April 27, 2025 • 26 mins
What's a pastor to preach after Easter? With Earth Day approaching, the answer seemed obvious – celebrate God's gift of creation during this feasting season. But any honest environmental sermon must confront an uncomfortable truth: we haven't been the best caretakers of God's garden.
Genesis establishes humanity's purpose with startling clarity – God placed us in the garden "to till it and to keep it." We are stewards, not owners, of this remarkable planet. As Psalm 24 reminds us, "The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it." We're merely temporary tenants with responsibilities to the divine landlord and future generations. Yet our environmental report card reveals serious failings: accelerating climate change, massive food waste, plastic pollution, deforestation, water insecurity, and more. Even our technological solutions come with new environmental costs.
A visit to fire-ravaged Palisades reveals both devastation and renewal. What if we approached creation with greater humility, working with natural cycles rather than constantly fighting against them? Romans suggests that creation itself "waits with eager longing" for transformation – perhaps the natural world seeks renewal just as we humans do. The landscape recovering from the Woolsey fire illustrates this divine remodeling already underway.
Despite environmental challenges, hope persists. Climate awareness grows steadily, with economic benefits of sustainable practices becoming increasingly apparent. The US climate movement strengthens, particularly in population and economic centers. Most importantly, creation demonstrates remarkable resilience when given the chance – a testament to divine wisdom embedded in natural systems.
This Easter season invites us to feast on God's natural world – to hike trails, swim oceans, and marvel at creation's wonders. When we step into nature, we leave humbled, inspired, and drawn into right relationship with the world around us. Our environmental situation remains serious, but so does our capacity for hope and renewal – a fittingly Easter message for Earth Day.
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Episode Transcript
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Pastor Darren (00:00):
Well, again, good morning, good to be with you
today.
I keep waiting for us to getsome closer to summer weather,
but it was cold this morningwhen I got going.
I still have the sweater onit's spring after all but I'm
glad that you guys are all hereand that we're actually getting
a pretty good day as it evolveshere.
(00:22):
So the big question I had fortoday what do you preach after
Easter?
All right, what do you rollaround with?
We feel like we culminated sowell, we took that journey
through Lent and then Easter andthen the next Sunday.
Huh, all right, I guess thisjust keeps going right.
(00:43):
We're here next Sunday as well.
What do we preach about?
And I talked last week about itbeing a feasting season.
Right, we have a fasting seasonin Lent about self-discipline,
and then we have this feastingseason where we look to where
God is present and God's giftsare evident and we enjoy them
and we soak.
Gifts are evident and we enjoythem and we soak them up and we
(01:05):
get inspired by them, look toshare them.
So I thought, all right, well,it's Earth Day this week.
This would be Earth Week.
I guess Earth Sunday.
I could preach that there's afeast there God's gift of the
natural world.
Only once you kind of knucklein on Earth Day, there's one
(01:28):
problem.
It's a bit of a bummer.
We're not all that great withour stewardship of the earth.
These days I'm trying to think,all right, it's Easter season,
it's feasting, it's celebration.
We should celebrate and runfree through the earth.
And then you realize, oh shoot,but we're not so good about
(01:51):
that these days.
So today's sermon kind of amini Lent to Easter sermon,
where we start in thatself-discipline, looking in the
mirror we need to get better atthings but then land in hope,
land in that feasting season.
So I hope that you willappreciate that journey.
(02:15):
I also trust most people don'tnecessarily disagree with the
science of climate change.
We just sometimes disagree overthe priority of that, that
other things probably need toget fixed first and we can't let
other things get worse tryingto fix environmental problems.
(02:35):
So hopefully everybody canunderstand the value of these
challenges.
And I'll tell you too thesescriptures.
Actually they came with somematerial from the denomination,
the United Methodistdenomination, and I thought, oh,
should I pick one or two?
And I thought, no, I see ajourney here.
I see a journey I can takethrough a few different
(02:58):
scriptures, so I hope that youcan appreciate that journey as
well.
So we start in Genesis, rightfrom the very beginning actually
, and then the first early linesare midway through the second
creation story, with anotherreally important line.
In the beginning, when Godcreated the heavens and the
(03:19):
earth, the Lord God took the manand put him in the Garden of
Eden to till it and to keep it.
Genesis, we know, first book ofthe Bible, founding text of our
Christian faith.
This is how we understandourselves, this is how we
(03:40):
understand God, how weunderstand our role in the world
, is kind of locked away inthese two verses.
We're supposed to come here andtake care of this place.
That's what God wants us to do.
So our report card these comefrom a website called earthorg.
(04:01):
Are you ready?
You might want to gird yourloins.
Are you ready?
You might want to gird yourloins.
