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Last week I had a reason to look through the sermons I gave at Stanford Memorial Church, and came across the first sermon I preached on the environment. It was about the danger to our atmosphere of the chlorofluor-carbons we use in aerosols and in cooling, given in July 1975. I am happy to note that the use of chlorofluorocarbons is much reduced, but the earth's atmosphere is still in danger. The intense hurricane season of 2005, the unusually warm winter in the midwest, and the recent floods in New England, have gotten my attention. I'm feeling more and more worried about global warming. The church has a long tradition of focussing on our stewardship of creation on the 6th Sunday of Easter. In the 5th century, Christians in Europe chose this sunday as the time to ask, (in Latin, rogare) for God's blessing on the land, the newly planted crops, on their flocks and herds, and also to ask God's protection from earthquakes, floods and famine. By the 8th century these prayers had become litanies changed in procession as the whole community walked around the boundaries of the parish. a couple of years ago we did this ourselves, Òbeating the bounds' of our property. In the 21st century, however, we know much more about the causes of natural disasters. Recently, our own role in causing changes in the weather have come more sharply into focus. Therefore on this Rogation Sunday in 2006, I want to ask three questions: what do we believe as Christians about the natural world, what is our responsibility in the present crisis, and what can we do about it? So let me begin with what the Bible says about the natural world. Not only in Genesis, but also in the prophets, in the psalms, and in our reading from Job, we hear that God is the Creator of everything that exists--the land, the rivers and seas, the plants and animals, the people, and the whole universe beyond the earth. God is not to be identified with any particular thing God created: God is not in the sun or in the thunderstorm. To the Israelites, this meant that God is the owner of the earth, and we human beings are only the tenants or the managers of it. In our reading from Job, we hear God's answer to Job's complaint about the disasters that have fallen upon him. God's answer to Job is, "where were you when I laid the foundations of the world? Who determined its measurements . . . who shut in the sea? Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?" In other words, God desisgned a complex system, which is far beyond the ability of Job to understand, or to question. The Bible goes on to say that God has done more than create the structure: God continuously creates all that is in the world. Psalm 104 says that God waters the mountains, makes grass, and grapevines grow, and creates new animals. In Psalm 104 and elsewhere, the claim is made that all the creatures of God form a community together, and are interdependent. When God blesses the creation, all God's works rejoice together: people, trees, animals, and hills "clap their hands". When God's judgment comes, there is desolation for all. In general, these ideas are affirmed by Jesus,. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus described God's clothing of the lilies of the field, as an argument for trusting God to provide the things we need to survive. Jesus also said that God knows when every sparrow (and every individual creature) is born, and dies. As Christians, we certainly accept the idea that God is the source of this complex universe which operates according to principles. I think there is no doubt, historically, that the scientific investigation of nature took place in Europe because Christians believed that there were rational principles which could be observed and measured. Despite the objections of fundamentalists, I think most Christians today accept science as compatible with belief in God as Creator. For this reason, we need to pay attention to the growing body of scientific data about global warming. There is an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, whose 2500 scientists have concluded that the average temperature of the planet will increase 2 to 6% in this century; however this is a conservative estimate. About 10 days ago, there was a PBS special on Nova, called "Discoveries in Global Dimming". If you didnÕt see that special, you may be wondering what the connection is between global warming and global dimming--they sound different or even opposite. Scientists have suspected for some years, and have gathered evidence, that human beings have been adding heat to our atmosphere by the use of fossil fuels, which create carbon dioxide and methane gas. Small particles from these gases, as well as from volcanic eruptions and agricultural burning, stay in the atmosphere for years, and travel hundreds of miles, creating a molecular shield in the atmosphere. This shield is like putting up a greenhouse around the earth: sunlight comes through the shield, hits the ground, and changes frequency. This infared light cannot get out through the molecular shield, so it remains trapped in our atmosphere as heat, hence, "the greenhouse effect". Recently, scientists have discovered two additional effects of the greenhouse. The second effect is the discovery that the molecular shield that keeps heat in, also keeps sunlight out. Some of the sunlight is being deflected. The first clue to this effect came in the 18th century, when an unusually cold winter in Europe in 1783, was attributed by Benjamin Franklin, to the volcano that erupted in Iceland a few months earlier. The volcanic ash in the atmosphere, deflected sunlight from Europe. 200 years later, in 1987, scientists discovered a cloud cover over the shipping lanes across the oceans, which was due to the exhaust from the smokestacks of the ships. Under those smoke trails, which were visible from space, the temperature of the ocean was cooler. And about 6 years ago, scientist discovered that air pollution from India has drifted out over the Indian Ocean, who the amount of sunlight reaching the ocean is diminished by 10% over a period of 4 years. The third effect recently announced, is the significant penetration of carbon dioxide into the oceans, where it becomes carbonic acid. This acid is killing coral reefs, shellfish, krill, and plankton: the plants and animals at the bottom of the food chain. So the question about what we believe as Christians about the natural world moves us today, directly to the question, what is our responsibility for the natural world? I can see at least three answers to this question. One answer is an unwillingness to limit the freedom of individuals, corporations and states, to use, make and regulate the engines that burn fossil fuels, which is the current answer in our country. Another answer is that God's judgment day is imminent, when this world will be destroyed, so the greenhouse effect doesn't matter. And the third answer is that the living ecosystem of the earth, blessed by God as very good in itself, has been entrusted to our care, and we are responsible to keep it alive. We are stewards of the earth, and we are our brothers' and sisters' keepers. Some scientists now believe that we have only about 10 years in which to "fix" the greenhouse problem, after which the warming will become irreversible. It is time to recognize that we can make the earth a dead planet, by doing nothing. What can we do about this? First, we can recognize a fire alarm when we hear it. This is probably the defining issue of our lives, and it is time to do as much as we can to wake others up, and to address warming head on. This means using the means we have to influence our legislators, joining with others working on this crisis, and recognizing that it is an issue of justice. We in the industrialized nations contribute 73% of the greenhouse gases, yet the first peoples to feel extreme effects of global warming will be in the developing nations. Second, we must be willing to be good stewards as individuals, as families, and as communities. We can begin by taking those gas-powered lawnmowers to scrap metal recycling; and we can support alternative energy, and we can buy more fuel efficient cars. We must limit our consumption, and be willing to learn how we are contributing to pollution in our daily lives. In the Gospel reading from St. Luke, Jesus says, "Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions". Jesus was telling a parable about a rich man who built a bigger barn to store the abundance he had received, so he was speaking of greed for money and for property. What a prophetic saying this is: Jesus is anticipating a time when there will be many other kinds of greed: for the latest electronic gadgets, for the biggest SUVs, for water rights, for unlimited electrical power, for the freedom to produce anything that will sell, and indeed, for nuclear weapons. Since I have built this sermon around the asking of questions, I will close with the 3 questions implicit in the words of Jesus from St. Luke. Take these questions home with you today, and give some thoughtful and prayerful time to answering them. Ask yourself, What am I greedy for?
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