Immediate Word

Dear Fellow Preachers,

"Earth Day" this year is April 22, a time to consider our stewardship of the natural world, which, as we confess, is the good creation of God. Especially we North Americans need to be reminded of the effects of our over-consumption and our throwaway culture. What will we leave to our children and grandchildren in a world that is increasingly emulating our North American lifestyle? And yet, in preparation for Earth Day, the media has reported exciting new developments -- the proven practicality of ethanol as an alternate energy source, new technology from NASA, recycling programs, and much else.

Connecting these concerns with the Second Reading of the lectionary for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, The Immediate Word team member George Murphy, a published expert in the area of theology and science, reflects on what it means for Christians to be a "royal priesthood." It is not only a spiritual task but also one that involves our care of the earth. George's colleagues offer their own perspectives, illustrations and quotations, worship resources, and a children's sermon.


Missing Earth Day
1 Peter 2:2-10
Acts 7:55-60; Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16; John 14:1-14
By George Murphy

It's easy to do. It falls on a weekday in the Easter season and the Sunday lectionary texts don't seem to make any connection with the theme of Earth Day. And is it a day that calls for special attention from Christians anyway? Still, when preachers start to work on sermons for Sunday, April 24, they may realize that the annual day of environmental emphasis is on April 22 and feel guilty in greater or lesser degree about the fact that no appropriate activities have been planned for the congregation. But what would such activities be? Tell people to recycle and not buy SUVs? Is it enough to have the Sunday school classes go outside and plant flowers? And if you are going to talk about environmental responsibility, how do you do it without giving the impression that the church is just jumping on an essentially secular bandwagon?

Let me first sketch briefly how I'm going to proceed here, since the train of thought isn't obvious and you might otherwise wonder when I'm going to get back what I referred to in the first paragraph. The Second Lesson for this Sunday, 1 Peter 2:2-10, which speaks of Christians as a "royal priesthood," should not be thought of in a narrowly "religious" way. One priestly function that we are called to is that of offering a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving not just of the Christian community or of humanity but of the whole world -- as Psalm 148, e.g., suggests. That means that our concern for creation is first of all to be expressed in worship. But then a theological view of our place in nature and our activities that impact the natural world should be consistent with that doxological expression.

So let's look at the Second Lesson, and especially at verse 9. The language here of "a royal priesthood, a holy nation" echoes that of Exodus 19:6, where God speaks to the people of Israel before establishing a covenant with them at Sinai. The idea that Christians are to be a royal priesthood is echoed in Revelation 1:6. In the sixteenth century this idea was given considerable emphasis by Luther and other reformers in the form of the priesthood of all believers, and this has given rise to a good deal of tension between Protestants and Roman Catholics.

But while important differences certainly exist in this area, they shouldn't be exaggerated. On the one hand, Vatican II affirmed the common priesthood of all the baptized while distinguishing it from "the ministerial or hierarchical priesthood" (Walter M. Abbott, S.J., ed., The Documents of Vatican II [Geoffrey Chapman, London, 1967], pp. 26-27). On the other hand, Protestants who emphasize the priesthood of all believers have generally insisted on the need for a distinctive pastoral office although -- outside the Anglican Communion -- the term "priest" is seldom used for those holding it. (Of course, in ancient Israel Exodus 19:6 wasn't thought to rule out the existence of a group of men who were priests in a special sense.)

But our concern here is not with those questions about the public ministry of the church or terminology for it. It is rather with the ecumenical consensus that all Christians are indeed called to be priests. This means that Roman Catholics need to give this concept more emphasis than they often have (even in light of Vatican II), while Protestants may need to get rid of some allergies to the word "priest."

What does it mean then to be a "priest"? The word will have many connotations, but one to be emphasized here is found in Hebrews 8:3. In speaking of the unique priesthood of Christ "after the order of Melchizedek" the writer says, "For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary for this priest to have something to offer." (Of course we need to be careful about conflating the ideas of priesthood in Hebrews and 1 Peter in a naive way but I think that use of this verse, as at least a partial definition is legitimate.)

What are we to offer? Again such a question can provoke controversy but there are some things that we can agree on. We are to offer ourselves: Paul appeals to Christians "to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual [or 'reasonable'] worship" (Romans 12:1). The mention of bodies means that we are to offer ourselves as whole persons living in the world, not as disembodied souls or spirits.

And we are to offer, as The Book of Common Prayer puts it (pp. 335, 363, 369), our "sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving." And we don't just do that as isolated individuals. As those called to be members of a royal priesthood, we are to make this offering for and on behalf of others.

Here is where the idea runs into trouble for a lot of people. If all Christians can confess their sins and offer prayer, praise, and thanksgiving to God, why do we have any need for others to be priests for us? The idea of the priesthood of all believers can give rise to a very individualistic and fragmented idea of the Christian faith. ("We don't need no stinkin' priests" is the way one of my Episcopalian colleagues characterizes a common Protestant attitude.)

