Sermon Cloud

Opinions—Like Armpits  Everyone’s Got ‘Em!

Green Vineyard—Pt. 4   Ray Befus    April 20, 2008

Genesis 1:1; 2:15     II Peter 3:13     Revelation 1:8, 17-18


We’ll, we’ve done it.  We’ve invested a month of Sundays in talking about environmental stewardship.  We’re going green!  Not because we love or worship ‘Mother Earth’, but because we’re people whose lives are rooted in the story of God’s creation and redemption recorded in the Bible.  

 Let me make a personal confession.  I myself have mixed emotions about this subject.  I like hiking and camping and fresh air and clean water but, I’m not a tree-hugger.  I like the smell of burning leaves in the fall.  All winter long I burn real wood in my inefficient brick fireplace.  This weekend I celebrated springtime by lighting up the tiki torches on my deck.  I’ve taken the catalytic converter off every motorcycle I’ve ever owned.  I’m not saying I won’t change my lifestyle and someday choose to ride an electric scooter.  I’m not an environmentalist.  I don’t even know where my trash goes every Wednesday morning when it conveniently disappears at the end of my driveway.

In his book Sex God, Rob Bell writes about our disappearing trash.  Rob thinks we ought to give some thought to where our trash is going.  He thinks that we’re out of touch with reality.  He thinks we’re disconnected from the earth, and that our disconnection with the earth is part of our sinfulness.  I’ll let him explain.  Pp. 35-38.

I’m not an environmentalist or a tree hugger, but I think that caring for the earth honors God.  I honestly think of recycling as an expression of worship.  I’ve got several recycling tubs in my garage now.  We’re feeding the Paper Gator here at VN.  Half the light bulbs in our home are now compact florescent.  I use synthetic motor oil in all my vehicles, and I buy organic fertilizer for my lawn.  I’ve always been interested in finding ways to show I care . . . I’m grateful for the beauty of this world.

I’m also aware that we’ve all got different opinions.  Matt told me that he’s not sure this series has changed anyone’s mind; it’s just revealed our different perspectives on a prominent political issue.  I want to wrap up this teaching series by stepping into the debate.  Dialogue, disagreement, and debate are good things in a healthy church . . . just as long as I win the debate!  Seriously, I think that some of you who have felt a little personal resistance during this series have made some good counter points.


I.  You’re right . . . Genesis doesn’t teach recycling!

Matt drew some applications from Noah’s story in Genesis last Sunday but, you’re right: you really can’t point to a chapter and verse in the Bible that says, “Go Green, don’t dump your used car oil in the woods, recycle your paper waste, or get rid of styrofoam”.  But stewardship of the earth and accountability to the Creator is definitely part of the creation story.  Sometimes people who pride themselves in being careful students of Bible doctrines and details can miss the forest for the trees!  Environmental stewardship is a biblical priority.  God himself raises the subject in the first chapters of the Bible.  Don’t miss this.

A.  Creation is God’s gift to us.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (1:)  “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (1:31).  Kind David exclaimed, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge” (Ps. 19:1-2)  “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it” (24:1)  “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth” (33:6)  You “formed the mountains by your power . . . you care for the land and water it ; . . .” (65:6, 9)  Psalm 104 describes the creation—our environment—as God’s glory.

If this world had simply evolved out of nothing . . . without design, reason, or purpose . . . and we had simply arrived by chance at the top of the food chain . . . and owed nothing to anyone else anywhere . . . then perhaps concern for the environment would be strictly a matter of utility and economy.  We could say, “its just politics—blankety-blank, blank, blank liberal politics”.

But, the creation story changes everything.  This is a lot bigger than politics.  The truth is, we reveal how much we love and value the Creator, by how we treasure and protect his creation.  Have you even noticed how mothers . . . and grandmothers . . . treasure the most crude little creations formed by the sticky little fingers of their children and grandchildren?  All across our nation, scraps of notebook paper filled with a child’s first attempt to make his mark on life with a crayon are taped to refrigerators for weeks, months, and even years as though they were Rembrandts or Monets.  Plaster hand impressions made by every 2nd grader who has ever lived stand proudly on family bookshelves across America.  Should a husband or grandfather lose his mind or forget the limits of his authority and try to toss out any of these treasures, he is treated like a heartless Neanderthal who knows nothing of true beauty or value!  When you love the creator, you treasure the creation and fiercely protect it.  Am I exaggerating?  Creation is God’s gift to us.

