What Do We Hear?

Psalm 19:1-14; Romans 8:8-25

A sermon by Harry Postal

Delivered at Second Presbyterian Church, Richmond, Virginia

April 20, 2008

The heavens are telling the glory of God,

and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.

Day to day pours forth speech,

and night to night declares knowledge.

What do we hear?  A proclaiming of God’s glory?  We could hear the heavens’ proclamation better if there wasn’t such noise pollution – cars, trucks, planes, trains.  Horns and squeaking brakes.  Music blaring from car windows and in shops and malls.  We could hear more clearly if the noises of wars and riots, the cries of famine and oppression, weren’t rising up around the world. If only we could hear more clearly what the heavens proclaim! 

We could see better too, if the air were clearer.  If only there was less smoke and smog.  If only our looking to the heavens were not so blurred by the shining lights of cities, the security lights around buildings and homes.  If only we could see the stars more clearly we might perceive the knowledge declared in the night.  But . . . what do we hear?

. . . the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now,

and not only the creation, but we ourselves.

If we listen carefully we will hear the groaning of creation. A creation groaning under the weight of human use and abuse.  Wantonly using natural resources.  Selfishly hoarding  resources.  Polluting streams, rivers, oceans and air.  We have stressed creation in so many ways that it no longer tells the glory of God or proclaims his handiwork very clearly.  And we ourselves also groan inwardly!

The groaning of creation is being heard around the world. An International Herald Tribune article about the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change quoted Former French President Chirac as saying “We are on the threshold of the irreversible.” 

Italy’s Environment Minister notes, “While climate change runs like a rabbit, world politics move like a snail.”

 The Environmental Affairs Minister of South Africa stated that “We are now beyond a critical turning point in the debate; those who continue to ignore the threat and its causes . . .will be doing the greatest disservice imaginable to current and future generations.”

About three weeks ago the Wall Street Journal ran a separate section on eco-nomics: creating environmental capital” with articles on “living the green life,” “cutting waste in big ways and small,” “alternative fuels.” Being “green” is becoming more acceptable as it is reflected in businesses, advertising, TV specials and documentaries.  We do know . . .

. . . that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now,

and not only the creation, but we ourselves.

In an article titled “Eating the Roots,” the author tells how “unlike cows, which only eat the blades of grass, sheep tend to eat the roots. . . Those poor dumb sheep,” he writes, “not even smart enough to sustain their own food source.  It’s a good thing they have people to look after them.”(Anderson)

Poor sheep?  Not smart enough to sustain their food source?  That certainly sheds a somewhat different light on some familiar biblical passages. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way. (Isa.53:6) As [Jesus] went ashore, he saw a great crown . . . they were like sheep without a shepherd.(Mk.6:34) And the Psalmist confessed, I have gone astray like a lost sheep. (Ps.119:176) What are we doing, not only to our food sources, but to all those natural resources necessary to sustain life for all on this planet – water, earth, air?  Eating the roots?

Paul hears the whole creation groaning, including humans.  He then speaks of waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.  Paul claims that in hope we were saved and if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.  So that’s it?  Hope? 

In this particular section of Romans, Paul is writing about life in the Spirit and a future glory.  Yet he is also speaking of the present; about the Christian life now when the creation groans.  The New Testament scholar Richard Hays claims that now is a time “in which glory and suffering  paradoxically intermingle.  He says that “Romans 8 is a meditation on the ambiguity of life [in our time]. To live faithfully in [these] times is to walk a tightrope of moral discernment, claiming neither too much nor too little for God’s transforming power within the community of faith.”(p.25) Paul’s affirmation of hope is more than wishful thinking. 

What can we do in and for this groaning creation?  Global warming!  Toxic waste!  Polluted waters!  Poor air quality!  Endangered species!  Exploitation of natural resources! What can I do?  What can you do?  The problems seem overwhelming!  Yet God has charged us to be stewards of creation. 

God looked at creation and said it is “very good.”  God has promised a renewed creation.  We are living in the in-between times, and we and creation are groaning. 