Well, that could be debated, but that isn't my purpose here. Instead, let's ask about those who can't speak for themselves, in particular, what about the non-human part of creation? Do you think that's a strange question? Take a look at Psalm 148 (and if you are going to preach on an environmental theme, it might be a good idea to use this psalm instead of the lectionary's snippets from 31).

Psalm 148 could be described by borrowing a phrase from Teilhard de Chardin, "The Hymn of the Universe." In it the whole creation is called to praise God -- angels, heavenly bodies, animals of sea, land and air, weather and land and plants. Of course that's nice poetry, but it seems perhaps too anthropomorphic. Trees and birds can't really praise God, can they? At most they can passively display God's glory, as a painting can be said to praise its artist.

But notice the structure of the psalm: in moves on from the non-human parts of the world to the human race, and finally to the people of Israel. And it is Israel -- together now with the Christian church -- who in fact sings this song of praise! Part of our priestly vocation is to lead the world's chorus, to give voice to the worship of all creation. We are the ones who are able to understand that God is the creator and express creation's praise and thanksgiving for its very existence.

(Are there other intelligent species in other parts of the universe that are also called to give voice to this worship? Perhaps. We can only speak about what we know. If such species exist, part of our calling is ultimately to be in harmony with them.)

There are other texts that speak of the praise of God by creation. "Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the LORD" (but how?), says Psalm 96:12. One of the additions to the book of Daniel in the Apocrypha, "The Song of the Three Young Men" (35-68) is an expansion of Psalm 148 and may be thought of as a commentary on it. (It is the basis for the canticle Benedicite, omnia opera, #18 in Lutheran Book of Worship or pp. 47-49 of The Book of Common Prayer.) Beyond the Bible itself, St. Francis' hymn "All Creatures of our God and King" expresses the same theme.

Our Christian concern for the natural world can thus begin with worship, and a proper environmental theology and praxis should then be consistent with our worship. "The law of praying is the law of believing," as the old saying has it, and we can also add, "and the law of doing." Just as the working out of the church's doctrine of the Trinity was strongly influenced by the fact that it had long been baptizing people in the name of the Trinity, so what we believe about our relationship with our natural environment, and what we do about it should be influenced by the fact that creation is to praise God and that we are to give voice to its praise.

In that light we can look at biblical texts that speak explicitly about our relationship with other creatures. Genesis 1:26-28 is certainly important -- and controversial -- in this regard. The idea that humanity is supposed to have "dominion" over the earth has been given much of the blame (most notably in on oft-cited essay by Lynn White, Jr., "The Historic Roots of our Ecologic Crisis," Science 155 [1967], 1203) for the world's environmental problems. We have to admit that "dominion" often has been understood in a chainsaw and bulldozer way, but that isn't the only way to read it. If dominion is read in the context of God's intention to create humanity in the image and likeness of God, it can be seen as a commission to care for the earth as God's representative, in the way that God cares for it. And the supreme revelation of the God we are to represent is the one who came to serve rather than to exploit.

Genesis 2:15, from the second creation story, makes a similar point: Humanity is to "till" and "keep" -- or, as the words could also be translated, "serve" and "protect" -- the garden. This suggests that our role is to be one of "pastoral care" for creation as well as priestly offering for it.

One of the most important texts for our present topic is Leviticus 25. This entire chapter deals both with care for the earth -- giving the land its "Sabbath rest" -- and with justice among the human community, the Year of Jubilee. Both of these basic concerns are parts of God's covenant with Israel, and the fact that they are coupled here is critical. Environmental protection is not to be carried out without regard for human welfare, but the natural world should not always be sacrificed for economic progress or jobs.

We then come to practical questions of what we should be doing about the environment. Perhaps surprisingly, the topic of the praise of God by creation gives us here an important way of evaluating human activity in the world. Very simply, we can ask about anything we do that affects the environment, "Does this increase or diminish the praise of God?" In analogy with the environmental impact statements that the EPA requires, we could speak of "doxological impact statements." Of course this doesn't mean that such impacts can be measured quantitatively, but just asking the question may be helpful.

There are environmentally friendly activities that people can engage in at a local level and the church ought to encourage people to do them. Recycling, cleanup and beautification projects, improvement of energy efficiency in homes, business, and churches, and avoiding overuse of pesticides, herbicides, and antibiotics can all be recommended. None of these things is going to save the planet but at the very least they will help people to be aware of the need to think about what they're doing and to act in responsible ways with regard to the environment.

On the larger scale there are, of course, a lot of important issues. Questions about the availability of oil and the price of gas, drilling in places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (which the Senate approved last month), global warming, and the possibility of increased use of nuclear power are all intertwined and quite contentious. Some experts in the oil industry have predicted that world oil production will peak in the next few years, and after that point production will start to decline. My "Handiwork" column in Lutheran Partners last fall on energy issues, with some references, is available at http://www.elca.org/lp/0409_10.html. This problem will be exacerbated by the predicted growth in automobile use in countries like China and India.

