Earth Day Sunday: "Sing A New Song for the Earth"
If you were gifted a beautiful bag of Creation,
like the one Elder Brother carried from our story,
what would you choose to put in it?
Which wonderful things in this world
capture your attention?
An orange butterfly?
A drop of rain?
A sparkling stone from the San Gabriel mountains?
One fragrant red rose?
After they had a chance
to mix and mingle together in your bag,
what surprisingly happy thing
might emerge out of it?
What new song from your heart
might you hear?
An earth song?
A spring song?
A body song?
A song you’ve been waiting so long to hear?
Many of you have been on a collective journey
this last month;
Thirty Days for the Earth here at Throop.
I hope that you are beginning to hear a new song.
In a way, you started this Thirty Days with your own colorful bag,
and were encouraged to fill it
with ideas and questions and revelations
you experienced through our various activities
thing like:
worships
weekly reflection questions
commitment to not use styrofoam this month
mindfulness walks in downtown Pasadena
My hope is that now your bag
is bulging with new sounds, new hopes;
that you are hearing a song
that calls you to live a little differently in this world,
to shift some pattern or behavior
toward a lighter footprint on our planet.
Perhaps the veil of “moral oblivion,”
that we all fall under,
has been lifted,
just a bit.
A couple of weeks ago in worship,
I invited you to think about what it would be like
to not just consider yourself a steward of the world around you,
but to consider yourself in deep solidarity with all Creation.
To be in deep solidarity with
every item you choose to place
in your beautiful bag of becoming.
This notion is different from charity,
in which we give of our funds to help
alleviate suffering in the world.
It is different from advocacy,
in which we speak out against injustices
that cause harm and hopelessness.
Charity and advocacy are good and important,
and we need to keep doing them
as individuals and together as a religious community.
Deep solidarity is both mind and heart work.
It puts us in mutual relationship
with those we intend to support.
It changes our view of our place in the world.
We are no longer at the center. (1)
Niebuhr wrote:
Who finally is my neighbor,
the companion whom I have been
commanded to love as myself?
My neighbor is animal and inorganic being ...
all that participates in being.”
We begin to create a new moral framework.
One that understands that our well-being
is dependent upon the whole Earth’s well-being.
When we see our UU banner,
proclaiming that we Stand and Move on the Side of Love,
that Love begins to encompass so much more
than only human justice and compassion.
If we take this idea seriously,
that our neighbors are not only other humans,
but all of Creation,
this raises up a lot of questions for religious people, such as:
“How do we measure and compare moral obligations
to the non-human world?
“What moral constraints ought to be placed on humans
in light of our dependence upon and kindred with
non-human life?” (2)
As we begin to understand our own place in the world differently,
then our sense of responsibility changes,
and we no longer continue with business as usual.
For almost all of the Thirty Days for the earth sermon series,
both Everett and I have preached about
the social and economic structures currently in place
that led to so much harm to all beings on our planet.
Those structures were created by human beings.
And every structure and system requires
personal actions to make it work.
The Good News is that just as they were created by humans,
and sustained by our actions,
they can just as certainly be dismantled and changed by humans.
By us.
Our Thirty Days for the Earth
leads up to this worship,
and an opportunity for you to make a commitment
to make one lifestyle change
that starts to break down the systems
that harm Creation.
We do this because our actions absolutely matter.
And changing one pattern often leads to changing other patterns.
When our friends see us do something
that’s a little different,
a little out of the ordinary -
like bring our own re-usable to-go containers
to a restaurant,
they notice.
They think,
“I can start doing that.”
We inspire those around us.
The forms of action we take are almost limitless.
A full-time working mom told me
that she’s committing to take her own re-usable utensils
in her bag and car,
so that when she stops for food on the go,
she doesn’t need to take additional plastic.
A full-time working dad said
he commits to paying more attention to his water use,
and he wants to decrease his overall use,
by taking shorter showers,
washing his clothes on the quick cycle,
and more.
Perhaps you want to try Meatless Mondays,
or challenging yourself to eat mostly produce
that’s grown locally.
