​Young at Heart Message

Today we are continuing our sermon series on Care for Creation by talking about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

From the report of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, “climate change presents the single biggest threat to development, and its widespread, unprecedented impacts disproportionately burden the poorest and most vulnerable. Urgent action to combat climate change and minimize its disruptions is integral to the successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.”
 
How many of us here have smoke detectors or fire alarms systems of some kind in our homes?

Of course, we all do – or at least, we all should.

Why do we have these in homes and other public buildings?

Well, because they are warning systems.

If a smoke detector goes off in your home, you know that most likely, one of three things is going on:

1. Probably the most likely reason a smoke detector is going off is because the battery needs to be replaced.

2. Or, perhaps you’ve burned supper and smoke is inconveniently billowing out of your stove.

3. And of course, most worrisome is that there is an actual fire somewhere in your home.

A smoke detector or fire alarm serves as a warning in all of these cases. It is, in essence, a call to action.

In order to get the noise to stop, you need to either:

1.   Replace the battery.

2.   Remove the smoke by opening windows or fanning the smoke away from the detector.

3.   Put out the fire.

If you do not do these things, the noise will not stop.

And, in some cases, if you do nothing, the situation could get quite a bit worse.

If you don’t take the burning supper out of the oven, it could go from smoke to fire and you’d have a much bigger problem on your hands.
 
Likewise, if you don’t put out the fire, or get out of the home, your life could be in danger.

But, there are very few of us who would do nothing at all if the smoke detector went off in our homes.

At the very least, the sound is annoying so we want to stop it as soon as possible.

And, at worst, it could mean our lives are in danger, so we want to ensure the safety of ourselves and our families.
But doing nothing is not a viable or wise option.
 
Let me share an example with you. This example is about a carbon monoxide detector and not a smoke detector, but the example is similar.

I once rented a beautiful old farm house from a family.

One night, I heard the tell-tale beeping of a detector going off somewhere in the house.

Of course, when something like that wakes you in the middle of the night, you are always a little disoriented at first.
So, I couldn’t tell where the beeping was coming from.
 
This beeping was also different from the single short chirp of a low battery warning.

It would beep as though it was going off, and then it would stop. It might start again briefly, but then it would stop again.

Eventually, the beeping stopped and I couldn’t figure out where the sound had been coming from, so I went back to sleep.

The next night, the same thing happened again.

This time, I was a little more prepared to investigate.
 
But again, before I could figure out which detector was going off, the alert stopped again.

This was getting weird.

The third night, the alert started and did not stop.

I finally figured out where the sound was coming from. And this time, because it wasn’t stopping and because it was the third night in a row this had happened, I decided I needed to call the fire department.

It was the detector in the basement, directly across from the furnace.
 
So, finally, the warning system got me out of the house.

It was a very cold night in Wisconsin, so I started my car, and myself - and four dogs - waited there for the fire department to show up.

It was about 3:00am, and this was a volunteer fire department in a small town where I owned a small business.

So, it was bad enough that this alarm woke me up, but it was extra embarrassing to have the fire department see me in my pajamas!
 
And, of course, by the time they arrived, the detector was quiet.

To my humiliation, they found absolutely nothing to be concerned about.

So, I apologized and I swore up and down that the alarm had gone off for three nights in a row.

They all assured me they would rather I call than not heed the warning, and that’s why they do what they do – to keep people safe.

But I was still annoyed at this point, and began to wonder what exactly was going on here.
 
The next day, the landowners came to inspect.

And, they found in the chimney a dead owl. It had been preventing proper ventilation, so occasionally a shot of carbon monoxide would hit the detector, causing it to alert.

But, the point in sharing this story is that these warning systems exist for a reason, and if we don’t heed them, we could end up in a much worse situation.

If we had not found the cause of the issue, it could have caused worse problems, including a potential fire in the chimney eventually.
 
The Message

Warning systems are an important part of keeping people, animals, buildings, and the environment (among other things) safe and secure.

If we ignore warnings long enough, something much worse may eventually happen.

Now, the Book of Revelation is a confusing and difficult book to understand.

And today’s sermon isn’t intended to explain every aspect of this book.
 
We would not have enough time in today’s message for this.

But the passage we heard today describes four angels blowing trumpets that send huge (and scary) warnings to earth.
The first trumpet causes hail and fire to fall from the sky, burning up 1/3 of the trees and green plants.

The second trumpet caused 1/3 of the sea to turn to blood, killed 1/3 of the sea creatures, and destroyed 1/3 of the ships on the sea.
 
The third trumpet caused a star to fall from heaven, turning 1/3 of the water bitter and undrinkable.

And the fourth trumpet caused 1/3 of the sun, moon, and stars to go out so that there was 1/3 as much light as before.

