​The Message
 
This sermon was written by the Moravian Archives, Southern Province, and was provided to congregations and pastors through the Moravian Core Values Worship Series. This sermon is used with permission.
 
Today’s sermon reminds us of the importance of our history and shared stories and knowledge. By knowing where we have come from and honestly engaging that journey, we are better equipped to face the future.
 
We learn from the past.

We can celebrate some of our history and learn lessons from other parts of our history.

Let us hear what we can learn from our Moravian history through the folks at the Moravian Archives in the Southern Province of the Moravian Church:

In the Akan tribe in Ghana, there is an important concept called “Sankofa.”
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The literal translation of the word and the symbol is “it is not taboo to fetch what is at risk of being left behind.”
 
In other words, we must be aware of, and learn from, the past – especially our own history and tradition.
 
Sankofa is usually represented by a drawing of a bird which, while moving forward, is looking backward to retrieve an egg from its own back.
 
The term has come to be very important in the study of Black history, but captures in a special way the Moravian attitude toward tradition and history.
 
Respect for tradition and awareness of our history has always been a core value of the Unity, reaching back to before its actual organization.
 
And of course, this is a value embedded in Christianity and Judaism before it – How can we know of God’s saving grace if we do not know the stories of the Bible, or if we have never heard of Moses or Isaiah or Paul or Peter?
 
Jesus looked back intently to the Jewish scripture, quoting it eloquently and pointing out where current interpretation was wrong.
 
You cannot understand the teachings of Jesus without reference to what went before – what we often call the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible.
 
Often we discover new things about ourselves by looking back. We can learn that others have been on the same journey, others have suffered the same temptations, or others have found hope in things that puzzle us.
 
Many of these puzzles and problems are not at all new, and we can either find wonderful solutions our forebears hammered out, or we can learn from their mistakes and avoid falling into the same trap.
 
There are numerous examples of this if we look back on history:
 
When Jan Hus was struggling with the hypocrisy of the church of his day, he looked back to the writings of the Church Fathers and the Apostolic Church for inspiration and authority.
 
When, a century later, Martin Luther was being tried at the Diet of Worms, he was charged with being a “Hussite.”
 
He had no idea what a Hussite was.
 
So, during a lunch break at the trial, he went to the library to find out about Hus.
 
He came back to the trial and proclaimed, “Yes! I am a Hussite! We are all Hussites!”
 
Moving forward he read more about Hus and was in touch with the leader of the Unity at that time, Luke of Prague.
 
Two centuries later, when a band of refugees from a forgotten denomination moved onto a Lutheran noble’s land, few of them knew about their own heritage.
 
Count Zinzendorf, the Lutheran noble who owned the land, knew nothing of their heritage at all.
 
But, after they experienced a powerful renewal, Zinzendorf did some serious research on Hus and Comenius and the Unity, and discovered that their heritage addressed the same issues of living and apostolic witness of love and community in their day.
 
Even though they were doing a new thing in a new time, they consciously echoed the heritage that had almost been lost, owning that great heritage.
 
In the same way, today we are able to learn more about where we went wrong – and where we were right – by looking back to our records and research in the various Moravian Archives.
 
We learn of amazing and radical things of faith done by our forebears – in education of women and the poor, of celebrating women in leadership, and dealing with Africans and other indigenous peoples as spiritual equals.
 
But we also learn of times when we were shaped too much by the secular culture around us, abandoning these revolutionary and visionary efforts.
 
We learn of the church’s toleration of slavery and the separation of black from white.
 
Research is being done now that shows us of times when we were too engaged in racism and forms of apartheid rather than the visionary equality that our faith claims.
 
We learn much from these lessons if we face them with honesty and in the seeking of truth.
 
Throughout our history, archives in Herrnhut, London, Bethlehem, Winston-Salem and other areas (like our Canadian Archives) have worked to preserve the history and heritage of our faith and ministry.
 
Just as the Bible is the record of God’s interaction with His people, so the records in our Archives preserve the stories of faithful witness and living through the centuries.
 
In Winston-Salem, they have the Moravian Daily Text on the day that you were born, and on the day that your great-grandmother was born.
 
They have thousands of memoirs read at funerals, testimonies of the lives now lived in the more immediate presence of the Saviour.
 
In many situations, through their archival ministry, they have preserved records that would not have been preserved or even existed.
 
Examples include the detailed records of the Cherokee, including the terrifying ordeal of the Trail of Tears.
 
They have recorded the memories of Moravian girls who learned Latin and math at Salem College when most women were only taught to sew and cook.
 
They have the history of the oldest black congregation in North Carolina, and they have records of the date in 1865 when freedom was proclaimed from that pulpit.
 
They have records of the first recorded observance of US Independence Day, and through the Moravian Music Foundation, they have the hand-written music written especially for that occasion.
 
The Canadian Archives have histories and traditions of the Canadian churches, and it would be an interesting research project to see what kinds of things could be learned about our history here.
 
How would we know of God’s love and the salvation of Christ if it had not been recorded, preserved, and passed down to us?
 
How would we know of the rich traditions of faith from our forebears if the stories had not been recorded and passed down?
 
