Lent 3 - Carbon emissions

This past week, during our Thursday evening Lenten service, we gave thanks to God for the gift of our earth’s atmosphere. We also considered the threat to this life-giving gift by increasing carbon emissions that are accelerating global warming. At present, our atmosphere contains about 388 parts per million of CO2 while many scientists agree a safe and sustainable level is 350 or less (see www.350.org) Right now, some members of Congress are pushing to gut the Clean Air Act and the responsibilities it entrusts to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) to protect air quality. While the Supreme Court has ruled that part of air quality is the level of CO2, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has now proposed an amendment to an unrelated bill that would permanently repeal the Clean Air Act's authority to set limits on carbon pollution. And Senator Rockefeller (D-WV) continues to push yet another bill that would delay the EPA's ability to control global warming pollution for 2 – 4 years.

As those who take seriously our vocation to care for God’s earth, we need to speak out to protect the planet and all living things for future generations. You can take action through the Interfaith Power and Light website. (click on the link and then the “Take Action” tab)

Slides from second week of Lent

Lent2

For God So Loved the Dirt

The current issue of Sojourners magazine has a great article by this title "For God So Loved the Dirt." It talks about God's as the supreme gardener and how gardening can be foundational to our Christian vocation.

If the world, theologically described, is God's garden, then there is nothing more appropriate and important than for us to learn to garden like God does. Gardening matters because that is how God continuously creates, cares for, and sustains the world. It is the way both God and humanity more fully discover the world -- with our eyes, ears, noses, tongues, and toes -- as a delightful place worthy of Sabbath celebration. How would our political, social, and economic worlds have to change if people came to see planet Earth as an immense and diverse garden, the focal point of God's abiding attention, devotion, and love? By Norman Wirzba

Click here to read the whole article.

Ryan's Sermon for Lent 1

Matthew 4:1-11:
Then Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’ But he answered, ‘It it written, “one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”’
Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle, saying to him, ‘If you are the son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you”, and “on their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”’ Jesus said to him, ‘Again it is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”’
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor, and he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you fall down and worship me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! For it is written, worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
The Gospel of the Lord!

Lent has begun again. Lent is a season of self-examination, spiritual practices, service, and perhaps even a little guilty…

What is the point of Lent after all?
Why do we still observe this ancient practice? Is it simply because “That’s the way we have always done it?”
What is the point of Lent?

All of today’s reading deal with sin, one way or another. These readings all seem to focus on human sin and divine fidelity. Apparently Lent has something to do with considering our sins, and God’s perfection... At least, that is what those who put together the lectionary readings thought.

The thing, though, is that if Lent can be a little confusing, sin is even more confusing.
Sin is a topic that appears to be quite simple, however, upon closer examination we find it is a very complicated topic.

When we deal with sin we are dealing with a number of assumptions. We tend to talk about sin as if it were something we all understood. That is rarely the case, though…
In fact, just this week I spoke with one of my seminary professors about a class she is teaching, “The Seven Deadly Sins.” A popular course! Which, frankly, I think would be more popular if this were a lab course. (School joke)

“You’re teaching an entire course on the topic of sin?!” I balked.
“Sure,” she said.
“An entire course, for the entire semester?” I asked.
“Yeah, Ryan. Why are you acting so surprised?” She asked.
“Well,” I said, “I just don’t see how that topic could take up a full semester.”
“What is sin, Ryan?” she asked.
Ready to hit a homerun I said, “It’s doing something that is bad.”
“Well,” she began…
“Well?!?!” That surprised me!
I expected her to start applauding about my brilliant answer.

“Well, she said, what about Martin Luther’s definition, that sin is not only what you do, but what you fail to do?” She asked.
“uhh..,” I stammered.
“AND,” she added “what about Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He lied and even assisted in planning an assassination. All to help save Jews. Wouldn’t you saying lying and killing is typically considered doing something bad?” She asked.

I realized my answer was less of a homerun, and more of a simply pop-fly out…

So, if sin isn’t not doing the bad thing, what is it?

Although we may want sin to be a clear set of right & wrongs, yes & no’s, it is apparently more nuanced than that. In fact, if sin were just doing the right thing, there really would be reason to hope we could do it, although it would be an admittedly high order.

Today’s readings really do prepare us for our Lenten journeys. These readings, confusing as they can be, do help us understand sin and temptation.

For instance, if sin were only about not being bad, why is it a sin that Adam and Eve eat one particular fruit? God had already told them eating was good. So why is this one fruit bad? Why is that bad?

Or, Jesus and the devil. First Jesus is tempted to turn stones into bread. Somehow that is bad, yet later in Matthew Jesus will multiply bread. So why is that so bad? Plus, Jesus could have turned those stones into bread and fed all the hungry. Why is turning stones into bread a sin, when it could be used for good, and later Jesus is going to multiply loaves of bread anyway?

Okay, I know I just said that these readings help us understand, and I just gave you all examples about how these readings are confusing, but just hold on a second.
The thing is, the Bible is more than a book of right and wrongs, a list of what is and is not sin. The Bible is a book of faith.

Eating a fruit wasn’t bad because that was the one fruit on the list of no’s. Eating the fruit was bad because it was unfaithful. Adam and Eve ate because they assumed God was holding out on them.
Jumping from the temple mount wouldn’t have been bad because the devil suggested it. Jumping from the temple would have been bad because it would have been unfaithful. Jumping from the temple would tried to make God become a puppet of Jesus’ and thus destroying any real and living faith.

These stories are helpful because they show us that what is paramount is faith, not just behaving. These stories help because they put sin and temptation in the context of faith, and faith helps us understand what sin is.

