Earth Sunday
Along with about 85 others, Joy and I had a tremendous experience at Yosemite last weekend. The air was crisp, the sky was deep blue, and the thundering, roaring waterfalls almost everywhere you looked, the result of a heavy snowfall this past winter, were like nature’s billboards constantly sending out messages of beauty and grace.
The grandeur of Yosemite was also a reminder to me of how interdependent we are with our natural world. If it weren’t for the Hetch Hetchy with clean water off the mountains, we would not have clean drinking water in San Francisco. This water travels almost 300 miles from Yosemite to your faucet. After eating the deliciously prepared meals by Joe Chan, we were also reminded about the disposable materials that we generated and will need to find a place to bury. And you must have heard about the big bear that tore down Joe’s van door for some of that long-grain rice. Even the presence of bears in the camp grounds say that we are intricately and directly impacting God’s creation.
Today we celebrate Earth Sunday at our church. Jesus Christ told us to let our lights so shine that others may see the good things we do and praise God. But we know that some have so much, others have so little. As Americans we use 60% of all God given natural resources, even though we are only about 10% of the world’s population.
As Christians, we acknowledge that we are suffering from our failure to be good stewards of God’s creation. In our sin and rebellion against God, the earth has not been well cared for. The water, air, and land are polluted with poisons that hurt people and all creation. Many species of animals and plants are endangered by the behavior of human beings. Some have become extinct.
In today’s bulletin, you have a brochure that says, “Planet Earth: Eight Loving Ways to Care for It.” This information is for you to examine how your personal lifestyle can better contribute to a more ecologically balanced world. But it is also for us together as a local church to explore what we may do as First Chinese Baptist to restore the earth. I am very grateful for Albert Lee who has provided handmade hemp bookmarks that help us to see that it is out of our faith in God that we need to care for our planet. But we know that this is not enough. We must be committed to doing more.
With Albert Lee’s leadership, I want to bring together a small committee to explore how our church can become more responsible for our earth, beginning first, here on the corner of Waverly Place and Sacramento Street. How may our upcoming retrofit/renovation strengthen our ability to save energy? How can we recycle more? What can we learn that may prevent risk and potential disasters from happening? How can we consume less and waste less? If you are interested and feel called to this new effort, please see Albert or me after worship this morning.
The Psalmist said, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” We did not create nor do we own the earth. Instead, God created the world, declared creation good and called us to take good care of it.