Sometimes in the church, we think it’s important to “train up the younger generation in the way they should go”.

But in the case of today’s topic, the young ones are already ahead of most of us. What are we really going to talk about today? Environmentalism. [SLIDE]

I want us all to be in the place where we see it as our God-given responsibility to be stewards of creation. I want us to agree that we all must make choices to save the environment we live in; not because we worship the earth, but so that all of creation can worship God as God intended!

In many ways, the church is playing catch up with our culture.

How do we know the environmental movement has hit critical mass? Simple. Companies are beginning to use it to promote their products. If marketers are touting environmental savings from a product, it’s only because enough people are caring about it that it gives a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

It happened just this week. Apple introduced a new subnotebook computer this week…which I just happened to notice…and the environmental impact of the product was part of its promotion. [CLICK]

[CLICK] Toyota has a whole section of its website promoting how they’re helping the environment.

[CLICK] Products market if they are energy star compliant…[CLICK] There are a whole bunch of different certifications products can get.

[CLICK] And our very own Newberg Hospital has received all kinds of publicity and accolades for its environmentally-friendly design. [CLICK to black]

If corporations are beginning to talk environmentalism…what about the church? It’s time for us to lead and not follow.

I can imagine some of the protests going through the minds of some.

Isn’t this bringing a political issue into the church?

Some might see it that way. Global warming somehow has become a huge political battle. But I don’t really care this morning if you hate Al Gore and his movie. I’m not wanting to prove global warming exists…the truth is, there are plenty of other ways we’re destroying the earth that need our attention.

My goal is to get past jumping on an environmental bandwagon, and instead set a solid, biblical and theological foundation for why we should be good stewards of creation.

The bible teaches an important framework for being stewards of creation.

But obviously, “environmentalism” is not a word you’re going to find in your bible’s concordance. Why is it more of an issue now then it was in biblical times?

Because we’ve got a whole lot more people now. [CLICK] At the time of Jesus, estimates put the world population between 170 million and 400 million people, with the majority opinion around 250 million…less than the population of the United States today. Today, we have about 6 ½ billion people in the world.

Things have exploded just in the last 100 years. This chart makes it look smooth, but that’s because the years at the bottom aren’t even. [CLICK] This one makes the recent explosion obvious.

The population explosion is taxing the resources of our planet. [CLICK] The whole population at the time of Jesus was 3.3 % of the current world’s population. Our demand on resources is hugely increased. [CLICK to black]

Why should we care?

Because we were created to be the caretakers, the stewards of the earth. Sara Grant read from Genesis earlier. We’ve seen, in pictures all service long, the beauty of the world God has created, in all of its vibrancy and infinite variety.

All of creation, God said again and again, was good. Human beings were created to be part of creation, to “rule” it as the image and the likeness of God.

Wonderful scholarship has been done recently on these passages, research which shows we have mis-understood and mis-translated these passages for a very long time. The word translated “rule” is a word that consistently shows a delegated authority. We are given delegated authority over creation by God himself. We don’t get to do whatever we want; we are to rule as God would want us to rule.

The word sometimes translated “subdue” in Genesis 1:28 actually contains the idea of ordering or balancing or putting in its proper place.

Genesis 2:15 gives us this idea much more clearly, when it says “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”

We are given authority over the creation to rule and order it in God’s place.

We are to take care of it according to God’s intentions and purposes. Everything is God’s! Psalm 24: 1: “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”

Jesus continues to sustain every part of creation, every part of the cosmos. Colossians 1: 16-17: “…All things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

And the purpose of creation, the purpose for which we are to rule and order it, is for all of creation to praise God!

Psalm 19:1-4: "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world." 


Psalm 96:1, 11-12: "Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth . . . Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy."

In so many ways, we misuse our authority.

We are, by nature, people who want to order things for our selfish pleasure. We miss God’s intention for authority, and want to grasp power for ourselves and for our aims.