Those of you who know what thatis, don't gird your loins.
Those of you who don't, don'tworry about it.
All right, here's a coupleproblems we got.
We got global warming comingfrom fossil fuels.
We've been hearing it over andover and over decades and
(04:23):
decades and decades.
Well, it's a real thing, right?
And we think, oh, onetemperature every 20 years, 30
years, is that really going tobe so bad?
And then you realize, well,that's an average.
Some places it's going to be 5degrees, 10 degrees, Other
places it's going to beunderneath what they're used to.
So that average, that onedegree, yeah, we can go sit down
(04:46):
there at the beach, right, andone degree is not going to
matter so much.
But we need to recognize that'sactually a big deal.
It affects a lot of what goeson in the world that God created
.
Also, our fossil fueldependence is still pretty
strong.
We're not really looking tomove very intentionally to other
(05:08):
ways of creating energy.
Here's another one I looked uphere Food waste.
We waste 1.3 billion tons offood annually.
The party is like oh shoot, weshould be using that.
Obviously people are in need,we should use it.
But then you also think that's1.3 billion tons that we did all
(05:32):
the work to create and all theeffect on the environment to
create and then didn't use.
We have to worry aboutbiodiversity loss.
Much of the health of our world, the natural world, relies on a
certain amount of diversity ofdifferent plants, different
(05:52):
animal species, being able toevolve to work with what is
around.
When we lower the environmentin which they survive in, they
start to die off.
We get less of all of that andit becomes its own problem.
Let's see here Plasticpollution.
(06:12):
We're eating oatmeal and itdoesn't taste very good.
They might have put somebroccoli in the oatmeal along
with something else that'sreally really healthy, but we're
eating it, are you okay?
No, I don't want broccoli in myoatmeal.
Hey, at some point we got toeat this stuff.
1950, we had 2 million tons ofplastic that was made each year.
(06:45):
Today, 419 million tons.
So in 75 years we've gone up.
What is that?
2,000?
, 2,000%?
Where's my mathematicians?
A lot, all right.
We've gone up a lot.
We make a lot of plastic, andplastic takes about 400 years to
disintegrate.
So once it's made it's hereforever.
So a little bit of a problemthere.
Deforestation our world itself.
(07:07):
The reason it can process,let's say, the carbon dioxide
that I just blew out, is becausewe got trees that process that.
Well, if we have less trees,we're processing less of that,
right.
So it starts to become aproblem for the air, air
pollution itself being a problem.
(07:29):
Melting ice caps and sea levelrise.
Our worlds, a lot of ourcommunities are built in places
that might get underwater.
Is it getting tough?
I hate being so negative andyet the mirror shows what the
mirror shows, you know, as we'restaring at it Ocean
(07:50):
acidification.
It's a little bit likedeforestation.
The ocean is this big source ofwhat allows us to process the
negative things that we createin the world.
Well, the more of negativethings we create, the less the
ocean is able to process it, andthe things that live in the
ocean that we need have lessplace to survive in.
(08:14):
So when we have over-oceanacidification, that correction
that the earth does for us,they're less effective at it.
Our world can't offset thethings that we do and the
balance that we have with nature.
I'll move faster a little bithere.
Agriculture produces a big tonof our global warming, soil
(08:40):
degradation when we oversoil, wedon't produce as well what we
grow.
Food and water insecurity.
By 2020, well, by now, overtwo-thirds of the world will
have at least a month of waterinsecurity in the world.
So we're getting down to wheremost of the world at some point
(09:02):
is going to have a problem withknowing they have enough good,
clean water to drink.
Here's an interesting one Fastfashion and textile waste.
Do you remember when you woreclothes?
Functionally, that was the mainreason for clothes to make sure
you had something on you, soyou weren't running around in
(09:25):
your birthday suit, Some otherfunctioning as well around the
world Maybe it's getting cold,you need to be able to stay warm
, all this stuff and you didn'tget rid of clothes, maybe until
you were finished with it, or itwas ready it started to wear to
the point you were finishedwith it, or it was ready it
(09:47):
started to wear to the point.
Now we kind of get rid ofclothes when they go out of
style.
Those clothes got to gosomewhere.
So we're producing, just byculture decisions, more waste.
Overfishing, another problem.
And then finally, the last oneTake a breather Cobalt mining.
(10:12):
Cobalt mining we think, oh great, we found a new resource that
we can start using and we're notas much into the fossil fuels.
Cobalt is what we mine a lotfor new energy, electrical
energy, largely lithiumbatteries and stuff like that
and we think, okay, we're doinggreat, we've transitioned.
