Arvada United Methodist Church January 12, 2014 MLK And Eco Justice By Rusty Butler Last week Valerie introduced the first of a five part sermon series called Painting the Stars. That is a good series to do after the Epiphany story of the wise men following the Star. That s what they call carrying on the theme! The phrase, Painting the Stars, comes from a Vincent Van Gogh quote. He wrote, when I have a terrible need of, dare I say religion, then I go outside at night and paint the stars. This sermon series takes a look at the connection between science and religion and it asks us to consider the importance and value of our exploration of the earth and the universe and shows us another important perspective on life and living and faith. This morning we are going to look at eco-justice.ecological justice. I looked up ecojustice on the internet. It went to a page where there was supposed to be a definition and it said, sorry no definitions found. Sometimes the internet is not your friend! ecological Justice Ecology is the study of organisms and the environment: the study of the relationships between living organisms and their interactions with their natural or developed environment The United States Environmental Protection Agency defines environmental justice as "the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, sex, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies." [3]
Environmental justice/eco-justice, what does that have to do with the Good news? Would you pray with me? There are so many things to think about this morning as we come to church. We might be thinking about what we are going to eat after church. We might be thinking we can t wait to look at the budget for 2014 for the church and get to vote on that. Of course, there are some of us who can t wait to get home and start in on paying our taxes because we received our W-2 s, there is a football game I guess! There are, just like every Sunday, a lot of things to think about when you come to church. Our youth group members may be thinking about marching in the MLK Parade tomorrow with the youth group from Park Hill United Methodist Church. That march/parade is the biggest one in the country. I m glad they are going to go down there, that s important. This morning, perhaps, you might be thinking about Martin Luther King, Junior. I suspect there may be a few things that we remember, that stand out. We may remember the time when he led a group of people in Selma on a march. We may remember the time when he was sentenced to jail for four months for a speeding ticket but then John F Kennedy called the judge and asked him to release him which the judge did. It may be what I think about, his doctoral dissertation from Boston which compared Paul Tillich s theology with Henry Nelson Wieman s theology. I m a Wieman fan, King came down on the side of Tillich. So it goes. Maybe that s what you remember about MLK. Then again, it may be the, I have a dream speech. It may be the assassination. I don t know what you think about when you think about Martin Luther King, Junior. But I suspect you can t help but be shocked that it was just 50 years ago that black people had to demonstrate and march and fight for a fair treatment in this
country. I suspect some of you wonder, like I do, how could our country have been so slow about something like that? What could we have been thinking? What is so apparent to us now was clouded over by centuries of demonizing and denigrating a whole race of people. It s unbelievable but it happened. In the last few years of his life, Martin Luther King began to speak out against the war in Vietnam, he began to speak out about the way workers were treated and the gulf between rich and poor. People didn t know what to do with that. They called him a communist dupe, a trouble maker a traitor or at best naïve. At Riverside church he stood and gave a speech that said about our country that we were, the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today, and he pleaded with the country to stop bombing people in Vietnam, to take the initiative in a peace making process for the sake of the Vietnamese people, for the sake of our children, for the sake of God. He urged us away from racism, militarism, materialism. He challenged people to stand with the poor. When I think of Martin Luther King Junior, I cannot help but wonder what things he would have us turn our attention toward now. Surely racism still exists and he would have us struggle with that. Because of his concern over the Vietnam war in those years after the I Have a Dream Speech, I m convinced he would have us consider what role we are playing in Afghanastan and how that is working itself out. Perhaps he would have us turn our attention toward the amount of money that is spent on the Defense Budget 700 billion dollars and have us question why America spends four and a half times that of it s nearest big spender which is China when there are schools and roads and bridges to be built. There is a case to be made that he would have us look at the way America is using it s resources, and what we ve done to the earth and how we are responsible for what we pass on to the next generation. He certainly seemed concerned about what the world would be like for the next generation and he wanted us to take responsibility for what we care about.
I think he understood about what was important from his faith. I think that s where he drew inspiration and strength to address the problems of his day. While the issue of race may have receded some since MLK s time, other issues have made their way onto the field. This morning I would have us turn to the field of ecology and what is fair and right and what is our responsibility. You know we may have been thinking about this for a while about what we can do to be better at conserving our resources, but only after we formed a green team were we doing things that have made a difference. We did the easy things first, got rid of the Styrofoam cups and the paper plates for the most part, started washing coffee cups and using those old melmac dishes, we brought in recycling receptacles, caulked the windows, changed out the light bulbs, put in automatic light-switches. But that wasn t enough, we started in on the big things, bought new energy efficient boilers, signed a contract with a solar energy company and in the next few weeks, we ll see solar panels cover the roof, we bought a monitor system that helps us see when the church uses energy (for those of you who like charts here is what is going on right now with our energy usage). We are in the process of buying a piece of equipment that will help us decrease the maximum peak usages and help reduce our use of energy and we ll begin spending less on energy to boot. There are other things that we ll look at including replacing the single pane windows around the church and the pieces of colored plastic above the eyebrows in the sanctuary with windows, we need to replace the airflow handler in the sanctuary with something more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. All these things don t happen overnight. First you have to become aware, and then you have to commit, and then you have to act.
It s not just an economical thing to do, it s the responsible thing to do if we believe that what we do makes a difference to our neighbors and to the ones who come after us. We are using science and common sense to make those decisions but we make them also based on the fact that we are trying to love our neighbors as ourselves and using the resources we have in the best way possible seems to me to be close to what it means when we say love God and we love this world created by God. What is it to do justice, and to love kindly and to walk humbly with our God we try to figure that out day by day. The cause of civil rights and inclusion was led by people of faith and conscience. I believe we are people of faith and conscience. Their values and hopes gave shape to practical strategies. Our values and hopes give shape to practical strategies. Their success in bringing their vision to fruition depended on their willingness to put their resources, time and talent toward making those visions a reality. Our success depends on the same things. And the Good News? The Good news is that we can be successful too in our own battles, and in making our visions come to fruition May the deep roots of our faith, the events of the past, the struggles, the victories and the losses, fill us with a determined strength, and a steady hope and encouragement for each other as we walk into tomorrow working toward the cause of justice for each other and the earth on which we live and work and play.