Indeed, it is like a lovefeast candle, passed from one person to the other in a community of faith.
 
But we do not (and should not) worship the past, nor are we beholden to the past. Understanding and appreciating the rich heritage handed down to us is not the same as traditionalism, which enshrines a recent past from a couple generations ago, as being the “be all” and “end all.”
 
Individuals and churches that fall into this trap are stuck, and no longer take part in the search for truth.
 
By idolizing a particular bit of the past, we cease listening to the living and moving God.
 
We must instead work to see and understand the new grace that is happening around us, and we must allow ourselves to see beyond the narrow mold that was created by those who have gone before us.
 
It is a beautiful balance.
 
In a similar way, congregations that focus too much on their own past or on the “golden days” are no longer living in the present.
 
It is hard to find vitality in the ministry that is happening today if we are too stuck in what we’ve done in the past.
 
This congregation, I think, does a pretty good job of being present in the moment, though of course, there is always room for improvement.
 
God is calling us to radical acts of faith today – we are not being called to replicate what our forebears did.
 
Rather, we are called to do a new thing inspired by what they did in their day.
 
From Isaiah 43:19: “I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth; do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
 
We are now the generations of faith that must carry the torch forward. We must preserve, protect, and nurture the heritage that we have been given, sharing it with new generations.
 
“Our Lamb Has Conquered,” says the motto around the Agnus Dei; “Let Us Follow Him.”
 
We keep this faith, we tell these stories, we honour these traditions, we pass down this knowledge.
 
But, at the same time, we live new deeds of faith undreamed of by our forebears, guided by the Saviour.
 
We share with coming generations inspiration that will cause them to walk new paths that we today cannot see, but which one day we will celebrate in the more immediate presence of the Saviour.
 
Amen.
 
Let us pray:
 
God of all ages, we lift in gratitude today our individual and collective histories. We have all come to this place and time with a past, and that past has molded and shaped who we are today. Our history - as individuals and as a church - brought us together as a community. For this, we give thanks. Help us to continue to build community through our collective joy, sorrow, grief, and love. In your holy name, we pray. Amen.

Young at Heart Message
 
Before I begin today’s sermon, I want to note that I used much of the same sermon today as I used for the pet blessing service last year. I did not do this to be lazy though, I assure you.
 
Rather, I read through it to see what I said last year and determine what I wanted to say this year. But as I read, tears came to my eyes and I decided that actually, last year’s sermon was pretty good and said all that I’d like to say again this year.
 
So, for those of you with memories like an elephant, I hope you get something new out of this year’s sermon. And for the rest of you, there might be some things I say that remind of you last year and that’s because they should.
 
Let us begin:
 
Every year, Moravian Clergy celebrate Cup of Covenant. It is an opportunity for us to recommit to ministry and remember our ordination vows to study, pray, care for souls, preach, teach, and administer the sacraments.
 
In the Canadian District, because our clergy are spread out between Edmonton and Calgary and aren’t able to connect in person very often, we have an annual Cup of Covenant retreat at King’s Fold Retreat Centre.
 
Each year, I have the opportunity to be with my colleagues, and, importantly, I have the opportunity to rest, read, and be present with myself and with God.
 
Last year, the retreat happened the week before we did this pet blessing service, and one of the things I intended to do while I was at the retreat was read a book called Divinanimality in preparation for this sermon. I hoped the book would give me some insights into the relationships we have with animals who walk the Earth and journey with us throughout our lives.
 
However, I began reading the book, and it was DENSE. It was deeply philosophical, it used big academic words that I found unnecessary for this topic, and it really didn’t resonate with me for this purpose.
 
And then, as I was sitting on a bench overlooking the river, listening to it babble as a bird sung its song nearby, I realized I don’t need a deep philosophical or academic discussion to help tell you what I already know about the divinity of animals.
 
I began thinking about my own relationship to animals in my life, and a flood of memories came rushing back – so quickly, in fact, that I felt an immediate need to start writing this sermon so I didn’t forget what I wanted to say about it, even though I was supposed to be on retreat! (And today, I’m very glad I listened to that instinct!)
 
My experience with animals began at a young age. In fact, I think it’s likely that animals have been a part of my life since the day I was born. And actually, it’s deeply, generationally ingrained in my family’s history.
 
Both my Mom and my Dad’s families were farmers in Wisconsin. By the time I was born, my Dad’s family was no longer actively farming so I never experienced their farm.
 
But my Mom’s family was still actively farming. As a matter of fact, my parents - and therefore my little helpless baby self – all lived together in the house my Mom grew up in on their family farm.
 
My Dad was an active partner in the farm for the first few years of my life, so being around animals – not just dogs and cats but livestock like cows and pigs – was natural for me and I felt at home in their presence.
 
I got to experience the disgusting joy of allowing a calf to suck on my fingers, creating a beautifully sticky, sloppy mess that you didn’t want to wipe on your clothes because if you did, you’d just transfer the sticky mess to another spot on your body later.
 
I got to walk through the stanchions in the barn, and I was strangely mesmerized by the milking process, the smell of the cattle, and the way their tails would flick around. Touching a cow’s nose is wet, but oddly satisfying.
 