Just like the smoke detectors in our homes are a warning system that tell us to pay attention to something, these trumpets similarly invite us to pay attention.

Essentially, the warning here is a call to action – an invitation from God to “wake up! Turn back to Me – I will keep you safe from harm.”
 
The symbolism in Revelation can be difficult to understand or explain, but if we see this passage not as some kind of predictor for the climate concerns we are seeing today, but instead as a call to take action – to heed the warning signs and do something before things get worse – we can see how these images in Revelation may feel similar to what we have been seeing in our world recently.

In the passage we heard from Job today, God is responding to Job’s question about the nature of God.

And God’s answer seems to indicate that perhaps humanity is not the centre of the natural world.
 
Instead, there is a sense that the world was not created for us. Rather, we were created to care for the world.

There is a difference here between these two things.

Thinking that the world was created for us puts us at the centre of things. It makes us feel entitled to use natural resources irresponsibly.

But if we think of ourselves as being created to care for the world, we can approach our role in the world very differently.

And we can approach our use of the resources the earth provides differently, too.
 
If we consider our role in the world in this way, we can see and know that what we do to the earth has consequences.

Care for creation should be intuitive, spiritual, and filled with respect and awe.

But often, our systems of production, consumption, and exploitation have blinded us to this.

Over and over in scripture we are asked to open our eyes.

This passage in Revelation is asking us to open our eyes.
 
And, it’s not just opening our eyes that’s important.

We are also being asked to take action. It is not enough to simply see.

Likewise, it is not enough to just ignore our smoke detectors when they go off.

We must take action when the warning system indicates there’s a problem – even if we cannot see the root cause of the problem immediately.

The earth can only give us so many warning signs before something worse happens.
 
In Calgary, one of our favourite topics of conversation is… the weather.

And every time I talk with anyone about the summer weather, the smoke comes into the conversation.

And it seems that most everyone agrees that we can expect to be dealing with summer smoke each year going forward.

It is hard for us, as individuals, to do anything about this. We know that.

And yet, these recurring fires are a warning sign. One of many warning signs, in fact.
 
So how long do we allow these warning signs – these metaphorical smoke detectors – to wake us from our slumber before we begin to take action?

What action can we take?

The answer may not be completely clear to us right now. But God has given us beautiful minds and hearts to care, to think, to plan, and to listen.

And I want to reiterate Dr. Seuss’s famous words from last week: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
 
I received a call from someone in our congregation this week sharing some ideas they had about things we could do as a church to take small action steps.

And I am so grateful that some people are starting to think about these questions.

What I challenged that person to do was to start having conversations and sharing these ideas with all of you.

In fact, we have already made a recent change that will have an impact on the environment: we recently installed automatic faucets in the washrooms.
 
I immediately noticed the water savings the first time I used them.

If more of us start thinking these things through, there is likely much more we can do. We all have to care a whole awful lot.

And that is our call from Revelation.

We must be alert, aware, and mindful of Earth’s warning systems.

And we are called by God to care for our world.

There is a song by Matthew West called “Do Something.” In that song, he sings:
 
Well, I just couldn't bear the thought of
People living in poverty, children sold into slavery
The thought disgusted me
So, I shook my fist at Heaven
Said, "God, why don't You do something?"
God said, "I did, I created you”

God created us to take action.

So, may you leave here today with a passion in your heart.

May you leave here wondering about what actions we are being called to take.
 
May we continue to have conversations with one another about these important topics.

May we heed the warning signs and, rather than waiting for them to become louder and more persistent, may we continue to take the steps to do something now.

It is not an easy task, I know that. God knows that.

But God created us to care – a whole awful lot.

We have the power to begin to make things better.

May we live into our power, our care, and our concern for others and for our world. Amen.
 
Let us pray:
​
God of steadfast loving-kindness, you show mercy to generation after generation. Forgive us for the ways we have harmed your creation, and help us to see a way forward by guiding us to make wise choices both personally and as a community. Let our eyes and minds be open toward restoration and stewardship of this gift that you created and have called humanity to care for. Amen.

Young at Heart Message

Today we are continuing our sermon series on Care for Creation by talking about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.

From the report of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, “energy is crucial for achieving almost all of the Sustainable Development Goals, from its role in the eradication of poverty through advancements in health, education, water supply, and industrialization, to combating climate change.”
 
I was hesitant to begin this sermon series because, in today’s world, if you try to talk about climate change or care for creation, it is immediately assumed that you are getting political.

And that’s primarily because somehow, care for creation and our climate has become a polarizing topic over the last several years.

But the reality is, conversations around care for creation and for our world have been around for a very long time.
The Moravian liturgy on creation was published in our Book of Worship in 1995.
 
If we used that liturgy in full today, we would find that it resonates just as well with the issues we are facing today as it did then.