The following quote from Brendan I. Koerner, "Rise of the Green Machine," Wired, April 2005, is instructive. The full article is at at http://wired-vig.wired.com/wired/archive/13.04/hybrid.html?pg=1&topic=hybrid&topic_set.

Global warming. There. We said it. So declared a 2001 advertisement taken out by Ford in newspapers nationwide. It was an unusually frank admission from an industry better known for pooh-poohing all evidence of rising greenhouse gas emissions. But carmakers have begun to do the math. Right now, there are about 800 million cars in active use. By 2050, as cars become ubiquitous in China and India, it'll be 3.25 billion. That increase represents an enormous sales opportunity for automakers and an almost unimaginable threat to our environment. Quadruple the cars means quadruple the carbon dioxide emissions -- unless cleaner, less gas-hungry vehicles become the norm.

So what should preachers tell people to do about such issues? I'm not sure that's the best way to approach the question. Preachers and theologians in general are usually not experts in these areas of science, technology, and economics, and there can be disagreements between informed and well-intentioned people about how problems should be dealt with. What is most important for the church to do is to make people aware that care for the environment, as well as justice for people, are issues in which Christians have a distinctly religious stake. Putting the issues in the context of worship, as I've suggested, is an important way of making that point.

One way of doing this is to develop an appropriate religious appreciation for the natural world. This does not mean succumbing to any temptation to nature worship (a thing that conservative Christians leery of the environmental movement often warn of). Instead, our eyes need to be opened to see the natural world as creation, something that is only possible in the light of revelation. Psalms like 96, 104, or 148 are very helpful in this regard. Job 38-41, in which God speaks insistently to Job about the divine care for the beasts of the wilderness that Job doesn't know about, is also valuable. These chapters make it clear both that God is concerned with more than just humanity and that the praise of God is not limited to the parts of the world that we happen to find attractive or comfortable.

The idea that we are called, as a "royal priesthood," to enable creation to praise the creator, can be the starting point of a sermon. How Christians are to do that, how we are to see that all the things mentioned in Psalm 148 do "praise the name of the LORD," will be dealt with differently by various preachers. Perhaps it could be presented as a challenge to the congregation. Those with a strong sacramental emphasis might want to give some thought to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's "The Mass on the World" in his Hymn of the Universe (Harper & Row, 1965).

Finally, even though I noted earlier that we need to be careful about combining the ideas of priesthood in Hebrews and 1 Peter, it's still true that all of our prayers are to be offered (implicitly or explicitly) in Jesus' name, and that all our offerings have their value in God's sight only together with the self-offering of Christ. Our concern for the natural world is not simply part of an understanding of creation that is a preliminary to the saving work of Christ, for he is not the redeemer of humanity only but of the world. That self-offering of Christ is the means by which "all things" are reconciled to God (Colossians 1:20).


Team Comments

Mary Boyd Click responds: I have to admit, George, that I really didn't think you could "get there from here" as you've tried to link the 1 Peter passage with upcoming Earth Day, but I do believe you have placed us in the neighborhood. I'd like to offer one other "link" to help build your case.

As you mentioned, to be a "priest" involves "offering sacrifices," ones that will enable all of creation to sing choruses of praise to God. I liked that idea of us as priests leading the singing, but how do we offer the sacrifices? I'm afraid it all boils down to what we dislike sacrificing most. Money, money, money.

Disagreements over solutions to global warming, protection of endangered species, and improved air and water quality seem to boil down the ubiquitous common person's question: What does it cost? Who's going to pay for it? In fact, whether one is willing to admit that creation has been damaged and could be singing in less froggy tones, depends on whether one wants to pay for the solution recommended. I bring this to the attention of readers in order to point out that they will be preaching to congregations who, on Earth Day, are the same blended sea of red and blue that they were last fall on election day. One "Red" agency, The National Center for Public Policy Research does not even see a problem at all with many of the environmental issues people will discuss on Earth Day.

Check out their website (http://www.nationalcenter.org/EarthDay04Myths.html) and the facts on global warming and energy conservation, which they call "myths." As you said, most clergy are not experts enough to combat much of what this organization argues. I did pick up, however, that many of their objections to measures to conserve, preserve, or adopt environmental safeguards boiled down to the cost to industry, to wealthy Americans, and to Americans in general.

If we, as a "royal priesthood" are called to lead the singing, to safeguard and care for the environment in the way God cares for it, we have to talk about real costs/sacrifices and who will pay those costs. It will indeed be a sacrifice from everyone's pocketbook, just as real as the collection of a Sunday morning offering. If we are to lead the singing, it may mean that our priestly role is to hold people together as one body and encourage them not to dismiss community environmental concerns just because "it's too expensive." Scripture does not give us an "out" from international dialogue, such as the multinational conference in Kyoto, simply because we didn't think it was fair. As priests who lead and offer the sacrifices, we have to be involved in conversations to determine what those sacrifices will be and if God is asking us to make those sacrifices in order to care for the creation as God does.

