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dawntheduckrb · 2 years ago

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Bonjour! I've missed another couple weeks, but not because I didn't go to those services. I haven't had the energy to type these out, amongst other various reasons, but I've been notified that they have been missed and now have renewed motivation to keep writing :D Surprisingly no huge content warnings for this other than the general religion and religious shenanigans, so without further ado…

cw: religion, religious themes

Week 7: Are We Really Killing Our Planet?

Heads up, this was two Sundays ago so I don't think I'll be able to give as much detail as I usually do

Global warming and the environment and other related issues are a very common point of discussion today; out pastor pointed out that it is particularly a matter of concern for younger people. He didn't want to leave everyone wondering what their "biblical answer" to this question was for the whole service, so he went ahead and gave a quick answer: no, we aren't.

He says this because saying that "humans are killing the planet" is giving too much power to people and undermines the strength of God. However, that doesn't mean we are free to do whatever we want to it. Throughout the sermon, we discussed why exactly we should add taking care of the planet to the list of important things to do as a Christian.

1.) Why is Creation Care Important?

Before I go into the meat of this point, I'd like to point out the use of "creation care" vs. "environmental concerns." He said that using the former term is much better, because it emphasizes and reminds us of God's hand in creating the world. Even though that's what he said, I can't help but think this was also, in part, to make people feel better about being told that driving around their no-muffler lifted-tire diesel trucks to Sunday mass was maybe not a great idea. Despite this change in language, he apparently still received a lot of emails where people complained about him being a tree-hugging liberal sissy snowflake. If anything, I hope that says something about the kind of people that attend these sermons.

There had to be a lot of prefacing at the beginning of this point. The pastor spent a good minute why people should not look at this as a political issue. The thing is, most everyone here is extremely and proudly conservative, to an almost alarming degree. For some people, politics are a part of their personalities. They will not listen to you if you try to defend progressive points, so he had to be very clear that he didn't think this was a political point. You'd think he'd say this is more something that everyone living on the planet should be concerned about, right?

Haha, no. He believes that this is very much a Christian-specific issue. It's not quite on the mark, but at least he's saying to care about it, so there's nothing really to complain about there. I just found it funny how everything becomes a Christian issue if it stays on the news long enough.

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1)

God created the world; it's the literal first sentence in the bible. The bottom line of this entire sermon is that we are, and are living in, God's creation. Protecting the Earth is important primarily because we need to respect what God has given us. Just as our body is a temple to be respected, so is the earth that we inhabit.

"'The most important one,' answered Jesus, 'is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.'" (Mark 12:29-30)

Not only is respect of the Earth needed due to who created it, it is an important part of "loving thy neighbor." When things go bad in nature, the first ones that are usually affected by it are those who are impoverished. For example, things like disasters, accidents, and scarcity massively drive up prices of food/fuel/etc. which makes it harder for people in those circumstance to live. Caring for the environment is just one way we can be not actively making their lives worse.

2.) We are Commanded to Care for Creation

"Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” (Genesis 1:26)

"The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it." (Gensis 2:15)

These are both verses that pretty explicitly state that it was man's intended purpose to watch over the land. The only thing that was added to this was how we are supposed to care for it; responsibly. Our pastor said not to exploit it, but care for it with gentleness.

"You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain." (Deuteronomy 25:4)

Here, utilizing the help of animals is not forbidden, but using them while not treating them well is. We are allowed to use the resources on the Earth, as long as we do so with a kindness in our hearts.

He also made a point to emphasize that while we are to respect creation, we are not supposed to worship it. He said "we're all familiar with the term 'Mother Nature,'" implying that referring to the Earth in those terms was a bad thing. He said it was best phrased in the following:

"We neither denigrate nor deify nature."

-Herman Bavinck

"Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles." (Romans 1:22-23)

Worshipping nature and worshipping God can't both happen at the same time; is it important to remember who made everything around you and thank him for those things.

3.) Creation is Meant to Reflect the Character and the Beauty of our Creator

"The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship." (Psalms 19:1)

All I wrote down was "pretty nature=god's work," which is just kind of a restatement of the previous point. The pastor showed a ton of pretty nature pictures to emphasize the point that everything was all in God's design, because it was beautiful and had to have had a creator.

"For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God." (Romans 1:20)

This verse directly compares the beauty of creation to God's power, and the pastor argues here that to deface creation is to deface our creator. I wrote a complete sentence here in my notes, and I never do that, so I can only assume this is a quote from out pastor (or at least, very similar words): "The issue is not 'are we hurting the planet' but 'are we defacing the glory of God.'" So, with all of this crammed together, we don't need to be taking care of nature out of concern for Mother Earth's sake, but out of the need to properly respect God.

4.) Creation Care is Anchored in Prudence, not Panic or Passivity

The first thing he said here was an apology for using the word "prudence" knowing it wasn't a commonly used word. He was just really proud of the alliteration in the title lol.