But, there are some other examples of how the conversation and awareness campaigns around caring for creation have been discussed over the years.
​
In fact, I want to share three examples that encourage kids in particular to care for the environment (and there are many more examples, as we heard earlier today in our opening meditation).
 
First of all, did you know that Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax was written in 1971?

The premise of the book, for those of you who are not familiar, is that a man called “The Once-ler” develops a product called a “Thneed” which requires that he chop down trees for production.

The Lorax repeatedly tries to get him to stop chopping down the trees, but he is so driven by money, power, and greed that he does not heed the Lorax’s warning.
​
Eventually, he chops down every single tree, so there are none to be found. The animals must leave their homes because they can no longer live without the trees.
 
At the end of the book, the famous line from The Lorax is:

In other words, it is not only our responsibility to care about the environment, but it is our opportunity to make a better world.

In many ways, Dr. Seuss was ahead of his time and was predicting the consequences of the way that humans have forgotten our call to care for the Earth.

Our second two examples take me back to my own childhood. I am not sure how many of you will remember either of these examples.

First, there’s Captain Planet, which originally aired from 1990-1992.
 
It resurfaced again from 1993-1996.
​
As a kid, I remember watching Captain Planet and I also remember, even then, the feeling of responsibility for caring for the environment.

The theme song went like this: “Captain Planet, he’s our hero! Gonna take pollution down to zero.”

So again, even in the early 90’s, there was an awareness that we might be pushing the environment harder and further than we should be.

And our last example is another one from my childhood that I remember fondly. This one is a bit more obscure and I find that many people have never heard of it.

Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest was a movie that released in 1992.
 
Robin Williams played a lovable and comical, and a bit erratic bat named Batty Koda.

Batty famously warns about human development in the rain forest by saying, “First, all these trees go. Then come your highways, then come your shopping malls, then come your neon signs, and then… toxic waste!”
​
The “bad guy” in this movie is a character named Hexus who is actually created from the smog and smoke and fumes of the machines that are destroying the rain forest.

At the end of the movie, one of the characters has a seed which he has the opportunity to plant.

The fairies and the other creatures of the forest wait expectantly for him to plant it, and one of the characters says to him, “For our children, and our children’s children. Help it grow.”

Once again, this movie highlighted a growing awareness of and concern for the destruction humans have been doing to our planet for a long time.

So, this isn’t a new issue, and it’s not just a today issue.
 
The Message

In fact, our scriptures open with God’s first creation being light, i.e. the sun.

And as we heard last week, the very first book in the Hebrew Bible – Genesis – talks at length about our responsibility of caring for God’s creation, which God entrusted to humans as one of the first acts of God toward humans.

As we know, the sun is a powerful source of energy that makes all life possible. Without the sun, human, animal, and plant life could not survive.
 
We are then told in Genesis 1 that a “wind” from God swept over the face of the waters.

This “wind” is ruach in Hebrew, which is sometimes translated as the breath of God.

So, the mighty breath of God created the earth as we know it.

And in creating the earth, God also offered in God’s very first acts, two sources of energy to sustain the world: wind, and sun.

These are two powerful sources of global energy, and they are named in the first chapter of the very first book of the Bible.
 
That should mean something to us right off the bat.

The Gospel of John also opens with creation, describing life coming into being through God.

That life is named as “the light of all people.”

We are told that Jesus was with God at the very beginning of creation, and that not one thing came into existence without Jesus.

This recalls Proverbs 8:22-31 and the creation of Wisdom, personified in the Hebrew Bible as a woman (she is often referred to as “Sophia” in the Greek).
 
She is the first of God’s creative acts and was brought forth before the beginning of the earth.

She, Wisdom, witnesses the formation of the earth and the sea, and she rejoices and delights in the creation of humanity.

The writer of John uses this image of God’s wisdom as firstborn, and calls it reason, or Word.

John opens his Gospel with: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.”

Here the feminine Wisdom becomes the masculine Word, and John uses this title for Jesus.
 
The enlightenment or Wisdom of God becomes Jesus, the Light of the world.

Light, throughout the New Testament, is often portrayed in juxtaposition with darkness and connected to the divine, to life, and to Jesus.

The heavenly city on earth, presented at the culmination of the book of Revelation, is lit by the glory of God, and its lamp is the Lamb (Revelation 21:23-25).

Light is not only a necessary resource, but one supplied by God.
 
So what does all of this mean for us as we think about ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all?

I had originally planned on starting today’s sermon by outlining just how much I rely on energy on a daily basis.

I consider myself to be *fairly* mindful of the environment and my impact on it. But as I was going through the exercise of noting how much I rely on electricity, natural gas, gasoline, and other non-renewable energy sources, I realized that I actually cannot say that about myself at all.
 
In Canada, and likewise in much of North America in general, we rely heavily on natural gas, wind, hydro, and fossil fuels as energy sources.

