It's Not Easy Being Green
Sunday, April 10th we celebrated Earth Sunday a little early due to this year's Easter Calendar. I was amazed by how many ways a person can act towards being creation conscientious and was thrilled to learn new ways to live. I pride myself on being a creation conscious individual, but I’ve lived this way for so long I’ve forgotten the WHY of this existence. Our service on Sunday reminded me of WHY I choose to live the way I do and I am deeply grateful to the Green Team for all their work and effort in putting together this special service of worship with Green emphasis.
After worship, I brought out my Green Bible that I received as a graduation gift last Spring and began thumbing through its pages and reminding myself of stewardship of creation as a spiritual discipline. The Green Bible was developed by scholars and practitioners and encourages its readers to see God’s vision for creation and help them to engage in the work of healing and sustaining it. There are many unique features to a Green Bible, including: green letter edition—all references to nature and where the Bible speaks directly to how we should think and act as we confront the environmental crisis facing the planet are featured in green print; a green subject index—this is a listing of Bible passages which cover such topics as animals, caring for your neighbor, land and water; Green Bible Trail Guide—this is a series of Bible studies on the main themes of creation care and God’s role in creation; Essays—from respected conservationists and theologians highlighting important themes related to God’s care of creation and show us how to read the Bible through a “green lens.” All this and the fact that the pages are printed in vegetable dyes on recycled paper and the covering is a linen fabric made from recycled materials as well.In my wanderings through this incredibly Green book, I was moved by the sentiments of others who contributed to its printing and I would like to share their words with you.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu: “I would not know how to be human, how to think as a human being, how to walk as a human being, how to talk or how to eat as a human being except by learning from other human beings. I learn to be human by associating with other human beings. We are thus, according to the Bible, made for family. We’re made for community, we’re made for togetherness, we’re made for friendship. We’re made to live in a delicate network of interdependence, for we are made for complementarity. I have gifts you don’t have. And you have gifts that I don’t have. Thus we are made different so that we can know our need of one another. And this is a fundamental law of our being.”
J. Matthew Sleeth: “One February break, at the turn of the millennium, our family left the gray winter of northern New England and headed to an island off the coast of Florida for vacation. On the second day, our children, Clark and Emma, wore themselves out playing in the surf, building sand castles, and catching chameleons. The kids went to bed early, and my wife, Nancy, and I found ourselves alone.
We sat on the porch watching the sun set and the stars rise. The island on which we stayed had no cars or roads. The cares of the world were an ocean away, and the sights and sounds of nature lulled us to peace. Time slowed. The nebula in the constellation Orion shone clearly. In that relaxed moment, surrounded by palm trees murmuring in the wind, Nancy asked me a question that was to change my life forever.
“What,” she queried, “is the biggest problem facing the world?”
Despite, or because of, the peaceful surroundings, I considered her question in earnest. The contenders for humankind’s greatest problem are many—war, terrorism, poverty, disease, starvation, and, at the root of everything, selfishness. I considered the choices and said, “The world is dying.”
This conversation would forever change the Sleeth’s lives in profound ways. They went on to explore this subject to great depths, and in the process not only became huge advocates for environmental care, writing and speaking extensively on the subject, but most importantly became devout Christians. (Matthew’s wife, Nancy, had grown up Jewish.) They completely transformed their way of living to be as environmentally sustainable as is humanly possible in today’s culture. Their journey into living faithful lives taught them one important tenet of being Christian—followers of Christ are to be transformed by that journey. They were greatly influenced by the story of the Good Samaritan and the concept of humanity as ‘neighbor’.
After telling his faith journey, Sleeth summed up his faith as such: “The future will not be saved by our good intentions. It will be made better, or worse, only by our actions. We show our love for the Lord by loving our neighbors. Every time our family buys anything or takes any action, we now ask two questions: Will this help me love God? Will this help me love my neighbor? The answer always leads us to right action. If we take shorter showers, car pool, or plant a tree, no one will necessarily notice or thank us. But if these things are done as an act to serve the Lord and to protect our neighbors, then we will have grown as loving, spiritual beings.”
Thank you Green Team for a beautiful worship service and for the reminder that all our actions should be done in service to God and to neighbor! Who is your neighbor and what will you be doing in service to them and to God?
Feeling Blessed,
Tracy