"The Pope, The Planet, and the Blessing of Pets" – Matthew 6:25-33

Matthew 6:25-33

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

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Pope Francis Fever isn’t lost on me, I have to say. And I feel like we should talk about the Pope today, since he’s on tour and all, and since his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, often gets the credit for blessing the animals and for services like what we’re up to here. So, knowing some of what it’s all about, I decided to look more into Pope Francis’s recently published encyclical, Laudato Si’. (1)

I imagine most of us haven’t read the whole of that encyclical, and I’m not pretending I’ve read it word-for-word. It’s beautiful in lots of ways and places, believe me, but it’s not exactly a page-turner. Still, I hope you’ve at least heard the sound bites and seen the headlines about the pot the Pope has stirred with his words.

In what I have read, it’s clear that the pope’s encyclical acknowledges – from a faith’s perspective – what scientists have been teaching and warning about for quite some time, when it comes to global warming and climate change and ecological crises and care of creation. Where the Pope preaches and where scientists teach, of course, politicians and pundits argue and debate and deny and throw stones. But I don’t think we have to go there today.

What I read in the Pope’s Laudato Si’ isn’t hard for me to swallow, from the perspective of a fellow Christian. I believe it’s true…that he’s correct…that the earth – “our common home,” as he calls it – and all of its creatures – are in trouble.  That is hard to swallow. But, unlike some people, I think he has every right and calling and authority as a man of God and as a follower of Jesus to write about and teach about and preach about all of this from his position of leadership and authority in the Church, for the sake of the world.

The reason people are upset about his suggestions and criticisms and warnings and calls to action, is because too many of those politicians and pundits have co-opted climate change, minimizing it into an “issue.” For Christian people, like the Pope and you and me, though, what he’s getting at isn’t new. And it’s not a political issue. It’s nothing more and nothing less than a call upon our lives that’s as ancient and holy as that creation story from Genesis, we just heard.

I’m under the impression that our connection to this call to care for creation is a direct reflection of the spiritual state of our souls, as individuals, and it’s a direct reflection of the spiritual state of our collective soul as a sea of humanity on the planet. In other words, if you ask me, the reason the planet is in the pickle it is…the reason we aren’t taking care of it as we should…is because we aren’t taking care of our own souls – or taking care of each other – as God wishes we would.

So, thinking about today’s Gospel, I couldn’t help but wonder if things have changed for the birds of the air and for the lilies of the field, since Jesus was around. I mean, I kind of wonder if the birds and the lilies have more to worry about in 2015, than they did back in Jesus’ day. I’m being facetious, of course. I know that’s not what Jesus meant and I’m not sure that lilies can worry, anyway.

But I can. And, like the Pope, I am worried. And I looked up some numbers and statistics so that you all might worry along with me, some.

I saw on National Geographic, that 90% of the oceans’ fish populations that were around in 1950 are no longer, and that the world’s stock of fish may very well run out by 2048. (That’s within my lifetime, if I’m lucky. I’ll only be 75 years old. My son, Jackson will be 44. Max will only be 41, younger than I am now.) That was a new kind of perspective for me. (2)

And it’s not just the fishes in the deep blue sea, either. According to the World Wildlife Fund, there was a 52% decline in wildlife populations between 1970 and 2010. In just 40 years, more than half of something like 3,000 species of not just fish, but mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and “birds of the air” have been decimated thanks to global warming, pollution, and disease. (3)

And then there are the “lilies of the field,” if you will. There were once 6 million square miles of tropical rainforest in the world. Now, thanks to deforestation and other human dis-interest, there are only 2.4 million square miles left. Between 2000 and 2012 – in just 12 years – 888,000 square miles of forests around the world were cut down. That's roughly the size of all of the states in the U.S. east of the Mississippi River. (4)

And we can let these statistics scare us, I suppose. I can be afraid for the future of the planet and for the safety and well being of it all for the sake of my kids and grandkids, and I guess that’s something – if it causes me to make a change for the sake of it. We can even buy into the politics of this – or not – and address it, or ignore it based on our political persuasion if that’s all it is to us.

