“Being Green: Abundant life for all of God’s people”
The 4th Sunday of Easter, April 13, 2008
May I speak only the truth, and may only the truth be heard by you. In the name of God our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sanctifier. Amen.
“BEING GREEN”: THE NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
Every other Tuesday is recycle day on my street, Cambridge Court in Highland.
Cambridge Court serves 48 families.
Tuesday morning the recycle truck came through and made quick work of the recycled trash…
as it does on two or three Tuesdays each month.
It’s always easy.
There’s never much to recycle.
This week only five of the 48 families bothered to separate their recyclables…
It’s typical.
That’s about 10 percent of us on our street.
Paper, glass, metal, everything is crammed together into the big gray plastic containers, along with chicken bones and plastic bags and apple cores, kitty litter, banana peels, and everything else.
It’s remarkable to me that only five families recycle.
My notion is that there’s been a “great awakening” about rising oceans, melting glaciers, drowning polar bear cubs, starving sea lions, all caused by our collective carbon footprint.
In our parish, it’s been an easy transition from foam plates and plastic forks, to real dishes and silverware, transition from whatever copier paper had been cheapest, to 100 percent recycled paper, transition from that huge dumpster, a receptacle that many of our neighbors thought was there for them, transition from that dumpster to a few demure, unassuming, gray, containers lined up behind the church.
CHURCH RECYCLING
In February, I received some eMail about a New Jersey meeting on use of solar power by churches.
Intriguing idea, I thought.
The idea that solar panels on a roof might not only provide clean energy, but also provide a visible sign of how a congregation is working proactively to help the environment.
It got me thinking about what else we might be doing here at The Episcopal Church in Marlboro.
And it got me thinking about what folks in other parts of the Diocese might be doing in their parishes.
I volunteered to write an article for The Episcopal New Yorker, the diocesan newspaper.
I sent out eMail to all of the clergy in the diocese.
I wanted to know what effect all of our talk about global warming has actually had in our parishes.
I heard back from 16 parishes.
That’s about 8 percent of the 200 congregations in our diocese.
Each of those 16 respondents claimed some “shade of being green.”
HERE’S WHAT’S BEING DONE OUT THERE
Here’s what I found out:
Most parishes report switching over from incandescent lighting to compact fluorescents.
Replacing old thermostats with state-of-the-art…
programmable thermostats…
has also been a popular energy-saver.
Many parishes report stepping up recycling, conducting energy audits, using recycled paper, carpooling.
Several parishes reported replacing hot water heaters and ancient heating systems with energy-efficient equipment.
Many churches have done what we’ve done:
replaced styrofoam plates and cups, and plastic forks and spoons, with real plates and mugs and flatware.
An automatic dishwasher actually turns out to save water and energy when it’s fully loaded.
One parish, after discovering that the “lining” material in their paper cups was petroleum-based, switched to a paper cup with a corn-based liner…
at no extra cost.
At St. John the Evangelist Church, next-door to Bard College, they insulated walls and ceilings.
(The church there is a wooden frame structure.)
They also replaced roofing with energy-efficient materials.
At St. John’s in New Rochelle, they say that Con Ed has agreed to replace every light bulb, including old fluorescents, with energy-saving starters and lower energy bulbs, at no cost.
Con Ed guarantees annual savings of $5000 on their electric bill this year.
Another St. John’s wrote to me, this one from Tuckahoe.
They sponsored a “green day” for the community.
It included exhibits by “green” organizations, vendors of “green” products, organic farmers, and so forth.
They’re going to repeat the event in September.
At St. Andrew’s Chapel in Montgomery, they’re talking about providing a collection point for burned-out fluorescent bulbs.
Those bulbs contain Mercury, you know.
They want to do this as a public service to the community.
At Christ Church in Bronxville, they’re looking at the possibility of switching to a geothermal and solar high-volume air conditioning system…
an approach that would use underground coolness and the sun’s warmth to maintain indoor temperatures.
They’re also looking at the R-value of their windows, roofing, and insulation.
At Holy Apostles in New York City, they only serve Fair Trade Coffee, and they’ve created a composting program in the church garden.
The sunday bulletin in that church carries a weekly tip on how to be “green” at home.
Some really interesting ideas, I think!
And I find it especially interesting that “being green” often actually saves money.
(I still can’t believe that $5000 energy cost reduction in New Rochelle. I wonder whether the decimal point was misplaced. One too many zeroes?)
LOVING OUR NEIGHBORS/CARING FOR CREATION
This growing awareness is a sign of enormous hope, I think, hope for this world that we believe God so-loved.
Christians bear some of the responsibility for the current environmental crisis, you know.
There’s that darned verse from Genesis that led many in the wrong direction:
Genesis 1, verse 28:
God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it.
Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
Reverence for creation has not been a high priority for Christians.…
until now.
The question today is this:
How can we love God if we don’t love what God has made!
