October 29, 2006: PEACE WITH THE EARTH
Genesis 1:26-31, Psalm 34:1-8
Eileen Parfrey - Springwater Presbyterian Church

The news is bad. Experts tell us that global warming may be irreversible. Climatologists predict more drought and catastrophic storms in the next ten years. Half the U.S. population lives in areas that do not meet national air safety standards. Ninety percent of the world's fisheries have been depleted. By 2020, population projections indicate nine billion persons on the planet. The news is bad. In many places, the water is dangerous to drink. If you can get it. A sub-Saharan African's daily water use is the equivalent of what Americans use to brush their teeth if they leave the water running, or what it takes to flush a toilet. Americans consume 400-600 liters of water each day, which includes pouring potable water into the ground for grass. The news is bad. The spread of the industrial revolution over the globe for the last 200 years has left in its wake the extinction of numbers of species of insects, birds, plants, and animals. Bio-diversity lost in the name of progress, in the name of a bad translation of the Hebrew phrase, "have dominion over it."

This is our final week of our October peacemaking emphasis. Our journey used a pattern provided by a Scottish proverb, "If there is peace in the home there will be peace in the community; if there is peace in the community there will be peace in the nation; if there is peace in the nation there will be peace in the earth." Last week, Pat Gleich, from the Health Ministries Office of the PCUSA worshiped with us. After she returned to Louisville (HQ), knowing we would still talk about peacemaking this week, she sent this on the Serenity Prayer. You remember, it's the one that says, "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." It was written by Reinhold Niebuhr in 1934 for his congregation in Heath, MA. His biographer, June Bingham, says that we focus on the wrong portion of that prayer. She contends that Niebuhr emphasized finding the courage to change the things that can be changed. This is consistent with his personal peace efforts as a pastor, theologian and seminary professor. Having found the courage to work for peace, he urged others to do the same.

There is a place for focusing on the serenity portion of the prayer, but this is our peacemaking month, and today we consider the justice of "peace on the earth." I had trouble with today's prepositions. Is it "peace in the earth," as in social/political peacemaking? Or is it "peace on the earth," as in Christmas? Or is it "peace with the earth," as in ecological peace? Given the scripture, I took it to mean peace with the earth, as in "have dominion over." For millennia, humans have understood the command in Genesis to "have dominion" to mean, "creation serves us." This is a faulty understanding of the Hebrew, but that understanding was useful when we were at the mercy of the elements, struggling for the most basic food, clothing, and shelter. It also served our political purpose for Manifest Destiny and the colonial expansion of First World nations. But "dominion" actually refers to a stewardship of care and nurture. Stewards care for things they neither control nor own. A wine steward advises customers as to appropriateness of food and wine pairings, but only carries out bottles that belong to the restaurant owner (until the customer buys them). This is not bad news-the earth does not belong to us. The news is finally good: we are stewards of the earth. That stewardship starts in our daily life at home and expands into our communities of education, work, faith.

In the spirit of expanding that stewardship, the Springwater stewardship committee has asked Randy Johnson to talk to us today about personal stewardship. Maybe you've seen the posters asking, "What is God calling me to do?" Because we are all connected to creation, it's all stewardship. In fact, John Calvin says, stewardship is everything we do after we say, "I believe." [Moment for Stewardship by Randy Johnson]

The National Council of Churches has drafted an Ecological Affirmation of Faith as part of its Theological Statement on the Environment. Last week Renate heard two of the drafters speak at an EMO-sponsored event. Please join me in affirming the goodness of God's creation and our part in its stewardship.

We stand with awe and gratitude as members of God's bountiful and good creation and the interdependence of all that God makes. We lament that the human species is shattering the splendid gifts of this web of life, ignoring our responsibility for the well being of all life.

We believe that the Holy Spirit animates all of creation, empowering us to participate in working toward the flourishing of Earth's community of life. We believe that the people of God are called to forge ways of being human that enable socially just and ecologically sustainable communities to flourish for generations to come. And we believe in God's promise to fulfill all of creation, anticipating the reconciliation of all, in accordance with God's promise. We lament that we have rejected this vocation, and have distorted our God-given abilities and knowledge in order to ransack and often destroy human communities rather than to protect, strengthen and nourish them.

We believe that, in boundless love that hungers for justice, God in Jesus Christ acts to restore and redeem all creation. We confess that instead of living and proclaiming this salvation through our very lives and worship, we have abused and exploited the Earth and people.

We cling to God's trustworthy promise to restore, renew, and fulfill all that God creates. We long for and work toward the day when the lamentations and groans of creation will be over, justice with peace will reign, humankind will nurture the Earth, and all of creation will sing for joy.