THE CARE GF THE EARTH JMB
Genesis 1:26-2:3 BSPC

Matthew 5:1-5 Cols, OH
November 21, 1982 .

before since it/first ocendrred to someone to bow down.
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There is-agmprel that—in-an saestoan prenreprersy Carne
earth has yielded its increase:\ the grain is in.\ The prices
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aren't what we wish they were so the grain may stay in the loan
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qumcee Lor awhile. | But it's in: \ the miracle has happened
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And as alli the people before us have done we

rehich

breathe a corporate and grateful sigh of smeerbiceedte this week;
ws Pn eS amen |

life is possible for another year, at least.
eR: =a ers

There is something of the harvest Kenia 4? in Thanksgiving.
rece

Wowever hs both \eSd ane ere “aoa =k the
rm mech anf reas petiole Ln people of ‘Massachusetts
einer —
Bay Colony, whose harvest feast we remember and emulate, did

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not have much to celebrate actually. \ wars the people who

started out on the Mayflower were dead. \au but three families

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rol
had lost somoone\ They had Mietived the first winter,orer
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a
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the barley they had brought.

The barley did poorly fine peas failed altogetper.\ They

were going to live another year because the corn, given to
ir

them by the tg also showed them how to plant it,

had done weil.\ When they harvested and ground it they

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discovered, to their delight » that there were two pounds of
Sa el

corn meal per day for each of them for the coming winter.

And so, they would not starve.

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it was something less than a celebration of abundance and

nature's kindness. \ Nature had been rather tight-fisted, as ch turned om
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centiinbonmemierert . Those who had buried spouses, children,
Ere

parents in the cold, rocky soil, would not have been Polyamish

Bt

Al our aWia Tc

providence.\ what they cele-~
ee
brated was the fact that they were alive: } that they had

y weeded Plus
been given the strength creativity, “me some good fortunes

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cumstances had forced on
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them a partnership with nature which had worked.\ Governor

Ln ees oe
Bradford et COE secon |r whole country, full of woods
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and thickets, represented‘wild and savage hue. \ if they
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looked behind them there was the mighty ocean they had

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passed, an

sustain them but the Spirit of God and His Grace.” | They
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learned how to depend on the strength and resourcefulness
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God promises to give his peopie. \ they also learned to live
cE, oR SEER

in cooperation with the forces of that natural world which,
[Eas i

wert
oe they had seen, perfectly capable of wiping them away
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of se (dees OF impati,
as if they had never existed. | Berete=ieeeee are worth preserving. Rov

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Both are close to the center of Christian Faith and Life.
Sar. ee. — ——————————

=a —— Seems

Jesus said that the meek will inherit the earth. \¢ which
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Madeleine L'Engle has responded: |"Good - they're the only
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ones we can trust with the place." | There are libraries
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written about the Beatitudes: [Bressea are the poor in spirit...
ere a Tae ‘ —
Blessed are those who mourn...Blessed are the meek, for they
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shall inherit the earth." } What a curious thing to say.] The
—— :

@: : ;
Pues. The people who think about it suggest that Jesus was

er

talking about how it is in God's kingdom, which is not a
ao Sy eS
h it is a state of being which keeps showin
place so much as it i g R g
up in the life of the world, beeaaigg. The meek inheriting
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the earth is how it is in God's Kingdom: \ it is how God
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meant it to pe. \ And who are the meek? \ Not the weak, the
— VuPreug,
retiring, the uninvolved.\ The meek are the sory, the
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unarrogant:\ that is, the gracious® the ones who are always
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grateful for the gifts life keeps eve. \ruey are the ones
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God wants to own the earth.\ The Pilgrim fathers and — ue
ish

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sound to me like the meeke a houlesqny,

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dramatig’ issue, and

issue Unfortuna

“ is a vitally important issue because,for the first
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—

time in pe nn species is having a major impact on the ear.

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Cr cers. \ It's our numbers: \we have obeyed the
re.