I was also simultaneously fascinated by and fearful of the bull in the cage in the corner. I was told from a young age that bulls can be dangerous, and I shouldn’t get too close. But the poor guy just seemed so lonely!
 
When I was around three years old, my parents had to move on from farming for a variety of reasons, so we moved into town. My grandparents continued farming until I was in my early teens, so I still have tons of memories and joys of farm life, but my daily routine no longer included livestock.
 
Instead, my family eventually got cats, and then a dog. My young life was formed by these relationships to some extent, but it wasn’t until I was in my 20’s that I decided to get my very first dog who was completely mine and not a family dog.
 
And that dog – a beautiful Bernese Mountain Dog named Kodiak – was the dog that needled his way deep in my heart and really ignited my physical and spiritual journey with animals. Kodiak helped me see God in new ways through his joy and zest for life, his steady calm, his ability to love all people and all other animals he encountered, his stoic demeanor, and his adaptability to the chaos of my life at that time.
 
Kodiak moved with me every single year of his life to a new dwelling. He saw other dogs come and go from my life, he was integral in my learning process, and he lovingly supported me as I worked to become a professional dog trainer and, eventually, as I bought and ran a dog daycare.
 
Kodiak also helped me understand the beauty and the divinity of other animals.
 
I began to notice the squirrels, rabbits, birds, and other critters that somehow managed to survive city life.
 
I started to notice deer, opossum, raccoons, skunks, cows, and horses not as simply parts of the landscape, but as individual members of God’s creation that had purpose, joy, and beauty that was all their own.
 
I also began to notice when animals would appear in my life, and I started to resonate with a deeper meaning behind their presence.
 
I am an avid road biker, and one time I decided to bike from my home out toward the area where my grandparent’s farm was. As I biked past one farm, I saw out of the corner of my eye a large animal running alongside me.
 
I turned to look, and a cow was running the fence line, not unlike a dog that might joyfully bound alongside their human. This cow was just living its best life, happily galivanting along the fence in sync with my riding.
 
That cow brought me so much joy in that moment, and it was like a little “wink from God” – a reminder that God is not some far-off entity, but is in fact right there with us, bounding along playfully, joyfully, and with a presence that we too often forget to notice.
 
Similarly, I lived in the country shortly before I moved to Canada, and one of my dogs – Lyra, who is no longer with me and who was also Lacey’s daughter – would ALWAYS have a line of cows following her when we walked past a nearby farm. The group of cows that lived in that pasture changed each season, but each new group of cows loved her just the same.
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I had four dogs in my home at the time, and Lyra was the only one the cows would follow like this. There was just something about her that they seemed to connect to. And, if I’m being honest, I connected to that same part of her, and she connected in a similar way to me.
 
Lyra just had a way of reading my emotions and empathizing with me that no other dog I’ve ever lived with has been able to do. And I think those cows saw that in her, too.
 
I could go on and on about the animals that I have shared my life with, and the animals that I have encountered in the natural world, and I am sure you all have stories about them too.
 
We seem to know intuitively that animals were created by God for a purpose, and that purpose is not simply to serve humans.
 
The Message
 
God loves animals as he loves humans, and animals are deeply grounded in God’s love and care. There must be truth to this statement because we see it over and over again if we pay close enough attention.
 
In fact, Job 12 states, “if you want to learn, then go and ask the wild animals and the birds, the flowers and the fish.” It goes on to say, “every living creature is in the hands of God.”
 
This text is ancient, and yet there is incredible wisdom in these statements. If you want to learn what God has done, any of the animals can tell you, probably in a deeper and more complete way than any human can.
 
Why? Well, because every living creature is in the hands of God. It’s not just humans, as we’ve spent the last six weeks discussing. God cares about all living creatures and holds each one – from the crawling ant or the pesky mosquito to the regal lion or the majestic elephant – in deep, abiding love.
 
So why wouldn’t we trust the experience of animals with regard to God? I believe they actually know more about God than we can know.
 
Animals don’t overthink God. In fact, they don’t think about God like we do at all. They don’t analyze what scholarly articles or theologians say about God. They don’t listen to what pastors with degrees say about God. They don’t philosophize so much about their own relationship to God that their words become incomprehensible, like the book I tried to read last year.
 
Animals experience God. Animals know God in a deep, profound, rich way that we often struggle with. But there are some people who have been able to tap into this energy.
 
Jane Goodall is a common example. She knows what most of us could hardly imagine about the relationship of animals to God and our own spirituality. In 2021, she received the Templeton Prize, and in her speech, she said, “In the rainforest I learned about the interconnection of all species, each with a role to play. I felt a strong spiritual connection with the natural world.”
 
Those of us who share our lives with pets often know about a deeper connection to the divine that occurs when we are present with our pets.
 
One of my favorite books is part of the Wrinkle in Time series by Madeleine L’Engle called A Swiftly Tilting Planet. In the book, there is a threat of nuclear war, and the family is essentially fighting the powers of evil to prevent the nuclear war from happening.
 
The family had recently lost their dog from the two prior books, Fortinbras, and one of the main characters, Meg, explains in the book that the dogs in their family just seem to show up on their doorstep. In that fashion, a dog shows up on their doorstep in the midst of the nuclear war chaos.
 