He moved on to mention how young people these days always seem to have so much anxiety about the state of the environment. He says that there is no need to panic at all though (he specified; just because we shouldn't panic doesn't mean it's good to just not care. "Panic is not good, Ford-450 Diesel is not good")

"Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and there he sacrificed as burnt offerings the animals and birds that had been approved for that purpose. And the Lord was pleased with the aroma of the sacrifice and said to himself, 'I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood. I will never again destroy all living things. As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.'" (Genesis 8:20-22)

If you're not familiar with the story of Noah and the Ark, then the really short version is as follows: The world was filled with rampant sin, and God was angry with it and wanted to wipe it clean. He didn't want to destroy humanity though, so he chose someone named Noah to build a massive boat. It was then made to carry two of each animal that existed (male and female), and Noah's family. He then flooded the Earth for forty days and forty nights, and after 150 days, the water had finally receded enough for Noah to land. The quoted verse takes place right after Noah got off the ark.

The reason this was shared was because it explains that God does not intend to let the Earth suffer as punishment for humanity's sin. Meaning, there's no need to worry or panic over the state of nature (again, not meaning to just do whatever you want). The pastor talked about the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill; as horrible as it was, apparently jellyfish have a kind of mucus that they excrete when stressed that can break down the oil. God's creation was able to protect itself from disaster caused by humans in this case, and it can do it again. (I think this is the source he used, he didn't mention at all that the oil still killed lots of jellyfish even with their ability to break it down).

5.) What is our part in this issue?

The pastor talked about how we can grow in our spirituality through "creation care." Things like including creation care in our discipleship plans, helping the environment with our small groups, or even just going outside (insert "we're on our phones too much" here). He didn't mean to sell our trucks or drop our A/C. He just said that it's important to be sensitive to the spirit. He is likely to speak to you about these things; you just won't hear it until you ask him about it.

I started spacing out after that last sentence (explanation below), but somewhere afterwards, he started to reiterate the beginning of the sermon. We are killing the planet, but not in the way we think. We don't have a carbon emissions problem, we have a spiritual problem. We need to make sure we stay connected with God and praising him in all that we do.

He closed by sharing these verses:

"For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies." (Romans 8:19-23 NIV)

He emphasized that childbirth pains were used here, not the pains of death. Things may be awful now, but they signify that something good is coming; the return of the father. Birthing pains get worse when they're closer to the actual birth, meaning that things getting worse now can only mean good things are coming soon.

For my thoughts…

1.) Honestly this wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. He said to not make things worse, to be conscientious of your footprint, to go out and do things to help the Earth, and to not let it be an all-consuming stress. The motivation and reasoning for doing those things is a bit odd to me, but they're not bad things that he talked about here.

2.) That being said, I think telling the congregation that we don't have the power to destroy the earth is a bit dangerous. This is considering the fact that a notable number of them presumably listened to the entire sermon, and the only thing that they got out of it was that they needed to find a new church that wasn't run by the libs.

3.) I hate that we can only have the capacity to do things if we're motivated by some grand deity, and not out of genuine concern for the place we live in. Things can only be good things on their terms. I hate that some of these people are so explosive to words like "Environmental Issues" that they have to make up a whole new term that includes their religion in order to get them to care about these things. If a good thing isn't 100% about God, then it isn't something to be involved in.

4.) The whole thing really wasn't so bad, up until the end. It's one of the most disgusting things the church does; using your own thoughts to bring you closer to the church. They say that "God will talk to you about these things as long as you ask him about it first," but…

I was so scared of going to hell as a kid because I never heard anything from God. I thought I was doing something wrong, and that I was unsavable and that eternal fire and torture was inevitable if I didn't get my act together. I was 6. This kind of thought does permanent damage; in a few days, I'll be 21. To this day, so many years later, I am still as scared of hell as I was when I was little.

The difference is, now I know why I never heard anything. I thought God would be some otherworldly outside voice that I would recognize as soon as I heard it. The truth is, "God" is you. Your passing thoughts, your pride, your insecurities, your guilt. If you have a good idea that lines up with the bible, that's not your idea, that's God speaking to you. If you did something and feel bad about it, that's God convicting you and you need to be on your knees and beg for his forgiveness. Are you proud about something? That's God reminding you of what he's done for you. It's all you, and it's always been you. Of course God isn't going to speak to you about the environment specifically if you don't ask about it; you need to be thinking about it on your own in order to "hear a command."

I'm still very bitter about these things, so maybe my view on this will change over time. I'd like to be clear though, if this religion brings you comfort and is healing for you, then more power to you. There is nothing wrong with prayer and talking to God, but I don’t want to ignore the irreparable damage caused to people through thought policing. Especially to children who can't mentally handle the scope of eternal damnation (or at least, as it was described how I previously mentioned)

5.) I hope I am not the only one creeped out by the readiness for the end of the world. I'm biased (see previous), but looking forward for things here to get worse because that's the main indicator of the return of Christ was just a bit off-putting for me

That's all I can think of for now. It's almost two in the morning so I'm a bit too tired to read over this fully. I'll check it again in the morning, but as always, if I said something goofy, let me know 🙏 otherwise, thanks for reading :D

Also, since this was about nature and the pastor got to share some of his pictures, I wanted to share some of mine;

Nature really is pretty :)

二週間前の日曜日のアヒル

(sermon notes will be added later today! I just like these little guys and wanted to share them)

#long post #only in the damn south are you gonna have to warn your audience that you're not coming for their trucks #multiple times #and still get called a tree-hugger #I think this sermon was mainly controversial because of where we live lmao #sermon notes #not rb

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