The Bible and the Earth

A sermon by Ted Virts

September 8, 2013

Sonoma CA

Theme:

We believe there is hope for the earth when we live the way of Jesus. This book is our attempt to sow a good seed of faith that will be nurtured in the church so that we can appreciate and rejoice in its beauty and hospitality while we are at home on earth as well as leave earth as a home for those who come after us...

If Jesus would care for the earth because its the right thing to do, then what's holding us back? Wouldn't Jesus want us to do the right thing?

Introduction to A Hopeful Earth by Sally Dyck and Sarah Ehrman

Scripture:

Genesis 1:24-31; Genesis 9:1-4

" God saw everything that [he] had made, and indeed, it was very good." Genesis 1

Cherie, our AA among other things, made an interesting "typo" on the Patten Street sign-board - the one that lists the titles for the coming sermon. She inadvertantly put the H on Earth at the front of the word, instead of the back - thus changing the title from "The Bible and the Earth" to "The Bible and the Heart."

Both titles work. We are physical beings, living on this planet, in a physical place that we love. We are home here. We belong here. We love it here.

We are beginning a four week journey informed by Sally Dyck and Sarah Ehrman's book A Hopeful Earth: Faith, Science and the Message of Jesus. Sally Dyck is a bishop in our church, and Sarah Ehrman teaches environmental science to high schoolers. Sarah graduated from UC Davis, and, at last report lives in Napa.

Next week we will begin an adult class using the book.

The point of worship is our journey with God. Clarifying our thinking, noticing our call from God, puzzling over the will of God, and being present with each other that the Spirit of God might move more easily among us.

As we begin, I want to be clear about what this sermon series is, what it isn't, and offer a little personal confession about my biases on the subjects we are prayerfully approaching.

Any time clergy meddle in personal opinions and habits we are on touchy ground. The intersection of our 2-3,000 year old scriptures with contemporary ecological awareness and our personal practices as being members of one of the most highly developed nations in the world invites trouble.

Let me tell you the kind of trouble I want to invite, and the kind that I want to avoid.

Our worship time (and our class time, actually) is not about political correctness. It is not a collection of "shoulds" that perscribe correct behavior on your part. This is not an avenue to have you eat better, recycle more, or use less stuff - though eating worse, recycling less, and using more stuff isn't really recommended. This is not about guilt-tripping each other or blaming "them" for the bad things that "they" do. This is not a forum for political action, though there are certainly places where political action is needed.

I want our worship time to be worship - to lift up where faith and the teachings of Jesus lead us, individually and collectively, to follow the Jesus way more clearly.

I have hopes for these times of worship, as we focus on God's call and claim on our lives --

· I hope that we would note that our interconnectedness with each other and all life on the planet is a spiritual matter.

· I hope we can notice how graced we are by this gift of life. I hope that we would see how we might say thanks not only in prayer, but also in our way of living.

· I want us to admit where we have fallen short, where our choices and our situations make us part of the problem, as well as part of the solution.

· I want us to see a truly bigger picture than the day to day reality of Sonoma Valley.

We will name some issues and problems. We will ponder faith-based solutions. We will offer prayers of thanksgiving, prayers of confession, prayers of hope and prayers longing for mercy.

You need to know a bit about my personal biases and practices. When we talk about the environment we are talking about a global problem that is, honestly, on a scale beyond what I can really understand. I can say the words, but 7 billion people is more than I can comprehend. Personally I am an omnivore, I eat junk food from time to time, I have nice stuff, and more than I need, I shop at Lucky and not Whole Foods or Sonoma Market. I exercise because I like to. I'm thin because of genetics and not discipline. I drive a car more than I have to.

As most of us in this room I read, think, talk and notice what is happening in the world, but my view is relatively limited, and often based on emotion more than fact.

I know the collection of "shoulds" about vegetarianism, organic food, conspicuous consumption, the difference between the haves and the have nots. I am commonly reminded of Jesus call to an active physical compassion and John Wesley's view of economic justice. I am aware of how being anglo in this country gives me some privelege that non anglos don't get. All-in-all, I try to be a good person, but truth be told, I follow Jesus only so far, I live the Weslyan principles of "give all you can" not so well.

The point is that as we enter into this important and difficult arena of talking both about what we do to contribute to the environmental problem and what we might do toward remeption and change, I want you to know that I struggle as I suspect that you do.