Carlos Wilton responds: I agree with Mary Boyd, George, that -- after our conference call last week--- I too had questions about how you were going to get from point A to point B with respect to connecting up this week's lectionary texts with an Earth Day emphasis. The 1 Peter passage does, however -- as you indicate -- speak of a "chosen" people, who presumably are chosen for a reason. That reason is witness: "proclaiming the mighty acts" of God who called us from darkness into light. Part of our social witness, as Christians, involves speaking out in favor of the preservation and proper use of God's creation.

Speaking for myself, I'm not so sure I could make the "priesthood of all believers" connection serve this same purpose. For me, it's just too big a leap. My understanding of the historical context in which Luther articulated the doctrine is that it has to do primarily with absolution -- the declaration that worshipers' sins are forgiven, by the grace of God. It was not a comprehensive leveling of all leadership functions in the church but was limited to this one area of the sixteenth-century priest's job description. Luther opposed the traditional view that only an ordained priest could pronounce absolution. He believed these words of comfort are something any Christian ought to be able to extend to any other Christian. Try as I may, I just can't see a strong connection between that doctrine and environmental ethics -- unless it's pronouncing God's forgiveness for the sin of not recycling!

First Peter 2:9 reminds us that we are creatures, not creators. God has elevated us human beings to an exalted office (a "royal priesthood"). While that priestly office may sound important -- and it is -- priesthood is still, at its foundation, a servant role. Priests serve God, not themselves. If we -- whom God calls to be priests to one another -- suck all the fossil fuel out of the ground, we can't replace it. Only God the Creator can do that.

There's a fundamental error in the old "dominion" theology -- the view that emphasizes God's command to Adam and Eve to till the earth and subdue it. Dominion theology assumes we human beings exist over and against the created order: that somehow we stand outside it, and can -- like little gods -- manipulate it to our hearts' content. It's as though we were children, playing with toy trucks and bulldozers in a sandbox: at the end of the day, the kids are able to pack up their "heavy equipment" and go home. In light of the green revolution, though, we're becoming increasingly aware that this old way of looking at our place in the world is no longer acceptable. We are very aware that we are ourselves part of the ecological system. We are creatures, not creators. While we do have certain creative capacities within us that mimic the one, true Creator, these are but pale approximations. It is when we imagine ourselves powerful enough to strip-mine a mountain, or dump PCBs into a river, that we, as a people, walk perilously close to sinful rebellion against our Maker.

Several news stories in recent days have told of the anxious experiences of passengers aboard the Norwegian Cruise Line ship "Norwegian Dawn," struck by a "freak wave" in mid-ocean. In our hubris, we imagine we can build floating pleasure palaces like the Norwegian Dawn -- ships so huge and technologically sophisticated that they are immune to the vagaries of nature -- but the events of this week remind us this is not the case. God's creation has some surprises for us yet.

Chris Ewing responds: I must confess that when George first indicated his intention to use the intensely Christological 1 Peter passage to talk about the environment, I was skeptical. Although he is one of the finest and most faithful thinkers I have known, I doubted that even George would be able to come up with anything theologically responsible and compelling starting there. I should have known better. The scriptural stone I rejected has proved to be the capstone of the arch, creating a wonderful new entrance into a key concern. So my first response is one of gratitude.

As I sat pondering what else to write, I was looking at the Office Assistant icon of my word processor, which manifests as a beautiful blue, green, and brown globe. North and South America are intermittently visible through the currents of cloud that ceaselessly circle and wrap the precious ball. Suddenly it spins, and it is Africa and the Middle East that are being gently bathed before my eyes. Clearly the creators of this software program cherished a vision and a love for something more than computers! I am humbled by the way that others have led the doxology for creation, which, as George so compellingly points out, is really our song to sing.

Elizabeth A. Johnson devotes the final pages of her book Consider Jesus: Waves of Renewal in Christology (New York: Crossroad, 1996) to a consideration of the relationship between ecology and Christology. The chapter is titled "Salvation of the Whole World," and she moves from a consideration of Jesus' saving work with respect to all humanity, to an exploration of the implications for the whole cosmos. "Christian theology of the last few centuries concentrated so intensely on redemption of the human race that for the most part it lost sight of the great scriptural and patristic theme that Jesus Christ is also the Savior of the whole world, of the natural world and all of its creatures," she notes (p. 139). Yet no less a theologian than Paul (Romans 8:18-23) recognized that all of creation is groaning for renewal. "It is not just human beings who are saved. We are of a piece with all creation, sharing with all creatures a common destiny. The new heaven and the new earth for which we hope includes the renewal of the whole universe.... In this understanding, both spirituality and ethics direct us toward responsible stewardship of the earth" (Johnson, p. 141).