We don’t follow Jesus’ example, as Paul says we should in Philippians 2: 5-7:

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” Philippians 2:5-7, NIV.

Jesus set aside authority, in order to serve humanity. We seem to grab authority and set aside God’s plan, and the way we have treated creation is no exception.

All of creation is groaning under the weight of humanity’s demands.

[CLICK…read as pictures of pollution and deforestation automatically go forward]

“The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” Romans 8:19-22, TNIV.

We are not stewarding the planet, we’re raping it.

Some Christians say, “Well, it’s all going to burn anyway.”

That thought process comes from a very narrow way of viewing what the bible teaches about the end times, a view that says all of heaven and earth will be destroyed and that God will make a completely new heaven and earth.

I don’t think that is an excuse to break our command to steward the earth. And I wonder if it’s really true that God will completely destroy the earth and start over.

Romans 8 teaches that creation is longing for redemption, groaning and waiting to be healed, just like we are.

Several weeks ago, I was talking about this with friends, and I had a thought that was new to me. What if Jesus’ resurrection is a model for what will happen to us AND to all of creation?

We don’t understand everything about the resurrection body that Jesus had, but several things are indisputable. First, it was definitely something new. He could walk through walls and appear and disappear. We must believe that Christ’s body is something brand new and far better than before.

But we also know beyond a shadow of a doubt that something was still the same. He was recognizable. Thomas could touch the wounds in his hands and side. Jesus’ new, resurrection body was not ALL new; some of it was “connected” with the earthly body that had gone before.

What if the new earth will be just like that? It definitely will be remade, redeemed, made into something new and different and incorruptible. That’s what creation is longing for, to be healed and made new. But I wonder if part of the substance of this earth will continue to be a transformed but recognizable part of the new earth? Just like Jesus had wounds and scars, but the body was made new, I wonder if the new earth will bear ITS scars…remade in a beautiful, yet recognizable way?

It’s not possible to know for sure. But I sure like that thought, and the responsibility it puts on us to take our stewardship responsibility seriously.

One last thing:

It’s not about worshipping the earth. [CLICK] [CLICK], then to black.

Bumper stickers are fun, but they aren’t good things to base our theology on. We don’t need to follow some of those in our country who care about the environment. We want to do the right thing–care for the earth–but we want to do it for the right reasons.

We’re not worshipping the earth or anything in it. We are living into our God-given call to care for all of creation, so that all of creation (us included!) can worship our Creator God.

I DID find some helpful bumper stickers…

Not to base my life on, but helpful nonetheless. [THREE]

So what can we do?

I gotta admit right off the bat, some things I’m good at, some things I’m not. I’m pretty good about recycling the things that can go in the curbside recycler, but I still throw away too much because I’m too lazy to walk out to the container sometimes.

My guess is many of us are like that. We do some things well, and others haven’t even entered our radar screen. I’d like to offer a bunch of suggestions, hoping that each person can try one or two new things. If you want more ideas, believe me, it’s out there! Search the internet for “how to save the environment” and you’ll find plenty of helpful things. Gary Fawver in our church family has devoted much of his life to the stewardship of creation, and Lisa McMinn has written about and practices ways to live in an earth-friendly way.

Also, Elizabeth Sherwood is going to work with our Trustees this year to help our church itself improve; things like better recycling and improved energy efficiency. But what are some ideas for us as individuals?

Conserve water! [CLICK]

Water, worldwide, is a very important and threatened resource. We forget that here in the rainy Northwest. But I noticed how much water I waste after I returned from India. When we were in India, everything had to be bottled water, so we wouldn’t get sick. I was so careful when brushing my teeth and drinking; then I got home and watched how different I was when it supposedly “didn’t matter.” So install low flow shower heads [CLICK]; fix leaky faucets; turn the water off when you brush your teeth [CLICK]; only run the dishwasher when it’s full; think about a front loading washer [CLICK] the next time you buy one (they use less water).

