Annual Meeting 2010 – Sunday Sermon

A Christian Vocation for Earth Stewardship

Psalm 148: 1-12

Here are some of the things that have been on my mind: I live near the top of a hill and when I come home on a clear night I can often see the Milky Way so clearly it is a if God spilled a dust pan and scattered glittering speckles of powder across the galaxy. It never ceases to take my breath away.

There are times I have been the only person on site at Pilgrim Lodge on Lake Cobboseecontee and I have sat in the outdoor chapel, perhaps some of you have been there. Across the water is an island named “Wilderness”. When the chapel is full, voices call out to Wilderness and attempt to awaken the echo. It almost always works. Wilderness is a bird sanctuary and no one is permitted to step upon it. While I have sat there I’ve seen the solitary loon float by and heard both his loony laughter as well as his haunting cry. And in the silence between, in the space of the reverberating “echo”, I think I really did hear the voice of God saying, “This IS holy.”

When my mind becomes so cluttered that I cannot think straight, to the point when the cacophony in my head paralyzes me from productivity, I have learned it is worth the time to drive to Pemaquid Point. When I can sit upon those rocks and feel the rhythm of the crashing waves, that is when my sense of God’s order of all things begins to find clarity again. The ocean and the calling gulls silence the meaningless clamor that had crowded God out of my thoughts.

Quite a few years ago I had an occasion to visit a church in Aroostook Association. Driving up to the County I took the main road through Mars Hill, past the gentle giants of windmills, through Presque Isle and between the rolling potato fields to Ashland. But after the meeting I took the road less traveled south toward my home. It is a longer way, but I was told it was worth it. Oh, it is. Almost no cars. Moose, practically guaranteed (although that day they hid from me). It was summer, I drove with the windows down and listened to the wind in the trees. I stopped by the clearest of babbling brooks, got out and peered through the crystal clear water. I was startled by something I hadn’t seen when I stopped my car. Ahead by the side of the road was a massive boulder and atop the rock sat an incredibly large red fox sunning himself in the warm rays. Of course he had seen me before I him, but he stood there for quite some time as we watched each other, each considering the dangers and each deciding this is really okay. We were both predators in our way, but each came to a conclusion that the peace of the moment was worth preserving.

Why do I tell you these stories and why did I choose Psalm 148, a Psalm of Praise, for this Annual Meeting Sunday. What I want to share with you this Sunday is both the alleluia in my soul for how God has molded in God’s hands this blessed creation; and at the same time, the stewardship of this Creation that has been handed in a unique way to us, the disciples of Jesus Christ.

A friend of mine, Jim Antal, who is the UCC Conference Minister in Massachusetts, wrote:

“However many generations of people will follow us, they will all look back and recognize that it fell to our generation to determine how long life on earth would continue, and what the quality of that life would be. If the human community continues to behave normally our great grandchildren will know nothing of the abundance of God’s creation.”

Elsewhere, Jim asks these questions:

“In a world of climate degradation, what does being a Christian look like and what does being a religious leader look like?”   

“For faithful Christians in the pews and for religious leaders, what practices in the following areas could/should become “normative expectations” now and in the years ahead? “

“How could these practices be thought of as “spiritual practices” or “spiritual disciplines” every bit as much as prayer, almsgiving and fasting?”

It’s questions such as these that make the consideration of caring for this gift of creation so pertinent. Perhaps unlike any other time, right now our planet is weeping. Is it not the Christian vocation to dry even these global tears? What we do to take care of our earth, our environment is a spiritual discipline.

Do you remember in 1968 when those astronauts vaulted in the Apollo rocket, hurled themselves into space, and leading to the iconoclastic moment of climbing down the ladder and softly stepping on the lunar surface? Do you remember watching that? “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” When they returned they were asked, “What was the most impressive moment of their voyage?” Do you know what they said? They said, looking back and seeing the totality of the earth, the blue globe on the horizon impressed them like nothing else.

The view of the earth from space has been called “the inescapable network of mutuality”. We may be many nations, many peoples, many clans, but we are only one planet. Having said that, it has also been said that the only human activity on earth that can be detected from space, is global warming. Perhaps today we might add the greatest ecological disaster in history still spewing forth in the Gulf of Mexico. From a million miles away that would be the only thing discernable about human life on earth. Our carbon footprint lays heavy on what God entrusts humankind to care for.

Warmer climates hasten the spread of disease formerly limited to the warmest parts of our earth. Warmer sea temperatures enhance the potential for more powerful, deadly, and economically destructive hurricanes—the brunt of which disproportionally impact the most economically challenged nations on earth. A great irony is that as ice-caps recede and ice melts into our ocean, resulting in the desalinization of salt water, the impact that may have on the flow of ocean streams, is likely to manifest in cooler temperatures around north-east America and western Europe, which will slow the effects of global warming on those particular parts of the planet. What that means is that the wealthiest parts of our planet which disproportionately burn carbon fuels, will feel the effects of global warming slower than the poorest parts of earth which produce much less Carbon Dioxide. These are more than scientific challenges, more than problems to be solved by a more balanced global economy, more than political quandaries; they are moral tests for which a voice of morality is needed. More than ever, that Christian moral voice needs to be heard.

What we do to lessen our carbon footprint, in every small ways, is the small step needed for mankind’s next great leap. This is why on Friday evening I introduced in my State of the Conference the New England Green Action Plan and the Green Globe Awards we hope to begin distributing a year from now. It’s not an original idea, other conferences have already signed on to the “Green Globe Project”. There are many small things, and some big things that churches can do to be a faith witness in the care of creation. The “Green Globe Project” will recognize churches annually that have made the effort to change their practices so to lessen their carbon footprint, and make real the spiritual discipline of caring for what God has entrusted to us.

Hear again the song of the psalmist; hear it as clear call for all Christians, if not all humanity.

Let US praise the name of the Lord,
   for God commanded and the ice caps were set in their right place.
⁶God established creation’s order for ever and ever;
   God fixed its bounds, may we honor them..^*
7Praise God from the earth,
   you manatees and Blue Whales,

You Gray Seals and Lobsters,
⁸natural fires and hail, snow and frost,
   stormy wind fulfilling God’s command!
⁹Mount Katadin and Blue Hill,
   apple orchards and white pines!
¹⁰Loon, and gull, moose and fox,
   wobbling Porcupine and soaring Bald Eagle!
¹¹The powerful, the influential,
   the wealthy, the developed nations!
¹²Emerging economies, and struggling nations,
   all together Praise the Lord!

It is our vocation to be stewards of these holy gifts. To do nothing, even to do little, is a spiritual failing that diminishes us as the Body of Christ. Do much, for God calls you for such a time as this.

Amen

Written by Reverend David R Gaewski for the Annual Meeting of the Maine Conference, June 13, 2010.