But that’s not all it is or all it should be for children of God. Pope Francis says, “We lack an awareness of our common origin, of our mutual belonging, and of a future to be shared with everyone. This basic awareness would enable the development of new convictions, attitudes and forms of life. A great cultural, spiritual and educational challenge stands before us, and it will demand that we set out on the long path of renewal.”

And this has been God’s call for us and God’s claim upon us since our days in Eden’s garden, at the beginning of time – to recognize ourselves as the stewards, the care-givers, the babysitters, the custodians, the crown of God’s creation – and to live differently because of it.

So let’s do that as much as we’re able. Let’s do the “earth-day-every-day” thing. Let’s plant a tree. Let’s recycle our paper and our plastic and our cans and our bottles. Let’s find out what a difference one day a week without eating meat stands to make for the environment. Let’s stop drinking bottled water and pretending it’s any better than what comes from our kitchen faucet. Let’s be honest – a couple days out of the summer – about the fact that central air conditioning is a luxury we really can do without. Let’s walk instead of drive every once in awhile. Let’s support and vote for policy and legislation and leaders that consider the planet’s future and well-being in responsible, faithful, loving ways.

And let’s do these things, not because the Pope or the Politicians or Pastor Mark say so. Let’s do these things because the planet – “our common home” – is groaning under the weight of our selfishness and apathy. Let’s do these things because it is the poorest of the poor on the planet who suffer first – and most – when the earth struggles. And let’s do these things – let’s strive for righteousness on behalf of the planet – because we are grateful for God’s charge to care for this gift that is ours to defend and preserve and enjoy with grace and gratitude; and because God’s kingdom will thrive through and among us, in every way, when we do.

Amen

1 http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/06/18/read-the-encyclical-for-yourself-laudato-si/

2 http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/declining-fish (“Big-Fish Stocks Fall 90 Percent Since 1950, Study Says” National Geographic News. May 15, 2003)

3 “Humans To Blame For Major Decline In Wildlife Populations, WWF Report Finds.” By JOHN HEILPRIN. AP. HuffPost. 09/30/2014

4 http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/urgentissues/rainforests/rainforests-facts.xml

"Brave. Vulnerable. Kind." – Mark 8:27-38

Mark 8:27-38

Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

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I’ve just begun participation in a weekly meeting of what are called “Race Relation Dialogue Circles.” It’s just what it sounds like, a group of about 12 people of different races and ethnicities, who literally sit in a circle, to discuss all sorts of things about race and ethnicity; prejudice and racism in our lives, in our country, and in our world as we experience it.

At our very first meeting, our first order of business was to lay out some ground rules and expectations for our time together. (If you’ve been in a class with me before, or if you’re in one of our new Grace Groups, you have some idea of what these rules and expectations turned out to be.) Stuff like respecting other perspectives and experiences, honoring the confidentiality of what is shared, not monopolizing the conversation, and so on. But, one of my favorite “rules and expectations” we agreed upon was something about letting the group always be a safe place – even when we disagree about something – so that we could allow each other to be brave and vulnerable and kind.

Brave, vulnerable, and kind – at least that’s the translation in my notes of that particular rule and expectation. And I remember thinking – even though I signed up for this… even though I sort of expected it…even though I’ve asked it of so many of you over the years in different ways – the prospect of being brave, and vulnerable, and kind, isn’t always something I’m naturally inclined toward, as strange as that is to admit.

These are ideals, right? Bravery. Vulnerability. Kindness. These are admirable traits to be practiced and modeled. But how often do we sit down – in the presence of strangers – and commit to go searching for ways to be brave, vulnerable, and kind?

Most of the time, we’re brave when we have to be, right? We’re vulnerable when we don’t have a choice a lot of the time, don’t you think? When the crisis comes…when the struggles hit… when we fail the test, drop the ball, or lose the job, or whatever. For too many of us, too much of the time, we don’t go seeking opportunities to be brave or vulnerable or even kind unless or until a situation presents itself or demands that we be those things.

So, sitting around that circle, I sort of wondered if I really wanted to stick with it…to invest in the group…to make this commitment. What if I was surrounded byknuckleheads? What if we disagree more than we agree? What if my words don’t come out right? What if I’m misunderstood? What if I’m even more white and more privileged and more blind to the issues of race than I’m willing to admit? What if this isn’t the safe place it intends to be? What if some of these people are less brave or less vulnerable or less kind than others?