We are starting to see more solar panels around the city, but it is still not a primary source of power.

We are also incredibly fortunate to have access to these resources. Most of us at this point could not easily survive without the energy we have easy access to, and yet, we take that energy for granted every single day.

Just look at our sanctuary.
 
First of all, the lights are on. Then we have screens to project my sermon. We have an A/V system that allows microphones to project my voice.

We have a coffee maker to make coffee, and a hot water kettle to boil water. We have a fridge to store food and beverages, and a dishwasher to save us a lot of time washing dishes.

And of course I’m sure there are many things I’m forgetting.

But the point here is this: we are fortunate that we have access to these things which have become necessities in our lives.
 
Not everyone does have access. In fact, in many parts of the world, our consumption rates would look like luxury and extravagance.

And I don’t say this to make us feel guilty. We could not easily get “off the grid” even if we wanted to. The access to these resources is so ingrained in our culture that giving them up or reducing our use is quite difficult, if not impossible in some cases.

I say this instead to make us aware of the amazing gifts we have in accessing these energy sources.
 
And, I mention this so that we can wonder together if there are ways that we could – either individually or as a church – reduce our impact on the environment together.

In the resource provided by the Board of World Mission, they offer three different examples of churches across the world who are utilizing solar energy.

I would be happy to share more information on these stories and how they made it possible if people are interested in exploring this as an option for our church.
 
But in the meantime, let us, together, become more aware of our impact on the environment and our church’s impact on the environment.

And, let us give thanks regularly for the resources we have access to every single day that we are so accustomed to that we forget that others may not have the same luxuries.

And most importantly, let us remember that God created the sun and the wind as just two examples of energy sources that were there at the beginning, sustaining humanity well before access to other resources became available.
 
As we continue on our journey exploring the concepts around Care for Creation, may we all remember Dr. Seuss’s famous words:

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

May we be people who care. May we be people who act. May we be people God can rely on to care for creation as we were called to do.

Amen.
 
Let us pray: 
​
Dear God, you called forth light, creating life-giving energy and warmth in the form of the sun. You then gave to the world your Son, who is called the Light of the world. May your Holy Spirit guide us now, to share that light and energy with the abundance of life that surrounds us. Give us the courage to care a whole awful lot and to be agents of change for the betterment of our world. Amen.

The Message

Today we are continuing our sermon series on Care for Creation by talking about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of ensuring access to water and sanitation for all.

From the report of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, “water and sanitation are at the very core of sustainable development, critical to the survival of people and the planet. [This goal] not only addresses the issues related to drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene, but also the quality and sustainability of water resources worldwide.”
 
A healthy human being can survive approximately 1-2 months without food. Some people with larger stores of fat (energy) can survive longer without food, as long as they have access to water.

On the other hand, human beings can only go 3-5 days without water, but that number can be affected drastically by variables such as environmental temperature and activity level.

We can see why this UN goal is such an important one globally.

Having no access, or very limited access, to water can be a detriment to survival for humans.
 
We in Calgary have some experience with restricted access to water.

This past year or so, we’ve had two instances of water restrictions that we have had to manage.

Now, granted, we still had access to the water we needed for survival, and most of us still were able to do even minor “unessential to survival things” as well.

The water restrictions were inconveniences for us, but not really a threat to our survival, luckily.
 
But, there are places in the world where access to clean water is challenging, at best, and a threat to survival, at worst.

I’ll talk about some examples from the Moravian Church later, but for now, let’s look at what the Bible has to say about water.

Water is mentioned in the Bible approximately 722 times.

In today’s readings, we heard just four of those examples. We also know that Jesus refers to himself as living water or providing living water.
 
So, the Bible has a lot to say about water.

In Matthew 10:42 and 25:35, two of the passages we heard today, Jesus tells us plainly that if someone is thirsty we are to give them a drink of water.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus describes himself as living water and invites all who are thirsty to come to him (John 4:10; 7:37-39).

The prophet Jeremiah describes God as a spring of living water (Jeremiah 2:13; 17:13).
 
In both the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, we find life happening at a well.

Rachel and Jacob meet at a well and begin a life together (Genesis 29:9-14).

Jesus reveals his true nature as the Messiah to a Samaritan woman at a well (John 4:7-26).

Water is clearly a central biblical motif, understood both as a basic need for mortal life and as a metaphor for eternal life in Christ.

The story we heard about Hagar asks us to wrestle with some concepts that are challenging for us.
 
Hagar is referred to as a slave in this story, and she is treated as such, which can be very challenging for us to hear and read about today.

And while that is not the topic of today’s sermon, I do want to acknowledge the difficulty for us of reading about the way she was treated, especially by Abraham and Sarah who are often held up as the founders of our faith (this is why Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are known as the “Abrahamic” traditions, after all).

