If you like a Sunday where there’s more than one thing going on, today is your kind of day!  It’s Ascension Sunday, when we remember how after the resurrection, Jesus appeared to the disciples on multiple occasions throughout a forty-day span.  But on the 40th day, Jesus gave his disciples instructions to keep the faith, to be patient, to wait for the Holy Spirit—and then he was lifted up into heaven!  That must have been a confusing time for the disciples, but they didn’t have to wait long for the Holy Spirit to come.  Next week we will celebrate that special day, which we call Pentecost.  It is also a day when there will be lots going on, because the coming of the Holy Spirit was the birthday of the church!  Plus we will honor our graduates, and we will celebrate our music ministries!  So next Sunday, wear your red—or orange, or flame print, or if you have clothing with a dove on it that works too, whatever you’ve got that shows off the Holy Spirit!

But back to today.  It’s Ascension Sunday, which means it’s the last day of the Easter Season, so that means it’s the last day of our series on creation care.  And tomorrow is Memorial Day, which of course is not a religious holiday but a civic one, but still, we don’t take it for granted that we have the freedom in our country to gather for worship, and to speak our minds, and to work for justice and peace.  That’s a lot to think about all in one Sunday, and we are grateful for every blessing of this day.

And being truly grateful for every blessing is really what our series on creation care is all about.  People protect what they love and cherish.  A few months ago, when we decided to focus on caring for creation during the Easter season, I was surprised to realize that, in almost 16 years of ministry, I had never preached a creation care sermon before, even though I love creation!  And I don’t remember ever hearing a creation care sermon on a Sunday morning, either.  But I do remember that caring for creation was an important value in my church growing up.

This was back in the 1970’s, in the days of Give A Hoot, Don’t Pollute!  We didn’t have curbside recycling yet, so my church held semi-annual glass smashes in the grocery store parking lot.  Basically this involved people in the community coming and dumping their colored glass into the back of one dump truck, and their clear glass into the back of another—and volunteers from my church putting on heavy boots, gloves, and goggles, and getting in the back of the dump trucks and smashing the glass with sledge hammers! I was a huge fan of the glass smash.  Besides enjoying the smashing, I was always amazed at how many mayonnaise, jelly, pickle, and apple sauce jars my family could save in six months.  I was also always amazed at how many liquor, beer and wine bottles some other families saved in six months!

Long before any of us ever heard the term “climate change”, Christians in my hometown saw it as good stewardship to recycle glass and aluminum, compost their food scraps, conserve water, and be thoughtful about plastics.  Those values of creation care have stuck with me.  But, even though being good caretakers of creation is a biblical mandate, I was pretty nervous about doing a unit on creation care here at Lima.  We live in a culture where talking about difficult topics seems to be harder than ever.  But Christians should be talking more than anyone about the environment and taking good care of God’s magnificent creation!  This should seen as a spiritual issue, a justice issue, a biblical issue, so much more than a political issue.  Of all people, Christians should be spearheading efforts to care well for God’s magnificent creation.

But instead, we feel like we have to tiptoe around this issue.  I like what Rev. Mike Slaughter, pastor of the 5,000 member Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church in Ohio, had to say on this.  “How can Christians be so shortsighted on [the issue of creation care]?  I find it ironic that some of us who define ourselves as political conservatives are often the first to deride the notion of climate change.  How exactly did a concern for ‘conservation’ get completely left out of our ‘conservative political framework’?”  I give Rev. Slaughter credit for having the courage to say that.  Personally, I would argue that it is not only political conservatives who leave conservation out of their moral framework.  I think it’s everyone.  We much prefer short term gains as opposed to long term growth.  We like a bargain today, rather than pay more for a sustainable tomorrow.  We are really good at denial, and neglect, and blame.  We are not so good at constructive action!

But constructive action is what is needed in order to heal our planet.  This week as I was studying for this sermon, I learned that back in 2009, the United Methodist Council of Bishops released a pastoral letter on creation care, which they called, “God’s Renewed Creation:  Call to Hope and Action”.  It outlined our Christian responsibility to be faithful stewards of the created world, admitted we have not been doing our part to care well for creation, and offered many action items in response.  I was a pastor back in 2009, and honestly, I never heard of this letter.  Apparently it was to be read in every local congregation during the season of Advent that year, with the idea that in 2010 churches would engage in study and action to promote better environmental stewardship.  I polled a few of my colleagues, and they don’t remember hearing about this initiative, either.  Which just goes to show, even though it isn’t easy to talk about creation care, it is even harder to turn talk into action.

We’re all familiar with the term climate change, which seems like such a huge problem that either a) we don’t believe is real or b) feels so real we don’t know where to start in addressing it.  Climate change is a term I don’t want to talk much about because it is politically charged and divisive.  But have you heard of climate action?  Climate action is a term that hopefully we can all get behind.  It’s a movement, a menu of things small and large that we can do to make a positive difference, that has its roots back in Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute!  Climate action is based on the idea that nature is always renewing itself.  The environment has been designed in such a way that healing is possible, but it needs help from us.  Climate action is about humans making choices that do more and more good for the environment, and finding ways to offset the impact any unavoidable negatives modern life inflicts on the environment.