And I wonder if these are like the questions Peter, and Jesus’ disciples, and those crowds wondered about when they heard Jesus’ challenge and call to “deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow.” It sounds like bravery, vulnerability, and kindness, to me. It’s very much the call and challenge of the Christian life, really. And it’s hard work, plain and simple.

And Jesus makes no bones about it. “…the Son of Man must undergo great suffering… be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes… be killed, and after three days rise again.” He calls out his best friend, Peter, for setting his mind “not on divine things, but on human things.”And he says, to whoever will listen, that “If any want to become … disciples, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow.”

Follow him toward suffering. Follow him toward rejection. Follow him toward death. Because “those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for [his] sake, and for the sake of gospel, will save it.”  How brave and vulnerable and kind can you be?

But this is what God calls us to do and to be: to deny ourselves; to take up the cross of sacrifice and suffering; to follow God, in Jesus, to places and on behalf of people who give us opportunities to be loving and gracious and forgiving – brave, vulnerable and kind. And if Jesus is asking us to do it – to live this way – the least we can do is to start imagining what that would look like, don’t you think? I don’t think Jesus wants us to sit back and wait for opportunities for all of this to come our way. I think Jesus wants us to follow him into ways of life that make it happen – for us and for the world.

So I wonder what it might look like if we took Jesus seriously. What if we let our faith dream bigger than our fear when it comes to answering this call to self-denial, crosses, and following? What if we let our faith dream bigger than our fear so we really did live in ways that are more brave, and vulnerable, and kind?

Could it mean signing a dotted line and standing up in worship to join the ranks of a new congregation like some of our newest Partners in Mission will do/have done with us today? Sure.

Could it mean giving more money to the General Fund? Volunteering to clean the church? Stepping up to serve in the nursery? Getting out of our proverbial comfort zone and helping with Grace Quest? I think so.

But there’s gotta be even more, don’t you think?

Could it mean eating some crow and asking for forgiveness from that someone you’ve harmed? Or letting your own guard down and extending forgiveness to that someone who’s harmed you? Probably.

And might it lead to bigger things?

Could it mean sponsoring a child in Fondwa, Haiti, for $300 a year?

Or signing up for a mission trip next time we travel there?

Could it mean opening our borders to immigrants for Mexico? Or could it mean opening our homes to refugees from Syria? (That makes Grace Quest and the General Fund seem like small potatoes, doesn’t it?)

Is there something you’ve thought of doing – that you’ve felt the nudge to consider – large or small or somewhere in between – but that you never move in the direction of accomplishing because your fear or doubt or lack of courage and faith won’t let you pursue it? I have. (I’m pretty sure it’s happening in me as I stand before you now!)

I think our fear and our doubt and our lack of courage get the best of us, just like they did for Peter in this morning’s Gospel, when we set our hearts and our minds on earthly things, instead of heavenly things, and the power of God.

I think it’s because, just like Peter, we only hear the earthly stuff , too much of the time, when it comes to Jesus’ call to discipleship. We hear “deny ourselves.” We hear “take up a cross.” We hear “rejection and suffering and struggle and death.” And all of that gets the best of us and we stop, in our tracks, frozen with fear and doubt and uncertainty. Because, just like Peter, we miss the promise of heavenly things and the power of God that Jesus promises along with the rest: because after all of that rejection and suffering and death and whatnot, comes resurrection, does it not?

Because vulnerability leads to power in the hands of God. Sacrifice leads to abundance.  The cross leads to an empty tomb, by God’s grace. Death leads to new life, when Jesus gets hold of it.

So let’s imagine and dream about and keep our minds set on heavenly things. Let’s do the hard, holy work of denying our selves – our fears, our doubts and all the rest. Let’s take up a cross – even if it hurts, even if it causes us to struggle, because it causes us to struggle and sacrifice, even. And let’s follow Jesus in brave, vulnerable, kind and gracious ways, expecting God to change us and to transform the world as we know it, into the Kingdom of God, which has been the plan all along.

Amen