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Genesis admonition to be fruitful and multiply better than any
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vt>
sther Biblical suggestion. \ and our technology,\our ability
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to take things from the earth, change them, use them up,
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and alter the whole system in the process.\ You have to
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think about it for awhile before it sinks in, \ The air
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pollution in London in the 18th century was worse than it
i ' = SS aly
so 5 hes.” has ever been since.\ But, within the context of the entire

t Tic . ;
n\ver m4 ecosystems he human race didn't start making a dent until

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“\ 1p recently. | Betore we lived in harmony. | Now we're
chow’ pee = SS
4) yx changing the system. \ Behind those changes is a lot of

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th oughtlessness and more seriously ,.tropens contempt for
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our friend, the earth. | Native Americans who knew how to

live in cooperation with the earth, Whowemg).d call@the earth
SSE

mother, brother, sister, adam knew how important it was
eres aaa]

to leave the land as one found it] | ee

_5- peo, fi cedars , ir fre

Aa othr be ou the
eotoysemnioge JSlaughter of buffdlo without regard for the

future enraged Western Indians, and hunting for sport was
Ee

ent
an idea they could not comprehend.
SER ORET eT
It is not a gogdidea to romant Leigewanzangopie\ =.
re. Native
ri
Americans were not perfect ~ "Nobie Savages'' turn out to be
oe Ps onssicoerruieerias nts]
no more noble than rhear counterparts in three button suits.
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And in fact, living in harmony with nature can mean dying of
mm rewelcemcccent

an epidemic which is what had happened to a large percentage

of the Native Americans who lived along the Eastern seaboard
Da ad

in the years prior to the arrival of the Pilgrims, QAA.
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Gy past tur folie WE Le
Nitin Ariens, EE gery crcmrt Sey

Generall however, regarded the earth as a precious
Yai they g Pp

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alLft5/ and the people who came here from other countries seemed
=_—_—. = ee
to regard it as either an enemy to be conquered or an infinite
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warehouse of raw material placed here for their comfort

alone.| Rightly or wrongly those attitudes have greatly
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infiuenced our history and, more to the point, continue to

influence the e present nad uaall ~Sisarty oust, - Woateye

Lewis s Thomas head of the Sloane Kettering onqpit Clinic,
ty “Sof a Propual in lalwratbey coat,

writes:

"What I would like to know is: [how should I feel about
bd sm ene
the earth these days? fWhegthas all the old nature gone? 4a
ee. ~

bacamne—ed_thewill chins. Lnapproachead-e—mass of TE e

et—the world, and what-bhepperedcto-our old; yaenricky extite-
nent Lisreatey Just in fifty years, since I was a smail boy
ee Cy =e

in a suburban town, the world has become a structure of
bint a | Eee

steel and plastic, eam. Mine was

a puzzling maple grove of a village on the outskirts of
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New York City, and it vanished entirely, trees and all.

teal —_

It is now apartment buildings, sprouting out of matrix of

cement flooded and filled over an area that once contained
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25,000 peopie who walked on grass.\ Now I live in another,
ie

more distant town, on a street with lawn and trees, and at
ST aoe Sh) ee ee

night I can hear the soft sound of cement, moving like incoming
PINTER,

tide, down the Sunrise Highway from New York." } (tne Medussa

Le

and the Snail, p. 88]

If it is true, that at the heart of the Western world ™

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view is an antipathy toward the earth if not an outright
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contempt where did it come txom? | some have suggested that
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it has its roots in that Greek dualism which taught that
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the material world whS evil while the spiritual world was
essere srottessisexsracnascante

good. 4 The earth, the flesh, the body - were phenomena to

—_— d Ld oremae, ==,

be transcended. | Religion was a progressive growing away
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from the material to the spiritual.
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There (>, ab~er al «a CCS Lt el ta
Bam Keon point oder erent by Took tire irony wf a

morality which is embarrassed by the human body and wiil
Settee — Oi —

Ll al ts ae s TT eiigal re

- tv. © aw aboverline—=s Sv Ie3
Hat “en 4 os wit Children watk ou
sy He TW, slut ih oF F mend say ~ at's cbsceu