So, we approach this story with caution and for a specific purpose related to water.
 
In Genesis 16:1-16 and 21:8-21, water plays an integral part in Hagar’s story of life and death, divine favour, and human subjugation.

The Hagar stories are set near or in the Negev Desert, where water is very scarce and people had to work hard to access it for survival.

During the rainy season, there may have been some free-flowing water for humans and animals, but the semi-nomadic people primarily relied on wells that they dug by hand.
 
Imagine if we had to find a water source and dig our own wells by hand today. Survival would certainly be more difficult for us!

These wells that they dug by hand would then become owned by the person (or family) who dug them.

Individual families would commit the location of their own family well to memory and then they would hide it from others so that no one else could access it.
 
In this story, Hagar, an enslaved girl, first runs away from the harsh treatment of Sarai, her mistress (owner).

She finds a known, public spring of water on the way to Shur, where she meets God and names both God and the life-giving spring.

After returning to Sarai, as God has asked her to do, she continues the nomadic life with Abraham’s family and gives birth to his son Ishmael.

As Ishmael grows, so does Sarai’s jealousy.
 
Hagar is again banished along with her son, with only a skin of water, into what is now land that was completely unfamiliar to her.

This is a death sentence, and she fears death for both herself and her son.

In fact, she abandons her son under a bush because she knows he is dying and she cannot tolerate hearing him take his final breaths.

God finds her once again and reveals to them that they are sitting by one of the hidden wells that someone else had dug (and presumably owned).
 
God disregards the fact that someone “owns” the well and gives a drink of water to those who need it.

In this story, God is actually rejecting the notion that water, and access to it, can be owned or withheld.

God clearly demonstrates that water is for all.

Water is life, and life-giving.

It can be hard to for us to think about water as free, because many, if not most, people who live in cities pay for their water.
 
Access to water is owned by the city, and in theory, the city can choose how and when to allow access to it.

For example, in Calgary, if the city needed or wanted to, they could turn off water to areas of the city, limiting access as needed.

There are other famous examples, like the water issues in Flint, Michigan from 2014-2019. In this case, the decisions the city made impacted not just access to water, but in particular the quality and cleanliness/health of the water.
 
Those of us who have access to clean and healthy water can take that for granted.

But I want to share some examples of how Moravians are addressing some of these issues around the world.

These are just a few examples, but I think they are worth noting. As I share these examples, I would invite us to think about creative ideas for ministries in our community – whether they are water-related or not – that might be rolling around ready to be talked about.
 
Example One: Well Cleaning in Nicaragua

After hurricanes Eta and Iota hit Nicaragua in 2020, many wells were flooded with contaminated water, leaving communities without a source of clean drinking water.

The Nicaraguan Moravian youth organization, AJECIM, requested a small grant from the Board of World Mission to purchase a water pump.

The youth team traveled from community to community draining and cleaning wells.
 
As the wells were naturally replenished, the water would then be safe to drink.

This work continues, and the youth lead the entire endeavor.

Example Two: Cleansing Waters in Wisconsin Rapids

As I mentioned, many of us take for granted the access that we have to clean water, not only for drinking, but also for things like washing dishes and doing laundry.
 
Wisconsin Rapids Moravian Church became aware that people in downtown WI Rapids, especially those who were renting, were spending over $50 a week to do laundry at the laundromat depending on their family size.

As they were exploring ways that they could help people manage this challenge, they learned that high school students in particular were missing class because they were ashamed of going to school in dirty clothing.

This sparked an idea for a laundry ministry.
 
After considering multiple scenarios, WI Rapids Moravian Church landed on creating an outreach ministry that involved them meeting people at the laundromat to help pay for their laundry needs.

So now, people who need assistance contact the church and set up a time for volunteers to meet them at the laundromat so they can assist with helping them afford to do laundry.

It may seem like a small thing, but for the people they help, and especially for the high school students, it is a huge benefit.
 
Example Three: Water as a Community Resource in Cuba

In rural Cuba, some household water sources are located next to livestock holding pens, which contaminate the water used for drinking, cooking, and bathing.

Over ten years, ARMF (a mission foundation started to support the Moravian Church in Cuba) has installed ten water purification systems in Cuban communities.

These systems aren’t placed in individual homes.
 
Instead, they are placed in central locations so people in the surrounding community can access the clean water.

When the water systems are installed, they work with neighbours to understand how the system will be maintained and operated.

This approach aligns with ARMF’s broader approach of building relationships with local communities across all aspects of their work.

In rural Cuba, clean water isn’t just a health necessity.
 
It is life and dignity.

Clean water is the difference between spending hours boiling contaminated water or having time to work, learn, and rest. 

As you can see, these examples of projects that help provide access to clean water in different ways based on community needs are making a difference in the lives of these communities.