Here's a little bit of aproblem, though We'll run out of
(10:33):
cobalt too, and we're doing abit of work trying to find the
stuff we're finding.
But anybody using chat GBT yet,right, are you starting to
relax a little bit with thatthing?
You know, maybe instead of theGoogle search, you do the chat
GBT.
No, no, we're still nervousabout it.
(10:54):
All right, we're not doing it.
All right, let me tell you,chat GBT, your request, your
search, your question, takesabout 10 times the amount of
energy to produce your answer asthe Google search, right?
So the better we get at findingthat information, the more
(11:15):
energy it's taking.
So now we got that problem tooRight.
At finding that information,the more energy it's taking.
So now we got that problem tooRight.
Anybody see Debbie Downer on SNL.
Right, it's Pastor DarrenDowner.
Right now.
You know, wah, wah, I bring allof the bad news.
(11:38):
See, this is what I ran intodoing an Earth Day sermon today.
I was kind of ready to talkabout all the beauty of the
earth and all this, and then youget in there and you're like,
well, shoot, we're notnecessarily doing a really good
job with this role that weactually accepted, that we
(11:59):
understood coming from God asChristians.
So we wrestle with that, allright.
Psalms 24, 1 and 2.
I like that phrase.
The earth is the Lord's and allthat is in it and all that is
(12:19):
in it.
I like that.
This points out our belief thatit is not our world.
We tend it right.
We're renters down here, right,we've got a landlord God up
there.
We've got expectations offuture generations.
We're tending all of this forthose future generations.
It does invite questions.
(12:41):
If we were to embrace this moreintentionally, that we don't
own the earth In fact we aretending it with the idea that
it's God's earth, that it's theearth for the people that are
ahead of us Would that changeour mindset at all?
Does it change our mindset?
There's some humility embeddedin that understanding of how the
(13:06):
world works.
So I got finally to be able togo visit into Palisades,
post-fire Palisades.
I don't know how many of youhave had that opportunity yet.
It's humbling.
It is humbling when you startlooking at the devastation.
(13:27):
And I lived in palisades whenwe were working at Aldersgate
Retreat Center for a couple ofyears, so I knew what it looked
like.
So I knew what it looked like.
So, driving through and seeingthat particular home, that
particular store now burned tothe ground Palisades United
(13:49):
Methodist Church the good news,bad news they've swept
everything away.
Now it's all flat.
So the bad news it all burneddown.
The good news they're reallyworking on it, they're
overworking on that church as aUnited Methodist, fills my heart
(14:11):
to a certain extent, but itdoes kind of bring.
It makes your mind think alittle bit about that whole
incident and all that went on.
Part of what we don't alwaysrecognize is we kind of created
a climate over there, amicroclimate, that wasn't 100%
natural.
We brought in the plants, wewatered the plants, we kept
(14:35):
fires to a minimum and that gotto grow.
I don't know if you've seenpictures of Palisades 100 years
ago, but it didn't look like itdid six months ago.
We made it look a littledifferent than God had made it
and we held off a lot of thenatural cycles of creation.
(14:59):
Now I don't want to say thiswas inevitable.
I don't want anybody to feelthat.
It's been a real horror forthose who have lived there and
they are still living thatchallenge.
But it is to say maybe we oughtto be, as human beings, a little
more deferential, To know moreabout creation and how creation
(15:24):
works, more than just how do wekeep this thing from burning,
but also how do we allow thenatural cycles to process in
these areas?
How do we create room for whatwe know to be true About the
world that God created?
How do we work with God Inthese areas, as opposed to fully
(15:46):
adjusting what God created?
I wonder if that culture ofhumility Might help us there,
might help us to remember, torecognize that God's here and
God built this world and God isat work in it.
Let's live in step with that.
(16:07):
Romans 8, 19 to 22.
That's a long one.
I won't reread it, but some ofmy summary in my head is what if
creation, the natural world, isanticipating the same kind of
transformation, livingtransformation that human beings
(16:32):
are?
You know how we live our liveslooking for God's presence to
come into our hearts, to guideus in certain ways, to feed us,
to nourish us, to inspire us.
What if the natural world islooking for that same kind of
transformation and living inthose cycles of hope and
(16:54):
becoming all that God would wantit to be?
My drive back from Palisadesyesterday, I'm coming down the
101, you know back into theConejo Valley, and as I drive
through and you guys have seenthere you guys have been here,
most of you way longer than Ihave been here, but I see the
(17:17):
area where Woolsey just broughtthe fear of God into everybody's
heart in 2018.
And I drive through and I seeit's regrowing, it's getting
going again, probably looking alittle bit more like God
(17:38):
originally intended that area tolook, and it warmed my heart a
little bit, but it did strike metoo.
