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Going Green
(A sermon preached November 22, 2009 at University United Methodist Church,
East Lansing MI, by John Ross Thompson)
Joel 2:21-27
2:21 Do not fear, O soil; be glad and rejoice, for the LORD has done great
things!
2:22 Do not fear, you animals of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness
are green; the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and vine give their full
yield.
2:23 O children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the LORD your God; for God has
given the early rain for your vindication, God has poured down for you abundant
rain, the early and the later rain, as before.
2:24 The threshing floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with
wine and oil.
2:25 I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the
hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent against you.
2:26 You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD
your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be
put to shame.
2:27 You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, the LORD, am
your God and there is no other. And my people shall never again be put to
shame.
Matthew 6:25-33
6:25 "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?
6:26 Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into
barns, and yet your heavenly Creator feeds them. Are you not of more value than
they?
6:27 And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?
6:28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how
they grow; they neither toil nor spin,
6:29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of
these.
6:30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and
tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will God not much more clothe you--you of
little faith?
6:31 Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we
drink?' or 'What will we wear?'
6:32 For it is others who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly
Creator knows that you need all these things.
6:33 But strive first for the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness, and all
these things will be given to you as well.
Did you notice the sermon title?
Why preach a sermon on “Going Green” at Michigan State? It’s not a sermon to
convert Wolverines, or Badgers, or Buckeyes, or Nittany Lions.
The Spartan football team had
just finished their daily practice session when a large turkey came strutting
onto the field. While the players gazed in amazement, the turkey walked up to
Mark Dantonio and demanded a tryout. Everyone stared in silence as the turkey
caught pass after pass and ran right through the defensive line. When the turkey
returned to the sidelines, Dantonio shouted, "You're terrific!!! Sign up for the
season, and I'll see to it that you get a huge bonus." "Forget the bonus," the
turkey said, "All I want to know is, does the season go past Thanksgiving Day?"
Actually, it’s appropriate on this Thanksgiving Sunday to preach about going
green, because this harvest time is a time when we pause to give thanks for
God’s green creation.
It’s also a time to recognize that my two universities – Michigan State and
Penn State – are the two pioneer land grant colleges, founded and grounded in
agriculture, the greenest of all academic pursuits.
President Barack Obama issued this proclamation last week: “This Thanksgiving
season, we celebrate farms of every size that produce fruits, vegetables, dairy,
and livestock indispensable to the health of our families. We also recognize the
vital ties between our urban and suburban communities and their local farmers
through regional food systems, farmers markets, and community gardens…We
celebrate the bounty of America, and we honor the commitment of those who grow,
harvest, and deliver agricultural goods to feed our country and grow our
economy.”
If you ask what color goes with Thanksgiving, you might say brown or gold,
but I believe green is an even better color, since it is the green of the spring
and summer that produces the fruit, vegetables and produce that we celebrate at
Thanksgiving. This is also the last Sunday of the year when we use green
paraments.
Did you notice in the scripture from the prophet Joel that it is first
addressed to the earth and the animals, and then to human beings? Our God is a
God of all creation and, while human beings are a little less than the angels,
we also celebrate this week that all that God created is good and is blessed.
There is a great promise in the Joel scripture that is especially
appropriate for 2009.
Joel 2:25-26 “I will repay you for the years that the swarming locust has
eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent
against you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of
the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you.”
I might reword that for this year: God says, “I will repay you for the
months you have been in financial distress, for your agony over budgets and jobs
and having enough to eat and to share with others. I have not forgotten you.
You will find food and love and hope, because I am your Creator. Your Creator
will bring you once again to joy.”
If you’ve been waiting for an answer to prayer, remember with Joel that the
early and late rains are a sign of God’s continuing favor. The people of
ancient Israel depended on the fall rains and the spring rains. What does not
come now is promised in the future.
At Thanksgiving, those of us who are Americans tend to think of the abundance
that we have. Some of us also remind ourselves that there are many, both here
and around the world, who do not have that abundance.
When we pause to think about it, we realize that there is plenty in the world
for all of the world’s people. The problem is our distribution system. Our
abundance needs to be shared. Researchers and scholars like those at Michigan
State also work to make sure that plant yields grow as the world’s population
grows.
I believe the church is the institution that is best equipped to do the
sharing of God’s abundance, and I’m proud to be a part of a church like UUMC
that gives more than 20% of its income to others. We also give
countless hours of our time to helping those who need help in helping
themselves.
Joel – a post-exilic prophet. After the walls of Jerusalem
are re-established. Here are the promises that God makes to God’s people
through Joel:
the ground will be restored
the wild animals will be fed
joy will return in Judah’s worship
drought will be a thing of the past
fruit trees will bear
threshing floors and wine vats will be full
All of these are covenant blessings from God to God’s
repentant and newly faithful people. Translate these promises to our lives
today and you’ll find hope.
The Matthew scripture, a portion of the Sermon on the
Mount, can be summarized as “Don’t worry.” It does NOT say “Don’t work.”
However, don’t be anxious because you know that God cares for us.
When people deserted God and tried to make God unnecessary,
turning to other sources for life, they brought upon themselves the sterility,
hopelessness, lack of joy, and threat of annihilation that Joel so vividly
pictures…But running through the Bible’s story of God’s wrath is the theme of
God’s constant love and determination to restore people to fellowship and life.
That promise of God is what sustains us in the difficult
times, and what spurs us on in the good times to share.
Thanksgiving is a celebration of
God’s blessing of the earth.
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