Environmental stewardship is our assignment.

“Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden, and them he put the man he had formed . . . to work it and take care of it” (Genesis 2: 8, 15).  In terms of historical priority, caring for the earth is one of the first commands in all of the Bible—given not just to Adam, but to all Mankind.  I’m not sure where on the list of political priorities environmental stewardship should go, but I think it should probably be on OUR list of PERSONAL priorities.  

So yes, you’re right . . . Genesis doesn’t command us to recycle aluminum and glass and paper and used motor oil . . . but Genesis is God’s invitation to step into his story and to live our lives in the story of his creation and redemption of mankind.  

Have you ever thought about what story you’re living?  Are you making up your own story as you go?  Is your story just about you and your personal happiness and security—trying to live the American dream?  Are you living some kind of Hollywood story, trying to be as clever as Jerry Seinfeld or and tough as Bruce Willis or as privately happy as Brad and Angelina?  Are you living out a family story that one of your parents started writing for you?  Genesis, the first book in the Bible, is God’s invitation to join him in his story of creation and redemption—the story of his advancing kingdom and amazing grace . . . the story of his relentless pursuit of rebellious, independent people like us and his determination to establish a community of faith that will worship, serve, and enjoy relationship with him throughout eternity, on a recreated earth.

Genesis doesn’t teach recycling, but Genesis is the beginning of God’s story in human history and . . . in God’s story, the earth is a treasure given to mankind and, we have been made stewards of the creation.

TRANS: Another issue that we should probably revisit is simple cynicism.

II.  You’re right . . . we can’t save the world.

If air pollution is indeed contributing to global warming, then I’ve traveled enough to realize, myself, the limits of what we can accomplish here in West MI or even in North America.  We’re just a small part of the world.  I’m pretty sure that driving hybrid cars around the Midwest is not going to blunt the edge of GLOBAL warming.  Americans are among the biggerst comsumers on the face of the earth, but the worst polluters are the developing nations in Asia, Africa, and Central and South America.  Many developing nations—like China, South Africa, Mexico—are destroying their environment in pursuit of the wealth we have.  They want to be like us; they want to have what we have, so they are polluting their air and rivers and contaminating their soil just like we did in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries during our industrial revolution.  We probably can’t change what they are doing.  And, we definitely don’t have the moral credibility to cast stones.  But, just because we can’t solve every problem around the world, doesn’t mean we should stop doing what we can in our world—here in W. MI.

We can’t save the world but . . . We can be good stewards of our world.  We don’t have to become vegans, or wear hemp clothing, or stop shaving.  We don’t have to plant organic vegetable gardens.  All we have to do is Just start shifting toward stewardship.  

1.  Bulletin Insert—Your First Seven Steps.

2.  Some of you may be thinking: Aren’t you stepping outside the pastor zone?  You’re supposed to be concerned about drug abuse and divorce, and lying and stealing, and sexual sin and abortion, and healing and forgiveness and heaven and hell, right?   Aren’t you just a little out of bounds here, preaching on the environment?  Why have we been talking about this in church—for four long weeks.  

    Even though I’ve just returned from Africa at the end of this series, I want to tell you that I think environmental stewardship is a Jesus issue!  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus himself said, “Truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law [Genesis–Deuteronomy] until everything is accomplished.  Anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:18-19).  Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law—the standards, practices, guidelines, and mandates recorded in the first few books of the Bible.  Jesus came to fulfill them and even take us beyond them.

Mankind may well do irreparable harm to the environment in the ongoing quest for greater power and pleasure.  I can’t control what the rest of the world does, but I can control what happens on my little piece of West Michigan.

B.  We can’t save the world but, we can win the respect of our neighbors.

ILLUS: Several weeks ago I found myself flying next to a very bright, talkative woman my age who had been born in Russia.  She now works for an international company that flies her all over Africa, and is living in JoBerg, South Africa.  When she asked why I was in Africa, I told her that I had come as a pastor to do what I could to help pour life into Africa’s soul.  She told me that I wasn’t the first missionary she had met flying across Africa.  She had met a missionary couple on a plane once and, they told her that they traveled all over Africa teaching the Bible—just teaching the Bible.  That’s it.  Just teaching the Bible.  With quite a bit of passion, she said to me, “That’s not enough—just teaching the Bible”.  You really need to get involved in the pain and poverty and pollution and violence and disease that is Africa”.  “Teaching the Bible is good (I’m a Christian too—Russian Orthodox)”, she said, but “missionaries need to get involved in changing the conditions Africans are born into and die in, every day”.  We had a great conversation, and she seemed genuinely impressed with what Vineyard churches are doing to help pour life into Africa’s soul.