Recycle! [CLICK]

In every sense of the word. Use the curbside stuff if you have it, and go to Wynooski avenue facility if you don’t or if you have things that can’t go in the curbside container. Give your old stuff to somebody who will use it, or donate to the thrift store. Compost your kitchen scraps, and use it as fertilizer for your lawn or garden.

Bring your own bag to the store. [CLICK]

Lisa McMinn gave us one of these, and it’s an easy way to not have to choose paper or plastic, neither of which is a perfect choice. Reuse it whenever you go to the store.

Tame your car [CLICK].

[CLICK] Having enough air in the tires gives better gas mileage, and also keeps your tires from wearing out as quickly. Slow down! [CLICK] Going 60 instead of 70 saves 4 miles to the gallon, on average.

Walk when you can! [CLICK] In Newberg, we can walk a whole lot more than most places, because the places we go are pretty close to each other. It reduces fuel use, carbon emissions, and is better for your body.

Power issues [CLICK]

Use rechargeable batteries instead of disposable. [CLICK] It cuts down on hazardous chemicals in the landfills.

Turn off lights and appliances when you don’t use them. [CLICK] Occasionally I’m great at this, many times I’m terrible. But it’s simple!

Change your light bulbs. [CLICK] Compact fluorescents save lots of energy, and time changing bulbs, because they last much longer. We’ve been replacing our bulbs as they go out. They’re much better than they used to be; no flickering and more natural, warmer light.

There’s another simple, low cost thing we all can do.

You can choose to pay a little extra to have all of your electricity come from renewable energy. [CLICK] For us, this only meant paying 67 cents more last month. In our highest use month in the last few years, it cost us 89 cents more. That’s something all of us can do! Call PGE or login to your account at www.portlandgeneral.com

You can something similar with natural gas, which I just discovered and signed up for this week. [CLICK] Northwest Natural Gas calls it smart energy, and it works a little different. The production and use of natural gas produces carbon dioxide. By paying a little more each month, NW Natural will buy trees to “offset” the carbon dioxide you put in the atmosphere with your gas use. It looks like it will cost us less than $7.50 per month. Sign up on their website or give them a call.

Offset your CO2 [CLICK]

This idea of offsetting your carbon dioxide emissions is a big deal now. Carbon dioxide hurts our atmosphere in multiple ways; we’re emitting more than ever, and rapidly cutting down forests that help to convert the CO2, a double whammy.

Carbonfund.org has a calculator to help you estimate how much CO2 all your activities put into the air. You input your electric and gas usage, the cars you drive and the mileage they get, how much you fly, etc. It tells you how much you should contribute to “offset” your carbon contribution. They use the contribution you make to increase renewable energy and energy efficiency, as well as reforestation projects.

Ecofoot.org has a calculator that looks at a little more [CLICK]. You take a quiz about your city, your driving and flying and eating habits, and they let you know how many “acres” it takes to support you. The average American has an ecological footprint of 24 acres, while there exists only 4.5 biologically productive acres per person on the planet. We’d need 5 and 1/3 earths if everyone were like the average American. [CLICK to black] These tools help us see how our lifestyle choices affect the environment.

After all those ideas, I want to end with a simple reminder.

The Psalms resound with the refrain that creation was made to praise the Lord!

Genesis tells us we are created in God’s image to rule the world as he would, to care for it and work the land and tend it, so that all creation can worship God.

It’s time for the church to lead the world in our responsibility to care for the environment. The earth is groaning under the weight of our misuse. In addition to that, the overuse of resources in our country is beginning to take its toll on other parts of the planet, so that environmentalism is becoming a justice issue.

May we live into our God-given role as stewards of creation!

As we enter a time of open worship, let one of our Yearly Meeting’s queries guide us:

As a Christian steward, do you treat the earth with respect and with a sense of God’s splendor in creation, guarding it against abuse by greed, misapplied technology, or your own carelessness?