The nineteenth century Jesuit priest-poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins captured our situation  in his poem, “God’s Grandeur.”  I quote in part –

            The world is charged with the grandeur of God.

                        It will flame out, like shining from shook foil. . .

            Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;

                        All is smeared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;

                        And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil is bare now. . .

            And for all this, nature is never spent;

                        There lives the dearest freshness deep down things . . .

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent world broods with warm breast and with ah! Bright wings.

We do live in a world charged with the grandeur of God, but it is groaning.  N.T. Wright, commenting on Romans 8 writes, “If the creation is to be renewed, not abandoned, and if that work has already begun in the resurrection [as Paul claims], it will not do simply to consign the present creation to acid rain and global warming and wait for Armageddon to destroy it altogether.” (p.606)    The challenge to be faithful stewards cannot be put off to some later date. Yet it does seem overwhelming! 

When overwhelmed by the enormity of a problem, I recall what a young missionary priest told me when I visited a hospital in Haiti.  This hospital (such as it was) served over ten thousand people, with two doctors, two nurses, electricity from a nearby factory for four hours per day!  I asked how they did it.  He told me a fable:

A man was riding through the jungle on his donkey when suddenly the donkey stopped.  There was a little bird lying on its back in the middle of the path with its legs straight up in the air. “What do you think you’re doing,” asked the donkey.

“Holding up the sky,” replied the little bird.

The donkey he-hawed and he-hawed at the little bird, then said, “You can’t do that.”. 

The little bird thought and said, “I start where I am and do what I can.”

That’s how we can respond to seemingly over whelming issues.  Start where we are and do what we can.  And we can do something! 

We can become more informed as individuals about the crisis in the environment, listening to the groaning of creation.  We then can teach others. 

The April issue of “Presbyterians Today” features articles on the global water crisis.  According to the UN Human Development report 1 billion people have inadequate access to safe drinking water.  We ought to consider this as we sip from our plastic bottle of commercially bottled water (some of which has now been exposed as no more than tap water).  “How many of these bottles get recycled?”  One report claims a mere 14%!  “A Presbyterians Today” editorial suggests “Here’s one easy thing each of us can do in response to the global water crisis: invest in a reusable water container and turn on the tap.” (Let’s say the 200 of us gathered here forgo just one commercially bottled water per week.  That’s 200X52=10,400 bottles per year that will not end up in the trash, or being recycled!) 

As Dick Neelly noted several weeks ago, 70% of our economy is consumption based.  We need to take actions that invest in the environment and contribute to replenishing the earth, more than we need to consume more and more! 

We must become more aware of our own behavior and its contribution to the groaning of creation – what we eat, what we waste, what we can recycle but fail to recycle, what we use and what we abuse. 

We must become better informed and push toward, lobby for, biodegradable packing for food and other materials; encourage more widespread recycling.

We need to do energy inventories in our homes, churches, schools, and businesses.  We can make a difference by making our buildings more energy efficient.  Are lights and appliances energy efficient?  Turn off lights.  Here at Second some of the men have begun to look into this and are installing sensor switches in some of the rooms so lights will not be left off  when no one is there.

Don’t leave the water running.  Lower your thermostat 2 degrees in winter and raise it 2 degrees in summer.  Small steps, yes, but steps.

Encourage and support the development of energy from renewable sources such as wind and sun.  Advocate for policy changes with governmental agencies local and national.  Check www.earthday.net for many more ideas.

And plant a tree that will suck up carbon dioxide and make the air we breathe cleaner.

What do we hear?

We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now,

and not only the creation, but we ourselves.

Listen and respond, for

The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it,

the world and those who live in it. (Ps.24:1)

Listen to the earth groaning and respond so that we may hear more clearly that

The heavens are telling the glory of God,

and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.

Thanks be to God who calls us to be faithful stewards of His very good creation.  AMEN.

References:

Mike Anderson, “Eating the Roots,” Luther Place Memorial Church, Washington DC, n.d.

Richard B. Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, (1966)

Gerard Manley Hopkins, Poems and Prose (1953)

N.T.Wright, “The Letter to the Romans,” The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol.X

Presbyterians Today, April 2008