Perhaps you want to take the bus once a week,
or tune up your bicycle and do nearby errands on your bike.
Maybe you want to continue the No Styrofoam challenge for the rest of the year.
You can commit to doing advocacy work on behalf of the planet -
join us at the Pasadena Municipal Services Committee meeting
on April 26 and let them know you support the ban.
You can apply to BE on the municipal services committee,
or the Environmental Advisory Commission.
You can move your retirement funds into socially responsible investments.
You can help on local campaigns,
get involved in the Arroyo Seco Foundation
or Transition Pasadena.
You can join our Thirty Days for the Earth planning team,
or help me with our new eco-series talks,
“The Real Dirt.”
And if you are just feeling the need for more breathing space in your own life,
you can commit to a weekly practice of “attention epistemology,”
remember that from a few weeks ago?
You can decide to take one walk outside each week.
You can arrive early on Sunday mornings
and do a mindfulness walk through our garden.
You can join our garden team on Wednesday mornings.
You can commit to experiencing
one thing of beauty every day.
Take out that brightly colored bag of Creation
we imagined at the beginning of the sermon.
What did you put in it?
Do those beloved items
inform the intention you’d like to make?
In your order of service are two tags,
made of card stock.
In the next few moments,
consider the commitment you’d like to make.
One that feels authentic to you,
do-able and thoughtful.
Write that on both cards.
One is for you to take home,
as your daily reminder,
of what you have committed to do
as a member of this gathered community.
The other,
we invite you to bring forward
and place on these branches.
A visual reminder that we are stronger together
than we are alone.
That together,
we do indeed change the world.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Like the brightly colored butterflies
from our Story for All Ages,
these cards represent the unique songs of hope
in each of our hearts.
They represent our shared commitment to
build, sculpt, sing, and dance a
new way of being into abundant life,
a life that honors and sustains all of Creation.
May your life continue to be a blessing on the world.
Notes
1. “Deep solidarity” idea from two sources, Cynthia D. Moe-Lobeda and Joerg Rieger.
2. Moe-Lobeda, Cynthia D. Resisting Structural Evil: Love As Ecological-Economic Vocation, pp. 200-201.
like the one Elder Brother carried from our story,
what would you choose to put in it?
Which wonderful things in this world
capture your attention?
An orange butterfly?
A drop of rain?
A sparkling stone from the San Gabriel mountains?
One fragrant red rose?
After they had a chance
to mix and mingle together in your bag,
what surprisingly happy thing
might emerge out of it?
What new song from your heart
might you hear?
An earth song?
A spring song?
A body song?
A song you’ve been waiting so long to hear?
Many of you have been on a collective journey
this last month;
Thirty Days for the Earth here at Throop.
I hope that you are beginning to hear a new song.
In a way, you started this Thirty Days with your own colorful bag,
and were encouraged to fill it
with ideas and questions and revelations
you experienced through our various activities
thing like:
worships
weekly reflection questions
commitment to not use styrofoam this month
mindfulness walks in downtown Pasadena
My hope is that now your bag
is bulging with new sounds, new hopes;
that you are hearing a song
that calls you to live a little differently in this world,
to shift some pattern or behavior
toward a lighter footprint on our planet.
Perhaps the veil of “moral oblivion,”
that we all fall under,
has been lifted,
just a bit.
A couple of weeks ago in worship,
I invited you to think about what it would be like
to not just consider yourself a steward of the world around you,
but to consider yourself in deep solidarity with all Creation.
To be in deep solidarity with
every item you choose to place
in your beautiful bag of becoming.
This notion is different from charity,
in which we give of our funds to help
alleviate suffering in the world.
It is different from advocacy,
in which we speak out against injustices
that cause harm and hopelessness.
Charity and advocacy are good and important,
and we need to keep doing them
as individuals and together as a religious community.
Deep solidarity is both mind and heart work.
It puts us in mutual relationship
with those we intend to support.
It changes our view of our place in the world.
We are no longer at the center. (1)
Niebuhr wrote:
Who finally is my neighbor,
the companion whom I have been
commanded to love as myself?
My neighbor is animal and inorganic being ...
all that participates in being.”