The dog’s name, they decide, is Ananda, which another main character, Charles Wallace, explains is Sanskit and means “That joy in existence without which the universe will fall apart and collapse.”
 
This family knows the importance of animals to life, to spirituality, to joy, and to our continued existence as a species on this Earth.
 
Ananda becomes an important conduit for Meg as Meg and Charles Wallace stay connected across space and time via a form of telepathy. Ananda strengthens their connection through touch and through her warmth, her breath, her beauty, and her Spirit.
 
L’Engle, the book’s author, was deeply Spiritual and also a devoted Christian. The beauty with which she is able to relay the significance of animals to human spirituality is profound.
 
Those of us who have experienced this type of relationship with our pets or with other animals know the truth of her writing. Scripture knows the truth of these relationships, too.
 
Animals are mentioned throughout the Bible so many times that I own a book which documents every instance of a mention of animals in Scripture. And, it is a thick book.
 
Jesus himself is referred to as the "Lion" and the "Lamb,” which symbolizes His dual nature. The Lion of the Tribe of Judah represents Jesus’ power, sovereignty, and victory over evil. The Lamb of God signifies Jesus’ humility, gentleness, and sacrificial atonement for humanity's sins.
 
Even in the time of Jesus, there was an awareness of the significance of animals to our lives and to the existence of the world.
 
Humans throughout history have recognized the importance of animals in service to humans, but there is also often a deeper connection that goes beyond service to humans.
 
We can see and understand that animals have feelings and emotions, though they are often expressed differently than ours.
 
For example, Lacey and I had to spend a lot of time when I first brought her into my life working to understand each other. We have spent our life together doing this work and building a relationship that is unique from the other relationships I have had with my dogs.
 
Because Lacey is a Great Pyrenees, she was bred to be incredibly independent. She was also bred for a specific job: to guard livestock.
 
As you can see, however, there are no livestock in her life and there never has been. Without access to the one thing she was bred to do, she started using her natural skills to protect our home… from everything. Every little flap of a butterfly’s wings a kilometre away would cause Lacey to bark when I first got her.
 
I have had to do a lot of work to manage her environment so that she does not bark all day long and anger the neighbours. But I also had to learn to express my gratitude to her for the work she has done over the years to protect myself and my home.
 
Once I began to thank her for her work and for her care, our relationship changed dramatically. She settled into a life with me that allowed her to be more at ease.
 
Many of you who share your lives with animals likely have come to know a similar relationship with your pets. There is a richness that comes from learning to speak a language that is foreign to us.
For verbal humans, we can struggle to speak in ways that do not use words, and yet animals require exactly this from us. We must learn to observe and communicate differently than what we are naturally inclined to do.
 
And in that learning there comes deeper understanding. And there is also a spiritual richness of experience that comes from this understanding.
 
We are raised in a culture that insists that we learn about God. We are more unfamiliar with the concept of experiencing God. Animals, on the other hand, are completely experiential.
 
We can learn from them as much as they can learn from us. Tapping into the nature of animals and learning to experience God and spirituality instead of trying to wrap our heads around it can be freeing and fruitful.
 
So, as we move into our time of blessing the animals who are present here today, may we seek to experience our faith, our spirituality, and our relationship with God differently.
 
May we come to know God through experiencing God, through the experience of Jesus Christ on Earth, and through the animals that God created to share the beauty of the Earth with us.
 
As we go from here, may we open our eyes to God’s beauty in all its forms and rest in God’s Love and Joy. Amen.
 
Let us pray:
 
Faithful God, help us to experience Your love, Your grace, and Your joy through new and different ways of being in the world. Thank you for the gift of each and every creature on this earth, from ants to zebras and everything in between. Thank you for gifting us with the responsibility to care for, protect, and learn from the creatures that inhabit our world. In humility and love, we pray. Amen.

​The Message

Today is the final Sunday of our sermon series on Care for Creation. We are talking about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal to protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.

And that is a mouthful!

In a nutshell, this goal is trying to protect ecosystems, manage forests, stop land damage, and protect wildlife.
 
From the report of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, “preserving diverse forms of life on land requires… efforts to protect, restore, and promote the conservation and sustainable use of terrestrial and other ecosystems.”

This sermon series has been admittedly difficult for me to preach, and I’d like to try to tell you why.

I do think these topics are extremely important. And I also think it’s OK – in fact, it’s good for all of us – to deviate from the usual for a sermon series on occasion.

It’s good to hear different voices and perspectives – both for me and for all of you.
 
But the thing that has been hard about this sermon series is that I feel like no matter how I preach it, it comes off as a lecture about how we aren’t doing enough for the environment.

And, it’s also hard to bring the sermon around to Good News when, in all honesty, the concerns about our environment are getting more serious every day.

It seems it has accelerated quickly.

So the reality is, we aren’t doing enough. We probably aren’t doing enough personally.
 
But really, in order for there to be significant and impactful change, it must be done at the highest levels. It must be mandated.

And whenever we are talking about mandates, it brings about concerns from the populous about personal freedom.