There is a stream of Christian thinking which has tended to take the attitude that, since Christ is expected to return bringing a new order to eclipse the present one, the present world is not a matter of concern. Such Christians have often been indifferent to justice and environmental issues, and have indeed been known to shrilly support inflammatory foreign policies precisely because they would seem to hasten Armageddon and bring the kingdom in sooner. This is utterly alien to the broad stream of biblical thinking. The scriptural call to justice is undeniable; if it is more muted in the New Testament than in the Old, it is probably because the people to whom the New Testament was addressed were, for the most part, not in a position to effect a just social order, and so writings addressed to them shift the emphasis to charity and mutual support. Similarly with the environment, although it is always dangerous to argue from silence, we may surmise that the slenderness of the specific biblical (particularly New Testament) witness on the subject has more to do with the situation of those to whom it was first addressed than with the relevance of the subject to Christians, particularly today. This world, with its history, social structures, and ecology, is not a matter of theological or Christological indifference, as George has amply demonstrated; nor is the created order to be regarded as disposable. The idea that we are called to exercise our priesthood of doxology, service, and care in relation to all of creation is a very helpful one, and a far better foundation for our attitude to the world than a single-point focus on the millennium.

In a similar vein, Elizabeth Johnson suggests celebration of the Sabbath as a prime "way to inculcate a Christology which promotes respect for the earth." Rooted in the example of the Creator, whose activity culminated in a day of rest and appreciation of the "very good" creation, Israel was commanded to observe the Sabbath, delighting in the presence of the Creator within the good creation and offering praise. With the Christian shift of the sabbath to the first day of the week, "creation is contemplated through the prism of the risen Christ, whose risen body is bonded with the whole earth as a sign of the promise of the new creation already beginning" (p. 142).

We see, then, that care for the earth is not incidental to our Christology, but an integral aspect of "the universality of reconciliation at work in the world through Christ." The promise of redemption is meant not just for humans for "for the whole cosmos itself" (Johnson, p. 143). In this regard 1 Peter's choice of an assortment of stone metaphors to talk about Jesus and Christians is evocative, graphically suggesting the inseparability of Christ, Christians, and Creation.


Related Illustrations

From Carlos Wilton:

"There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings ... Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change.... There was a strange stillness.... The few birds seen anywhere were moribund; they trembled violently and could not fly. It was a spring without voices. On the mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of scores of bird voices there was now no sound; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh."

Those words are now forty years old. They were published in 1962 by biologist Rachel Carson, in a series of articles in the New Yorker magazine. Soon after, those articles became a book, Silent Spring. It was a simple, factual account of what was happening to America's wildlife as a result of pesticides like DDT.

When Silent Spring hit the bookstores in 1962, it shook up an entire nation. Corporate America -- led by chemical giants like Monsanto, DuPont, and American Cyanamid, and backed (at least at first) by the Agriculture Department -- launched a furious counterattack. Rachel Carson was threatened not only with hostile reviews, but also with lawsuits. Despite a lifetime of distinguished work as a biologist, she was, for the first time, labeled a "hysterical woman," unqualified to write such a book.

Today, of course, we know differently. Just about everything Carson wrote about the long-term effects of certain pesticides was dead on (in more ways than one). The publication of Silent Spring is now considered a landmark event: the start of the modern environmental movement. Just eight years later, in 1970, the first Earth Day was organized.

***

"Matter matters" is a much-quoted phrase of the Scottish preacher George MacLeod, founder of the Iona Community. Like many Celtic Christian mystics before him, MacLeod has a wonderful way of catching glimpses of God in the very stuff of ordinary life. Between the material world and the heavenly places, he once wrote, "only a veil divides, thin as gossamer." We shouldn't, therefore, waste our time trying to trace the division between the material and the spiritual -- because it's God's intention in Christ, one day, to bridge that gap (and indeed, in Christ, God has already begun to do so).

As a consequence, it is as holy a thing to feed a hungry child as it is to sing a hymn in a cathedral -- if by so doing we seek earnestly to glorify God.

One of George MacLeod's most famous prayers is modeled on the well-known "breastplate" prayer of St. Patrick. These words are as much poem as they are prayer. If we attend to them carefully, we just may glimpse the boundary-line between the material and the spiritual growing thin:
Christ above us, Christ beneath us,
Christ beside us, Christ within us.
Invisible we see you, Christ above us,
clouds or sunshine, grey or bright.
But with the eye of faith
we know you reign,
instinct in the sun ray,
speaking in the storm,
warming and moving all creation,
Christ above us....

Invisible we see you, Christ beneath us.
With earthly eyes we see beneath us
stones and dust and dross....
But with the eyes of faith,
we know you uphold.
In you all things consist and hang together.
The very atom is light energy,
the grass is vibrant,
the rocks pulsate.
All is in flux;
turn but a stone, and an angel moves.
Underneath are the everlasting arms.
Unknowable we know you, Christ beneath us.

Inapprehensible we know you, Christ beside us.
With earthly eyes we see men and women,
exuberant or dull, tall or small,
But with the eye of faith,
we know you dwell in each.
You are imprisoned in the ... dope fiend and the drunk,
dark in the dungeon, but you are there.
You are released, resplendent,
in the loving mother, ... the passionate bride,
and in every sacrificial soul.
Inapprehensible we know you, Christ beside us.

