at the First Congregational Church of Stoughton

United Church of Christ

Every spring, United Church of Christ clergy throughout the state are invited to spend a morning with Jim Antal, Minister and President of the Massachusetts Conference of the UCC. At these meetings, which are called “Days of Covenant,” we clergy have an opportunity to engage Jim on issues and topics of concern to us, such as the financial state of the Mass. Conference, the restructuring of the UCC, and the decline of denominationalism.

But before we begin our discussions, Jim likes to get to know the group better, so he’ll ask us a variety of questions. The first question is usually how long we have been in ordained ministry, and we dutifully line up, with newly-ordained pastors at one end of the large meeting room and long-timers at the other. Other questions might be about the size of our congregations, or the number of years we have served in the Mass. Conference. At the meeting I attended in mid-April, Jim asked a new question: how many of us use Facebook. I’ve got to tell you, I was really surprised when only five of us moved over to the “frequently” side of the room, and a large gang headed over to the “never” end on the opposite wall.

And then Jim asked a question that caught us all by surprise. “How often do you preach about the environment?” The options were: at least monthly; a couple of times of year; and never. Slowly, all the pastors moved to one side – the “never” end of the room. And then Jim said something that has stayed with me: “We all need to start preaching about the environment. We all need to make a prophetic witness about caring for God’s creation. At least monthly, we must in some way mention or focus on one or more of the very broad issues related to creation care and healing the planet.¹ Because if we don’t, then in five years, we are going to be spending the majority of our time pastoring to people who are grieving over the loss of their beloved earth.”

I will confess to you that at the time, I thought Jim’s statement was a bit over the top, a case of hyperbole born out of passion. But just a week later, British Petroleum’s drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven, injuring 17 others, and blowing out a well 5,000 feet underwater. As we all know, oil has been gushing into the Gulf ever since, resulting in the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history. One hundred twenty five million gallons² -- as much as 2.5 million gallons each day³ – has so far spewed into the Gulf, devastating wildlife, livelihoods, and the fragile Gulf Coast ecosystem. And the gusher is expected to continue perhaps into the fall.

For decades, we have been hearing about such environmental concerns such as pesticides, pollution, resource depletion, and the protection of endangered species. Reports have become more urgent in the last decade with an increasing number of stories about melting ice caps and glaciers, rising seas and receding fresh water supplies, droughts and mega-storms, greenhouse gases and climate change. As the scientific studies mount, so does the stridency of the conflict about how we human beings are to relate to the world in which we live, how we as Christians understand our relationship to our Creator, and how faithful people are to respond in this particular teachable moment in our history.

In this morning’s scripture lesson from Genesis, we hear the familiar words, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth… [and] God created humankind in his image… [and] God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’”

Through the ages, Genesis has provoked differing views on the place of humankind within the divine plan of Creation. Much of the disagreement focuses on the word “dominion,” which is repeated in Psalm 8 and carries all sorts of negative connotations, such as tyranny, oppression, and exploitation.

One interpretation of the word “dominion” in these passages is that God made earth and its creatures to serve humankind. As a result of this viewpoint, Genesis 1 and Psalm 8 have been used through the centuries to condone humankind’s exploitation of the earth.⁴

A different understanding of the word “dominion” conveys God’s entrusting of creation to humanity. Made in God’s image, we are called to be wise stewards, or caretakers, of the Earth. In this interpretation, our role is not domination but instead responsibility and care.

This viewpoint is reflected in Eugene Peterson’s translation of the Genesis passage in The Message:

26-28 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."

This stewardship model is echoed in Chapter 2 of Genesis. God creates Adam and “put[s] him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.” The word that we often read as “work” or “till” is literally translated as “serve.⁵” And the word that we often translate as “care for” means to “guard” or “protect.” The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden to serve and protect it.

Another important lesson from Genesis 1 is that all of creation is interconnected. God interweaves each part of creation together so that everything is interrelated with the rest of the world. At the end of each day of creation, God sees what God has created, and pronounces it “good.” But at the end of the sixth day, God looks out at creation in every direction, embracing all that exists, and seeing the world as one integrated system, declares it “very good” – the whole is greater than the individual parts; together we are more – better – than we are alone.

In 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr. echoed similar sentiments in the civil rights context when he said, "...all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied to a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.⁶”

We see this happening in the tragic effects of the Gulf Oil disaster, which is devastating birds, marine mammals, and the tiny plants and animals that constitute the base of the vast food chain in the Gulf, and on which a major part of the seafood production of the United States depends. It is devastating the fishing industry of southern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, and all who seek to feed their families with the proceeds of what they catch each day. It is devastating New Orleans which, along with other coastal cities, is exposed to the increased likelihood of devastating floods, as the marshes that constitute the shrinking margin of storm protection continue to disappear, fouled and killed by oil.

If we didn’t know it before, the Gulf Oil spill just may show us as a nation how interconnected we really are. The waste of this oil -- both its unusability and the mess it is making -- will be visited on all of us, for years -- and even generations -- to come. It is already frightening away vacationers who form the economic base for countless coastal communities, whose livelihoods contribute to the economic health of this nation. That oil will move beyond the immediate environs of the broken wellhead, spreading around the coasts of Florida and northward along the east coast of the U.S. That oil will foul the coastal marshes that also constitute a major nursery for coastal fauna, again a vital part of the food chain. That oil will further stress and poison the coral reefs of Florida, which have historically provided significant storm protection to the coastal communities behind them.⁷

And as we watch the unrelenting gusher, we may feel overwhelmed, thinking there is nothing we can do to help, feeling that there is no way we can make a difference. It is true that little can be done to undo the suffering that this oil spill is creating. But we can learn from this disaster; we can consider how we might change our behaviors in our little corner of the interconnected world. Because just as one part of the sacred circle of life can harm the whole of creation, what we do in our little patch of the earth can help the whole of creation.

Here are some ideas:

• If you don’t already do so, recycle as much as possible and buy products with recycled content.
• Reduce the amount of trash you throw away, and reuse containers and products.
• If you are in the market for a new appliance, be sure to buy one that is labeled “Energystar.”
• If you are in the market for a new car, buy one that gets good gas mileage.
• Consider installing a flow restrictor on your showerhead.
• Install programmable thermostats to regulate your heat usage, and
• Replace all your lightbulbs with CFLs -- Compact Fluorescent lightbulbs.

Here at this church, we have been using reusable worship bulletins for several years, which cuts down on the amount of paper we use and also saves on printer cartridges, which are made using oil. We recycle all of our bulletins, paper, and ink cartridges. We are diligent about turning off the lights and the heat when we’re not using them. We use Fair Trade Coffee and other products. We communicate by email, rather than snail mail, as much as possible to cut down on paper usage. We use electric timers on the thermostat here in this sanctuary, and also on our outdoor lights. We carpool to offsite events. We worship in our outdoor sanctuary.

But there is so much more we could do!

I would like us to consider beginning an Environmental Ministry Team here at our church to explore additional ways that we can “Go Green.” If any of you are interested, let me know.

The Psalmist reminds us that, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.”

As people of faith, may we carry out the biblical call to be good stewards of creation, even if it’s just our little corner of our interconnected world.

And may we treasure the earth as the miraculous, precious, irreplaceable gift from God that it is.

Nothing less than our planet, and all the life therein, depends on it. Amen.