Growing For Life (Practice #4) June 27 th. 2010 Hospitality In Honoring Earth Global Warming Text Genesis 2:15 Genesis 2:4-25; Psalm 89:11; Introduction We are beginning out FOURTH PRACTICE the Practice of HOSPITALITY. (a). Hospitality is a word that just means make room Make room in your hearts, make room in your home, make room at your tables, make room in the space around you for others, for strangers especially Christmas Eve 1968, first trip to and orbit of the moon, the three Appollo 8 Astronauts, Frank Foreman, Bill Anders and Jim Lovell mark the occasion by reading the first 10 verses of the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis, the book of beginnings, which begins with the words most of us know by heart, so if you know them by heart you can say them with me:- In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. I still remember the emotional resonance of those 10 words as we watched the television pictures and listened to the crackling radio transmissions with those intermittent NASAU beebs they always seemed to have, the planet earth never looked so beautiful, so mysterious, so fragile, so good, and it is! During this Spiritual Practice of Hospitality we will be talking about making room because that s what it is about, that is what the word means. We make room for others in our lives, our communities, our cities, where ever. Sacred Space to include the other, especially those who feel they don t belong anywhere, those are the ones we pay special attention to, they are strangers in our midst and around us, because Hospitality means Love of Strangers In Hebrews we read those words Don t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it. (Pastor Ann will speak more on this next Sunday) Through out history Christians and the Church have excelled in a ministry of hospitality The Bible is a book about relationships, it really is, it is not a rule book. The essence of the Gospel is that the Love of God was made flesh which makes it possible the fulfillment of all our other relationships because of that one, it s about making room in our lives and communities for others. This morning I want us to consider a special, and very sacred primary relationship that many of us never consider as integral to the ministry of Hospitality and that is 1
1. The Hospitality we extend the Earth, our Planet, which Hosts us And makes possible our very being and our life, how hospitable are we as a people, how caring are we as hosts of our world? Well in many ways we are candidates for showing hospitality to the earth, because in many ways it s a stranger to us, and we are in many ways estranged from it, and how it operates and works, and how it nurtures us in all living things. You know we haven t performed well, as a race of people, and we haven t performed well and taken this sacred trust to heart as Christians and as a Church generally, we ve done a bad job. You know we are environmentalists, and those who care most passionately and are engaged in addressing the obvious abuses to our physical world, when they think of people who care about God s creation, they seldom if any think of Christians, it s true, we are not even on the radar screen, until very recently we have avoided the discussion almost entirely, and worse than that, we in the church have often through out the century used the Bible to justify our complicity in violating the planet. (a). Our reading to day talks about God creating human beings and giving them reign and dominion over the earth and its creatures. We have seen dominion as a license to dominate creation, and the two are very different, to use it and to abuse it before Jesus returns. (b). Biblical scholar and theologian Walter Wink tells us that the Bible scarcely touches on the issue of vironmental justice and ecological ethics because the most serious pollutants were non existent in Biblical times. It would have been very hard for people to screw up the environment the way we have managed to, most of these things weren t even invented before most of us who are living today got here. There were chemicals and elements that never existed before, and for which nature has been unable to provide any resistance or antidote. Now I know the issue of Global Warming is a hot button, one that shows no sign of cooling down, and much to my surprise, some insist that science around Global Warming is inconclusive, others accept that the climate is heating up, but doubt the extent of damage, or the feasibility of solutions and believe that the planet will self correct in time. But the vast majority of scientists, credible researchers, as well as world wide environmental bodies accept the reality, even the human culpability, in accelerating it. However I am not going to get into that today, but I do want to put a spin on Global Warming, and talk about it in a very positive term, and that is this, that we need to warm up to our responsibility to better care for the earth, it s land, it s water, it s atmosphere. 2. The Earth is Sacred to God As Christians you know we believe THE EARTH IS SACRED TO GOD 2
(a). This is My Father s World we all know that hymn perhaps from Sunday School days, we don t sing it that much, what a beautiful hymn (We will sing it today at the end of the service). This is my Father s world. The Psalmist in Psalm 24 begins by saying this The earth is the Lord s and everything in it. The world and all the people belong to Him for he has laid the earth s foundations on the seas and built it upon the ocean depths. This physical planet and everything that supports life on it belongs to God. God owns it all, God says that it has surpassing value to Him, it is a sacred place, every part of it is sacred to God, it is no less sacred to God than you are or I am. We have to understand that, in fact sisters and brothers, the Bible could not link our relationship to the earth more intimately than is implied in God s creation of ADAM, out of A-D-A-M which means dust of the earth. According to the original creation story we are not as human beings body and soul, we are dust and Spirit, think about that for a minute, we are one with the earth, part of God s sacred creation, we live in close loving relationship with the planet and its environments, every inch of it is Holy ground to God. (b). The Separation of Sacred and Secular One of the monumental myths that has sometimes got us into trouble is the separation of sacred and secular, and that does not exist in the heart and mind of God, we created that, sometimes for its own