You know, when we get rains orfires, we push the fires out to
the natural area, right, becausebuildings and property those
have money, those cost money.
So we're going to throw it outinto the natural world that
(17:59):
doesn't cost any money, which Ithink would bother a lot of
coyotes and mountain lions andother rabbits.
They might argue it has morevalue than that.
But we push it out there and itmakes me think, think, huh, is
(18:23):
that largely, or even partly,because we know the natural
world is going to replenishitself, it's going to regrow,
and we trust that.
We know that cycle is happening, that remodel is happening.
There's a human remodelhappening in Palisades.
You guys have been around for ahuman remodel after Woolsey,
but the God remodel is out thereworking too.
I wonder what it would mean ifwe were to live more in step
(18:48):
with that godly remodel, thattransformation that nature is
constantly working towards,moving towards.
What if we were to look to bemore in step with how nature
works, even in times like thiswhere it's replenishing?
Finally, colossians when I readthis one, I thought to myself
(19:13):
okay, this is talking aboutcreation and Christ being that
essence of the divine, both ofthem existence from the very
beginning of time.
That was always here.
It links right.
Our writer of the letter toColossians is linking Christ and
(19:33):
creation, that they are of oneessence.
I wonder how we might do abetter job of seeing that
connection.
As much as we understand God'sloving and nourishing presence
in Christ, might we also lookfor that in creation?
So I told you it would behopeful at the end.
(19:57):
Here are my reasons for hope.
Are you ready for hope?
I'll take a little hope.
I guess I got nowhere to beGoing to hit Taco Bell on the
way home and that's it so sure.
Are you ready for hope?
Good, okay, let's get a littlehope here.
The reality of climate change isstarting to sink in.
(20:21):
We're starting to go.
Okay, I think we are going tohave to pay attention to some of
this.
Raise the priority of dealingwith this just a little bit.
In fact, climate change actionis still moving and it's getting
pretty active and, in fact,we're starting to see more
(20:43):
clearly the economic benefits ofmoving toward alternative
sources of energy and adiversity of energy, not just a
focus on fossil fuels, and thateconomic benefit is starting to
become more obvious.
Countries like Sweden arefiguring out not only how to be
(21:04):
highly environmental in the waythey do things, but actually
also blessing their economy withit.
So we're starting to get there,and most of that action, most
of the movement, is designed tobe equitable and just, where all
humans are treated equally andwith respect.
So there's that advantagethat's going on.
(21:27):
There is a strong US climatemovement.
In fact, where you have themajority of people and where you
have the majority of oureconomy are the places that seem
to be the most supportive oftreating environmental issues
with importance, with respect,and those are the ones that are
(21:48):
understanding it and those areoften the ones that are making
decisions, and our economy isalready moving towards more
renewable ways to create energy.
It's happening.
It's happening, and so we canhave some faith in that.
All these are coming from theUniversity of Michigan School
for Environment andSustainability, as well as from
(22:09):
Oxfam, and then one more from aprogram called Tree Aid or a few
more here.
Here's the one that may blessus the most and the one that we,
as Christians, should celebratethe most.
Nature is resilient.
The world that God createdknows how to evolve, knows how
(22:32):
to take care of itself, knowshow to exist in harmony.
That's the nature of the divinepresence in the world.
So we are blessed not only thatwe live in that, but that we
are a people who believe in thatNature-based solutions help
people and help the planet.
(22:52):
So, even though we've got a lotof problems and we worry about
whether this is the mostimportant problem to solve right
away, and we worry aboutwhether this is the most
important problem to solve rightaway we do know that
environmental solutions helppeople and help the planet, and
there is a growing resilience inthe face of climate challenges.
(23:12):
The more difficulties thathappen, the more rainless
winters, snowless winters thatwe have, the more people start
understanding we need to dosomething.
So how do I close up such aheavy kind of hmm, thanks for
(23:33):
ruining Easter Pastor sermon?
I'm going back to a season offeasting.
God blesses us with thisnatural world and most of us who
are intentional about gettingout there some of us all the
(23:54):
time, some of us now and again.
We know how we're blessed bybeing in it.
You feel nourished, you feelexercised, you feel a little
more in step with the createdworld that is around us.
You feel a little more balanced.
Let's feast on what God gave usin the natural world.
(24:19):
Let's go out hiking, let's goswim in the beaches, let's go
see all that God has created inthis world and allow ourselves
to be blessed by it.
I know that often we can lockourselves away in our homes.
(24:40):
Books are very good things andthey stretch our minds, but the
world also is a blessed thing.
I'm going to do a confession ofyours, and we know we're not
supposed to share things peopleshare with us.