Intangible we touch you, Christ within us.
With earthly eyes we see ourselves,
dust of the dust, earth of the earth....
But with the eye of faith,
we know ourselves all girt about of eternal stuff,
our minds capable of Divinity,
our bodies groaning, waiting for the revealing,
our souls redeemed, renewed.
Intangible we touch you, Christ within us.

Christ above us, beneath us,
beside us, within us,
what need have we for temples made with hands?

***

After Hiroshima, Robert Oppenheimer told an audience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that "in some sort of crude sense, which no vulgarity, no humor, no overstatement can quite extinguish, the physicists have known sin."

***

If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.
-- Henry David Thoreau

***

Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.
-- Cree Indian Proverb

***

To those who followed Columbus and Cortez, the New World truly seemed incredible because of the natural endowments. The land often announced itself with a heavy scent miles out into the ocean. Giovanni di Verrazano in 1524 smelled the cedars of the East Coast a hundred leagues out. The men of Henry Hudson's Half Moon were temporarily disarmed by the fragrance of the New Jersey Shore, while ships running farther up the coast occasionally swam through large beds of floating flowers. Wherever they came inland they found a rich riot of color and sound, of game and luxuriant vegetation. Had they been other than they were, they might have written a new mythology here. As it was, they took inventory.
-- Frederick Turner, Beyond Geography: The Western Spirit against the Wilderness (Viking, 1980), 41.256; quoted by Matthew Fox, Original Blessing (Santa Fe: Bear & Co., 1983), p. 43

From Mary Boyd Click:

"He [Brother Thomas] was quiet a moment, watching a small egret fishing in the shallows at the edge of the water. "Sometimes I experience God like this Beautiful Nothing," he said. "And it seems then as though the whole point of life is just to rest in it. To contemplate it and love it and eventually disappear into it. And then other times it's just the opposite. God feels like a presence that engorges everything. I come out here, and it seems the divine is running rampant. That the marsh, the whole of Creation, is some dance God is doing, and we're meant to step into it, that's all."
-- From Sue Monk Kidd's new novel, The Mermaid Chair (Viking Press, 2005), p. 152

From Chris Ewing:

I say of the Angels -- every breath of air and ray of light and heat, every beautiful prospect is, as it were, the skirts of their garments, the waving robes of those whose faces see God.
-- Newman

***

Wayne Muller, in his book Sabbath (Bantam Books, 1999), has a chapter titled "Hurtling Toward the Eschaton" (pp. 76-81) that addresses the effects of our heritage of eschatological thinking and its resultant theology of progress: "So we despoil our nest, we ruin our air and soil, because it is all dispensable, we will not be here long, because here is no good, it is not where we are going, where we are going is good and holy and free and pure and perfect and it is not here and we are on our way and do not stop us do not get in our way or we will have to mow you down kill you ruin your country burn down your village to save it." In this way of thinking, there is no rest, no green pasture, until the end (note the pervasive use of Psalm 23 at funerals!).

"Sabbath challenges the theology of progress by reminding us that we are already and always on sacred ground." Muller further recommends a Sabbath practice of spending time in nature as a specific antidote to the pernicious effects of our theology of progress.

***

Judy Wells had just moved to Toronto from Peterborough, Ontario, when she joined the [United Church of Canada's] Toronto Conference environment-working group. That little sub-committee dreamed up the idea of a new line in the [church's 1968] creed; their resolution to "explicitly acknowledge our responsibility for the integrity of Creation" eventually made it to the 1994 General Council in Fergus, Ontario. It was warmly received, Wells says proudly, and soon approved, with especially strong support from Aboriginal commissioners, at a later executive meeting. "It's made me feel proud that line went in," she says. She still wishes, though, that "people would pay more attention to it. The environment is so important."

Former moderator Very Rev. Stan McKay says the line addresses our need "for the grounding of our faith," so that it "relates us to the natural order and cycle of life."

But, like Wells, he thinks we don't quite live that out as a church. "We have a tendency to slip by it as we deal with other issues," he says. "We are a people conditioned by media and expectations not to hold up the value and centrality of Creation in our lives."

We could cherish our church camps more, he says. And maybe "every congregation, in planning their worship, would allow at least four Sundays a year for worship outside." Because, although many of us trek to places in the wilderness we call sacred, our idea of what constitutes "church" is still tied to a building. "We have a limited perception of ways to be in relationship with God in the natural order."
-- Donna Sinclair, "Called to Praise, Serve, Seek" (one of a series of articles on "A New Creed," 1968, alt.), The United Church Observer, April 2005, pp. 23-24

***

A New Creed

We are not alone,
we live in God's world.

We believe in God:
who has created and is creating,
who has come in Jesus,
the Word made flesh,
to reconcile and make new,
who works in us and others
by the Spirit.

We trust in God.