Water is a resource that should not be taken for granted. Not everyone can afford to access clean water.
 
Our church does support the Board of World Mission through some of our donations, including our Birthday Box donations.

And, it is worth considering some of the creative ministry ideas around accessing clean water, and ways we might be able to support water (or other) initiatives here in Calgary.

Today we have heard Biblical stories that talk about both the physical and spiritual importance of water, and we have heard some practical examples of the ways Moravians are helping neighbours access clean water.
 
My hope in helping us think through these ideas and examples is that we might start to become more aware of how Care for Creation intersects with our faith life, and our call to “give one of [Jesus’s] followers a cup of cool water.”

By doing so, we welcome others as we welcome Jesus.

So, may we become more aware of the ways we can welcome Jesus by welcoming and caring for our neighbours - both locally and globally.
​
And, may we lift in gratitude our access to life-giving water on a regular basis. Amen.
 
Let us pray:
 
Dear Jesus, you have taught us that when we give a drink of water to a stranger, we have quenched your thirst. You, who are living water, thirst for liberation for all who are oppressed. How can we help to let justice roll down like a river and righteousness like a never-failing stream? Putting our trust in you, we pray. Amen.

The Message

This week, we are starting a 6-week sermon series on Caring for Creation.

This idea came from a resource we were given at the recent Provincial Synod by the Board of World Mission.

The resource is titled “Everyone Wants a Better World.” It is intended to be a Bible study, but I am adapting it for this sermon series.

The exciting news is that I will also be getting some copies of this so we can do a Bible study this Fall.
 
But for now, I’m excited about this sermon series.

This resource is based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

It actually has three different units. Unit one is “Care for Creation.” Unit two is “Care for Each Other,” and Unit three is “Care for Right Relationships.”

Each unit explores different goals set forth by the United Nations.

The topics in this 6-week series are:
 
Week 1: Introduction
Week 2: Clean Water and Sanitation
Week 3: Affordable and Clean Energy
Week 4: Climate Action
Week 5: Life Below Water
Week 6: Life on Land

These are important topics for us to discuss as a church and as citizens of the world because not only are we affected individually by these things, but of course so is our country and the world.
 
The six goals we are discussing in this sermon series are about stewarding the earth in ways that ensure all people have access to clean water and affordable energy, and that animal and plant life (birds of the air, fish of the sea and all that creeps along the face of the earth, every plant yielding seed and every tree bearing fruit) are cared for in a responsible and resourceful manner.

My sermons during this series are likely going to follow the study guide pretty closely. The Board of World Mission has done a wonderful job creating this, and they are the experts on these topics.
 
I could not say anything about these things any better than they could, but I will adapt some of it as necessary to fit our context or to add my own stories or examples as needed.

So, with all of that said, let’s reflect on the Bible passages we heard earlier.

Before we do that, Matthew 5:5 says, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

But what does it mean to inherit the earth?

To inherit something means that you receive it as a gift.
 
It means you become responsible for it. You become a steward of the resource you have been given.

The earth is a gift and a responsibility.

To be meek means to be humble, to know our place and our purpose, and not to wield power over the earth or its inhabitants.

In our passage from today, Jesus invites us to observe nature and learn from it, to look at the birds of the air and the lilies in the field.
 
It is difficult to learn from nature and animal life if they are compromised or in danger. It’s also difficult if we don’t pay attention to them or desire to learn from them.

It may appear on a surface reading of this passage that Jesus is simply inviting us to worry less, to birdwatch and smell the roses, but it is more than that.

There is economic anxiety in this passage. The framing isn’t about anxiety more broadly, but about the worry of not being able to put food on the table or clothe oneself.
 
In this context, it is worth asking: How do those who are economically disadvantaged attend to ecological disasters when there are more immediate threats to their survival?

How does privilege intersect with environmental action?

We know that those most affected by climate change are in lower socioeconomic brackets, and yet these same people are least equipped to deal with these issues, both mentally (as this passage stresses) and in practical terms.
 
This passage also calls us to examine how our privilege connects us to rights and resources that are not available to our neighbours.

As with many things about our lives and about life in Biblical times, it is complicated.

We are given dominion over the earth and all that is in it.

We are called to keep the earth (Genesis 2:15), to till it and maintain the resources the earth gives to us (Genesis 1:28-31).
 
Later in Genesis (9:2-3), we are told not only that we can eat the plants that all living beings share, but also that every living thing can be food for us.

This is a huge resource matrix – a complicated, interwoven inheritance that depends on our understanding of the environment and how all life is interconnected, from the bottom of the ocean to the outermost reaches of our atmosphere.

And yet, our wisdom is limited.

The disciples couldn’t still the storm raging on the sea; they called out to Jesus, and he rebuked the wind (Mark 4:39).
 