(25:02):
But I have to pick on Boydbecause he's being good about
taking notes over here.
Boyd plays video games 4 to 8hours every day.
He is addicted to single gameshooter games and he's locked
away in the darkness in hiscomfy chair.
You all know this, I know this.
(25:22):
I'm putting it out there, boyd,sometimes it's best to have a
public confession.
It's the only way to healingBoyd.
Lets me tease him.
I appreciate it.
He teases me every time.
I appreciate it, but let'sTease me every time.
Yeah, every, that's right.
(25:43):
You're only doing four hours,not six.
Like this guy, you'll never win.
No, you get the idea.
Let's get out into the world.
Tech's got its value, but thenatural world, creation might
have the higher value.
We walk into God's world.
(26:05):
We leave humbled.
We live more in rightrelationship with the world
around us.
We leave inspired to share thatwith the world.
Let us feast on that this week,amen, amen.
Well, again, good morning, good to be with you
today.
I keep waiting for us to getsome closer to summer weather,
but it was cold this morningwhen I got going.
I still have the sweater onit's spring after all but I'm
glad that you guys are all hereand that we're actually getting
a pretty good day as it evolveshere.
(00:22):
So the big question I had fortoday what do you preach after
Easter?
All right, what do you rollaround with?
We feel like we culminated sowell, we took that journey
through Lent and then Easter andthen the next Sunday.
Huh, all right, I guess thisjust keeps going right.
(00:43):
We're here next Sunday as well.
What do we preach about?
And I talked last week about itbeing a feasting season.
Right, we have a fasting seasonin Lent about self-discipline,
and then we have this feastingseason where we look to where
God is present and God's giftsare evident and we enjoy them
and we soak.
Gifts are evident and we enjoythem and we soak them up and we
(01:05):
get inspired by them, look toshare them.
So I thought, all right, well,it's Earth Day this week.
This would be Earth Week.
I guess Earth Sunday.
I could preach that there's afeast there God's gift of the
natural world.
Only once you kind of knucklein on Earth Day, there's one
(01:28):
problem.
It's a bit of a bummer.
We're not all that great withour stewardship of the earth.
These days I'm trying to think,all right, it's Easter season,
it's feasting, it's celebration.
We should celebrate and runfree through the earth.
And then you realize, oh shoot,but we're not so good about
(01:51):
that these days.
So today's sermon kind of amini Lent to Easter sermon,
where we start in thatself-discipline, looking in the
mirror we need to get better atthings but then land in hope,
land in that feasting season.
So I hope that you willappreciate that journey.
(02:15):
I also trust most people don'tnecessarily disagree with the
science of climate change.
We just sometimes disagree overthe priority of that, that
other things probably need toget fixed first and we can't let
other things get worse tryingto fix environmental problems.
(02:35):
So hopefully everybody canunderstand the value of these
challenges.
And I'll tell you too thesescriptures.
Actually they came with somematerial from the denomination,
the United Methodistdenomination, and I thought, oh,
should I pick one or two?
And I thought, no, I see ajourney here.
I see a journey I can takethrough a few different
(02:58):
scriptures, so I hope that youcan appreciate that journey as
well.
So we start in Genesis, rightfrom the very beginning actually
, and then the first early linesare midway through the second
creation story, with anotherreally important line.
In the beginning, when Godcreated the heavens and the
(03:19):
earth, the Lord God took the manand put him in the Garden of
Eden to till it and to keep it.
Genesis, we know, first book ofthe Bible, founding text of our
Christian faith.
This is how we understandourselves, this is how we
(03:40):
understand God, how weunderstand our role in the world
, is kind of locked away inthese two verses.
We're supposed to come here andtake care of this place.
That's what God wants us to do.
So our report card these comefrom a website called earthorg.
(04:01):
Are you ready?
You might want to gird yourloins.
Are you ready?
You might want to gird yourloins.
Those of you who know what thatis, don't gird your loins.
Those of you who don't, don'tworry about it.
All right, here's a coupleproblems we got.
We got global warming comingfrom fossil fuels.
We've been hearing it over andover and over decades and
(04:23):
decades and decades.
Well, it's a real thing, right?
And we think, oh, onetemperature every 20 years, 30
years, is that really going tobe so bad?
And then you realize, well,that's an average.
Some places it's going to be 5degrees, 10 degrees, Other
places it's going to beunderneath what they're used to.
So that average, that onedegree, yeah, we can go sit down
(04:46):
there at the beach, right, andone degree is not going to
matter so much.
But we need to recognize that'sactually a big deal.
It affects a lot of what goeson in the world that God created
.
Also, our fossil fueldependence is still pretty
strong.
We're not really looking tomove very intentionally to other
(05:08):
ways of creating energy.