We begin to create a new moral framework.
One that understands that our well-being
is dependent upon the whole Earth’s well-being.
When we see our UU banner,
proclaiming that we Stand and Move on the Side of Love,
that Love begins to encompass so much more
than only human justice and compassion.
If we take this idea seriously,
that our neighbors are not only other humans,
but all of Creation,
this raises up a lot of questions for religious people, such as:
“How do we measure and compare moral obligations
to the non-human world?
“What moral constraints ought to be placed on humans
in light of our dependence upon and kindred with
non-human life?” (2)
As we begin to understand our own place in the world differently,
then our sense of responsibility changes,
and we no longer continue with business as usual.
For almost all of the Thirty Days for the earth sermon series,
both Everett and I have preached about
the social and economic structures currently in place
that led to so much harm to all beings on our planet.
Those structures were created by human beings.
And every structure and system requires
personal actions to make it work.
The Good News is that just as they were created by humans,
and sustained by our actions,
they can just as certainly be dismantled and changed by humans.
By us.
Our Thirty Days for the Earth
leads up to this worship,
and an opportunity for you to make a commitment
to make one lifestyle change
that starts to break down the systems
that harm Creation.
We do this because our actions absolutely matter.
And changing one pattern often leads to changing other patterns.
When our friends see us do something
that’s a little different,
a little out of the ordinary -
like bring our own re-usable to-go containers
to a restaurant,
they notice.
They think,
“I can start doing that.”
We inspire those around us.
The forms of action we take are almost limitless.
A full-time working mom told me
that she’s committing to take her own re-usable utensils
in her bag and car,
so that when she stops for food on the go,
she doesn’t need to take additional plastic.
A full-time working dad said
he commits to paying more attention to his water use,
and he wants to decrease his overall use,
by taking shorter showers,
washing his clothes on the quick cycle,
and more.
Perhaps you want to try Meatless Mondays,
or challenging yourself to eat mostly produce
that’s grown locally.
Perhaps you want to take the bus once a week,
or tune up your bicycle and do nearby errands on your bike.
Maybe you want to continue the No Styrofoam challenge for the rest of the year.
You can commit to doing advocacy work on behalf of the planet -
join us at the Pasadena Municipal Services Committee meeting
on April 26 and let them know you support the ban.
You can apply to BE on the municipal services committee,
or the Environmental Advisory Commission.
You can move your retirement funds into socially responsible investments.
You can help on local campaigns,
get involved in the Arroyo Seco Foundation
or Transition Pasadena.
You can join our Thirty Days for the Earth planning team,
or help me with our new eco-series talks,
“The Real Dirt.”
And if you are just feeling the need for more breathing space in your own life,
you can commit to a weekly practice of “attention epistemology,”
remember that from a few weeks ago?
You can decide to take one walk outside each week.
You can arrive early on Sunday mornings
and do a mindfulness walk through our garden.
You can join our garden team on Wednesday mornings.
You can commit to experiencing
one thing of beauty every day.
Take out that brightly colored bag of Creation
we imagined at the beginning of the sermon.
What did you put in it?
Do those beloved items
inform the intention you’d like to make?
In your order of service are two tags,
made of card stock.
In the next few moments,
consider the commitment you’d like to make.
One that feels authentic to you,
do-able and thoughtful.
Write that on both cards.
One is for you to take home,
as your daily reminder,
of what you have committed to do
as a member of this gathered community.
The other,
we invite you to bring forward
and place on these branches.
A visual reminder that we are stronger together
than we are alone.
That together,
we do indeed change the world.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Like the brightly colored butterflies
from our Story for All Ages,
these cards represent the unique songs of hope
in each of our hearts.
They represent our shared commitment to
build, sculpt, sing, and dance a
new way of being into abundant life,
a life that honors and sustains all of Creation.
May your life continue to be a blessing on the world.
Notes
1. “Deep solidarity” idea from two sources, Cynthia D. Moe-Lobeda and Joerg Rieger.
2. Moe-Lobeda, Cynthia D. Resisting Structural Evil: Love As Ecological-Economic Vocation, pp. 200-201.