I want to check something with you before I go on. Many Christians argue about issues that most of us here see in similar ways. I'm looking for a show of hands - thumbs up if you agree, thumbs down if you disagree, shoulder shrug if you're not sure:

· Do you believe that science and faith contradict each other?

· Do you believe that the Bible is in opposition to the current understanding of ecology?

· Do you believe we are facing a global enviromental crisis?

· Do you believe that the theory of evolution/natural selection is pretty accutate?

If you listened closely to the scripture reading this morning, you heard one of the places where the bible is taken as being unsympathetic to caring for the planet. The Bible, and Genesis in particular, is not a science text. When it is taken literally, or without understanding the difficulty of translation, there is trouble.

The words that give trouble to our 21st Century sensibilities are the words in Genesis 1 that give instruction to the humans that humankind, made in God's image, has dominion over everything, and that we are to fill the earth and subdue it.

One of my commentaries (New Interpreters Bible v1, pg 346) says it this way:

"It is important to know that the Hebrew verb "have dominion" must be understood in terms of care-giving, even nurturing, and not exploitation. As the image of God, human beings should relate to the nonhuman world as God relates to them... The command to "subdue the earth" focuses on the earth, particularly cultivation, a difficult task in those days. While the verb may involve coercive aspects in inter-human relations, no enemies are in view here. More generally, "subduing" involves development in the created order. This process offers to the human being the task of intra-creational development, of bringing the world along to its fullest possible creational potential..."

It's like the old joke about a guy who had a wonderful garden and someone comes by and says "Wow, the you and the Lord sure did a nice job on this!" And the gardener responds, "well you should have seen it when The Lord was taking care of it by himself..."

Most of you admitted that you think we are in the midst of an environmental crisis, as people of faith we confront three temptations - described in the Hopeful Earth:

And to hear a lot of folks talk - both within and beyond the church - we are in desperate need of saving.

So what will save us?

The temptations are to think that science and technology alone will save us. "They" will develop a way out of this for us. We are smart enough to figure this thing out.

A second temptation is to think that politics and economics on a world scale alone will save us. If we just made it too expensive to waste, if we would just change the rules, we can find our way out.

The third temptation is to think that if we individually just behave better, things will change, or that somehow God will save us from ourselves.

What to do? The Christian perspective is that of course God is involved with all of this, but the problem will take multiple actions. And the church? are we supposed to be doing something? Our United Methodist perspective is critical here - and in opposition to those who compartmentalize faith away from the world.

Here's Wesley:

"The Gospel of Christ knows no religion but social, no holiness but social holiness. You cannot be holy except as you are engaged in making the world a better place. You do not become holy by keeping yourself pure and clean from the world but by plunging into ministry on behalf of the world's hurting ones." quoted in A Hopeful Earth pg. 35

I believe that the core of our call to a spiritual engagement with environmental reality is that we are both given a gift of this planet, and we are only borrowing that gift. We really don't own our homes, someone else will use them when we are done. In a very real way we don't really own the atoms of our bodies, some other part of the planet will use them when we are done.

We are people of earth. Human - humus - means of the earth. Genesis says that we are fashioned from the earth and the God-breath comes into us and we become a living being.

The earth is God's gift to us, to use for a while. And it is God's gamble with us, that we will take care of it.

My point this morning is just to set the stage - faith is not in opposition to science, and, as Cherie's typo noted, the earth and our hearts are not that far from each other. We have a sacred calling and a true sense of the holy around places on this planet.

I'm going to ask the ushers to pass around these baskets of rocks. I invite you to take one rock that appeals to you (remember, rocks are not for throwing...)

ushers pass the rocks

Now I ask that you remember a place that is special to you - a physical location - city, town, beach, mountain, street, yard.

We'll do a group "sing" of the names of those places - As I move my hand, you say the name of the place aloud.

For these weeks, keep this rock. It is a reminder of God's gift of a place on this planet to you that is holy.

Your task is to be grateful. And your task and our task, is to take care of that place and this place. And your task and our task is to remember that every person on this planet has such a place that is beautiful and sacred to them.

God saw everything that [he] had made, and indeed, it was very good.

And then God said to you and to me - please take care of this that I have given to you for this time.