Sermons

Creatures, Creation and the Creator

John Wilkinson                            Third Presbyterian Church
April 22, 2007                     Revelation 1:4-8/Revelation 5:11-14

We put our children on a school bus, send them off to lacrosse practice, write a tuition check, as acts of hope and possibility. We know that we do not live in a perfect world. We live in a fallen world, in fact; but nonetheless, we live in hope, and a portion of that hope is placed in youth – children, young people, the generations that will follow, to do things a little better than we have.

So much so that the events of this past Monday shake us, shake us to the core. We are saddened beyond sadness, hurt, angered. We ache with those families, grieve with that college community, with an unimaginable grief.

We do not stop there, however. As people of faith, we cling to deep promises, that God creates us in God’s images and connects us to one another. That is why this week we are all members of the Hokie nation. We are all residents of Oklahoma City, all students at Columbine High School.

As children of God, we believe that nothing in life or death can separate us from God’s love, and as Easter people, as beneficiaries and practitioners of resurrection, that the tragic and unfathomable events of Monday will not define us or the world in which we live, or the lives that have been lost.

We are invited to add our names and our prayers to the prayer book that we will send to the Presbyterian community in Blacksburg.

And we are also called to act on our faith, and it seems to me that as a church committed to peacemaking, committed to following the following the Prince of Peace, that the issue of gun violence must be addressed. This is, at heart, not a political discussion, but a matter of faith.

We are called to pray, to remember. We have printed an old prayer in the bulletin. After a time of silence, shall we pray it together with one voice, as an act of solidarity, remembrance and hope. Let us pray…God of compassion, you watch our ways, and weave out of terrible happenings wonders of goodness and grace. Surround those who have been shaken by tragedy with a sense of your love, and hold them in faith. Though they are lost in grief, may they find you and be comforted; through Jesus Christ who was dead, but lives and rules this world with you. Amen.

*****

A quick scan of the hymnal will let you note how many hymns echo the theme of creation. We have sung one already, “All Creatures of Our God and King.” Burning sun with golden beam. Silver moon with soften gleam. Rushing wind. Clouds. Flowing water. Fertile earth. Flowers and fruits. All singing God’s praise.

We will sing a newer one in a moment, a bit less poetic if not more specific: “Thank You God, for Water, Soil and Air.”

There are many others: “All Things Bright and Beautiful,” “In the Bleak Midwinter” (a springtime favorite!), “This Is My Father’s World,” “O Beautiful for Spacious Skies.”

On a tour of Scotland, we bused through a small west coast village called Bunessan. A familiar Gaelic tune is named after that lovely village. Many sets of words are sung to the tune; the ones we know best include these:

“Morning has broken/Like the first morning,/Blackbird has spoken/Like the first bird./Praise for the singing!/Praise for the morning!/Praise for them springing/Fresh from the Word.

Sweet the rain’s new fall/Sunlit from heaven,/Like the first dew fall/On the first grass./Praise for the sweetness/Of the wet garden,/Sprung in completeness/Where God’s feet pass.

Mine is the sunlight!/Mine is the morning/Born of the one light/Eden saw play!/Praise with elation,/Praise every morning,/God' s recreation/Of the new day.”

On this Earth Day 2007, our conversation needs to be more than a sentimental appreciation of nature. Our task needs to be an effort to de-politicize the conversation about the environment and to re-theologize it; to realize that we face a major, perhaps a life-and-death, crisis, and that we as people of faith have both the resources and the urgent calling to respond, to do something, for the sake of the morning that breaks each new day, God’s creation and God’s re-creation.

For too long, the conversation linking faith and ecology and the environment has been outcast to the tree-hugging fringe. But it seems clearer day by day that the ecological crisis is one of, if not the, most crucial and critical moral issues of our day, so that whether we feel convinced or not, equipped or not, competent or not, this is where God is calling us to be.

