Call to Worship (Chief Seattle)
Every part of the earth is sacred,
Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore.
Whatever befalls the earth befalls the children of the earth.
We are part of the earth, and the earth is a part of us.
This we know, all things are connected,
Like the blood that unites one family.
Thanks be to God, the God of all.
Unison Prayer (Navaho tradition)
May all be beautiful before me.
May all be beautiful behind me.
May all be beautiful above me.
May all be beautiful around me.
I am restored in beauty. Amen.
Words of Assurance: Genesis 1:31
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father,
who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil;
for thine is the kingdom,
and the power,
and the glory forever.
Amen.
Opening Song: “Joyful, Joyful” (cover from “Sister Act 2”)
Scripture Reading: Psalm 8:3-9, Good News Bible
When I look at the sky, which you have made,
at the moon and the stars, which you set in their places—
what are human beings, that you think of them;
mere mortals, that you care for them?
Yet you made them inferior only to yourself;
you crowned them with glory and honor.
You appointed them rulers over everything you made;
you placed them over all creation:
sheep and cattle, and the wild animals too;
the birds and the fish
and the creatures in the seas.
O Lord, our Lord,
your greatness is seen in all the world!
Sunday Sermon
When is the last time you saw the stars? I don’t mean the handful of stars visible in our area, but the full night sky? King David saw a canopy of stars every night, as did everyone who lived before light pollution. David imagined the day of creation. Others saw constellations and characters, in the same way as we see images in clouds. Stars helped people to get their bearings, to tell time, to navigate the sea. To see evidence of God, all one had to do was look up.
You may remember the news stories a few years back of 911 calls during a blackout. People were panicked by strange lights in the sky that some thought might be an alien invasion. It was the Milky Way. The last time I saw the full night sky was on a farm with a youth group in Pennsylvania. This was the first time for most of them and they were amazed. One of them said, “It looks just like a planetarium.” I wonder if part of the success of the movie “Project Hail Mary” is due to the unfamiliarity people have with stars and the wonder of seeing them again.
“When I look at the sky,” David writes, “at the moon and the stars, what are human beings that you care for them?” He is overwhelmed by beauty and by the breadth of God’s creation. But what if we can’t see the stars?
The first Earth Day was partially inspired by William Anders’ photo “Earthrise,” which was taken from Apollo 8. At the time, he said, “Oh my God! Look at that picture over there! There’s the Earth coming up. Wow, that’s pretty.” This year the crew of the Artemis II took a follow-up picture from the Artemis II, speaking the memorable words, “Woah, dude!” When they had time to reflect, they mentioned that Earth looked like a lifeboat in the vast expanse of space, and said that all humankind should be looked at as one “crew.” When astronauts first landed on the moon in 1969, President Nixon declared, “For one priceless moment in the whole history of man, all the people on this Earth are truly one.”
What the view of space from Earth and Earth from space have in common is a sense of scale. We are very, very big in our own little worlds; we are very, very small from the universe’s perspective. Yet somehow, God cares for us ~ God cares for us more than the sun, the moon and the stars. This revelation stuns David into humility. Imagine how David would have felt if he were on Artemis II, looking at earth from the other side!
The fact that we are small and insignificant and have been around for only a short time could make us depressed; but to God we are large and important and precious. David can’t wrap his head around it, and neither can we. How ~ in a world so filled with narcissism and selfishness and unnecessary suffering ~ does God see beauty and worth in us?
Not only does God see worth, he sees potential, and makes us stewards of the earth. In Genesis, he tells Adam and Eve to take care of the earth and to till it, and to eat only vegetables, fruit and grain. In Psalm 8, David writes that we given power over all other creatures: the wild animals, the fish of the sea, the birds of the air.
The word “steward” means “a person who looks after people or things.” A stewardess makes sure that everyone on a plane is safe and calm; a stewardship campaign is a way to ensure the longevity of a church. To be stewards of the earth is to take care of God’s creation as a sacred trust. But what if we break this trust? Here’s a Scripture that sounds remarkably contemporary considering the fact that it appears in the Old Testament:
The Lord says: “I will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet? Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away, I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another.“
In other words, approximately 2559 years before the first Earth Day, rich people were already being selfish and messing up the environment. And even back then, God is connecting the care of the earth with the care of the poor. There are lots of connections that we don’t want to see, and just like the night stars, we won’t see them unless we look really hard. People in poor nations are forced to sell their land for short term gain to keep from starving, which results in the loss of stabilizing forests. The same thing happens because of the world’s love for beef. Children are put to work making components for our phones, getting sick and even dying in the process. Overfishing destroys entire ecosystems. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, made mostly of plastics, is now twice as large as Texas.
The list goes on. 48,600 species are currently threatened with extinction, and while each individual loss may seem small, each loss has a ripple effect. Biodiversity shrinks; feeding chains collapse; our own food supplies are disrupted. Earth Day, which was originally meant to celebrate the Earth, is now a call to action. The little things we do make a difference: recycling plastics, picking up trash at the beach, buying less, buying wisely, avoiding products from companies who pollute. But the only way to make a big difference is collectively, at the ballot box.
The biggest question to ask is “Do we really buy into this?” In other words, do we really believe that a) all humankind is truly one, no matter what nation, religion, gender or economic level; b) that we are supposed to protect the poor and less powerful; and c) that we are supposed to extend this protection to animals, plants, forests and seas? If so, many actions will follow. Our core beliefs determine not only who we are, but what we do.
There are signs of hope: through collective efforts, evaporated salt lakes are filling again, species have been brought back from the point of extinction, and despite what we hear in the news, global poverty has consistently decreased over the course of our lifetimes. In many areas, we are already on the right track.
Those of us who are older can remember when the oceans were cleaner, the forests were larger, the air was clearer. the ice cap was wider, there were more birds and butterflies and bees, autumn came earlier and there weren’t as many hurricanes and fires and weather extremes. But if we do things right, our grandchildren will think differently about the past. When they are our age, they may look back and say, “the weather sure has improved since I was a kid. Every day they discover a new species. Can you believe that once upon a time, there were always nations at war?” They may see the night stars again. They may be able to swim in every stream. They may look back and call us the clueless generation. Or they may call us the generation that saved the world.
Closing Song: Chris Renzema, “Springtime”
Benediction
May you grow like the trees of the forest;
May you flourish like the flowers of the fields;
may your love flow like the mountain streams. Amen.
Centerport United Methodist Church 