Rideau Park United Church

Text: [1]	Genesis 1:24-31
[2]	John 3:1-17

In the town of Chrenovsty in the Western Ukraine, something was wrong. The children of the village woke up one morning to find their hair lying in clumps on their pillows. They had become bald overnight.

The doves, bluebirds and sparrows—all the birds but the crows—were gone from the city. The small animals that lived in the fields on the village's edge disappeared.

At night the children of Chrenovsty had terrible nightmares, would wake screaming in fear and by day they grew anxious, too fearful to leave the safety of their homes.

The events in Chrenovsty led to panic. Authorities launched an investigation to find a cause for the horror that visited the town's most innocent citizens. The conclusion was that something in the environment was causing all of this. But no one could exactly what the problem was.... It might have been the pesticides used in the city and on surrounding farmland. It might have been bad well water or radiation from the local power plant. The dominant theory placed the blame with the heavy and toxic chemicals that were present in the soil, the water and the food chain of the region, all the result of industrial activity. A Ukranian government official said: "What we do know is that the city is an environmental disaster zone and that what happened to the children is an indication of the state of the environment and that state has been caused by the irrational use of natural resources."

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One doesn't have to be an environmental expert to know that there is something wrong with the environment that we live in, with the way we treat the earth.

This past week I thought of the depleted ozone layer as my kids put on their sunscreen in the morning. The UV index was 8, very high, and the risk of sunburn was very high too.

I was made to think of the greenhouse effect and of global warming as I read the paper recently. There was a story about how polar bears are endangered as their arctic habitat grows warmer and smaller...

The depleted cod stocks off the Grand Banks were in the news. There has been talk of reopening the fishery on a small scale. Overfishing has devastated the cod that once were so plentiful.

Every time I go to the gas pump I think of the rising cost of oil, of our society's dependence on ever shrinking reserves of fossil fuels.

And when I talk to my mother in Southern Ontario, in summer she will mention the smog alerts that have become more frequent. Growing up in Southern Ontario we didn't have smog alerts. Now they happen several times each summer and each occurrence will last for a number of days.

When I was a child we grew up under the shadow of the threat of nuclear war. With the fall of the iron curtain and the collapse of the Soviet Empire, I wonder if today's children grow up in the shadow of environmental degradation. I know that our children are concerned about the state of the environment as they look to their future.

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In the eyes of some, the Christian tradition and our Bible have contributed significantly to the ecological problems that our world faces.

In his series "A Planet for the Taking", David Suzuki places some of the blame for the environmental crisis upon Christian culture and on a verse from Genesis 1. Prince Charles too, not long ago, identified this one verse from Genesis and the Christian tradition, as leading contributors to the damage that human beings have done to the earth.

Our tradition... It's Trinity Sunday. Martin Luther wrote that there was danger whenever we place too great an emphasis on any one aspect of the Trinity while neglecting other aspects. I has been said that, in the Western Church, we have placed a very great emphasis on the redemptive work of the Son of God, while downplaying the work of God the Creator. The Eastern Church did not fall into this theological trap; they never lost their reverence for Creation, their sense that Creation was holy. In the Western tradition, the tradition of Protestants and Roman Catholics, we have just begun to reclaim the importance of the creating work of God and the importance of the Creation.

Our Bible... from Genesis Chapter 1 we heard the story today of the sixth day of Creation. The birds, the animals, the fish and human beings are all created on that day... and in verse 28, to the human race God grants "dominion" over the world and its creatures. God commands us to go and "subdue" the earth. The command to have dominion and to subdue have been used by some to justify the abuse and exploitation of Creation.

It would be more accurate to say, not that these words from Genesis 1 have been used as a license to mistreat the planet, but rather that this passage from Genesis 1 has been misused by people as they do harm to Creation. The command to have dominion and to subdue the earth has been misshapen by us.

Renowned Biblical scholar Walter Bruggeman shares that the word "dominion" in Genesis 1:28 refers to the animals of the world. We are to have dominion over them. But in the Hebrew tradition the dominance that is commanded is that of a shepherd who cares for his sheep. The task of having dominion has nothing to do with exploitation or abuse. It has to do with using power to preserve the well-being of other creatures in Creation.

He goes on to say that Genesis Chapter 1:28 calls us to care for and shepherd God's creation, to have dominion over it in the same way that God exercises dominion over us. God does not exploit us. God loves us, and nurtures us. We are to love and nurture Creation, following God's example, acting on God's behalf.

Furhter, Genesis Chapter 1:28 needs to be read, as all scripture needs to be read, as a part of the whole of Scripture. Note that in Genesis 1, human beings are created along with animals, fish and birds. We are, like all God's creatures, created by God and dependent on God. we are among the creatures of God but with a greater responsibility to care for all God's creatures.

In Genesis 2, humanity is placed in the world to act as a gardener, a caregiver in Creation. That was Adam's role in Eden. It is our role in God's Creation. We are to tend to the Earth.

Throughout the Hebrew scriptures, there is an emphasis placed on how Creation belongs to God. In all our relations with God's creation, we act on God's behalf, as stewards of a Creation, as servants of a Sovereign God.

As followers of Jesus we seek, in all things, to live as Jesus did. Any Christian understanding of our relationship to God's Creation needs to follow in the way of Jesus of Nazareth. If we are to be rulers of Creation then we rule as Jesus did; by Christ's example, the one who rules is the servant of all. Having dominion over Creation, for Christians, means being a servant of God's created order.

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How can we as followers of Jesus live the way of Christ with respect to the environment? The United Church Task Force on the environment makes some suggestions:

• we can learn more about the threats to the planet earth
• we can change the way we live in order to reduce our own negative impact on Creation
• we can communicate concern to governments at all levels
• we can form groups in our congregations, and beyond our congregations, that meet for study and action on environmental issues... and we have such a group here at Rideau Park. Kristina Inrig will be sharing news from our Environmental Action Committee in "Life and Work" this morning.

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Today is Environment Sunday. It is also Trinity Sunday.

God the Creator loved the world into being
God the Son came into Creation, to be part of the Created world
God moves in the world still. God the Spirit moves in us and our world, bringing new life, new direction.

May we care for the world God has made. In Jesus' name.
Amen