We base much of our approach to loving God and our neighbors, loving God and showing kindness to one another, we base much of that on our baptismal promises, promises that actually imply caring for the rest of creation.
We’re just now beginning to be aware of the ways in which our lack of concern for the rest of creation results in death and destruction for our neighbors.
How can we show kindness to our neighbors, love our neighbors as ourselves, if we do not care for the creation that supports all of our lives.
We’re not respecting the dignity of our fellow creatures when our sewage and garbage make their living space putrid and disgusting.
We’re not respecting the dignity of our fellow creatures when atmospheric warming, due in part to the methane output of the millions of cows we raise each year to produce hamburger, when atmospheric warming begins to slowly drown the island homes of our neighbors in the South Pacific.
When we do these things…
we’re not respecting the dignity of our fellow creatures, not really loving our neighbor as ourselves…
sharing the essence of Jesus’ message.
THE ESSENCE OF JESUS’ MESSAGE: ABUNDANT LIFE
If the essence of that message is accurately captured in this morning’s gospel reading, and I think it is, then following Jesus is about experiencing Life, Life with a capital “L”, having life and having it more abundantly.
If the essence of Jesus’ message is
I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
then we should be challenging any course of action of any people that diminishes the possibility of abundant life for any child of God in any part of the world.
SPRING SPRANG ON THURSDAY
Thursday it was quite clear that winter is over…
and with spring…
a promise of abundant life is in the air.
What a great day!
Yesterday, too!
Signs of new life are everywhere.
New growth…
green grass, flowers, warm afternoons, children outdoors at play.
Now seems a great time to think about how our daily living can be an act of ensuring abundant life for other creatures.
Now seems a great time to think about how we can act out the abundant life we know in Jesus the Christ.
It’s a great time to think about how we can be a sacrament, an outward and visible sign, of the grace that we know in the resurrected Christ.
THE QUESTION
How can our living allow others to live abundantly?
The food we eat, the energy we use, the stuff we buy, the ways we travel.
All these are opportunities, choices and decisions, decisions to be FOR others, both human and not human.
Our presiding bishop says this to us:
Christian commitment is certainly about having a more abundant life…
but that commitment includes having it in a way that results in abundant life for the whole world.
I dream of a day when the fear of an environmental apocalypse is nothing more than a shadowy memory.
I believe that’s how all this will eventually turn out…
because I believe God is in on this.
God is all about abundant life…
for everyone.
PRAYER
Let us pray.
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life. Bring us to know the goodness that flows from the heart of the universe and may we be expanded in heart and soul by that goodness.
This is our prayer. Amen.
Jerry Brooks
“BEING GREEN”: THE NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
Every other Tuesday is recycle day on my street, Cambridge Court in Highland.
Cambridge Court serves 48 families.
Tuesday morning the recycle truck came through and made quick work of the recycled trash…
as it does on two or three Tuesdays each month.
It’s always easy.
There’s never much to recycle.
This week only five of the 48 families bothered to separate their recyclables…
It’s typical.
That’s about 10 percent of us on our street.
Paper, glass, metal, everything is crammed together into the big gray plastic containers, along with chicken bones and plastic bags and apple cores, kitty litter, banana peels, and everything else.
It’s remarkable to me that only five families recycle.
My notion is that there’s been a “great awakening” about rising oceans, melting glaciers, drowning polar bear cubs, starving sea lions, all caused by our collective carbon footprint.
In our parish, it’s been an easy transition from foam plates and plastic forks, to real dishes and silverware, transition from whatever copier paper had been cheapest, to 100 percent recycled paper, transition from that huge dumpster, a receptacle that many of our neighbors thought was there for them, transition from that dumpster to a few demure, unassuming, gray, containers lined up behind the church.
CHURCH RECYCLING
In February, I received some eMail about a New Jersey meeting on use of solar power by churches.
Intriguing idea, I thought.
The idea that solar panels on a roof might not only provide clean energy, but also provide a visible sign of how a congregation is working proactively to help the environment.
It got me thinking about what else we might be doing here at The Episcopal Church in Marlboro.
And it got me thinking about what folks in other parts of the Diocese might be doing in their parishes.
I volunteered to write an article for The Episcopal New Yorker, the diocesan newspaper.
I sent out eMail to all of the clergy in the diocese.
I wanted to know what effect all of our talk about global warming has actually had in our parishes.
I heard back from 16 parishes.
That’s about 8 percent of the 200 congregations in our diocese.
Each of those 16 respondents claimed some “shade of being green.”
HERE’S WHAT’S BEING DONE OUT THERE
Here’s what I found out:
Most parishes report switching over from incandescent lighting to compact fluorescents.
Replacing old thermostats with state-of-the-art…
programmable thermostats…
has also been a popular energy-saver.
Many parishes report stepping up recycling, conducting energy audits, using recycled paper, carpooling.
Several parishes reported replacing hot water heaters and ancient heating systems with energy-efficient equipment.