We are called to be the Church:
to celebrate God's presence,
to live with respect in Creation,
to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil,
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,
our judge and our hope.
In life, in death, in life beyond death,
God is with us.
We are not alone.
Thanks be to God.
-- The United Church of Canada, General Council 1968, alt. 1998

***

A cartoon I have long since lost showed God speaking to an angel who, dressed in a maid's uniform and pushing a housecleaning cart, was busily dusting the heavens. As the angel reached to clean the earth, God said, "Oh, don't touch that one. I'm trying to teach them something about responsibility."

***

It's rather like the Americans [in resisting adherence to the Kyoto Protocol] are using the legal principle of reasonable doubt to rationalize their position on the science of planetary survival....

[However, we Canadians are] in the same boat as the Americans: undoing the damage we're causing to the atmosphere requires social, economic and political change on a revolutionary scale. If we're serious about global warming we simply cannot go on living the way we are. That's what the Americans are balking at when they reject initiatives like Kyoto. They're being honest about it; I'm not sure we are.

Big, polluting industries have to do their part, but ultimately the calculus of global warming reduces to individuals and ethical choices. Are we willing to make sacrifices for the greater good? Questions like these are a lit easier to ask than answer, but they're the kinds of questions churches and people of faith deal with all the time.

For me, the issue inevitably leads back to the cottage. [The article opened with a vignette of the author joining 16 lanes of smog-bound traffic every weekend to travel, like thousands of others on thousands of freeways in thousands of cities, to the cottage.] Later this month, congregations will mark Earth Day Sunday, but I fully expect to be cottage-bound, full of anticipation and shadowed by one of the big environmental questions of our time: Am I willing to throw away my car keys and turn my back on the place forever? The weight of the evidence says I must, sooner rather than later. My heart says no. So the bottom line is maybe. I wonder how many more maybes the planet can handle.
-- David Wilson, "Into the gathering haze," one of a set of "Postcards from a warm planet" in The United Church Observer, April 2005, p. 29

***

The National Geographic regularly prints articles exploring environmental issues. Among recent features:
"The End of Cheap Oil" -- June 2004
"Earth's Fresh Water: Under Pressure" -- September 2002
"Attack of the Alien Invaders" (invasive species) -- March 2005
"Global Warning: Bulletins from a Warmer World" -- September 2004
"The State of the Planet" -- September 2002

***

I say of the Angels -- every breath of air and ray of light and heat, every beautiful prospect is, as it were, the skirts of their garments, the waving robes of those whose faces see God.
-- John Henry Newman


Worship Resources
By George Reed

N.b.: All copyright information is given from the first cited place where found. Some copyright information may differ in other sources due to adaptations, etc.

OPENING

Music

Hymns

"All Things Bright And Beautiful." WORDS: Cecil Frances Alexander, 1848; MUSIC: 17th cent. English melody; arr. Martin Shaw, 1915. Public domain. As found in UMH 147; Hymnal '82; TPH 267; TNCH 31; CH 61.

"Cantemos al Senor" "Let's Sing Unto The Lord." WORDS: Carlos Rosas; trans. Robert Escamilla, Elise S. Eslinger, and George Lockwood, 1983, 1987; MUSIC: Carlos Rosas; arr. Raquel Mora Martinez. (c) 1976 Resource Publications, Inc. Trans. (c) 1989 The United Methodist Publishing House; arr. (c) 1983 The United Methodist Publishing House. As found in UMH 149; TPH 472; TNCH 39; CH 60.

"This Is My Father's World." WORDS: Maltbie D. Babcock, 1901; MUSIC: trad. English melody, adapt. Franklin L. Sheppard, 1915. Public domain. As found in UMH 144; Hymnal '82: 651; LBOW 554; TPH 293; AAHH 149; TNNBH 41; CH 59.

"For The Healing Of The Nations." WORDS: Fred Kaan, 1965; MUSIC: John Hughes, 1907. Words (c) 1968 Hope Publishing Co. As found in UMH 428; TNCH 576; CH 688.

"Cuando El Pobre" "When The Poor Ones." WORDS: J. A. Olivar and Miguel Manzano; trans. George Lockwood; MUSIC: A. Olivar and Miguel Manzano; arr. Alvin Schutmaat. (c) 1971 Ediciones Paulinas; trans. (c) 1980 The United Methodist Publishing House. As found in UMH 434; TPH 407; CH: 662.

"This Is My Song." WORDS: Sts. 1,2 Lloyd Stone, 1934; st. 3, Georgia Harkness, ca. 1939; MUSIC: Jean Sibelius, 1899; arr. from The Hymnal, 1933. Sts. 1,2 (c) 1934, 1962 Lorenz publishing Co.; st. 3 (c) 1964 Lorenz publishing Co.; arr. (c) 1933, renewed 1961 Presbyterian Board of Christian Education. As found in UMH 437; TNCH 591; CH 722.

Songs

"I Love You, Lord." WORDS & MUSIC: Laurie Klein, 1978. (c) 1978 House of Mercy Music. As found in Renew 36.

"Lord, I Lift Your Name On High." WORDS & MUSIC: Rick Founds. (c) 1989 Maranatha! Music. As found in CCB.