But, when given personal freedom, most of us (including myself) are going to choose the most comfortable and convenient options available.

I’ll give you an example. When we were under water restrictions, there were things I did to help do my part to conserve water.
 
When I showered, I would turn the water off when shampooing, conditioning, washing, etc. Essentially any time I wasn’t rinsing.

When I washed my hands, I turned the water off while doing the same.

When brushing my teeth, I would only use the water I needed.

But, when the water restrictions lifted, I mostly went back to my usual patterns. I just love a hot shower that isn’t interrupted by a shot of cold air when the water is off.
 
Another example is a little more complex, but, if you bear with me, it gets to heart of the difficulty with this sermon series.

When I am in Canada, I generally feel fine, even good, about the fact that I must bring a reusable bag to the grocery store.

I also feel good about using compostable utensils at restaurants, I love that many restaurants have compostable materials and a place to throw them, and as annoying as paper straws can be, I don’t mind using them.
 
But all of those things that make me feel good only make me feel good because they are the only option I have.

And to be fair, if I could choose between plastic and compostable options, I would generally choose compostable options.

But, if the only choice was plastic? I would not put in the effort to take my own reusable utensils to a restaurant, or my own metal straw, or my own containers for food.

When I travel back home to the United States, I notice a major difference.
 
And, it makes me incredibly uncomfortable, actually.

There are none of these better choices for the environment there.

Almost all restaurants are still using plastic utensils, none have composting options to throw leftover food or compostable materials, and you can still get plastic bags every time you go to the grocery store.

So my point here is this – I can feel good about the changes that have been made in Canada that are good changes for the environment.
 
But I also recognize that those changes had to be implemented at a regulatory level. Had they not been, no business and few individuals would be inclined to make any changes to their behaviour.

So, I can preach until I’m blue in the face about the ways in which we can do better personally and as a church, but the impacts we can make on an individual level are miniscule compared to the impact that really needs to be made at a national (arguably, at an international) level.

The problem is not that we are bad people who want to misuse the environment.
 
And, I don’t want this sermon series to come off that way.

The problem is that we are people who are concerned about the environment, we do care, and many of us genuinely want to do better. 

Yet, we live in a culture and a system that is set up in such a way that in order for us to make vast and impactful changes, we must all be willing to do so.

Or at least, enough of us must be willing to do so that it could make a lasting impact, and we need to drive those changes with consumer choices.
 
And in order for that to happen, changes must be made at a higher level, and we must be willing to give up “personal freedoms,” in some sense of that word, in order to work toward the common good.

Unfortunately, that means trusting our governments to help us, or even force us, to make more environmentally conscious decisions.

Because just like we can see a stark difference between living here and living in the US in terms of how our societies are being more mindful of these things, we can see that the reason for the vast difference is because Canada has made rules at a governmental level.
 
So, it has been hard for me to stand up here and preach these things to you all.

While yes, there are small changes we can all likely make, the reality is that unless we collectively choose to make large, impactful decisions about the effect we all have on the environment, very little is going to change.

I am really proud of the changes that Canada has made. Yes, some of the things we do here means we have less personal freedom around choosing plastic options or more environmentally conscious options.
 
But the changes that have been made on a national level are impactful, and for those of us who care about these things, we should be proud of that fact.

I can only imagine what a difference it could make if the United States followed suit.

If similar changes could be made in the US, it wouldn’t be long before other countries would be doing the same, as much as I don’t love that this is the truth of the matter.

But with power comes responsibility, and countries like Canada and the US can be benchmark countries for environmental awareness.
 
It is a systemic issue, so no matter how much we can do personally, real change must happen at a higher level.

All of that said, I have continued with this series, not so that we all feel like terrible people because we were born into a system of over-consumption.

Rather, I think it is important for us to understand our part in that collective system. It is important for us to understand the system itself if we want to start making change happen.

And, we must be willing to lead the change.
 
Let’s think about Luke 13: 6-9 for a moment because this is a small example of a person who took the initiative to lead change, or at least to try to make a small impact on the environment.

A vineyard owner has a fig tree growing on his land, and he has been waiting for three years for it to bear fruit.

Finally, frustrated with the tree, he orders the tree to be cut down.

But the gardener who oversees the man’s vineyard asks if he can have one more season to see if he can help it bear fruit.
 
He tends to the tree, fertilizes it, and works to change the conditions of the soil so that the tree can grow fruit.

He takes the initiative to foster change and help it grow.

This parable depends on the belief that humanity can have a positive impact on the earth and what it produces.

The gardener knew that sometimes, creation needs tending in order to be fruitful.
 
This parable speaks against a “throwaway culture” – one in which we are willing to easily throw something away if it is no longer useful to us.

In this case, the gardener prevented the tree from being cut down and instead, helped it produce.

In our case, we might think about this in terms of things we throw away that could be recycled, reused, repurposed, or donated so that someone else could find use or value from them.

In what ways could we be more like the gardener? In what ways can we make our own impact on the environment?
 
As much as we are living in a system that is hard to change, there are things that we can do, and the more of us that work together to do these things for the benefit of future generations, the bigger impact we can have on human life as well as the natural world.

