Can you remember what you doing on July 29th this year? It was a day worth noting as it was “Earth overshoot day”. That’s the day when humanity has used up more ecological resources in the year than the earth can regenerate by the end of the year. It means that every day from 30 July to 31 December we are overdrawn in terms of the resources we are using. If you aren’t convinced that this is a bad thing, seek out the church treasurer after the service and ask them if it’s a good thing to have used up your annual budget before the end of July? Ask what the prospects for the continuation of the church look like if this goes on for any period of time.
We are continuing our season of creation in September looking this week at flora and fauna. Rather than engaging in some sort of nature worship, it is instead a serious theological look at how God has created the world with everything we need for our survival already taken into account and provided for by the earth. We see every living thing exists in an interconnected web and humanity has been placed as steward of it all. Jesus tells His disciples not to worry about what they will eat or what they will wear as God has set things up in such a way that their provision is guaranteed if we are not greedy. Instead we should worry about the kingdom of God.
It’s a lesson for us too. In a few weeks we will see news footage of people camping out for days to secure the latest version of a popular phone. This desire to have the latest and best thing is what fuels our stripping of the planet of natural resources and destroys these complex ecosystems. We are anxious about the wrong things. What if we were as anxious to see God’s kingdom come as we are to have the latest fashion? What if we saw people queuing up for days to feed the hungry, clothe the naked or befriend the stranger? What if our desire to see the end of poverty, loneliness or disease was as strong as our desire to have the next “best” thing? Would we then see a world more like the one Jesus models for us? We only have this one planet that is the source of life for all things on earth, including us. One day, we have to give an account to God for how we have cared for it; what on earth are we going to say?