expedience, we sometimes believe that the parameters of faith concern the sacred, what we call sacred, and the temporal orders are of lesser concern to God, that is so false and so dangerous, if that were true we would just have to be spiritual beings without bodies floating around without form, wouldn t we? We wouldn t need any of this stuff, we wouldn t be relying on the earth for everything that sustains life. You know in ancient times, especially Greco Roman times there was a custom of kissing the earth to honor it. Do you know that the most frequently used word in the New Testament for worship is the word PROSCUNEO which means PROS towards CUNEO means kiss, to worship God by kissing the earth, by treating it as sacred, the earth is sacred to God and then 3 THE EARTH IS SACRED TO US (a).we have a Sacred Trust, we can t get out of it, though it belongs to God, we have been given the spiritual responsibility to care for it, to sustain it. We talk about stewardship and people usually, think of stewardship as about money, and of course that is only one part of it we are asked by God to tithe our money, but stewardship is much bigger than that, stewardship is about how we manage every thing we have been given, that s money, that s time, that s talent, but it is also the earth, we are stewards of this planet, we are it s trustee s we are it s care takers. Now when we look after some ones house we knew the moment we got to that place through out the whole day we are not the owners of that house we are its guests and our job at the end of the day is not to leave a foot-print in the place, but to leave it as we found it for them to come home to. 3
I think when it comes to how we think of the earth and it s resources, then we realize that it s not ours to do with as we please, it s been loaned to us for a while from God, to be turned over to Him again with an account of how we cared for it. In that creation story in Genesis our first parents are told that they are the stewards of the earth and will be accounting for the stewardship, it is as if God says I have given you this world to live in, to take care of, to preserve for future generations, use all your skill you have to love and manage it well, unfortunately we have seen that admonition of scripture to bring it under control, justification to exploit the land and resources rather than to guard, preserve and love it, we have seen nature as an enemy, to be tamed, rather than a precious resource that it is, but our responsibility is to manage it for a while, this marvelous creation which belongs to the Creator so it s benefits go to all creatures on earth who depend on it for life, and health, and fulfillment. Someone has said We are Holy creatures living among other Holy creatures in a world that is Holy Holy creatures living with other Holy creatures in a world that is Holy and we need to balance all kinds of conflicting needs and relationships in order to be good caregivers, and caretakers, so let s warm up our concern for Mother Earth. We know that if we keep poisoning our planet, it s water and atmosphere, we are in danger. (b). How can we positively bless the planet so as to reduce our human footprint which is often caused by our own selfishness and carelessness? You know the hunger today in our culture, is for a culture of leavers, not takers, did you know that? Things have changed from our consumer generation, the 20 something s coming up are interested in leaving rather than taking, the sustainability movement has now been called the fastest growing and most powerful movement in the world today, among those emerging 20 something s it s at the top of their concerns, because creation has a sacred ring because of its connection to the Creator, and out doors feels Holier for them than being in a Cathedral or place of traditional worship. In the words of Henry David Thoro What is the good of having a nice house without a decent planet to put it on. (c). Addressing Environmental Sustainability. Our church, all churches and the Christians of this world should be leading the way in addressing environmental sustainability. You know one man who was an engineering technologist liked gismos and gadgets, and he liked building things, and was very innovated, he got a whacky idea, he put solar panels on his roof covering it completely, his neighbours had never seen solar panels, it was quite a site, people would drive by and stop and gauck at them wondering what in heavens name they were, some made fun of him, but you know what his hot water was heated by these panels, he always had more than enough. My father had a compost heap, and recycled anything else possible, we even had a push lawnmower, remember those things, we weren t green freaks, don t worry about it, but my father made sure we understood in small ways that we respected the earth and tried to reduce the strain on any of its resources. 4
(d). Let s warm up our love for our planet, are we developing lifestyles sensitive to the needs of human beings and the non human world? This asks us to be much more aware of our pollution and waste, and how our habits and appetites may be contrary to Gods trust of the world to us when it comes to using up or misusing all that God has given us to share, it s to be careful of our pursuit of the good life friends with reliance often on non renewable energy and resources, to always count the cost of convenience for us, who even know what that word means, most of the world has no idea, convenience Count the cost of the convenience for us and the impact that it might have on others in our world, especially the poorest of the poor as well as our future generations, and see that as we do that we are doing what Jesus said Loving Neighbor as our self, Loving neighbor as our self.. Conclusion Let me close with this famous Tom Mudick story Two men in a row boat heading towards shore, one of the men suddenly starts to bore a hole in the bottom of the boat, the other man challenges his action to which the first man replies, It s none of your business, I am boring a hole under my seat We are one on this planet, there is a day called Earth Day our thoughts for this planet should be Earth Day every day. There are many resources available, some of you I know have accessed some. We can be environmentally friendly. A. There are many resources as to how we can be better hosts of this one beautiful living mysterious fragile world which we are part of and whose ability to host us is a sacred gift of God, who made it all and said VERY GOOD 5