"This Is The Day." WORDS: Based on Psalm 118:24; adapted by Les Barrett; MUSIC: Les Garret. (c) 1967 Scripture in Song. As found in CCB 13.

CALL TO WORSHIP

Leader: God calls us to worship this day.

People: We come as God's people.

Leader: God calls us to be priests, mediators of God's grace.

People: We offer ourselves as vessels to be filled.
We offer ourselves as vessels to be poured out for all creation.

Leader: God calls us to proclaim the mighty acts of creation and redemption.

People: With our mouths and our lives we proclaim the goodness of God's creation and salvation.

COLLECT / OPENING PRAYER

O God, who created and is creating a wondrous world: Grant us, your children, your priests and your presence, the grace to live and share your love and compassion with all your creatures; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

or

We come into your presence, O God, knowing that you have created us, and all that is about us. You have given us your own Spirit that we might be your priests and your presence in this world. Help us to remember the goodness and wholeness you desired for all your creation and to live in such a way that we assist you in bringing it to fulfillment. Amen.

PRAYERS OF CONFESSION / PARDON

Leader: God calls us to be honest with ourselves, with God and with one another by revealing the state of our lives.

People: We confess to you, O God, that we are more comfortable arguing with one another about how you made creation than we are in asking ourselves the hard questions about how we are caring for what you so loving brought into existence. We are quick to point out how the understanding of creation that others have is not in line with who we understand you to be, while we ignore the ways we participate in trashing your world. We argue over the number of days you worked on creation while blind to the people, plants, and animals that die daily because we have polluted creation in such a callous way.

You have come seeking to redeem us and all creation and we fight about how to interpret that work while millions around us are frantically seeking a word of hope and grace. Forgive us for our sinfulness. Cleanse us from our stupid self-seeking. Fill us once again with your Spirit that we may truly be your presence, your priests, your living stones as you build your realm among us. Amen.

Leader: The God who created all that is and comes among us to redeem all creation grants you pardon and the power to do all that you have asked.

GENERAL PRAYERS, LITANIES, ETC.

All glory, honor and power are yours, O God, for you are the Creator of all that is. Out of your great heart of love you called forth light and all creation. With love you formed us and breathed into us your very own life and breath and spirit.

(The following paragraph is most suitable if a prayer of confession will not be used elsewhere.)

We confess that we often use up creation as though its only value was how it serves us. We forget that you made it and called it very good. We forget that all creation delights you. We think of salvation as only pertaining to eternal life for us after we die and we forget that you are saving all creation. We think we are the only ones who understand what you are doing and yet you tell us all creation groans for the day of salvation.

We give you thanks for all of creation and the joy and beauty that it brings into our lives. We thank you for the salvation you are bringing to our lives, our relationships, and to all creation.

(Other specific thanksgiving may be offered.)

As you move among your creatures in love and care, help us to join you in your work. Take our prayers and our love for others and join it in your great heart of love. May we be part of you loving, caring presence.

(Other petitions may be offered.)

All these things we ask in the Name of Jesus who taught us to pray saying, "Our Father...."

Hymnal & Songbook Abbreviations
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
Hymnal '82: The Hymnal 1982, The Episcopal Church
LBOW: Lutheran Book of Worship
TPH: The Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African American Heritage Hymnal
TNNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
TNCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
PMMCH3: Praise. Maranatha! Music Chorus Book, Expanded 3rd Edition
Renew: Renew! Songs and Hymns for Blended Worship


A Children's Sermon

One and the same

Object: a mirror

Based on John 14:1-14

Good morning! Today's lesson includes one of those times when Jesus tries to explain something that is very difficult for his followers to understand. For years, people wanted to know how to find the way to God. Jesus told them that he was the one, true way to get to the Father. If people wanted to know God the Father, Jesus himself was the way! Jesus told them that no one gets to the Father unless they go through Jesus first. What do you think that means? (get responses)

Well, don't be surprised if it is hard to understand. Jesus told his followers about this a lot, but they didn't really understand what he was talking about either, at least not at first.

In our lesson today, the disciples are still confused about all this. Finally someone says to him, "Show us the Father and we will be satisfied." Jesus answers, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." Jesus was trying to say to them that he and God the Father are a part of one another. They are the same. When people look at him they are also seeing God -- even though they may not realize it. He told them that God has been with them the whole time. While they were with Jesus, they were also with God.

(hold up the mirror) When you look in a mirror, what do you see? (get responses) Right. You see your own face. I wonder what Jesus saw when he looked in a mirror. Do you think he saw his own reflection or the reflection of God? It's very mysterious how God and Jesus can be different and yet also the same. In fact, that is one of the great mysteries of the church. I can see why the disciples had such a hard time understanding it, too. What's most important, though, is this: Spend time with Jesus and you'll get to know God, too. That part is easy to understand.

Prayer: Father, help us get to know you better. Amen.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Immediate Word, April 24, 2005, issue.

Copyright 2005 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.

All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.