselves in an emerging theological habitat, where care of
creation is central to mission.
Rockfish, Redfish, Stockfish, Foodfish -
Seven biblical principles for the care of creation.
To Serve and Preserve
- The Bible calls us to dominion over creation. Or does it?
Sins of Emission - No politician seriously
believes that Americans are willing to deal with global warming. Is it too
late to prove them wrong? By Bill McKibben.
THIS WEEK'S RECYCLING BIN OFFERING
I
owe it to myself