We can’t shout at a tornado or a hurricane and tell it to behave.

When Job demands that God answer his question about the suffering he is enduring, God responds by asking whether Job understands the big picture.

God asks Job, “Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst forth from the womb… who has cut a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt?” (Job 38:8, 25)

The answer to this rhetorical question is, “Not humans.”
 
God did.

God created the world and is the author of the natural order; God also created Job and holds Job and all living things in hand (Job 12:7-10).

God loves Job as deeply as God loves all of creation. But Job is not in charge of the world (and neither are we!)
And Job’s good behaviour does not entitle him to a life without suffering.

Here is the conundrum, though. We want Christ-like control over the winds and the waves, but we cannot have it.
 
God makes it clear that we are not in charge of nature; instead, our responsibility is to care for the earth.

Humanity is in relationship with something powerful, unpredictable, and divinely created.

However, what we do to the earth will have consequences, and we have been given minds to navigate cause and effect within the natural world.

Care for creation should be scientific and intuitive, as well as spiritual and filled with respect and awe.
 
We might call the issue of climate care a “wicked problem.”

This term is not being used in this case as a moral judgment. Rather, it is a technical term used in social policy circles to denote problems involving complex, intersecting issues without clear origins or outcomes.

Other examples of wicked problems include poverty, homelessness, refugee crises, and healthcare inequalities.
 
Pastor and scholar Rebecca J. Copeland writes, “Wicked problems do not have universally shared definitions of what the problem is, and, indeed, every wicked problem is enmeshed with other problems.”

Climate care certainly meets this definition.

How do we address this issue from a Christian perspective?

Here is where scientific inquisitiveness and faith-filled attention intersect.
 
We have been given amazing and curious minds that seek to solve problems, and we have been created in the image of God with deep, compassionate souls that seek to care for the earth and humanity.

How do we reconcile our understanding of science with our understanding of God?

Copeland believes we need to bring our faith-filled attention to the issues of climate care and other wicked problems.
 
She suggests expanding our understanding of sin beyond individual actions or an outside force from the devil, seeing it instead as relational, multigenerational, communal, and sometimes unintentional.

From this perspective, we have to recognize that sinful systems are constructed by humans and can therefore be repaired by humans through repentance and determination.

Framing these complex problems with language and understanding from both science and religion may bring us closer to creating a better world.
 
The Good News of all of this is that there is hope. 

Hope for a better world, yes, but also hope that because God has created us as intelligent, problem-solving, social beings, we have the tools we need to start to address climate care collectively.

Indeed, we have already been working both individually and collectively.

We know that what we have been doing so far may not be enough, but we also know that we have the capacity to learn, grow, and own the mistakes we have made in the past.
 
This is not a problem we have necessarily created personally, though we contribute collectively to a system that perpetuates the problem.

But we can also be part of the solution. We can get the engine running if we are willing to work together, trusting both science and our faith in God.

And thinking through these concepts in this sermon series is one way we can start the engine.

May you leave here today hopeful for a better tomorrow… hopeful for a better world yet to come.
​
Amen.
 
Let us pray: Creator God, from the face of the deep, you called forth land and gave the waters their boundaries. You commanded lights in the sky, and named day and night. You created humanity in your image and told us to take care of creation. As your gift of the earth has provided all that we need, teach us to protect and care for it. Amen.

The Message

Today’s Gospel passage is one of the most widely known passages, even among people who are not actively Christian.

And of course in churches, we like to cite this story as a basis for our ministries.

At the heart of it, this story is about feeding people.

It is about hospitality and generosity, love and compassion, and it’s a little bit about Jesus proving to his disciples and to the people who he is.
 
But this story is also about more than all of this. So let’s dive in and take a closer look.

This story starts off by telling us that Jesus crossed Lake Galilee to try to go somewhere that he could be alone.

This is not the only time in his ministry that Jesus tries to take time for himself.

This is an important aspect of Jesus’s life as well as his ministry, but it also emphasizes his devotion to prayer life and the balance needed between serving people and taking time to recharge.
 
This is an important reminder to all of us that alone time, prayer time, and solitude are necessary elements of a healthy spiritual life and a healthy life in ministry and service to others.

So, I appreciate that this story starts off with a note that Jesus was trying to take some time alone.

And, I also appreciate the next part of the story, which is that despite his attempt to be alone, the crowds of people followed him.

The story simply says that when Jesus got out of the boat, he saw the large crowd.
 
It doesn’t really say if he got his alone time or not, but we can probably safely assume that the only alone time he got was in the boat.

And yet, he is filled with empathy and compassion for the people who are so desperate for healing, for answers, for teaching, and for kindness.

So he spends time with each person who needs it, healing and serving.

As the day turns into evening, the disciples realize that they have been out there all day serving people.
 
It’s getting toward dinner time, and they are starting to be concerned about the fact that people are going to need to eat soon.