The thing about sin is that sin is always directed toward the benefit of the self. Faith, on the other hand, is always directed toward God and neighbor.
While faith may muddy up simple dualisms, faith is present and helpful in the midst of the complexities we face each day in our lives. The complex examples of Adam and Eve, Jesus and the devil, Bonhoeffer and the Nazis are really not that far away from us today. We know life is rarely a case of simply right and wrongs.

In today’s story Jesus’ example shows us that faith is about worshipping and serving God and therefore neighbor above all. This example is indeed much higher than just doing the right thing. This is more complex.
After all, who can dare say they have always acted for the benefit of another? Doing good is completely salutary, but it is not faith. While doing good may have an positive outcome for us and it is fine to consider that outcome, faith never considers any benefits for the self at all. Faith is only concerned with God, and how to serve God and neighbor.

So, now that these readings have helped us think about faith, and putting sin and temptation in the right context; faith. We’ve seen how lofty living faithfully is, it is even higher than being good.
Wow.
How are we to ever live up to this example?

Well, Lent can be a time to contemplate our shortcomings, our lack of faith.
Lent can also, though, be a time to joyfully live into this example. We’ve spent a lot of time talking about the fact that we are salt and light. Faith is ours. The same example that shows us what faith is, and how impossible it can be, also gives us the very faith we need. This example is Jesus.

Sin isn’t about being bad, then. Sin is about being unfaithful. In this context sin isn’t even bad, so much as it is heartbreaking. Sin is turning from a promise, turning from our neighbors, sin is a turn away from love, often in fear.
Sin is heartbreaking. But, sin is never the last word!
(pause)

Jesus refused Satan’s tactics to turn stones into bread because that would never feed the world. Instead, Jesus becomes bread himself, thus creating the chance that the world might really be fed forever.
Jesus becomes bread, and creates a faith that feds others before the self. Jesus becomes bread and faith becomes not only a distant dream, but an immediate reality. Soon we will be invited to the table to meet this Jesus who fed others. In this meeting we become Jesus’ hands and feet.

Perhaps Lent is about less of feeling guilty, and more about realizing who we are. Lent is about living into the promise that we are salt and light. Lent is about meeting Jesus, and being transformed in this meeting. Lent is about seeing that sin isn’t about being bad, sin is about stepping away from a lover who has changed our lives and continues to do so. Lent isn’t about being steeped in guilt, instead Lent is a time to be blown away by the gifts we’ve been given by the love that is ours, and in that wonder and love extending those gifts to others.

ASH WEDNESDAY 2011

Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return. These are the words spoken each Ash Wednesday as the ashes are put on our foreheads. They are taken from the book of Genesis Chapter 3 – after God learned that Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the forbidden tree. God then told Adam and Eve what their life will be like outside of the garden and said, “ out of the ground you were taken; you are dust and to dust you shall return.” Dust – the word in the original Hebrew is Adamah. It means a very dry kind of dirt or soil, dirt without much moisture or half-decomposed organic material like we find in our forests. Dust is the end stage of dirt I guess.

Or, it is the beginning of new life. If we go back to chapter 2 in Genesis, God forms the first human being from the dust of the ground. If we were reading the verse in the original Hebrew – it would be God formed the Adam – the first human – from the Adamah – the dust of the ground. God made us from dirt – if you will - and to dirt we will return.

Today, we receive a reminder of that as we receive the ashes. I was wondering why the church decided some time years ago to use ashes on this day instead of dirt. Probably because ashes are a powerful symbol – they are what is left AFTER something is burned away. They can become the bed from which new life rises – think of the rebirth of Mt. St. Helens. Ashes used to be used in making soap that we use to clean our bodies or our clothing. For me, though, the main message I have received from the ashes over the years is the message of my sinfulness, my unworthiness. The dust of the ashes on my forehead focuses my thinking on the negative truth about myself in relationship to God and God’s will.

But maybe there is another way to look at it that includes the positive, life affirming truth as well. Hey – we are formed out of the very stuff of the rest of creation. The earth is our blessed mother and God the Father the giver of our breath. We are kin to all the other created things – the animals and the plants. What a joy and comfort to know that when the breath leaves us we will go back to rest in our mother’s arms.

In the story in Genesis 2 and 3, sin enters the world when Adam and Eve fail to accept they are creatures, made by God from the dust of the earth, and instead want to be on the level of God the creator. We will hear the story of the serpent’s temptation and eating the forbidden fruit this coming Sunday. Today, as we make an extended confession of sin, and as we receive the ashes on our foreheads, I encourage us to think of our sin – individually and collectively – as the failure to accept our “creatureliness”, our dependence on God our Creator, our interdependence with all the rest of creation.

In Lent, we talk a lot about returning to the waters of baptism where we are washed clean, and made new by the power of God again and again. This is a good image for us as we think about God’s forgiveness and mercy for us.

But this Lent, we will be talking not only about the cleansing waters but also about the BLESSING of being created from the earth; to put it more graphically, the BLESSING of being dirt people.

When we affirm and celebrate our coming from mother earth and receiving our breath from God, then it helps to set our priorities and purposes in life. Caring for our mother earth and its creatures then becomes part of our core identity – part of the stewardship of creation entrusted to us by God. Forgetting our origins and our purpose is another way of talking about what sin is.

In this season of Lent at St. John United – particularly during our Thursday evening services – we are going to affirm our identity not only as the baptized, washed clean people of God, but also has the people of the earth whom God created. We will give thanks for the wonders of creation – the water, land, air, trees, and other species. We will ask for forgiveness for the ways we have forgotten our identity and purpose as earth people and earth tenders. We will turn to Jesus who shows us the way to turn back toward God and to the Spirit for strength and guidance.