Before we close this sermon series today, I want to share one more thing with you.

I talked with Bishop Amy Gohdes-Luhman, who also now works for the Board of World Mission and had a huge part in creating the resource I used for this sermon series.
 
I asked her if she would create a video for me that concludes this series, and she delivered.

So I’d like to share that video with you now as a conclusion to this series.

I hope you enjoy hearing her input on these topics.
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Amy also offers us a closing pastoral prayer at the end of her video.

Young at Heart Message

Today we are continuing our sermon series on Care for Creation by talking about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources.

From the report of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, “oceans, along with coastal and marine resources, play an essential role in human well-being and social and economic development worldwide. They also help regulate the global ecosystem by absorbing heat and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and protecting coastal areas from flooding and erosion.”
 
Humans seem to enjoy exploring the depths of the sea, but most of us never get to explore much beyond perhaps snorkling in the ocean.

Certainly some people have the ability to go deeper, diving into oceans or exploring ocean caves.

But most average people will only ever explore the depths of the oceans through documentaries or other second-hand accounts of life under water.

Even those of us who live near fresh water sources - a river, lake, or stream – won’t ever explore the depths of those bodies of water in a way that would allow us to truly understand them.
 
There are many movies that explore what it might be like to live under water, or what it means to rely heavily on the water.

Disney, for example, has put out several animated movies over the years about ocean life.

While these movies don’t necessarily give an accurate picture of what under-water life is like, they do help kids to understand that life below water is vastly different than life on land.
​
A few examples of these movies that are made for kids include:
 
The Little Mermaid: This movie was created in 1989 and it dabbled in the lives of mermaids, which are fictional ocean dwellers.

As you can see, she has fishing nets, candles, mirrors, clocks, chests, etc.

Now, much of what she’s collected may have come from shipwrecks, but the implication here is that a lot of stuff from us humans ends up in the ocean eventually.

Disney doesn’t make a statement about the negative impacts of human waste on the oceans in 1989, but we can see that it was something that people were at least aware of at the time.

Some of the stuff we create ends up in the ocean, where it impacts ocean life.
 
In 2003, the movie Finding Nemo was released by Disney and Pixar, and in 2016, they released the movie Finding Dory as a follow-up to the original.

The story of Finding Nemo is about how a little clownfish named Nemo is captured by a diver, separated from his family, and taken to live in an aquarium in a dentist’s office.
​
All of the fish in the aquarium dream of breaking out of the aquarium and living back in the open ocean again.

​While not explicitly about the impact of humanity on ocean life, both movies do address some of these concerns.

Finding Nemo, for example, depicts images of overfishing when Dory and Nemo end up getting trapped with a massive school of fish in a commercial fishing net.
​
Dory and Nemo end up helping all the fish escape by telling them all to swim down, putting too much pressure on the net and causing the fishing equipment to break.

​Finding Nemo also depicts images of the pet trade and the impacts to ocean life, along with the effects of boat traffic on the ocean.
​
Finding Dory explicitly depicts concerns about plastic waste when Dory gets tangled in a plastic 6-pack ring at the beginning of the movie.

​Also in 2016, Disney released the movie Moana, which is a tale about a Polynesian tribe of people who live on an island surrounded by the ocean.

The tribe is not a specific tribe – rather, it is a fictional tribe based upon Polynesian peoples across the Pacific Ocean.
​
The premise of the movie is that the people on the island discover that their food supply is dying out – their trees are not producing fruit, and the fish have left the lagoon, moving further into the ocean where the people cannot access them.

Moana is more of an environmental allegory that illustrates the breakdown of humanity’s relationship with the natural world.

It also depicts the ways in which humanity can impact ocean life, though it does this by demonstrating what happens when humanity disconnects from the natural world and favours greed and environmental exploitation over connection and care for the environment.

All of these examples show us how children are exposed to these environmental concerns in ways that help them begin to think through these issues.
 
Movies like these seek to entertain, but also cultivate an awareness of the ways that humans impact the environment and especially the depths of the ocean.

For those of us who don’t live near the ocean, it is hard to truly understand the impact.

We can only be aware of the impacts of our world on the oceans and marine life through hearing it from others, reading about the impact in the news, or visiting the ocean and witnessing changes ourselves.
 
The Message

What does the Bible say about about life below water?

Today we heard two passages – one from Genesis and one from the Gospel of Matthew.

In Genesis 9:2, God gives us more than just plants to eat.

After the flood, humans are given permission to use what lives on the earth for food – everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea.
 
This passages reminds us that not only do we have a responsibility to the things above water, but we also are responsible for life below water.

Bodies of water have their own mystery and power, as has been explored through the movies mentioned earlier as well as so many other streams of media.

We also now know that underwater ecosystems are affected by what we do on land and in the air.

Caring for and helping to sustain healthy ocean life is a massive human responsibility.
 
Just because we were given the privilege of consuming living things on land and in the sea for sustenance and survival does not mean we have been given the right to abuse and exhaust these resources.

We also heard the passage from the Gospel of Matthew today in which Jesus calls his first disciples – all of whom were fishermen.

Other Gospel passages, including Luke 5: 1-11, depict fishermen who fish all night and catch nothing until Jesus tells them to cast their nets again.
 