Many churches have done what we’ve done:
replaced styrofoam plates and cups, and plastic forks and spoons, with real plates and mugs and flatware.
An automatic dishwasher actually turns out to save water and energy when it’s fully loaded.
One parish, after discovering that the “lining” material in their paper cups was petroleum-based, switched to a paper cup with a corn-based liner…
at no extra cost.
At St. John the Evangelist Church, next-door to Bard College, they insulated walls and ceilings.
(The church there is a wooden frame structure.)
They also replaced roofing with energy-efficient materials.
At St. John’s in New Rochelle, they say that Con Ed has agreed to replace every light bulb, including old fluorescents, with energy-saving starters and lower energy bulbs, at no cost.
Con Ed guarantees annual savings of $5000 on their electric bill this year.
Another St. John’s wrote to me, this one from Tuckahoe.
They sponsored a “green day” for the community.
It included exhibits by “green” organizations, vendors of “green” products, organic farmers, and so forth.
They’re going to repeat the event in September.
At St. Andrew’s Chapel in Montgomery, they’re talking about providing a collection point for burned-out fluorescent bulbs.
Those bulbs contain Mercury, you know.
They want to do this as a public service to the community.
At Christ Church in Bronxville, they’re looking at the possibility of switching to a geothermal and solar high-volume air conditioning system…
an approach that would use underground coolness and the sun’s warmth to maintain indoor temperatures.
They’re also looking at the R-value of their windows, roofing, and insulation.
At Holy Apostles in New York City, they only serve Fair Trade Coffee, and they’ve created a composting program in the church garden.
The sunday bulletin in that church carries a weekly tip on how to be “green” at home.
Some really interesting ideas, I think!
And I find it especially interesting that “being green” often actually saves money.
(I still can’t believe that $5000 energy cost reduction in New Rochelle. I wonder whether the decimal point was misplaced. One too many zeroes?)
LOVING OUR NEIGHBORS/CARING FOR CREATION
This growing awareness is a sign of enormous hope, I think, hope for this world that we believe God so-loved.
Christians bear some of the responsibility for the current environmental crisis, you know.
There’s that darned verse from Genesis that led many in the wrong direction:
Genesis 1, verse 28:
God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it.
Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
Reverence for creation has not been a high priority for Christians.…
until now.
The question today is this:
How can we love God if we don’t love what God has made!
We base much of our approach to loving God and our neighbors, loving God and showing kindness to one another, we base much of that on our baptismal promises, promises that actually imply caring for the rest of creation.
We’re just now beginning to be aware of the ways in which our lack of concern for the rest of creation results in death and destruction for our neighbors.
How can we show kindness to our neighbors, love our neighbors as ourselves, if we do not care for the creation that supports all of our lives.
We’re not respecting the dignity of our fellow creatures when our sewage and garbage make their living space putrid and disgusting.
We’re not respecting the dignity of our fellow creatures when atmospheric warming, due in part to the methane output of the millions of cows we raise each year to produce hamburger, when atmospheric warming begins to slowly drown the island homes of our neighbors in the South Pacific.
When we do these things…
we’re not respecting the dignity of our fellow creatures, not really loving our neighbor as ourselves…
sharing the essence of Jesus’ message.
THE ESSENCE OF JESUS’ MESSAGE: ABUNDANT LIFE
If the essence of that message is accurately captured in this morning’s gospel reading, and I think it is, then following Jesus is about experiencing Life, Life with a capital “L”, having life and having it more abundantly.
If the essence of Jesus’ message is
I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
then we should be challenging any course of action of any people that diminishes the possibility of abundant life for any child of God in any part of the world.
SPRING SPRANG ON THURSDAY
Thursday it was quite clear that winter is over…
and with spring…
a promise of abundant life is in the air.
What a great day!
Yesterday, too!
Signs of new life are everywhere.
New growth…
green grass, flowers, warm afternoons, children outdoors at play.
Now seems a great time to think about how our daily living can be an act of ensuring abundant life for other creatures.
Now seems a great time to think about how we can act out the abundant life we know in Jesus the Christ.
It’s a great time to think about how we can be a sacrament, an outward and visible sign, of the grace that we know in the resurrected Christ.
THE QUESTION
How can our living allow others to live abundantly?
The food we eat, the energy we use, the stuff we buy, the ways we travel.
All these are opportunities, choices and decisions, decisions to be FOR others, both human and not human.
Our presiding bishop says this to us:
Christian commitment is certainly about having a more abundant life…
but that commitment includes having it in a way that results in abundant life for the whole world.
I dream of a day when the fear of an environmental apocalypse is nothing more than a shadowy memory.
I believe that’s how all this will eventually turn out…
because I believe God is in on this.
God is all about abundant life…
for everyone.
PRAYER
Let us pray.
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life. Bring us to know the goodness that flows from the heart of the universe and may we be expanded in heart and soul by that goodness.
This is our prayer. Amen.
Jerry Brooks
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