Here's another one I looked uphere Food waste.
We waste 1.3 billion tons offood annually.
The party is like oh shoot, weshould be using that.
Obviously people are in need,we should use it.
But then you also think that's1.3 billion tons that we did all
(05:32):
the work to create and all theeffect on the environment to
create and then didn't use.
We have to worry aboutbiodiversity loss.
Much of the health of our world, the natural world, relies on a
certain amount of diversity ofdifferent plants, different
(05:52):
animal species, being able toevolve to work with what is
around.
When we lower the environmentin which they survive in, they
start to die off.
We get less of all of that andit becomes its own problem.
Let's see here Plasticpollution.
(06:12):
We're eating oatmeal and itdoesn't taste very good.
They might have put somebroccoli in the oatmeal along
with something else that'sreally really healthy, but we're
eating it, are you okay?
No, I don't want broccoli in myoatmeal.
Hey, at some point we got toeat this stuff.
1950, we had 2 million tons ofplastic that was made each year.
(06:45):
Today, 419 million tons.
So in 75 years we've gone up.
What is that?
2,000?
, 2,000%?
Where's my mathematicians?
A lot, all right.
We've gone up a lot.
We make a lot of plastic, andplastic takes about 400 years to
disintegrate.
So once it's made it's hereforever.
So a little bit of a problemthere.
Deforestation our world itself.
(07:07):
The reason it can process,let's say, the carbon dioxide
that I just blew out, is becausewe got trees that process that.
Well, if we have less trees,we're processing less of that,
right.
So it starts to become aproblem for the air, air
pollution itself being a problem.
(07:29):
Melting ice caps and sea levelrise.
Our worlds, a lot of ourcommunities are built in places
that might get underwater.
Is it getting tough?
I hate being so negative andyet the mirror shows what the
mirror shows, you know, as we'restaring at it Ocean
(07:50):
acidification.
It's a little bit likedeforestation.
The ocean is this big source ofwhat allows us to process the
negative things that we createin the world.
Well, the more of negativethings we create, the less the
ocean is able to process it, andthe things that live in the
ocean that we need have lessplace to survive in.
(08:14):
So when we have over-oceanacidification, that correction
that the earth does for us,they're less effective at it.
Our world can't offset thethings that we do and the
balance that we have with nature.
I'll move faster a little bithere.
Agriculture produces a big tonof our global warming, soil
(08:40):
degradation when we oversoil, wedon't produce as well what we
grow.
Food and water insecurity.
By 2020, well, by now, overtwo-thirds of the world will
have at least a month of waterinsecurity in the world.
So we're getting down to wheremost of the world at some point
(09:02):
is going to have a problem withknowing they have enough good,
clean water to drink.
Here's an interesting one Fastfashion and textile waste.
Do you remember when you woreclothes?
Functionally, that was the mainreason for clothes to make sure
you had something on you, soyou weren't running around in
(09:25):
your birthday suit, Some otherfunctioning as well around the
world Maybe it's getting cold,you need to be able to stay warm
, all this stuff and you didn'tget rid of clothes, maybe until
you were finished with it, or itwas ready it started to wear to
the point you were finishedwith it, or it was ready it
(09:47):
started to wear to the point.
Now we kind of get rid ofclothes when they go out of
style.
Those clothes got to gosomewhere.
So we're producing, just byculture decisions, more waste.
Overfishing, another problem.
And then finally, the last oneTake a breather Cobalt mining.
(10:12):
Cobalt mining we think, oh great, we found a new resource that
we can start using and we're notas much into the fossil fuels.
Cobalt is what we mine a lotfor new energy, electrical
energy, largely lithiumbatteries and stuff like that
and we think, okay, we're doinggreat, we've transitioned.
Here's a little bit of aproblem, though We'll run out of
(10:33):
cobalt too, and we're doing abit of work trying to find the
stuff we're finding.
But anybody using chat GBT yet,right, are you starting to
relax a little bit with thatthing?
You know, maybe instead of theGoogle search, you do the chat
GBT.
No, no, we're still nervousabout it.
(10:54):
All right, we're not doing it.
All right, let me tell you,chat GBT, your request, your
search, your question, takesabout 10 times the amount of
energy to produce your answer asthe Google search, right?
So the better we get at findingthat information, the more
(11:15):
energy it's taking.
So now we got that problem tooRight.
At finding that information,the more energy it's taking.
So now we got that problem tooRight.
Anybody see Debbie Downer on SNL.
Right, it's Pastor DarrenDowner.
Right now.
You know, wah, wah, I bring allof the bad news.
(11:38):
See, this is what I ran intodoing an Earth Day sermon today.
