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Wednesday, December 13, 2006 

Easter Environmentalism

I know it is advent, but I had to write a homily for my Foundations of Social Theology class and I chose to do it on Easter. FST was taught at the Franciscan School of theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkely. It was a great class and quite interesting to be one of the minority protestants in the group. Anyway, the Catholic lectionary for Easter began with Genesis 1, which I found fascinating. I decided to do an Easter homily without any direct Easter texts. Unfortunately, I did not get to deliver the homily. I tend to think of preaching as an oral artform which is typically why I don't post my sermons here, but since I didn't get to deliver this homily I thought I would post it. I'm not sure how successful this was so I'd love some feedback.

[The following homily is for an Easter morning worship service. The intended audience is an urban, multi-racial congregation. The theme being dealt with is the current environmental crisis. While environmental issues are oftentimes discussed (or at least more acceptable) in affluent communities, such issues are rarely discussed in urban centers where the effects of the environmental crisis can most acutely be felt. This homily is an attempt to deal with these issues in that context. This homily would have to be given in a parish where the preacher has some comfort and familiarity with the congregants. ]

Texts: Genesis 1

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
And God said, ‘Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
And God said, ‘Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, ‘Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.’ And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.’ And it was so. God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
And God said, ‘Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.’ So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’ And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.’ And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’ So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, 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.’ God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Romans 8:18-27

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.