In these passages, it is clear that even in Biblical times, the importance of life below water was known.

In fact, the Sea of Galilee is an incredibly important body of water throughout the Gospels and the life of Jesus.

It is also a central geographic location in the Gospels, and it carries deep spiritual meaning for those who live near it and rely on the water for sustaining life.

Fishing was also an important industry – fundamental to the agrarian economy of the region. Most people were connected to this industry in some way.
 
So not only did people rely on life under water for food, but they also would have understood the connection between water and its living resources.

They would have known the importance of preserving and not over-using the resources because of the direct impact on their well-being.

In Luke 5: 1-11, they fish all night and don’t catch anything. This would have been concerning and would have triggered an awareness of the importance of the connection they had to life below water – much like the people of the island in Moana would be very aware of this as well.
 
We are becoming more and more aware of the impact in our world on marine life as well, even if we do not live near the ocean.

News articles crop up regularly about the impact of plastics on ocean life, or the impact of the oceans on weather patterns.

Just the other day the BBC had an article about the combination of an immense Pacific Ocean heatwave plus a “super El Niño” having profound effects on US and Canadian weather over the coming year.

The impact of the rise in ocean temperatures is felt across the globe, not just in ocean cities.
 
News articles like this certainly give us cause for concern, and can often make us feel like there is little hope for change. But they also are cause for gratitude.

Indeed, we simply come to accept that the world is changing and there is not much we can do about it.

But there is still hope.

While seeing the barrage of articles about the changing environment, rising ocean temperatures, melting glaciers, etc. can feel scary and make us want to stick our heads in the sand, the fact that they are becoming more prevalent means we are becoming more aware.
 
And because we have become more aware, we have made changes, both individually and on a national scale here in Canada.

While we also know that there is more that we could do, it is helpful to name some of the ways we have already been working to do better recently.

There are many examples of things that Canadians do that I never thought about before I moved to Canada.

First of all, I am ashamed to say that I never reused plastic Ziplock bags before I moved here.

Now, I wash them and use them many times before they become unusable.
 
Composting was not a large-scale operation where I am from. If people composted, it was for their own personal garden.

And few people I knew did it.

But here, there is a municipal composting program and that is a pretty amazing thing!

People have also become accustomed to using reusable or compostable grocery bags rather than single-use plastic bags.

And, when you walk through the soda aisle, you see more cardboard holding packs of cans together than plastic.
 
We see more restaurants using compostable utensils and straws rather than single-use plastic utensils and straws.

I even noticed changes to packaging of some brand-name items at places like Costco to reduce the amount of plastic used in packages.

To-go containers at restaurants are now more often compostable or reusable.

And many of us have already made small changes in our lives to reduce our individual impact on the environment as well.
 
These issues are becoming more urgent, and we do still need to be aware.

We need to care and we must continue to work at it.

We are called to be stewards of this Earth. That is made clear in the very first book of the Bible.

Jesus reminds us, through the use of parables like the parable of the talents, that a steward is someone who is trusted to care for something responsibly rather than wasting or destroying it.

This is our call when it comes to the natural world - the land, the sea, and the creatures that dwell in both.
 
We are stewards of the earth. We are called to care for the earth, and for one another.

So when we hear about the scary things happening with regard to the environment, we must not stick our heads in the sand. Instead, we must approach these stories with gratitude that they make us more aware.

We must allow it to hurt our hearts a little bit. And then we must explore additional ways to take action.

We must talk about it with one another.

We must allow ourselves to be changed first, so that we can be the change that the world needs.
 
So, as you go into another week, I invite you to continue thinking about and wondering about these issues.

Reflect on the ways that life below water affects us, but also on the ways that we have an effect on ocean and under-water life.

We cannot exist without the vast and fragile ecosystems of life below water.

May we remember this as we continue to become more aware of our call to care for creation.

Amen.

Let us pray:
​
God of the tides and currents, your pull on the earth is magnetic. When the tempest frightened the disciples, your Son, Jesus, awoke and calmed the waters around them. Tempestuous and tranquil waters - you offer us both. Let us tend to the waters and care for all that finds life within them. 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 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.

Young at Heart Message

Years ago, shortly after my return to church after a long hiatus, I attended a worship service at a church back home in Wisconsin.

This was a church I had never been to before, but I decided to attend because someone I knew had suggested it.

Things went fine until the pastor of the church started to preach. I don’t know what passage he was preaching on specifically, but he began to talk about his father.
 
He shared that his late father was most certainly in hell.

He began to give reasons for it, and while I can’t remember exactly what those reasons were, some of the things he listed were common, everyday things that many people do.

He didn’t live the healthiest lifestyle, he made some poor decisions in his life, and he didn’t expressly accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour.

This sermon made me incredibly uncomfortable, and it took me a long time to parse out why.
 
Part of the problem was that every person in that room most likely committed some of the same “egregious” sins that he claimed that his father had committed.

So this pastor stood up in front of a congregation and essentially called them all sinners and implied that they were going to hell.

It certainly didn’t leave a great feeling in my heart, and I didn’t feel like I received Good News that day, that’s for sure.