My new friend’s view of evangelical missionaries and the evangelical church is shared by a lot of people all over the world.  People on the outside often think that our only concern is teaching the Bible and preaching conservative morality . . . like we’re either blind or uncaring about other issues that plague humanity.  That’s a bad wrap!  

It’s true; we do think that the good news contained in the Bible enriches life and that America’s low moral standards are destroying our national character.  But, we’re concerned about a lot of other things too.  Jesus said that he came to bring good news to the poor.  So, health care and education and justice are Jesus issues.  Food and medicine and clean water in third world countries are kingdom issues.  Yes, we care about how marriage is defined and how easy it is to get an abortion and how people of faith are often marginalized in education, politics, and media.  But, we’re also concerned about basic human rights and human suffering!

You may not know this: this Vineyard is an outward-focused, missionary movement.  And, the people we’re trying to reach, the world over, are unchurched!  The people we’re trying to share good news with are generally not conservative or Republican.   We’re trying to be good news and communicate good news to people who aren’t here . . who aren’t like us . . who don’t think we have anything to say to them . . . who don’t think we even care about the same things.  Many people on the outside think that we’re narrow-minded Bible thumpers,  focused exclusively on moral issues.  You saw how many of them talked with condescension about or even to Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.  

I think it would be like Jesus to build a bridge of dialogue with people outside the church, communicating that while we care a lot about truth and morality, we also care about justice and violence and pollution and racisim and hunger and peace and health care and education.  As Christians we believe that the Creator cares about the earth and the plight of all people—Christian and non-Christian—and being his representatives here in the world, calls us to do more than preach the Bible and conservative morality.  Does this make us liberals?  I don’t think so.  We’re shifting toward environmental stewardship because the story we’re living begins in Genesis.

TRANS: You’re right.  Genesis doesn’t teach recycling and, we can’t stop the world from destroying the environment.  Still, I think we should make some intentional lifestyle shifts that show outsiders we value the earth.  There’s a third thing we can all agree upon.

III.  YOU’RE RIGHT . . . WE SHOULDN’T LIVE IN FEAR OF GLOBAL WARMING.

Wisdom listens, so it’s important that we listen with humility and discernment.  We want to be part of the dialogue.  We want to be known as people who care about the earth, who love our enemies and respect those who we think are wrong, and who participate in solutions that benefit our neighbors.  

B.  Faith stands on God’s Sovereignty.

We shouldn’t live in fear of anything . . . terrorism, the decline of western civilization, disease, unemployment, or even dying.  We’re living in God’s story and, God’s story ends with resurrection and the renewal of all things.  Global warming may or may not be part of God’s unfolding story.  The Bible’s final book reveals that God’s story includes a lot of calamity and even end-time tribulation.  Maybe mankind will succeed in destroying the environment, as just about every science fiction movie coming out of Hollywood depicts.  Even so, Peter tells us that in the last day, God will recreate the heavens and the earth, and make everything new (II Peter 3:13).  In the last day, God will have everything his way, and the earth—the lakes and rivers, the air and the soil, the polar ice caps and the change of seasons will be—once again—very, very good.

Our challenge to shift toward environmental stewardship started in Genesis, but our confidence in the future is rooted in Revelation (the Bible’s final book).  In Revelation, chapter 1, Jesus reminds us that he is “the Alpha and the Omega . . . who is , and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”  Jesus specifically says to people in trouble—even end-time pressures—“Do not be afraid.  I am the First and the Last.  I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever!  And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”  Jesus repeats this assurance at the end of Revelation, declaring, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End . . . I am the bright Morning Star” (Rev. 22:13, 16).

We’re grateful for science and, we believe in the value of technology, but our faith stands on God’s sovereignty.  He is in control.  He is the author of our story, the beginning and the end and, he is our confidence and our peace.