I know what you are thinking: this is Easter. Where is the Easter text? Where is the story of the resurrection? Where is the empty tomb? The angel? Where is the Risen Lord in these passages? How can you have an Easter message without those things? Well, I’m experimenting a bit with you all, because I know you all know the story. I know you all know that Christ was crucified and three days later rose from the dead. I know that you know that through this miraculous event, God offers us new life and it is the topic of new life that I want to talk about with you today.
We began this morning with the creation story. The creation story is central to the Judeo-Christian worldview. We tend to look at it as if God is playing a symphony, beginning quietly with the creation of light, gradually building to the separation of the land and water, crescendo-ing through the formation of stars, moon, sun, plants, fish, birds, and animals, until finally God’s masterpiece reaches its thrilling climax with the creation of humanity. We tend to look at things as if humanity was the ultimate fulfillment of all for which God had created, everything was merely to set the stage for the grand arrival of the human being. And yet, science has illumined us to a fact that our anthropocentric traditions have often ignored. God was not simply setting up scenery in which humans would enact their drama. Rather, God was creating a system, a network, if you will. A series of interrelated connections that would make life possible, each component feeding into the next, every piece dependent on the others. Humanity was simply a piece in the puzzle. And yet, we are more than that, because we are blessed with the ability to see how the entirety of the puzzle can come together. We are gifted with the imagination to see what the puzzle can look like in its completeness. We are also charged with the knowledge of what the system looks like when all of the pieces are not in the right places, when the network is broken and the system is compromised. On Good Friday we get the ultimate reminder of what the broken system looks like as the creation commits the definitive act of rebellion against its creator. And this morning we celebrate, as the Creator restores Creation and brings it into new life.
Paul tells us in II Corinthians that if anyone is in Christ they are a new creation. We’re also told in our passage from Romans this morning that all of creation has been groaning, awaiting the new life that will be proclaimed through the children of God. God in Christ was re-creating the world. God was renewing the world, restoring the original perfect design to wholeness. We all know that. We’ve heard it a million times. The problem is that we tend to stay with our old understandings of the Gospel. We tend to use language like our own “personal” savior. Sometimes we get enough out side ourselves to say that the grace that was shown through the death and resurrection of Christ is for all who believe, all who have been saved, or all who were predestined to be saved. Sometimes we even get enough outside of ourselves to say take the Gospel seriously when it says that God loved the world enough to give the son as a sign of that love. But what if there is more to it than that? What if salvation has more to do with just Christians or those who believe and think a certain way? What if salvation has to do with more than just humanity? What if salvation is about the renewal of a system, a new way for all of creation to be in relationship?
When we look at the creation story in Genesis, we see that one thing after another was proclaimed to be good by God: the dry land was good, the sky was good, the sun, moon, and stars were good, the plants were good, the animals were good, and yes, humanity was very good. The question for us this morning is ‘why would God want to abandon God’s good creation?’. Many of us, myself included, were raised to believe that God would, in some predetermined “end time” do away with God’s good creation for something better, something heavenly. We’ve been trained to believe that God will carry us away from this world and this created order, and so this world in which we dwell is of no consequence. It is just a temporary stopping ground. But God in Christ was making all things new. Paul’s new creation talk is not a hope for the future. The new creation begins with the resurrection. God in Christ was restoring all things to the way they should be. God was making all things good again and restoring the relationships of the created order. God created all things and God declared all things ‘good’. Paul says that the whole creation is crying out, going through birth pangs. It was a labor that began Easter morning with the resurrection of Christ. Matthew’s gospel tells us that when Jesus died, all of creation reacted; the sky turned dark and the earth shook. It is fitting, then, that creation should be invited into our conversation about the resurrection. The resurrection means new life for creation as well as for us. It means a life where the creation is valued based on its original goodness and not simply the good that it provides for humanity. It is a life where we as moral agents recognize the inherent goodness of all of God’s creation. It is a life where we recognize that the tree, the bird, the land, the water, the fish, and the deer are as much apart of the Creator’s design as we are.
It is easy to take creation for granted in our urban centers. In the city we can oftentimes become detached from the natural world around us. Yet it is in the city where our lack of unity with the created order has the direst consequences. If you need a vivid example of that, just look at last year’s hurricanes. While it is easy to focus on the government’s inadequate response to the tragedies of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, we overlook all the other factors that went into decimating one of America’s great cities. New Orleans was made increasingly vulnerable by the fact that the wetlands outside the city were not protected. Our destruction of nature in the name of “progress” ended up damaging more than just fish, birds, water, and plants of the wetlands, but it jeopardized human life as well. There is also a great deal of evidence that the human activities that are contributing to the phenomenon of global warming will also lead to more unpredictable and destructive weather patterns, meaning more coastal cities could face the level of threat that was posed to the gulf coast region. To bring the issue a little closer to home, think of the ecological condition of many of our urban centers. Think about the quality of the air, the quality of the water, the scarcity of plant life. Think of the ways that our lifestyles affect the world around us and how they affect the least in our communities. Studies have shown an increase in asthma and other respiratory illnesses in urban, low-income African American communities. It is no coincidence that poor air quality and poor health go hand in hand. It is because of relationships, our relationship to the entirety of God’s creation, a relationship where the things we share in common are our finite natures and our mutual co-dependence.
Friends, we need an Easter environmentalism. We need an environmental strategy that is based on the good news that God in Christ makes all things new. The liberation we experience in Christ is liberation not just for humanity but for all of creation. It is creation’s liberation from being subordinated to the will of the powerful and wealthy. It is creation’s liberation from being exploited for the sake of progress. It is creation’s liberation to be seen on equal terms, as companions on the journey. Just as we would hope those things for our brothers and sisters who are oppressed, exploited, and objectified, if we are ever to have an ecological future we must hope those things for all of creation. We must see the world around us as the Creator originally intended; a good, orderly, system of relationships where all is valued not as a commodity but as an inherently good piece of the Creator’s puzzle, created out of God’s infinite love.

Derrick, bravo. First, I agree that a sermon is an "oral artform", so I cannot comment on the delivery/performance aspect of it, but in terms of content, it was superb.

The sermon is theologically rich as it connects creation with redemption. Many congregants do not normally see "salvation" in the Genesis account of creation, nor do they connect the "ressurection" theme with the birds and the trees and the animals.

Your sermon is relevant. We are facing an ecological crisis...we see it all around, yet many churches remain silent. The Katrina event was a good illustration.

The idea of bringing a solid theology of ecology/redemption/creation to an urban setting is also very appealing and much needed. As you mentioned, it is in the urban setting that the impact of our environmental crisis is felt the most, yet the church remains ignorant.

In conservative churches where the notion of salvation is limited to only the "individual", the preacher would have to use some sensitivity and tact in order to help them see that God desires not only salvation for "me" but in fact for the entire creation. The preacher should also preach with conviction and passion (conservative churches thrive on passion). You know, the balance between logos, ethos, and pathos...

I would like to hear you preach this sermon at MBCC...

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