I suspect that in good faith, and out of concern for Jesus, for the people, and also likely for themselves, the disciples suggest that Jesus encourage the crowds to leave so they can go and buy some food in the surrounding villages.

But Jesus responds by suggesting that they feed the people themselves.

Of course, this is where the fame of this story comes into play.
 
The disciples tell Jesus that they only have five small loaves of bread and two fish.

My guess is that they only anticipated feeding themselves, and this was probably not even enough for them, at least in their minds.

But Jesus has different plans, so he takes the food they have, blesses it, breaks the bread and hands it to his disciples.

(Does this sound familiar to anyone? The theme of breaking bread and handing it out could be a whole sermon on its own, but that’s for another day.)
 
The disciples presumably start passing the food around to people, and as it turns out, there is not only enough to feed everyone, but there is enough that they end up with a tremendous amount of leftover food.

The story claims to have fed 5000, but that only includes the men. If we factor in another 5000 women, and let’s say two children for everyone two adults, we are talking about 20,000 people who were fed that day.

That’s pretty amazing!
 
But the part of this story I think is the most amazing is not that the people were fed.

Jesus does that throughout his ministry, and while it is amazing work, I think the most amazing part of this story is the lesson in it for us.

Often this story is used in churches to talk about how we should be feeding people, caring for the poor, etc.

And I’m not saying we shouldn’t be doing that! But there is another lesson here that I think is equally important for churches to keep in mind.
 
How often do we look to God for miraculous intervention when the gifts are, in fact, right there in our hands?

How often do we complain about what we don’t have, or what we used to be able to do, and overlook the miraculous power of the gifts that we do have?

I think we tend to do this as individuals, but also as churches. And the lesson in this passage is that actually, what we do have is enough. We can do ministry with exactly the gifts we have right now.
 
Yes, perhaps it has changed over the years. Maybe we had more members, or more energy, or younger people, or more money, or more enthusiasm, or a better feel for the needs of the neighbourhood in years past.

Likewise, individually, maybe we were younger, stronger, more energetic, less burdened with the baggage of life, or more carefree in years past.

But we always have gifts at our disposal, even if those gifts are not the same gifts we used to have.

Let me give you an example.
 
When I was doing my CPE (clinical pastoral education), I was working in a continuing care retirement facility.

These types of facilities have independent living, assisted living, memory care units, and skilled nursing units.

I was working in the skilled nursing unit one day when I went in to visit a very elderly woman who was completely bed-ridden.

I had visited with her before, and I found her delightful.
 
Everyone who worked with her found her delightful.

As I was visiting with her, she was lamenting about the fact that she could no longer do much of anything. She could not even leave the bed to use the bathroom.

And she’d been in this position for over a year.

But, she turned to me with a smile on her face and she said, “you know, I ask myself often why I am still here. What purpose do I serve? I can’t contribute anything anymore…
 
“But then I think, well, maybe my purpose here is to bring a smile to all of your faces. I know not everyone here is easy to work with, but if I can be the person who cheers up the staff, maybe I can make other people’s lives just a little bit better.”

This woman had lost all of her skills. She was incredibly capable most of her life, and she had accomplished a lot in her younger years.

But this season of her life brought new lessons for her. And instead of wallowing in her inability, she tried to use the gifts she still had.
 
Sure, she may have had fewer gifts than she once had, but she still had lungs that allowed her to breathe, she still had facial muscles that allowed her to smile, and she still had a voice that allowed her to offer delightful words of wisdom to the caregivers around her.

The point here is this: Jesus showed us that rather than lamenting about the gifts we don’t have, or that we wish we had, we can recognize the gifts we do have and use those to do good in the world.

Sure, maybe things have changed over the years for our church.
 
Maybe we have had to let go of some things that we used to do.

But what gifts do we have? What is right in front of us, just waiting to be shared, multiplied, and offered in service to others?

God doesn’t see us or our church in terms of what we used to have or what we used to be able to do.

God sees us just as we are right now, and God loves us just the way we are right now.

And Jesus showed us that God wants us to use the gifts we have now.
 
So, as you leave here today, take with you this lesson from the story of the loaves and fishes.

Look at your life and your church just as they are now, and think about the gifts – both large and small – that are right in front of you.

And then, wonder how you might use those gifts to serve others, to serve God, and to demonstrate love, hospitality, compassion, kindness, and empathy to those around you.

Amen.

Let us pray:
​
Gracious God, we thank you for the gifts you have given us throughout our lives, and for those gifts that we have in our hands right now. We know that we are not always aware of the gifts we have in each moment, and that we spend a lot of time lamenting about the gifts we no longer have. Help us to notice all of the gifts in our lives - big and small - and to use them to do your work in this hurting world. In your holy name, we pray. Amen.