It also didn’t sound like the Jesus I knew.
 
This is similar to another story I came across as I was preparing for today’s sermon, and I’d like to share that story with you as well.

The author, David Lower, shared about his time spent as a chaplain in a hospital.

While he was on duty, he received a call to a dying man’s bedside.

When he walked into the room where a lovely old man was taking his final breaths, the man’s eldest son introduced himself.
 
The son introduced his dying dad to the chaplain and then said, “I’m pleased to report that Dad’s been saved for 27 years now, thank God, so there’s nothing to worry about here.”

He continued, “The reason I sent for you is because you may want to pay a visit next door. That poor man - he’s…”

His voice dropped to a whisper and said:

“...unsaved. Unchurched. You know what I mean?”

David goes on to say the following:
 
“I did learn that his dad’s neighbor was at peace, surrounded by loved ones after a laudable life of service to others. What I’ll never forget is the revealing picture I caught as I walked away. The two rooms shared a doorway, with a thin partition between. I stood in the doorway and saw two families, probably with very different worldviews, surrounding their departing loved ones in pure expressions of love. The beauty on either side of the wall was similarly striking and holy, and it was hard to imagine God feeling anything but glorified by it all.”
 
In other words, this man’s experience with these two families was nothing but love for a dying family member.

It is a stark reminder that there are many different ways that God’s saving work can be made manifest in people’s lives, and we may not be in a position to determine that ourselves, or at first glance.

It begs the question about whether or not we ever need to be in a position where we are responsible for judging people’s faith, or their mistakes.

And this is where I want to begin talking about our Gospel passage from Matthew today.
 
The Message

Just like last week, we receive a parable from Jesus followed by an explanation. This time though, the explanation claims that it was Jesus who made it.

However, Jesus does not typically do this work of explaining parables like this, so it is more likely that Matthew added these explanations later to make things easier for people to understand, or perhaps to place his own interpretation on the parable.

But the reason Jesus tends to speak using parables is because it’s up to each of us to discern the meaning for ourselves.
 
So of course, pastors get to do the work of trying to explain what the parables might mean in today’s context, but our explanations are our own interpretations too.

All of that said, I want to think about this parable in terms of the two stories I just shared with you.

In both of the stories I shared, one person is taking it upon themselves to judge what others do and, in particular, to try to determine who is saved and who is not, OR, who is faithful and who is not.
 
I don’t know about all of you, but that is not a job I would ever want. Thank God that a pastor’s job isn’t to make that judgement call!

The parable of the weeds and the wheat can be interpreted to portray what appear to be “insiders” and “outsiders” of heaven.

But when the land owner is asked whether or not the servants should pull the weeds, he responds by suggesting that instead, they allow the weeds to grow along with the wheat until the harvest, at which time they can be separated.
 
The two story lines playing out in a single field portray the coexistence of good and evil, with their outgrowths growing side by side, intertwining.

If the servants try to gather the weeds, they might struggle to tell the difference between plants. They might get rid of the weeds and uproot the good growth, too.

So the gathering and separating will not be done until the harvest time, when angels will reap and gather the good wheat into the barn and discard the rest for burning.
 
Followers of Jesus - presumably characterized as the servants in the fields - are encouraged to be patient and trustful that good growth is still occurring and will prevail, even when the weeds seem rampant.

It is not their job to separate good from evil because in the end, the doers of evil will be cast out.

Then, all that will remain is the good, shining like the sun.

The lessons Jesus is trying to communicate about God’s kingdom can be seen throughout history.
 
And, indeed, they can be seen in this moment, too.

We can all see weeds. That is essentially what the pastor at the church I attended was saying – he could see the weeds in the field and he wanted to pick out the weeds and uproot them himself.

Likewise, the son of the dying man in the hospital saw his neighbour as a “weed,” to use this same metaphor. He couldn’t see the beauty in the man’s life because of his determination about his faith (or lack thereof).
 
We can all see weeds – or what we think are weeds.

But, maybe we shouldn’t make it our business to try to separate the weeds from the wheat.

As servants of Jesus, we can help nurture, feed, and cultivate the good growth that’s been planted by sharing the Good News and doing our best to love one another, heal one another, and seek the lost like Jesus.

There’s more than enough for us to do and worry about in this lifetime that we can allow God to do the picking and separating when it comes to people.
 
Thank God we aren’t called to do that work. We are simply asked to love one another.

We are asked to look out at that field and appreciate the wheat alongside the weeds, knowing that we don’t need to worry about separating it all because that is ultimately God’s job.

It’s our job to nourish and help both flourish as best we can, and to remember that everything and everyone are intertwined.
​
And, in the end, we are simply called to love and be loved. Amen.
 
Let us pray:
 
Gracious God, we sometimes forget that even weeds can be beautiful. When we find ourselves wanting to parse out the weeds from the wheat, help us to remember that it is your work to do that, not ours. Guide us instead toward appreciating the weeds and the wheat being intertwined together, and help us to do as you call us to do, which is to love both. In your holy and gracious name, we pray. Amen.
 
Resource: The Christian Century, In the Lectionary, David Bower, Sunday July 20, 2014