... humanity with a stewardship responsibility toward the earth (Genesis 1:28-31). We have no right to ignore that. We spoke of Greta Thunberg earlier. In September of 2019, now at the ripe old age of sixteen (can you say driver’s license?), Greta addressed the Climate Action Summit at the beginning of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York City. She was exceedingly blunt. She said, “My message is that we’ll be watching you. This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in ...
... the biggest and earliest direct revealing of his claim to divinity. No one controls the winds; no one calms the waves; no one calms the weather, except the one who created them all, the Lord God, the Creator of the universe. Because Jesus could keep climates in the palm of his hand, he had no fear of the forces of nature. Among the twelve disciples there were four professional fishermen. Everyone else had grown up and lived alongside the Sea of Galilee. Yet here they were, all fearful of the deep, unknown ...
... of very wealthy residents. In fact, Michael Jordan, the basketball legend, had lived next door to them. But Michael had stopped visiting the home after his father died. Roland and Elizabeth had moved south a few years earlier to escape the harsh climate of western New York, near Buffalo. When they finally moved into their posh dream house, they noticed something unusual. They missed one of the very things they had taken for granted: neighbors. Virtually all the homes around them were expensive second homes ...
... ’s happening in the world, the mess that we’ve made and the fact that unless we all get together to help the environment we all share, then it may be too late. The window of time is closing. And it’s not enough just to wave placards and say, ‘Climate change!’ The point is to take actual action. To do your bit.” The window of time is closing. The message of 2 Peter is that the window of time for the second coming is quickly closing. There is a scholarly debate if Peter is the actual author of the ...
... ate were frozen out and the dinosaurs starved. Others suggest it was a giant meteorite that caused a great change in the temperature and dinosaurs could not adapt and survive in the cold. Nonetheless,” explained his mother, “it was the result of tremendous climate change that humans were able to build cities and children were able to play outside, not the result of a successful hunting campaign.” This leader went on to suggest that in similar fashion the task of the church is not necessarily to slay ...
... have a firm opinion of their own about anything. At least it’s impossible to tell what they really think, because they will agree with whomever they are with. Put them into a room with climate change advocates, and they will passionate advocate for climate change. In the next hour, put them into a room with climate change protestors, and before you can say “flip,” they’ve taken up a sign and have begun protesting along with their peers. You probably also know people who do this same flip-flop when ...
... the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband!" Naomi's prayer creates a climate of expectation in which the rest of the story plays out: and the rest of the way through the book we're waiting to see if Naomi ... is fulfilling Naomi's hope, even though the writer of the story doesn't feel the need to keep telling us so. That climate of expectation is faith. Faith is an attitude more than a belief or a doctrine: It's an assumption we carry through life ...
... . Note in the first verse how he puts it: "From my birth God had made mention of my name." Is not this a missing note in much of our thinking today? Constantly we are told to safeguard the worth of other individuals - and rightly so - but the climate and conditions of our age should persuade us to see also the worth of ourselves. Too many people are inclined to treat themselves as non-entities, as mere statistics in the human struggle, and forget to believe and see that they are members of God’s great ...
... she start giving God thanks for her husband and to restrict her prayer to the things for which she was grateful. When she did that, a change started to occur in their marriage-first with the wife and then the husband. There was a different climate in the home. Resentment was changed to acceptance. Her acceptance and love helped the husband get his drinking problem under control. The woman's husband changed when her prayer changed from a prayer of petition to a prayer of thanksgiving. So often, though, when ...
... us as well. There are many of us who feel that repentance is for others. We are like the six-year-old girl who said to her mother, “The number one problem in the United States is climate change. I read that in my Weekly Reader. Everybody,” she continued, “knows that the number one problem in the United States is climate change--everybody but our preacher. He thinks that it is sin. I feel that is just because he is a preacher.” Could I say that if there is a man-made component to a heating earth, sin ...
... . It may give people license to take what ought to be steps of last resort, long before they have reached the time of last resort. It may encourage actions which provoke more retaliation than dialogue. It may raise the stakes of the conflict and escalate the climate for violence. In short, it may (if misused) focus too much on the word "tough", and too little on the word "love."" (Ritter, Ibid.) So, we're back to this amazing affirmation of Paul. Love endures all things -- nothing can happen to break love's ...
... high road to heaven because you showed them the way. If you are known as a man or woman who prays and is not embarrassed about it, people will seek you out and open their hearts. I have seen it happen; one word of courageous witness can change the climate of wherever you are. Truth has a way of verifying itself, and where the name of Jesus is invoked with honor, there you will find the light of the Holy Spirit. You will be grabbed up without warning by the Holy Spirit and poured out onto a needy situation ...
... Day. We are awaiting the return of our Lord. We need to put Christ’s words into perspective, however. Many well-meaning followers of Christ have abused Christ’s teachings about the day of his return. First of all, Jesus was insistent nobody knows when this climatic event will occur. The angels in heaven don’t know. Even Christ himself did not know. There is an amusing Hasidic story about a rabbi who crossed a village square every morning on his way to the temple to pray. One morning, a large Russian ...