Back in 2009, when the Council of Bishops wrote their creation care letter, they were advocating for climate action.  In addition to several other promises, they wrote, “We pledge to measure the ‘carbon footprint’ of our episcopal and denominational offices, determine how to reduce it, and implement those changes.  We will urge our congregations, schools, and settings of ministry to do the same.”  Again, I never heard any talk about churches measuring their carbon footprint and trying to reduce it. But last year, ten United Methodist agencies, including United Methodist Men, United Methodist Women, and our general ministry boards, released a statement that they have committed to becoming carbon neutral by the year 2050.

Becoming carbon neutral is an ambitious goal.  For most people, every time we turn on the lights, adjust the thermostat so our heater or air conditioner kicks on, drive our car, or eat meat, or even send our food scraps to a landfill, we are contributing to carbon emissions in the atmosphere.  Sometimes these are called greenhouse gases, and we know they are impacting our environment.  These greenhouse gases disperse uniformly in the atmosphere.  Which means, it doesn’t matter where they were produced—the emissions negatively impact everyone on the planet.  But this also means that emissions that cannot be avoided locally can be offset by carbon offset projects in another location.  Organizations that claim to be carbon neutral, it’s not that they don’t use any energy or produce any greenhouses gases. It’s that they compensate the planet by investing in carbon capturing projects in other places in the world.  They might plant trees in California, purchase environmentally friendly cook stoves for people in underdeveloped nations, invest in wind power in India, or help build a hydroelectric plant in Africa.  Just another example of how we are all interconnected!

The Church of England has set a target to be net carbon zero by 2030. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby wrote: “It becomes ever clearer that climate change is the greatest challenge that we and future generations face. It’s our sacred duty to protect the natural world we’ve so generously been given, as well as our neighbours around the world who will be first and worst affected. Without swift decisive action the consequences of climate change will be devastating.”

Climate action is based on the idea that nature renews itself.  We want to measure and reduce our carbon footprint, because too much carbon in the atmosphere is bad.  But nature has already designed a system for absorbing the excess carbon.  Trees!  And kelp in the ocean, and hemp and cork and moss.  There are many consumer products being developed that are carbon negative, like carpet squares, bricks, and concrete.  It’s very exciting!  And it just goes to show, God has designed the universe to support human life.  We know the Holy Spirit was present at creation.  We believe it is the Spirit that sustains life.  Will we cooperate with the Spirit of God by doing all we can to take better care of God’s creation?  Climate action is holy action.

And that action is making a difference.  Do you remember hearing about the hole in our ozone layer?  It’s been 30 years since scientists discovered the massive hole above Antarctica, a hole that was created by releasing chloro-floro-carbons, known as CFCs for short, into the air.  There has been an international movement to reduce the size of that hole, including a ban on CFCs.  In 2016, NASA issued a report saying the hole in the ozone layer was finally starting to close up, and they predict it will be completely closed by the end of this century!  We saw a problem, figured out a solution, and put it into action.  How many other problems that plague creation could be healed if we were willing to work together?

Over the last several weeks, as we have talked about caring well for creation, we have included specific action items with each sermon.  Recognize that you are on holy ground!  Use less water!  Be thoughtful about plastics!  Stop consuming so much!  I don’t know enough about carbon neutrality to encourage all of us to set a goal and work toward it like the Church of England has done.  But I do know that God is calling us to claim our role as stewards. God is calling us to claim our call to care well for the earth.  God needs us to be earth-keepers!  This is not a political issue.  It is a spiritual issue.  It is a justice issue.  It is a biblical issue.  Will we be the witnesses Jesus calls us to be, in Israel, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, witnesses who live out what the Psalmist sang, that God rules?  Will we do our part to care for creation, and let the earth rejoice?

Last Saturday I had the privilege of attending our ordination service as part of Annual Conference.  Once again, annual conference met virtually because of the pandemic, but the ordination service was held at West Chester UMC, with limited invited guests in attendance.  Because I am a member of our Board of Ordained Ministry, I was asked to attend in person and give the call to worship.  The highlight of the service was seeing each candidate kneel before the bishop, be encouraged to claim the authority they have as an ordained clergy person to lead the church, and then stand up and receive a red stole as a sign of their commitment.  Hopefully next year we will all get to gather in person and see Pastor Karen be ordained!

But let’s get back to today.  In addition to being Ascension Sunday, and the day before Memorial Day, and the close of our creation care series, today is a sort of service of ordination, too.  God is calling each of us to claim the authority we have been given to be caretakers of God’s creation.  God put us in charge of God’s handcrafted world!  To care well for creation is to be in communion with the Creator!  It is a way to show we are indeed truly grateful for every blessing.  So let’s resolve to do no harm, to do good, and to stay in love with God, because climate action is holy action.  May we be found faithful witnesses to this truth.  Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

Benediction:

Sisters and brothers in Christ,

let us go forth as witnesses to God’s redeeming love—

caring for the sick and the weak and the old

nourishing the young

cherishing and protecting creation

working for justice

promoting peace with each other and the Earth

So that everywhere will be called Eden once again. Amen.