One of my professors told me that, if I wanted to be a good preacher, I had to read. As much as possible, if not everything. So this gives me permission to include my recent reading in a sermon-The Omnivore's Dilemma, which traces four American meal types from the field to the table. The first of those meals is what the author calls the industrial meal, based on corn and its by-products, raised on monoculture farms and in feedlots, wrapped in plastic and shipped to us across whole continents. It's the cheapest, most abundant food in the world, and you can also get it in a ready-to-eat format from a window. Every day of the year in this country, one meal in five is eaten in a car and fully one third of the children eat at a fast-food outlet. Every day. The other meal types traced in the book, although less pervasive, are also less shocking-the commercial organic (think Zupans or New Seasons), sustainable agriculture, and hunter-gatherer meals. What fascinated me about the book was that, despite my being so conversant with Midwestern agriculture, which is where much of the industrial food comes from, I had no appreciation for the environmental implications of our cheap meal-in-the-car lifestyle. Despite being dubbed the Organic Wholegrain Goodness Queen by my family, despite my patronage of the local farmer's markets, I had no idea the potential for the healing of creation that is possible with sustainable agriculture practices.

I've been boring all my friends with insights from this book, so imagine my delight when I discovered that the PCUSA resources for this year's worship observance of Earth Day focused on this same information-and used the lectionary texts! The Omnivore's Dilemma wasn't simply provocative; it contained a call to practice our faith. If the scene in the Revelation of John means anything, what we do on earth has an impact on the unfolding of God's plan for creation. And we won't be personally saved until all of creation is free from oppression and suffering. We are all connected! Especially by food.

The scandal over tainted dog and cat food is a case in point. It started with a few brands of canned pet food, and has now expanded to include many dry pet foods. The culprit is grain from China, used in the manufacture of pet foods. This grain is contaminated by a plastics-based fertilizer used in Asia, but illegal in the US. Plastics. Grain. Food. China. I don't want to even ask, in this global economy in which food is literally shipped all over the world to be used in manufacturing food products, how much of that contaminated grain we eat. One of the topics explored in The Omnivore's Dilemma is what, in the name of growing food, we pour into the earth (and hence into our subterranean water supplies).

Fifty years ago, most of the food production in the US was local and had a low impact on God's creation. After World War II, left-over bomb-making materials were turned into fertilizers and left-over nerve gases into pesticides. Before I offend every farmer in the congregation today, I might point out that monoculture (growing only one crop on a farm), rather than the practice of diversified crops, increases production, but it puts farmers' livelihoods at risk because of pests and disease, so a certain level of prevention becomes necessary. Efficiency in farm methods-increased tractor size, for instance, high crop yields-means fewer workers are required. More land is owned by corporations, which means fewer farmers, so that the people who actually work the farms are only required a few weeks of the year and don't have a vested interest in the long-term health of the land. It isn't even theirs! Workers become migratory, and their long-term health issues are not visible to the corporation, and so concerns are minimal. But we find that pesticide use is directly linked to higher rates in farm workers of certain health concerns such as breast cancer, prostate cancer, retinal degeneration, Parkinson's disease. You get the picture. Most of the food on American tables is trucked an average of 1,500 miles, so it needs to be the kind that can withstand the trip. Federal commodity payments support a limited number of crops, mostly grain, and these payments are predicated on ever-increasing yields. Driving all of this is the need for abundant and cheap food.

The story is told of an Iowa farmer with a dolphin weather vane on top of the barn. A visitor was bemused by this land-locked nod to the sea, but the farmer explained, "We're all connected. My farm drains downstream to the Mississippi, which means Iowa's biggest export is the runoff of topsoil and chemical fertilizer into the Gulf of Mexico. We've created a dead zone there the size of Massachusetts, which threatens all sea life. Our organic farm practices prevent erosion and runoff, create healthy soils, and keep fertility on the farm where it belongs, not in the sea where the dolphins swim."

The sooner we recognize our utter dependence on the earth's generosity and its peoples, the power and grace by which are lives are sustained, the sooner God's kingdom will come. What was happening in today's reading from John's Revelation-that extravagant scene of worship-happens just a little bit every Sunday when we get together. According to scripture, that we worship, that we gather to worship, makes as much difference in heaven as it does on earth. Maybe more. Everything is connected. Everything. Even heaven and earth. So this means that even that one little thing that you do makes all the difference in the world. Let me show you how.

Groups of 10 (each assigned role of air, light, water, land, plants, or animals)

Keeping string tight, light starts by passing the ball of string to a part of creation dependent on it (plants); to a part of creation that depends on plants (animals?), to a part that is helped by another (water? air?), to relies on another (plants to clean or prevent run-off) until everyone is holding the string at least once

Ask: What if God hadn't created your part of creation (what would happen to the other parts)? Then, what if the water or air is polluted (those parts drop the string)? Or the topsoil runs off? Or what if species of plants died? Or animals? [This exercise was derived from "Our Daily Bread: Harvesters of Hope and Gardeners of Eden," www.nccecojustice.org, National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Network.]

Everything is connected. Farming just shows the interconnectedness of creation a little more visibly. Each part of creation important. Even yours. Stay tuned for the Moment for Mission to find out what "one little part" you can do. In the meantime, join me in the Litany of Prayer for Earth Day.