“Celebration of Earth Day”

(Genesis 1:26-2:3)

God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature

 So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle,

And , yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.” 

God created human beings; he created them godlike,

Reflecting God’s nature.  He created them male and female. 

God blessed them: “Prosper!  Reproduce!  Fill Earth!  Take charge! 

Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.”

Then God said, “I’ve given you every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth

And every kind of fruit-bearing tree, given them to you for food.  To all animals and all birds, everything that moves and breathes,

I give whatever grows out of the ground for food.”  And there it was.

God looked over everything he had made; it was so good, so very good!

 It was evening, it was morning—Day Six.

Heaven and Earth were finished, down to the last detail.  By the seventh day God had finished his work.  On the seventh day he rested from all his work.  God blessed the seventh day.  He made it a Holy Day Because on that day he rested from his work, all the creating God had done.

            Who remembers what they were doing on April 22, 1970?  Who was around in 1970?  That, my friends, was 54 years ago, and it was the very first Earth Day. 

            In 1969 there had been massive oil spills on the coast of California.  These oil spills were a tipping point for concerned politicians who began what was called a “teach-in” day on college campuses.  The purpose of those teach-ins was to educate students on air and water pollution.  They, then, began programs that could and, eventually, would reach the broader public.  Thus, the first Earth Day happened.  In that same year the Environmental Protection Agency was created.

            With each passing year, Earth Day has become more embedded in our culture.  School kids learn about environmental justice, some cities actually hold parades, and churches have celebrated this day, finding within our scripture support for caring for God’s Creation.  You heard Bill read part of the first creation story from the Message Bible, giving us language that endures.  “God saw all that God had made and declared it to be very good!”

            Our church began to celebrate Earth Day in 1992, as best as I can determine.  It was Leslie Hampshire’s wonderful idea which endured here and which I took with me for my 9 years in Wellington.  Such a wonderful way to hold sacred God’s Creation….

            In thinking back to 1970 in my life, let’s just say I didn’t have a clue about what was going on outside myself.  I was putting in 3 hours a day practicing my flute, working my part time job at the local grocery store, somewhat aware of what was going on in Vietnam (this, of course, would come front and center 10 days after the first Earth Day with the shooting and killing of 4 Kent State students). 

For a lot of us that was a turning point in how we viewed the world and our place in it.  Peace and justice issues began to surface for many of us after Earth Day and the Kent State shootings.

            My first exposure to what it meant to work to save the environment was in 1973 when my neighbors in seminary student housing taught me about recycling.  We sorted glass bottles by color (green, brown and clear).  We tied our newspapers with string (everyone got the paper in those days).  We took the paper labels off tin cans, washed them, took the ends off and flattened them like pancakes.

            That was the beginning of my love affair with recycling.  We made a trip every month to the recycling site to drop off our sorted items.  It felt so righteous!  In those days there was much less plastic and very little Styrofoam, as I recall. 

            That brings us to today, 54 years after the first Earth Day.  We have more possibilities for recycling, but we have so much plastic (much of which is not even recyclable) and so much Styrofoam.  I have nightmares about the huge islands of plastic bags that are in our ocean, though even I am not always careful about how what I buy is packaged.  It is so hard to not bring home loads of plastic from the grocery store.  Most other things we buy, like electronics and games are terribly overpackaged, again, with plastic. 

            Another thing I feel happy about is the composting bin that Rick got me for my birthday several years ago.  Though we are not good gardeners, we do produce a lot of compost from our leaves and produce waste. 

            The greater truth to all of this is that we and those before us have not been properly caring for our Mother Earth and her resources.  We and our industries have been polluting Earth’s air, water, soil, fish, birds and animals as well as our own bodies.  We’ve done it because, for so long, we didn’t understand the consequences of our actions.  Or, maybe, we as a people didn’t care enough to choose a clean and safe world over the almighty dollar or the ease of just dumping everything into the trash. 

The problem is, of course, we have entered into a time of crisis in our world.  Much of the harm done cannot be repaired or healed, and we still haggle over the money it will cost to make improvements even now.

            Some things, though, we can celebrate today: there has been much progress with our Cuyahoga River.  From 1969, the last time it caught on fire, there were only 3 forms of life living in the river, and they were very low forms of pollution-tolerant life.  Until recently, Peninsula received money from the city of Akron for the sewage that got dumped into the river when the inadequate water treatment facility couldn’t handle the amount of rain that fell.  Thankfully, that has become better.

            There are blue herons and bald eagles now, both species that require a rather sophisticated eco-system in order to be attracted to an area.  Let’s not ever take this for granted because once upon a time those magnificent birds would never have stopped by here, let alone return year after year. 

            Now, I mentioned that we have used the Message Bible as this morning’s text.  That’s because in most of our Bibles, we’re told that God gave humans “dominion” over the creatures and all of Creation.  In the past, this language has been used to rationalize killing to extinction various animals and plant life.  And that language was used to convince people that they could use the Earth and its natural resources any old way they wanted. 

            I don’t think I have to tell you that any theologian or preacher worth her salt would tell us that having dominion does not mean to abuse, deplete or destroy, though that is what has happened and, in some ways, still does. 

            The English word dominion comes from the Latin base of domus which means house.  This might suggest that having dominion means having complete authority, but that’s not it at all.  It is about how one has authority in a household— used in its most positive way it means a caring, teaching, gentle way of guidance.

            Since you have been listening to me, you have heard me talk about life in the Jesus House.  It is one way of referring to how we followers of Christ ought to exist together.  Let’s remember that the rules in the Jesus House are different than they are in the world.  According to Jesus, the House is the place where the one who would be first shall be last and servant of all.  This becomes much more powerful, knowing that Jesus came among us as “one who served.”  In the Jesus House we are to become as children in order to understand and to have faith.  In the Jesus House, the adults are ordered to let the little ones come forward, for to such belongs the Kingdom of God. 

We need to think about these little ones as we make decisions about our world, our Earth, our air and our water.  Also, when we begin to see our fellow creatures as our house mates, and when we begin to see Earth as our home, perhaps it will be possible for us to think differently about how we treat both.  Lovingly and respectfully are the words that come to my mind.  We can treat our planet and fellow dwellers respectfully and lovingly even, especially, when we have been given authority.

As you responsible adults know, we take care of our homes, doing regular maintenance, keeping them safe and clean, knowing that’s what we need to do to make them last a long time.

In the Creation story God gives us human beings dominion—not to abuse the power, but to exercise it humbly and lovingly and to treat our home as a sacred gift from God, so it can last a long, long time.

Just as our children are on loan to us from God, so is our world and our fellow creatures.  All that we have, all that we are, all that is around us are precious gifts from God.  We make decisions every day about how we treat God’s gifts.  Earth Day is our wake-up call to respect these gifts.  There are things all of us can do to keep up our share in caring for God’s Creation.  You will have heard lots of those ideas and we have some paper that will give you even more.  Thanks in advance!  Amen.