How Christians Should and Shouldn't Speak About Creation - Brian Zahnd

Instead of saying un-Christian things like, “This world is not my home,” “It’s all going to burn,” and “Environmentalism is idolatry,” listen to how wise Christians have always spoken about Creation.

This year Earth Day falls on a Sunday.  So I thought I’d say a few words about how Christians should and shouldn't speak about Creation.

First, Christians should never say…

"This world is not my home."
This world is our home! And it’s the locus of God’s saving work. The blessed hope is not “we’re going,” but “Christ is coming.” Our eschatological hope is resurrection, not evacuation. The risen Christ is not a ghost, he has flesh and bones; he eats fish and honeycomb.

"It’s all going to burn."
What a horrible, ghastly thing for a Christian to say! Especially when it’s given as an excuse for justifying environmental exploitation. In Christ we have a hopeful eschatology that says, “It’s all going to be renewed.” (And if you want to work from 2 Peter 3:10, say, “It’s all going to be refined.”)

"Environmentalism is idolatry."
Never say that. Instead say, “This is my Father’s world.” In giving humanity “dominion,” God made us park rangers of Planet Earth. Environmentalism isn’t idolatry — it’s the original vocation given to humanity. Environmentalism isn’t idolatry — but greed is! In Revelation we’re told that God will judge “those who destroy the earth.”

So ...

... instead of saying un-Christian things like, “This world is not my home,” “It’s all going to burn,” and “Environmentalism is idolatry,” listen to how wise Christians have always spoken about Creation.

• The first step for a soul to come to know God is contemplation of nature.
  –Irenaeus (120–202)
• The whole earth is a living icon of the face of God.
  –John of Damascus (675–749)
• If we learn to love the earth, we will discover what it means to be truly alive.
  –Teresa of Avila (1515–1582)
• A wrong attitude toward nature implies, somewhere, a wrong attitude toward God.
  –T.S. Eliot (1888–1965)
• How we treat the earth defines the relationship that each of us has with God.
  –Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (1940–)

The full article is available here

Reflection and Renewal: The Universe Is God's Handiwork (based on Psalm 19:1)

God, you've commanded us to be stewards of the Earth, which you created and called “good.”

Yet all too often we don’t see beyond our own interests. We can easily fall into a mindset that approaches your creation - and all that lives within it - as though we are its owners and it is ours to use as we see fit - instead of approaching it as your stewards.

We mask creation’s witness to your awesome beauty whenever our choices lead to harm, destruction, and disaster.  We sometimes fail to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves; even as simply and indirectly as by existing within systems which benefit us at the end but involve injustice, exploitation, and pollution earlier in the process.

So instead of always working together to fix-up your world, we sometimes degrade and harm it.

Forgive us.

Help us to relate to everyone and everything that surrounds us in ways which recognize that the universe is your sacred handiwork; that all of creation is where you appear and where we worship you.

You are a God of endless creativity, incomparable beauty, and bottomless grace. For this, we give you thanks.

Amen.

Call To Worship: Earth Day Weekend

based on piece by Greg Klimovitz

God, help us to listen so we may hear your voice all around us in the universe you called “good.”

God, open our minds so we may love one another and the earth you told us to care for and protect.

God, open our eyes to see your fingerprints in the wonder of all that surrounds us.

May our lives be worship to you.

Reflection and Renewal: Earth Day Weekend (based on Numbers 35:33)

God of All Life,

We give thanks for the beautiful, life-giving Earth that you created and called good.  We ask forgiveness for all of the ways in which we have failed to be faithful stewards of our common home; which you have called us to restore and renew.

We ask forgiveness for the ways in which we haven’t loved our neighbors as much as we’ve loved ourselves.

May we learn to respect all life, in which your spirit dwells, as a sacred gift. Thank you for inviting us to take part in your kingdom work of making all things new again.

Help us to live a fully-engaged life.

Amen.

Earth Day Prayer - Climate Caretakers

Creator God,

Your creativity knows no bounds and your creation shouts of that boundlessness.

Thank you for sharing that creation with us and giving it to us to take care of and look after as our common home. Thank you for the progress that has been made to address carbon pollution and climate change.

Let us take heart from what has been done and from the progress that has been made so far. At the same time may we use the presence of that progress and your presence with us to encourage our next steps.

May your presence and the promise of future progress give us hope. May we and our leaders not rest on past progress or future promise. Instead, empower us to press ahead. Help us to build on that progress, to express your presence and to fulfill that promise.

With love, grace, patience and perseverance may we learn, pray and act together to care for your creation and its climate.

Amen.

Earth Day Weekend Benediction: Designed For Harmony

based on No One But Us

As we go from here … may we care for each other, bring life to one another, and value all that God indwells.  May we live in harmony with each other and the earth, just as God designed us to.

Earth Day Weekend Responsive Call To Worship

based on piece by Greg Klimovitz

Reader: God, let us listen ...
All: … so we may hear your voice all around us 
in the universe you called “good.”

Reader: God, open our minds ...
All: … so we may love one another and the earth 
you told us to care for and protect.

Reader: God, open our eyes to see ...
All: … your fingerprints in the wonder of all that surrounds us. 
May our lives be worship to you.

"Church" = 6 Hands, 45 Minutes and 35 Gallon Trash Bags? - Jeff Wiersma

Eliot (left) and Oliver (right)

There's nothing unique or ground-breaking that I can add to the volumes already written about what "church" means in the 21st century.

This is not to demean or diminish the importance of the ongoing dialogues and discussions over the past decade about making "church" a more authentic, holistic and "earthly-good" experience.

I have taken part in many of them. It is a subject near and dear to my heart; part of a seismic cultural shift from Modernism to Postmodernism that resembles the time of transition between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

So instead of attempting to reinvent the wheel, I simply want to share one way I thought of to do "church" beyond the prescriptive routine of going to a certain building, on a certain day, at a certain time.

Since I have my sons Eliot (7) and Oliver (4) with me every other Sunday, sometimes we make it to church and sometimes we don't. On the alternating Sundays, you can find me at one of those aforementioned churches leading music and liturgy.

On this Earth Day Sunday, our "church" consisted of filling an entire 35 gallon garbage bag with foam coffee cups, plastic shopping bags, candy bar wrappers, bottled water containers and fast-food receipts in only 45 minutes.

Here are the two key points from this week's "sermon":

• "We are taking good care of the earth, aren't we?" -- Oliver
  
• "People should care more about the earth than about being so lazy and throwing their trash into nature!" -- Eliot

AMEN and AMEN!!