Lwyamerr lsh is vtolatvd.

not allow little children to view it, but shows them fully
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clothed human bodies being shot, stabbed, burned, drowned,

mutilated and dropped out of airplanes, thousands and

thr~y_ ore ah lescewds .
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thousands of times on television before

Keen—i s-rnet+—aLlone—in =swasenrers gE ME sopp reap what we Sew in y rele? ¥

cla Lk ax
adult gh by pee sex ornography bg good,

aes entertainment. \ It reflects contempt for creative, at A Ven %

DOW, ace Suqqe nts tuk

/Chri i dz Naw
we scwpovadly | Con s Seward x aa he Qux € istian 4a ts

y that it is

a logical consequence of the Genesis description of creation.
Sy, eros

Humanity is thept given dominion over creation and told that
— fae 2)

the earth is to be zest. sone enviromentalists suggest that 6evess -

Nolte for & ON
eae J es attitude which allows 7

to use the earth without any thought about the long range
ew

effect of our behavior.) But Genesis does not give carte
ques

hlamoike..| Ges. retain ownership of the earth in the Bible.
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Human beings are to be the Trustees, the Stewards, the
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current managers of the place.} It is not ours to do with
2S es

as we wish.
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The future will require that kind of thinking from
be —— in

Christian people, simply because the problems we are causing
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the earth are urgent. | Where in the world did we get the idea
Cee iaieileal SSS SE

that we had the right to eliminate_a species in the chain
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of 1ite? \ vet that is what we have done and are doing. |:
DO nd

have a love affair with whales, gorillas, tigers, wolves. jr
ee.

are going to be around very long it seems.]| Unless we change
ence RTE Anemeccmmran

our behavior, you and I will be the last human beings to
rst

live on earth with them \ Again Lewis Thomas manages to say
—_ = pacar

a & #* @

it pointedly: we for the animals

eeprerpemanfirerpeatyslg er potters | soon the only survivors will

be the cattle and the sheep for the feeding of us, and the

dogs and cats in our houses, fed while it lasts on the flesh
a . he

Lise, at
of whales... AR have dominated and overuled nature » wexeb=—ronr

now on the earth 1,

"Ours, a kitchen Baygen until we learn 4

We will by VA

~nembranes,

A New York Times editorial last week quoted

T. K. Jones, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, to the effect

that the U.S. could recover from all-out nuclear wag in
—_—_ =

from two to four years.\ The key,he said, was for people
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to dig holes and get. under three feet of dirt. (rs there
el

are enough shovels around, everyone's going to makes” / Mr.

Jones said. [New York Times, Nov. 15, 1982]

——-

And the environment. | Reasonable peopie are not suggesting
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a Waiden Pond purity as a serious model for the high-tech
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nae
worid we are becoming. J We cam all Live® in the woods.
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We need energy‘ gmt we will contunue to need energy et
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i —traetovere—regotisbleis awaste energy. oO act as if
th eT Cs

that were negotiable is a waste of time.

Vert Shi tigren + ~ ee . a
& rave a. oapepvles V Wan <b Vdetiectiall *,

Peterson, » {former Republican Governor of Delaware, Head of
- * tee
President Ford's Environmental Council and President of the
Audubon Society, pointe out that people who made their careers
onecemnn
fighting against environmental protection re

gulations are

w in charge of enforcing those regulations.
Pr ed eee

Peterson quotes David Stockman's 1980 speech to the
al
ational Association of Manufacturers:
See ed
"Y keep reading that there are 170 lakes dead in New
York that will no longer carry teen. | And it occurred

to me~to ask the question: ‘How much are the fish

make sense to spend billions of

controxling emissions £rom so ées in Ohio -

if you're talking about very maxginai number of

dollar vaflue, either An recreétional terms or in

New York Times Magazine, 10/31/82]

commercial terms /”" [s¢

/

-i6—

What we need is a conversion, an honest religious conversion
[aad

which, quite simply, overturns our way of looking at the earth.
oe:

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We aren't setting # @mmr talking about the Ogone layers CO*

content, nt, \acia rain, rain,\and the safety standards at the Zimmer Nuc ean

plant. \ Those issues, with blinding speed, become Democrat-
S——,

Republican issues, |Liberal-—Conservative issues; | 1 ;
im” Hus um SEC conele @s laine. ra Ga t dese ple \

SUBBeStT ing, that "they are theological issues first and before

we treat them ideologically it is helpful to recognize fhat wf M quare
chu t - ao
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!
sh - Whar
We believe that God loves the world. The earth has CGRééu ony
‘ — = tlawut
value to the creator: [ he did not make a mistake when he
enn ineaeesees t
created ite t lntnietipeaieete =the eter bere.en LS Ot etberbrtad .

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We believe that our fundamental role as child ren of God is

Soro eae:

to live responsibly in the world he has created. \ We believe
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he has given us dominion over the creation and that exer-
ana: |

cising that dominion means first of all accountability to him

war tan,
and bea the 4 the other Farag of rit iy. unt whe ws shaun th

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Parzenter4 ‘ te, ds UA Yow et Uatlh pats as Om

Jesus said Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit
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the earths “Sto be peek is the opposite of being arrogant.

It is to know that ace is a gift \ It is alfundamental] way
b 1 se \F

of looking at other people, ones own life, the world - not

as achievements we have had to hammer out, )but as gifts

awh, have come to us without our deserving them. \ 0 be meek
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is to receive life as a marvelous gift, and to be profoundly
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grateful for it.
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off It is to receive the world, new each day, as God's

opsert Hl
d Cows

particular gift - entrusted to our carea

To be meek is to be capable of wonder at the fact that
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the sun came up. this morning, that the balance between

males +l. air breelleble
oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide ttiinthieeedbipiebere=.

&
Serepresth again today.” It is to be capable of delight in
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the "thingness" of life: \the tastes : smells, touches, sense

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experiences which SOnbaan the goodness of God. Aqass. Yu. pus

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It is to be capable of gratitude for onemelty \ for

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this utterly astonishing complex of organs which somehow
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provides for the capacity to enjoy a Bach fugue,) build
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a computer, /Jclimb a mountain,|make love and sing a hymn.
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To be meek is to be capable of gratitude for the simple

fact of our being - for the incredible process through
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which someone who wasn't, now iSe [0==re=seetre-ce!
ae

i 3 3 b i
‘ c slots rhea IC
Blesed an Ve mk + las “
The ones who inherit the earth are those who can be

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Gut : creat 4,;
grateful for it; ; : for the sustaining love of

eno
God. \ That's the Christian focus \ In Jesus Christ we know

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that the universe is friendly, that the Lord of creation is
a he a)

zon te us and neither Bi uswor neutral Sone us} A et in

“Te talners rh nitro Sa res srenfarr

©The poets help os tial words br @ meekuess
a grelitide seo simple it is Ufheut fh egornn
Gne of Ny faver:hs fs EF. E&é Evmuuys .
S VAeate Pov Gad Le most thas amar
doy . fr awe leaping Green\y spirits 9:

Q | Ond a Dblve dream ot sky} aud fe

N ery Vhiag
wack vw Nelrel Wareh is iAt ins te

Wy
§
K te -
J whch is yes .. i thaut You Gd
EE. Gumiacs _
or Gra Manl-, Hoplema i arlene | ..
Clery le to Ged ber clappled Hugs

Cor Stier ef Covple-colour 45 & larinded cu
For (ose ~moles cll ia stippl< Vp Ws Spout
Witt swifk, slow: sweet, sour, cdazele di
L\< Loa Muss- rk whose Deak, is Pash cla

U cuiae Wim ,

wif a

good times and bad | in plenty and poverty: (in life and in

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death - his love is sure. ae .
eae)

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“Vhose eT orden sents, a ”~
Mu edar f oe Vir ursevld ~