It seems so big, so daunting, that to me, at least, thinking about doing something, anything, to make a positive environmental impact is an almost immobilizing experience. And yet we remember the words of Margaret Mead, who said "Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." That is true for you and me, and it is true as the church, whose ability to affect social change seems to be on the wane, takes this challenge on as a theological and moral matter.

There are many compelling reasons to motivate us, and we should not be put off by the complexity of issues such as carbon emissions, greenhouse gases, global warming, alternative energy sources. Nor should we be put off by a political debate that confuses rather than clarifies.

It seems clear that much negative evidence exists to concern us. We are burning too much, mining too much, consuming too much. We are not conserving enough, not replenishing enough. The negative evidence is real, from dwindling rain forests to dwindling polar ice caps to dwindling fossil fuel reserves.

But we are people of faith, and as alarming as the negative evidence would seem to be, we are called from a different perspective, a faith perspective, a “morning has broken” perspective.

We begin with the Bible, as we always do, and it is a clear and continuous story that, from the first words of the Bible to the last, God has created the world, has created the universe, and called it good. God has created humans to care for the universe, for creation, for God’s creatures. God appoints us as stewards of creation, not to consume and devour, but to keep and tend. And God calls us to live in harmony, in covenantal relationship, not only with the human family, but with all of creation, those very rocks and rivers and creatures that join us in praise to God.

In an article called “The Bible on Environmental Conservation: A 21st Century Prescription,” William T. Johnson identifies biblical themes that demonstrate “the belief that the God of the Bible cares about the environment and holds people accountable for its sustained management.” In the Bible, Johnson says, you will discover:

• That creation reflects and gives witness to the creative nature and activity of God.
• That God owns the earth and people are merely charged with caring for it. Caring for the environment involves management for sustainable yields and balancing work with rest.
• That we are to trust God to meet our needs. (We call it providence.)
• That we are called to enjoy creation.
• That the purpose of nature is not to provide for we humans, but to praise its Creator
• That we humans are given power and authority to use wisely, and that there are consequences if we misuse them
• That a right relationship with God leads to a right relationship among the elements of creation, people with other people, and between people and the environment.

We could begin in the beginning, with Genesis, and be reminded of the goodness of creation and God’s intent. We could read the Psalter, psalm by psalm. “The earth is the Lord’s,” the 24th Psalm reminds us, which means it is not ours.

Or we could enter where we have this morning, through the Book of Revelation. Revelation intimidates with its strange imagery and history of controversy. But let us be reminded of a fundamental affirmation. Every living creature – in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea – every living creature is called to sing God’s praise, is envisioned as one of the countless voices offering praise to God. And by extension, anything we do to prevent that praise from happening, to silence creation’s voice, is contrary to God’s intention and harmful to the creation for which we have been entrusted to care.

The Presbyterian General Assembly has issued statement upon statement. They have even called for a reduction in the use of paper upon which those statements are printed! In 1954, more than 50 years ago, a General Assembly saw the horizon and spoke with concern. “Great natural resources have been entrusted to our nation by Almighty God. We call upon the Christian conscience to recognize that our stewardship of the earth and water…recognizes the interdependence of soil, water and man (and woman) and the development of a responsible public policy which will resist the exploitation of land, water, and other natural resources, including forests, for selfish purposes and maintain intelligent conservation for the sustenance of all living creatures through future generations.”

That statement underlines the fact that as people of faith we should not be put off by the political nature of the current debate. When someone tells you that we should not get involved in politics, that we should stick to religion, that’s often a good indication that the particular moral issue on the table – from war to education to poverty – is in fact precisely the kind of political and ethical issue that calls for a religious response.

In 1971, more than 35 years ago, the General Assembly committed the church and its members to a plan of action, including commitments to:

• Affirm values such as the taming of technology in order to enhance quality of life, restraint in consumption, equitable distribution of resources, and modes of corporate decisions accountable to the public and to existing communities.
• Urge individuals, Christians especially, to discipline themselves as consumers.

Since then, of course, the earth’s population has skyrocketed and consumption has intensified multifold. Our latest substantive statement was made in 1990, called “Restoring Creation for Ecology and Justice.” Its summary is printed on the cover of the bulletin (and is included here).

