Happy Belated Earth Day

Yesterday was "Earth Day." I mostly feel about it like I feel about other more made up holidays. You should love your mother every day, not just on Mother's Day. Same thing goes for Mother Earth - but I appreciate the nice sentiment, and certainly the attention can only help.

So to celebrate we launched a new Bible study focused on creation care. We are using the study in The Green Bible called "The Green Bible Trail Guide." It is a six session study that includes several scripture passages with a central theme. The first theme was "And It Was Good" the elaboration of which is "God made all things and declared them good. God continues to show love and care for creation throughout human history and for all eternity."

Probably my favorite part of the study is that I actually learned something (which really happens quite often when I teach, especially the Bible). Although, maybe it is more accurate to say I was reminded of something. One of the scripture passages was Genesis 9:8-17 which details the covenant God made after the Flood. We usually focus on the (rain)bow and God's promise not to destroy the earth again with a flood. However, the study focused our attention on the fact that God made the covenant not only with humans (Noah and his family) but with all the living creatures (the writer repeats this several times for emphasis).

So again, we are reminded that on Earth Day and all days humans are to care for creation for the sake of all creatures of our God and king.

Weekly Green Thought: "While the sage, Honi, was walking along a road, he saw a man planting a carob tree. Honi asked him, "How long will it take for this tree to bear fruit?" "Seventy years," replied the man. Honi then asked, "Are you so healthy a man that you expect to live that length of time and eat its fruit?" The man answered, "I found a fruitful world because my ancestors planted it for me. Likewise I am planting for my children." Babylonian Talmud, Taanit 23a (second or third century).

An Easter Message About Creation

Sunday was Easter - the day central to the Christian faith. Of course Easter is about Christ's resurrection from the tomb, but a component of this resurrection is central to a theology that leads us to care for creation. This central belief is that Jesus experienced a bodily (physical) resurrection. The gospel testimonies agree that Jesus body was not in the tomb on Easter Sunday. This belief retained importance in the early centuries of the Church and is expressed in creedal statements: "I believe in...the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting."

I harp on this because some branches of Christianity - and even some individual Christians not in those branches - seem to ignore this central belief when they make statements about physical things being bad or wicked or evil and spiritual things being all that God cares about or redeems. We find this particularly in times of death, when people disparage the body and claim that the spirit has already gone on to be with God in heaven. But, with this we are forgetting that God created our bodies and proclaimed them good. Certainly our bodies are flawed in that the ones we are currently given are not fit to enjoy God eternally - but scripture teaches not that bodies are useless in heaven, but that we will be given a heavenly body.

Of course this is essential also in the incarnation. God put on flesh. God took a human body. God honors the physical, the material. This is how God has chosen to create and live among us. And a disembodied, spiritual-only Christianity - one that disparages or dismisses creation and teaches it isn't crucial to care for it because it won't matter in heaven - well that's really not Christianity at all. It's a form of Gnosticism or Manicheanism.

The resurrection of the body which Christians celebrate at Easter makes the powerful claim that God will not simply restore the spiritual - but will re-create from the physical that we are to be stewards of here and now.

Weekly Green Thought: "Whoever destroys anything that could be useful to others breaks the law of bal tashchit, 'Do not waste.'" Babylonian Talmud, Kodashim 32a (second or third century)

More Paperless Possibilities

Very early on I wrote about ending, or at least extremely reducing, paper use in church services - particularly with bulletins. But it has occurred to me that this act of creation stewardship should extend to all church mailings.

I currently serve three churches. I receive the official mail for all three churches at the same address. Quite often, I receive exactly the same thing from another ministry within the conference or a program entity in three mailings. If these groups would go through their mailing list, they would realize they are mailing three identical things to one address - and they could save on postage, paper, and environmental impact by reducing their mailings to me by two thirds. All it would take would be communication that I will receive only one mailing that I am to share with all three churches. When's the last time your church mailing address was audited?

To go even further - almost everything I receive from these ministries could be sent to me through e-mail. Then I would have the option to print as much or as little as I need. I understand many people feel that sending something through e-mail decreases its chances of being seen because of all the other forwards and useless things users receive - but it simply takes a commitment to operate differently. For that matter - I get just as much useless snail mail.

Many other entities are asking people to go paperless. I do so with banking, credit card, and other bills. So how about we ask people to go paperless with the church newsletter or calendar? What a difference this change could make!

Weekly Green Thought: "Nature is schoolmistress, the soul the pupil; and whatever one has taught or the other has learned has come from God - the Teacher of the teacher." - Tertullian (160-ca. 230), De Testimonio Animae

Weekly Green Thought

"The sending of rain is an event greater than the giving of the Torah. The Torah was a joy for Israel only, but rain gives joy to the entire world, including animals and birds." Midrash Psalms 117 (second century)

The other night I sat on my front porch and listened to the rain. Occasionally the wind would blow, and the rain would hit me. It was pretty cold, and I would flinch a bit. But all in all, it was wonderful. Sometimes we gripe about the rain, but just consider what a miracle it truly is.

Playing Green

One of my closest friends is a youth director, and he has really gotten his youth group into playing disc golf. He has "bag tags" with ranking numbers on them, and youth (and some adults) play challenges against each other to try and improve their ranking. Recently, I have joined the group, and I am obsessed! I play at least once a week. It has occurred to me that it's a great sport to get people (especially youth) walking through the woods and experiencing nature. I am not an expert in building courses, but it seems to have a very low impact on changing areas. Trees seem to be kept more than they are cleared in order to increase the challenge involved. I was most excited when I came across some eco-friendly organic discs. These discs, made by Gateway, are made by "combining renewable resources with recycled rubber." I got two (a midrange and a putter), and they are my favorite discs. I can only hope there will be more discs like this as the concept fits perfectly with such a great, green game.


Weekly Green Thought: "The initial step for a soul to come to knowledge of God is contemplation of nature." - Irenaeus (120-202)

Green Teaching

"Let us turn our eyes to the Father and Creator of the universe, and consider...the total absence of any friction that marks the ordering of His whole creation." Clement of Rome (ca. 37-101), Letter to the Corinthians 1:19

Green Words and Thoughts

I keep trying to come up with ways to be more disciplined about writing on this site, and I think I may have something. I was going through the resources in my new Green Bible (see previous post), and I found the section "Teachings on Creation through the Ages" to be very inspiring. One of the contributors, J. Matthew Sleeth, compiled a collection of sayings about care for creation. So, regardless of whether or not I have a new post, I am going to attempt to offer one of these sayings each week. Perhaps it can shape your prayer and meditation for the day or week.

Here's the first one: "I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth." -The Apostles' Creed (first century)