I was kind of ready to talkabout all the beauty of the
earth and all this, and then youget in there and you're like,
well, shoot, we're notnecessarily doing a really good
job with this role that weactually accepted, that we
(11:59):
understood coming from God asChristians.
So we wrestle with that, allright.
Psalms 24, 1 and 2.
I like that phrase.
The earth is the Lord's and allthat is in it and all that is
(12:19):
in it.
I like that.
This points out our belief thatit is not our world.
We tend it right.
We're renters down here, right,we've got a landlord God up
there.
We've got expectations offuture generations.
We're tending all of this forthose future generations.
It does invite questions.
(12:41):
If we were to embrace this moreintentionally, that we don't
own the earth In fact we aretending it with the idea that
it's God's earth, that it's theearth for the people that are
ahead of us Would that changeour mindset at all?
Does it change our mindset?
There's some humility embeddedin that understanding of how the
(13:06):
world works.
So I got finally to be able togo visit into Palisades,
post-fire Palisades.
I don't know how many of youhave had that opportunity yet.
It's humbling.
It is humbling when you startlooking at the devastation.
(13:27):
And I lived in palisades whenwe were working at Aldersgate
Retreat Center for a couple ofyears, so I knew what it looked
like.
So I knew what it looked like.
So, driving through and seeingthat particular home, that
particular store now burned tothe ground Palisades United
(13:49):
Methodist Church the good news,bad news they've swept
everything away.
Now it's all flat.
So the bad news it all burneddown.
The good news they're reallyworking on it, they're
overworking on that church as aUnited Methodist, fills my heart
(14:11):
to a certain extent, but itdoes kind of bring.
It makes your mind think alittle bit about that whole
incident and all that went on.
Part of what we don't alwaysrecognize is we kind of created
a climate over there, amicroclimate, that wasn't 100%
natural.
We brought in the plants, wewatered the plants, we kept
(14:35):
fires to a minimum and that gotto grow.
I don't know if you've seenpictures of Palisades 100 years
ago, but it didn't look like itdid six months ago.
We made it look a littledifferent than God had made it
and we held off a lot of thenatural cycles of creation.
(14:59):
Now I don't want to say thiswas inevitable.
I don't want anybody to feelthat.
It's been a real horror forthose who have lived there and
they are still living thatchallenge.
But it is to say maybe we oughtto be, as human beings, a little
more deferential, To know moreabout creation and how creation
(15:24):
works, more than just how do wekeep this thing from burning,
but also how do we allow thenatural cycles to process in
these areas?
How do we create room for whatwe know to be true About the
world that God created?
How do we work with God Inthese areas, as opposed to fully
(15:46):
adjusting what God created?
I wonder if that culture ofhumility Might help us there,
might help us to remember, torecognize that God's here and
God built this world and God isat work in it.
Let's live in step with that.
(16:07):
Romans 8, 19 to 22.
That's a long one.
I won't reread it, but some ofmy summary in my head is what if
creation, the natural world, isanticipating the same kind of
transformation, livingtransformation that human beings
(16:32):
are?
You know how we live our liveslooking for God's presence to
come into our hearts, to guideus in certain ways, to feed us,
to nourish us, to inspire us.
What if the natural world islooking for that same kind of
transformation and living inthose cycles of hope and
(16:54):
becoming all that God would wantit to be?
My drive back from Palisadesyesterday, I'm coming down the
101, you know back into theConejo Valley, and as I drive
through and you guys have seenthere you guys have been here,
most of you way longer than Ihave been here, but I see the
(17:17):
area where Woolsey just broughtthe fear of God into everybody's
heart in 2018.
And I drive through and I seeit's regrowing, it's getting
going again, probably looking alittle bit more like God
(17:38):
originally intended that area tolook, and it warmed my heart a
little bit, but it did strike metoo.
You know, when we get rains orfires, we push the fires out to
the natural area, right, becausebuildings and property those
have money, those cost money.
So we're going to throw it outinto the natural world that
(17:59):
doesn't cost any money, which Ithink would bother a lot of
coyotes and mountain lions andother rabbits.
They might argue it has morevalue than that.
But we push it out there and itmakes me think, think, huh, is
(18:23):
that largely, or even partly,because we know the natural
world is going to replenishitself, it's going to regrow,
and we trust that.
We know that cycle is happening, that remodel is happening.
There's a human remodelhappening in Palisades.
You guys have been around for ahuman remodel after Woolsey,
but the God remodel is out thereworking too.
I wonder what it would mean ifwe were to live more in step
(18:48):
with that godly remodel, thattransformation that nature is
constantly working towards,moving towards.
What if we were to look to bemore in step with how nature
works, even in times like thiswhere it's replenishing?
