Last Wednesday, Jackie, Ann and I, joined some 50 volunteers on a mission trip to Henderson Settlement. This mission team was organized by our sister church, Calvary, on Rowe Blvd. The volunteers represented 15 different churches among them Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and United Methodists from Anne Arundel County and beyond.
In the future, we will tell you more about Henderson Settlement and the purpose of the mission trips there. Today, because I would like to focus on the theme of our time together, which is on our stewardship of creation, suffice it to say, that the drive early last Wednesday morning in bad weather to Frakes, Kentucky, 531.9 miles through Interstate 81 from Annapolis; a 9 hours and 34 minutes drive, was not pleasant.
Great company, sharing driving duty, food, the knowledge that with many others we would be helping brothers and sisters in need in one of the most economically depressed areas in our country, and the beautiful sight of wide open spaces and fall colors along the way and on the campus of the settlement itself, made the trip worthwhile. Allow me to show you some pictures of the gifts of nature that we saw and enjoyed on campus.
Now, mentally add to these pictures the many beautiful sights and scenes that you see in many places around this wonderful country of ours -- and then add also to this those you saw in your travels to other countries, or the ones you read about or see on television – not just on land, but in the air and on water-- Like the psalmist, we can only praise and thank the Lord for gifting us with so much bounty. And we can thank folks who work very hard to preserve these gifts of God in nature for us and for future generations. They are exercising responsible stewardship of creation as God has commanded –
The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. - Genesis 2:15, TNIV
Thanks to them the world is so much richer for their labor.
God commanded us to tend the garden. We are to be gardeners for God.
Sadly, however, not all of us interpret the Lord’s command as a call and a charge to care for creation.
For centuries and until the present time, many of us focus on another passage in the Book of Genesis, the one where the Lord said to the first man and woman, representatives of humankind:
God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ (Genesis 1:28, NRSV)
This command has been interpreted as a license to do what we humans please with creation. Instead of tending to creation as a gardener would, we have become its abusers, spoilers and polluters. And now, we are harvesting the consequences of our actions –
Indiscriminate cutting of trees for lumber and furniture and mountain top mining have led to drought in some areas, flash floods, mudslides and flooding in others. These things in turn have compromised, if not devastated, food and water supply leading to hunger, thirst, poverty, displacement and death of millions.
Other inhabitants of Earth are suffering as well. Animals, water creatures and plants have not been spared from human abuse. Killed by poachers to whet the appetite of rich palates, fill the jewelry boxes of those who can afford them, many animals have not only lost their natural habitats but their lives.
And as Earth continues to heat up because of the high concentration of greenhouse gases in its atmosphere caused by human activities, the situation can only get worse. Consider the data in the following slides:
As Christians we profess that --
The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it; - Psalm 24, TNIV
God has graciously entrusted this Earth to us, not to lord over it but to tend it, care for it as stewards. Up to now, we have not done a good job of it. However, our God is a loving God; always giving us second, third and sometimes even fourth chances to change and do better.
Yes, the problems we continue to create for and on Earth are huge, but there are things we can do to make baby steps to address it:
First of all and the most fundamental of all is for us to think differently about our place and role on Earth. Like everything else in creation, we belong to God. We are not creation’s masters and lords, God is.
Second, we humans need to humbly acknowledge our interconnectedness to all the inhabitants of Earth. More than the internet, cell phones and other forms of mass media, we are connected to all who inhabit the Earth with us at a more fundamental level of our existence than we like to admit. In fact, we are not only interconnected, we are interdependent. Without them, we will perish; without us, they will have the same fate.
With the renewing of our minds according to God’s desire for all his creatures, let our attitudes and our actions follow. For the sake of Earth, for our own sake and for the sake of our children, let us diligently practice the 3 R's:
Reduce, Recycle, Reuse
Let us reduce our consumption of Earth’s resources even when we know we can afford it; Let us recycle and reuse whatever and whenever can.
Earth’s resources are bountiful but they are not inexhaustible.
With our best efforts and God’s grace, if each one of us takes these measures to heart, we will become better stewards of Earth. We will thrive and so will all of creation. So help us God.
Amen.