The church has powerful reason for engagement in restoring God's creation:

• God's works in creation are too wonderful, too ancient, too beautiful, too good to be desecrated.
• Restoring creation is God's own work in our time, in which God comes both to judge and to restore.
• Human life and well-being depend upon the flourishing of other life and the integrity of the life-supporting processes that God has ordained.
• The love of neighbor, particularly "the least" of Christ's brothers and sisters, requires action to stop the poisoning, the erosion, the wastefulness that are causing suffering and death.
• The future of our children and their children and all who come after is at stake.
• In this critical time of transition of a new era, God's new doing may be discerned as a call to earth-keeping, to justice, and to community.

Restoring Creation for Ecology and Justice

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 1990

Much has changed since then, and not much for the good. The church has changed – we spend more and more time on internal conflict and institutional survival, all the while consuming more and more and conserving less and less. Yet it seems, perhaps, that we are at a tipping point, that finally the mainstream church is listening, moving this conversation from the peripheral fringe and back to the center. Though our denominational environmental justice office sits empty now for lack of funding – it’s not the only one – a whole new generation of books, websites, conferences, is providing the resources and inspiration to do something, as is a generation of leadership steeped in the urgency of this conversation.

Theologian Bill McKibben makes the case for the present moment:

1) If you care about social justice, this is the biggest battle we've ever faced.

2) If you care about the rest of God's creation, then get to work. God made (in whatever way) the creatures of the earth and of the sea; we're now engaged in a massive, rapid act of decreation

3) If you care about the future—about 10,000 generations yet unborn—then this is your cause. (“Meltdown,” Christian Century, February 9, 2007)

McKibben reminds us of some of the options. We do some here at Third Church; perhaps you do in your living. There is first the ecological trinity: Reducing, reusing, recycling. We try to recycle as much as we can around here, and to print as little as we can. With our Earthkeeper group’s leadership, we have changed the kind of light bulbs we use. We have replaced the windows in our offices and the Parish House to conserve energy. We are attempting to purchase more environmentally friendly products, and to decrease our use of disposable goods.

We are learning and nowhere near perfect. Perhaps your own lives reflect that as well, whether it’s in the products you purchase, the cars your drive, the choices you make. We’ve even said that whatever we do with this fine old facility in the future, we will do so with as much of a “green” perspective as we can manage.

Bill McKibben reminds us: “We don't lack for science or engineering, nor indeed for economic mechanisms to make a transition more efficient, or policy proposals to guide our work…What we lack is simply political will. We need a movement,” he concludes, “as urgent, as morally committed, as willing to sacrifice, as creative, as passionate as the civil rights movement was a generation ago...(with) church people at the forefront…Without a vision the effort will perish, and with it the blooming, buzzing, mysterious, gorgeous, cruel world we were given.”

This is the beginning of a conversation, and not the end. Actually, it’s the continuation of one, and we join it, rather late. We encounter the biblical testimony and are convicted, in the negative by how badly we are doing and more so, by what a difference we might make if we – the people of God – put our individual and collective sprits to the task.

My friend and colleague John Buchanan writes that “It’s time to pay attention. It’s time for people of faith, people who believe in the Bible and the Judeo-Christian tradition of God’s holy earth, to wake up and acknowledge what has happened, to understand and accept it as the moral issue of our day, to change the way we think, to demand that our politicians act responsibly, and to make personal adjustments and decisions appropriate to our faith.” (“Holy Earth,” September 17, 2006)

Every Sunday afternoon, the poet Wendell Berry takes a walk in the woods, returns home, and writes a poem.

“Slowly, slowly they return/To the small woodland let alone/Great trees, outspreading and upright,/Apostles of the living light.

Patient as stars, they build in air/Tier after tier a timbered choir,/Stout beams upholding weightless grace/Of song, a blessing on this place.” (A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems)

May it be so – and may we join the music of creation to sing God’s praise always. Amen.