Finally, colossians when I readthis one, I thought to myself
(19:13):
okay, this is talking aboutcreation and Christ being that
essence of the divine, both ofthem existence from the very
beginning of time.
That was always here.
It links right.
Our writer of the letter toColossians is linking Christ and
(19:33):
creation, that they are of oneessence.
I wonder how we might do abetter job of seeing that
connection.
As much as we understand God'sloving and nourishing presence
in Christ, might we also lookfor that in creation?
So I told you it would behopeful at the end.
(19:57):
Here are my reasons for hope.
Are you ready for hope?
I'll take a little hope.
I guess I got nowhere to beGoing to hit Taco Bell on the
way home and that's it so sure.
Are you ready for hope?
Good, okay, let's get a littlehope here.
The reality of climate change isstarting to sink in.
(20:21):
We're starting to go.
Okay, I think we are going tohave to pay attention to some of
this.
Raise the priority of dealingwith this just a little bit.
In fact, climate change actionis still moving and it's getting
pretty active and, in fact,we're starting to see more
(20:43):
clearly the economic benefits ofmoving toward alternative
sources of energy and adiversity of energy, not just a
focus on fossil fuels, and thateconomic benefit is starting to
become more obvious.
Countries like Sweden arefiguring out not only how to be
(21:04):
highly environmental in the waythey do things, but actually
also blessing their economy withit.
So we're starting to get there,and most of that action, most
of the movement, is designed tobe equitable and just, where all
humans are treated equally andwith respect.
So there's that advantagethat's going on.
(21:27):
There is a strong US climatemovement.
In fact, where you have themajority of people and where you
have the majority of oureconomy are the places that seem
to be the most supportive oftreating environmental issues
with importance, with respect,and those are the ones that are
(21:48):
understanding it and those areoften the ones that are making
decisions, and our economy isalready moving towards more
renewable ways to create energy.
It's happening.
It's happening, and so we canhave some faith in that.
All these are coming from theUniversity of Michigan School
for Environment andSustainability, as well as from
(22:09):
Oxfam, and then one more from aprogram called Tree Aid or a few
more here.
Here's the one that may blessus the most and the one that we,
as Christians, should celebratethe most.
Nature is resilient.
The world that God createdknows how to evolve, knows how
(22:32):
to take care of itself, knowshow to exist in harmony.
That's the nature of the divinepresence in the world.
So we are blessed not only thatwe live in that, but that we
are a people who believe in thatNature-based solutions help
people and help the planet.
(22:52):
So, even though we've got a lotof problems and we worry about
whether this is the mostimportant problem to solve right
away, and we worry aboutwhether this is the most
important problem to solve rightaway we do know that
environmental solutions helppeople and help the planet, and
there is a growing resilience inthe face of climate challenges.
(23:12):
The more difficulties thathappen, the more rainless
winters, snowless winters thatwe have, the more people start
understanding we need to dosomething.
So how do I close up such aheavy kind of hmm, thanks for
(23:33):
ruining Easter Pastor sermon?
I'm going back to a season offeasting.
God blesses us with thisnatural world and most of us who
are intentional about gettingout there some of us all the
(23:54):
time, some of us now and again.
We know how we're blessed bybeing in it.
You feel nourished, you feelexercised, you feel a little
more in step with the createdworld that is around us.
You feel a little more balanced.
Let's feast on what God gave usin the natural world.
(24:19):
Let's go out hiking, let's goswim in the beaches, let's go
see all that God has created inthis world and allow ourselves
to be blessed by it.
I know that often we can lockourselves away in our homes.
(24:40):
Books are very good things andthey stretch our minds, but the
world also is a blessed thing.
I'm going to do a confession ofyours, and we know we're not
supposed to share things peopleshare with us.
(25:02):
But I have to pick on Boydbecause he's being good about
taking notes over here.
Boyd plays video games 4 to 8hours every day.
He is addicted to single gameshooter games and he's locked
away in the darkness in hiscomfy chair.
You all know this, I know this.
(25:22):
I'm putting it out there, boyd,sometimes it's best to have a
public confession.
It's the only way to healingBoyd.
Lets me tease him.
I appreciate it.
He teases me every time.
I appreciate it, but let'sTease me every time.
Yeah, every, that's right.
(25:43):
You're only doing four hours,not six.
Like this guy, you'll never win.
No, you get the idea.
Let's get out into the world.
Tech's got its value, but thenatural world, creation might
have the higher value.
We walk into God's world.
(26:05):
We leave humbled.
We live more in rightrelationship with the world
around us.
We leave inspired to share thatwith the world.
Let us feast on that this week,amen, amen.
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