... child. To make matters worse the United States has been one of the slowest nations to recognize the dangers of our punching holes in the ozone. On November 6, 1990, all of the industrial nations except the U.S. were represented at the Second World Climate Conference in Geneva, where they struggled with the fact that eight of the hottest years on record came during the 1980s. Since this nation has had the largest role in bringing about negative global warming, it is time we took a leadership role in making ...
... needing to put on the extinct list: greed, jealousy, anger, hypocrisy, selfishness . . . . Go exorcize some demons this week. Make a list of things you want to go extinct in your life, and then stop feeding them. Change the climate in your home and in your heart. Make the climate in which you live inhospitable to hatred, a wasteland for bigotry, a desert for envy. [Alternative Beginning: Here is an alternative start to your sermon, which can be used to supplement or supplant the “list” beginning above ...
... as the sand on Jones Beach. Now we see the universe as comprising the sand on all the beaches up and down the coast of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Precisely this sea change (forgive the metaphor) is needed as we look at the climate crisis that our generation faces. We need to reframe the issue. God reframed Job's suffering for him, using words that deserve repeating. Where were you when I planned the earth? Tell me if you are so wise, do you know who took its dimensions, measuring ...
... of our lives. But they also report that the threat of another cold war with China or Russia, or both at the same time, may be in the cards. Scenarios for a war with China or Russia would certainly be a nightmare. Also of deep concern is climate change with the disappearance of much of our bio-diversity—did anyone get hot this past summer? They also predicted widespread flooding and water replacing oil as the most precious commodity on earth. (3) How much of this will occur? No one knows. But here’s what ...
... made his first A in a course in graduate school. The school was on a British-type system. It had a reading period in January for two weeks and then students took exams. After the exams, everyone took off for home or snow skiing or warmer climates. When students turned in an exam, they gave the professor a stamped, self-addressed postcard. The professor would mail the grade. The day before this student was to leave for home, he received the postcard in his dormitory mailbox. It said A. He was an A student ...
... our own local fellowship more intimate we too might see how others whom we thought to be so different from us are really very much like us with a common bond in Christ. Finally, if we enlarge our horizons, our mission will be done in a more welcoming climate. Take for example this true story of the plight of a middle-aged couple who decided one Sunday to go to a new church. Their first problem was they did not know where to park the car; the parking lot was so well concealed. When they entered the narthex ...
... fools for Christ. Cal Samra is a good contemporary example. In the early 1980s he reached the nadir in his personal life. Forced to resign his job as a newspaper reporter, with a broken marriage and deteriorating health, he moved, seeking refuge in the warm climate of Arizona. He found his way to the Franciscan Renewal Center in Scottsdale where he learned to relax, pray and gain a fresh perspective on the Christian life. Father Lambert gave him a gift of a painting of a smiling Christ carrying the imprint ...
... hypocrisy. "Father, do not forgive him, for he knows full well what he's doing." Positioned on the scale of evildoing somewhere between tobacco company executives and junk bond traders, hypocrites are convenient villains for our cultural rage. In a therapeutic climate, where people clamor to appear on Oprah and Geraldo to do an emotional striptease, baring in the name of candor the deepest secrets of their past in front of an audience of perfect strangers, hypocrites seem, by contrast, emotionally stunted ...
... bring for the church in North America? He spoke slowly -- even cautiously -- at first, measuring his words, weighing their risk, a man unaccustomed to candor among relative strangers. Gradually gaining confidence, he spoke of dramatic shifts in the social and political climate of his region, of the church made strong through hardship and persecution. Indeed, with an eye cast toward the American religious scene, he observed that possibly the greatest threat to the church in his own land was the temptation to ...
... cloud. Yes, we have it good here in America. Adam's situation was much like ours. He was surrounded by a rich diet of fish, meat, fruit, grains; all available just for the very slight work of picking them as needed. His clothing budget was nil since the climate was so mild in the Garden of Eden. He had no mortgage, nothing to worry about. He could cavort around the Garden in the daytime and sleep soundly at night because he had no need for sleeping pills to soothe his mind uncluttered by worry about stress ...
... and tough winters. The money is losing its value. Did you honestly think, he asks, that what you do would not affect the world around you? Before you ask if our actions really affect the weather, it is well to remember that we are changing the climate of our earth even now, widening the hole in the ozone layer, deforesting great portions of the globe, affecting the balance between carbon dioxide and oxygen. The debate is still going on as to whether we will experience another ice age or a global warming ...
... !" The people in Haggai's time were suffering from a deep spiritual malaise. They had been full of a dream to rebuild God's kingdom on earth, yet eighteen years went by and they hadn't built the Temple. This funk was affecting everything, from the economy to the climate and the crops. Haggai told the people to get up and do something. Build the temple. See what happens. We do not believe we are saved by works. Yet there's no question that it's hard for us to believe while lying on our backs and moping. We ...